Team:TU-Delft/human practice

The emerging field of synthetic biology brings an engineering approach to biology. Individual parts can be readily synthesized and combined in different biological arrangements to make useful products such as biopharmaceuticals and biofuels. Synthetic biology spans from advanced genetic engineering to the construction of new biological parts, devices and systems .

Due to the fact that synthetic biology constitutes both a relatively new and a rapidly growing field,it may raise concerns related to safety and ethical issues. Apart from this,there are persons who are not aware of what synthetic biology is. Those facts make human practice an important aspect of synthetic biology.

In the frame of our our project, we decided to focus on the aforementioned approaches for the human practice aspect of synthetic biology.

• Zephyr:We designed and constructed a "do it yourself" fluorescent scanner, the Zephyr. It can be obtained in low cost in contrast to the commercial machine Typhoon. In that way, we promote the use of synthetic biology to less developed countries.
• Wiki Interviews We also retrieved the interviews that took place during the iGem competition through the years.We searched for specific keywords contained in the interviews. So, we derived results based on which topics are mostly discussed and suggestions for topics that should be discussed in the future. Finally, we created a tool to obtain interviews based on these key words.
• Summer Festival: We participated in the Summer festival organized by TUDelft in order to present our project and get people in contact with synthetic biology.
• Meeting with RIVM:We had a meeting with GMO department of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment,RIVM, in order to discuss about biosafety/regulation/ethics in synthetic biology.