Team:KU Leuven/Human Practices/EndUser
From 2013.igem.org
Secret garden
Congratulations! You've found our secret garden! Follow the instructions below and win a great prize at the World jamboree!
- A video shows that two of our team members are having great fun at our favourite company. Do you know the name of the second member that appears in the video?
- For one of our models we had to do very extensive computations. To prevent our own computers from overheating and to keep the temperature in our iGEM room at a normal level, we used a supercomputer. Which centre maintains this supercomputer? (Dutch abbreviation)
- We organised a symposium with a debate, some seminars and 2 iGEM project presentations. An iGEM team came all the way from the Netherlands to present their project. What is the name of their city?
Now put all of these in this URL:https://2013.igem.org/Team:KU_Leuven/(firstname)(abbreviation)(city), (loose the brackets and put everything in lowercase) and follow the very last instruction to get your special jamboree prize!
![tree](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/a/ac/Tree.png)
![ladybugcartoon](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/6/64/Ladybugcartoon.png)
The Endusers
This page is dedicated to the enduser; the people who will come in contact with our BanAphids. We interviewed both farmers and the general public, and they seemed to be very open towards the Banaphids. We are also very please to tell you that also the industry was very happy to invite us over. Which shows that we are making something valuable.
94% of the general public could use our genetically modified bacteria in their gardens or eat the food treated with them.
In order to promote synthetic biology and our project, we prepared a short survey for the general public. We started with general questions about synthetic biology. What they already knew and what their thoughts about synthetic biology are. Afterwards, we explained our project and asked their opinion, if they wanted to use it and if they would consume products treated with our genetically modified bacteria. We went specifically to farmers, our potential users, to determine their opinion and possible issues about our project, in order to improve certain aspects of our project so that they would use it. We went to markets,shops ... in Leuven and its surroundings in order to determine the general opinion about genetically modified organisms (GMO) and our project. We also took the opportunity to interview some people at the annual farmer’s market in Leuven. Most people did not have much knowledge about synthetic biology, although they could associate synthetic biology with GMOs like corn.
![Aurelie interviewing](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/c/c7/Aurelieinterviewing.jpg)
Aurelie interviewing an interested farmer
Would you eat food treated with Banaphids?
94% of all people responded positive to the question whether they would still consume bacteria-treated products. “If the government approves your product, it must be safe”, was a frequently occurring thought. This means that the general public relies very heavily on the thorough safety assessment that they expect to be carried out by the government and their good judgment in the creation of regulations concerning genetically modified food and organisms.