"
Team:Carnegie Mellon/Our Projects
From 2014.igem.org
The Carnegie Mellon University 2014 iGEM team spent hundreds of 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
With the aid of DNAZone, the educational outreach center of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Nucleic Acids Science and Technology (CNAST), the iGEM team aided in the development of four kits/labs for students and teachers to use in a classroom setting. These kits were taken out into the community and classrooms to be beta tested for final production occurring in January. They were also shipped out to different points around the United States and to an orphanage in Bolivia for further beta-testing in another language.
Between our first iGEM Meetup, the mailing of a wheat DNA extraction kit, and the help of one of our advisors, the CMU iGEM Team met or worked with six other iGEM teams this summer and fall. Team collaborations and talking in front of our peers helped us analyze our presentation skills, orally and written, when it comes to the project and the kits.
Project Talks with the different science programs and classrooms had a heavy focus on the biology and modeling aspects of our project framed with an introduction on iGEM and quick spiel on the ongoing outreach projects. Twitter helped us connect with teams from around the world and create a timeline for all of our outreach work, which was most helpful when constructing this wiki! The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviewed two of our team members, photographed another three then published the article on the front page of "The Region" section of the Sunday October 5th edition.
This year, the CMU iGEM team interviewed five individuals with expertise related to the project, iGEM, or genetic engineering bioethics and the importance behind raising awareness of this emerging field. These very informative talks were discussed and analyzed to increase our understanding and aid in the progress of our project.
