Team:BostonU/Human Practices

In the United States and around the world, people and entire countries are scared of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). There seems to be a disconnect between science and society. At Boston University, we believe that this disconnect is related society's lack of knowledge on what it means for something to be a GMO, and to a greater degree, the lack of communication between scientists and society.

To address this issue, we wanted to increase the visibility and transparency of Synthetic biology to the general public starting with college students. To this end, we have contacted local news papers and synthetic biology sites online. We were able to obtain an interview by the Daily Free Press, a student run news paper at Boston University which has a monthly impression of 325,000. Please check out our interview here at the Daily Free Press Website.

Additionally, we hosted NEGEM, which invites all of Boston to attend to learn more about synthetic biology and iGEM.

We also wrote an article that aims to increase the transparency between synthetic biology and society. We addressed issues and concerns society may have about synthetic biology.

Outreach

Lastly, we invited a member of the Marlborough High School iGEM team to come into our lab. During the visit, we helped to familiarize this eager student with basic laboratory techniques. Together we prepared minipreps, restriction digests, gels, and DNA quantification. During the fall we plan to send one member of our team to visit the high school team to serve as a mentor. We hope we can spread the word on iGEM and synthetic biology in the North Shore and amongst high school students.

We wish them best of luck!

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