Team:Virginia/Human Practices Overview

Our team made a significant effort to not only focus on our work in the lab, but to also concentrate on our contributions to and considerations of the human practices and ethical aspects of synthetic biology. Over the course of the summer, we filmed a mini-documentary, critically evaluated the advantages of minicells over liposomes, and developed a high school workshop series.

See the links to the following in our Human Practices Menu:

Public Perception – In a short documentary, we interviewed three experts in biology, medicine and bioethics and explored topics in biosafety, ownership in synthetic biology, and the potential impacts of our minicell research. Also available on this page is the 2013 Basic Safety Form, which we consulted with the UVa Environmental Health & Safety Department to successfully complete.

Relevance – In this section, we critically evaluated the advantages conferred by minicells over liposomes. By extensively consulting the available literature and through our own research, we found that minicells offer a significant advantage over liposomes through increased stability, increased half-life, and a reduced leakage of cytosolic elements. We believe this has significant human practices applications as minicells will offer a more accessible and safer alternative to liposomal applications.

Outreach – This fall, we partnered with Renaissance High School in Charlottesville, VA to offer a comprehensive 6-workshop curriculum to students. Our goal was to develop a workshop series that may be implemented by any iGEM team in order to foster the development of high school iGEM teams. Links to all materials used for the workshop, including a syllabus, instructor notes, PowerPoints, interactive activities and recommended readings are available on this page. Additionally, we put together a syllabus for a college level Intro to Synthetic Biology course.