Team:Macquarie Australia/Outreach

As part of our policy and practice initiatives, the Macquarie iGEM team 2014 proudly presents the WORLD'S FIRST Synthetic Biology themed online reality contest: So You Think You Can Synthesize. This website allows users to chat live with a “Synthesizer” and ask questions about SynBio. The users can then vote for their favourite Synthesizer, and the Synthesizer with the least votes is eliminated every week! This highly entertaining forum allowed users to ask questions that are relevant to their own context, and provide ongoing feedback regarding our project and the discipline of Synbio!

A phenomenological analysis of our conversations on So You Think You Can Synthesize is what drove the rest of our Policy and Practices activities. We successfully identified major public concerns and expectations, and then went about trying to resolve these to the best of our abilities.

Therefore, we are proud to present this year’s Macquarie iGEM 2014 P & P package. Now featuring:

• A report on Australian law regarding Synthetic Biology advances.
• A business proposal detailing how our research can realistically be implemented by the industry.
• A collaboration with Sydney’s biggest Science and Technology Museum: Powerhouse Museum!
• Collaboration with undergraduate researchers from other disciplines: MURI meets MQ iGEM!
• A sponsorship document for other Australian teams to be inspired by!
• Finally, a diverse array of activities designed for Macquarie University Open Day. Here is an example of the kind of activities that went on: