Human Practice

        As we are ITU_MOBGAM team, beside the lab work we’ve decided to achieve to tell synthetic biology to target group of people who are less interested in scientific events through our human practice works. For this purpose, we have appeared in the press, arrenged meetings with other igem teams and targeted to make our name and our project. Moreover, we asked people the questions, “What is IGEM” and “ What is synthetic biology?”, made video for this and share it on the social media. So, we could widened our target people.

        As human practice group our team thought it would be great to let Turkish scientists and professionals know what we are doing. Thus we have spoken with Turkish science magazine called “Bilim ve Gelecek” (Science and Future) and they let us to send and article about general concept and the purposes of iGEM, Turkish teams and our teams recent status. Here is the link for our article;
http://www.bilimvegelecek.com.tr/?goster=1975

        Our project, research and iGEM competition are popularized in Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and in our university by dint of interview with itu24 that is news web site of ITU. Team Captain Recep Erdem Ahan gave brief information about story of meeting with iGEM, importance of our project and our aims. We accomplished that reach large number of people iGEM competition and synthetic biology with the help of this interview. You can access the interview by this link;
http://itu24.com/haber/itu-mobgam-takimi-igem-yarismalarina-hazirlaniyor-663

        Collaboration is really important for becoming a member of iGEM family. Therefore we joined the METU National iGEM Meeting in Ankara on 10 June. METU iGEM Team, ATOMS Turkey and ITU MOBGAM iGEM Team were attended to that meeting. All iGEM teams presented their own projects. The projects were discussed by other iGEM teams and some professors. All teams got some new ideas to their process after the presentation. After presentation part, the problems of iGEM teams in Turkey were discussed and we tried to find solutions to these problems. After this meeting we had great time with METU iGEM Team in Ankara. We made lots of friends at there. It was decided to start collaboration between Turkish iGEM teams and also it was decided to make another meeting in Istanbul by our host.

        After the National METU Meeting, we had decided to host a similar meeting in August 2013 which is important for iGEM Turkey family to get know and help each other out in Istanbul. The meeting has been organized successfully with the participation of almost all national iGEM teams. METU iGEM Team, Baskent Meds Team and ITU MOBGAM iGEM Team presented their projects in this order at the seminar. Projects have been discussed by instructors and other iGEM team members to solve the problems and find out the insufficient parts. After the seminar, variety problems that the projects teams confronted have been discussed and tried to be solve. In addition to the seminar with the aim to meet and socialize; a dinner and an entertainment have been organized in Taksim Square.

        To continue our human practice works, we have decided to shoot a series of video interviews. To do so, we met at school with our cameras and microphones and started to ask people about iGEM. The answers were satisfactory. Different people from different fields of interest participated to our interview. After shooting some videos on school, we decided to go to Taksim Sq. to continue. It was hard to do such a thing on Istiklal Avenue because people seem to busy and not willing to answer our little question, "What is iGEM?" Walking down the Istıklal Avenue, we reached to Galata Tower which is known for its touristic attraction. We asked some tourists and they responded pleasantly. The interview with tourists attracted other people's attention and they were willing to answer our questions. We gathered enough material for our two video "What is iGEM?" and "What is synthetic biology?"

        After shooting raw materials, the montage stage began. We used iMovie to put parts together. The montage process took roughly 3 afternoons.

        After all these researches our expectation is that the project are internationally scientific and are related to synthetic biology will be comprehensible, be protected from the danger of stereotypes and be approved as required.