Policy

On April 17^th the Wageningen team contacted the National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), a Dutch government institute concerning policy and research about issues concerning health and environment. Having heard about the potential of synthetic biology they were very interested to learn more about projects involved in the discipline; specifically the possibilities and the potential safety aspect linked to both the projects and the eventual application.

On June 10^th a meeting took place at the RIVM in Utrecht that proved to be highly successful. Two of our team members and a former iGEM participant (now supervisor of our team) met with Jaco Westerink and Cecile van der Vlught from the RIVM to discuss our project and iGEM as a whole. During the meeting a potential annual cooperation between all iGEM teams in the Netherlands and the RIVM was discussed. To that end we invited Jaco, Cecile and Dirk Stemring from the Rathenau Institute to the National meetup of the iGEM teams hosted by Wageningen. It was there that the other Dutch teams got to meet the RIVM representatives and the groundwork for a gathering hosted by the RIVM was laid.

On September 17^th all iGEM teams, Dutch synthetic biologists, several departments from the RIVM and policy makers from different ministries came together at the RIVM for a gathering focusing on information exchange regarding synthetic biology. The main issues that were raised: What is synthetic biology? What are the possibilities and constraints? What opportunities does synthetic biology offer and to what extent is a degree caution required in accepting some of the applications?

Three speakers, Professor Oscar Kuipers from Molecular Genetics at Groningen University, Roel van Bovenberg from DSM and former iGEM judge Dr. Mark van Passel, were present at the symposium. Offering different perspectives on synthetic biology, Mark gave a general introduction pointing out that synthetic biology is method that is used to engineer biology rather than an actual application. Prof. Kuipers explained the different applications his chair is working on using synthetic biology. Roel van Bovenber gave an industrial perspective, specifically focusing on DSM’s attempt to incorporate synthetic biology applications in a biobased economy.

In the inaugural symposia, the iGEM students proceeded to give workshops on their iGEM projects with a selection of the audience members. The specific applications of the iGEM teams were discussed, focusing on both, the technical and social aspects. For Wageningen, releasing an engineered micro-organism in the soil was especially interesting given the apprehension of using GMO products in Europe. Different comparisons came to the fore such as the use of mutated micro-organisms in Fusarium stricken countries as a mode of biological control. The discussion emphasized that a biological control agent reengineered using synthetic biology is superior in several aspects: the specificity of the antifungals production upon Fusarium oxysporum detection and the self-termination of the biological control agent if the inducer is no longer present, two components synthetic biology can offer to reduce the impact on the environment.

The day closed in the form of an open discussion: the different workshop groups gave an overview of their main points of contention which were subsequently elaborated on by the three speakers.