Team:Carnegie Mellon/Our Projects
From 2014.igem.org
The Carnegie Mellon University 2014 iGEM team spent hundreds of man-hours teaching students, teachers, and community members about synthetic biology and endocrine disruptors, and researching policies, ethics and impact involved in both. We collaborated with other teams to heighten awareness of synthetic biology and promote a scientific interface between the lab and society, while working on a project that will help detect for micropollutants, such as estrogen/estradiol, in water sources at a cost-efficient rate. Our Project directly affected how we saw Policies & Practices as a way to educate others about what is synthetic biology at its core and how can it offer solutions to everyday problems.
Created the SynBio Educational Series, kits that will be distributed through DNAZone (www.cmu.edu/cnast/outreach-dnazone/) for K-12 students in the Pittsburgh area, and beta-tested with another 350 students and teachers in other US cities and in Bolivia; guided 600 labs between the months of April and October
Interviewed a world expert on remediation techniques used to eliminate estrogenic compounds in water, the director of the Center for PostNatural History, and a PhD Reverend on bioethics and genetic engineering
Hosted our first iGEM Meetup which was attended by five teams from the Midwest and Northeast and collaborated with two teams in modeling and policies & practices
SynBio Educational Series
Team Collaborations
Project Talks
Interviews with the Experts
Ethics and Impact
Policies