Team:UTP-Panama/Human Practice

HUMAN PRACTICE PROJECT

Introduction

At the beginning of this journey, the members of the UTP-Panama iGEM team confronted a fundamental question, the same one that all who are involved in the field of Synthetic Biology find: What is Synthetic Biology? This aspect is emphasized more in our team, being a team of members studying engineering careers, not related to biological or "life sciences".

In our own attempt to understand what is synthetic biology, for which we got a lot of help with the good information in all the sites of iGEM.org, syntheticbiology.org, SYNBERC, etc and multiple videos on youtube about what is synthetic biology, and finally the introductory lectures given by our instructor. Although we must admit that there are so broad and diverse views that converge under the term "synthetic biology", which is always a challenge to define.

Once this stage was finished, we still felt that there would not be an easy task to explain to others about what is synthetic biology. That was the point when we turn to the future applications and benefits of synthetic biology as a the right way to introduce the topic.

At the same time we began to structure and make our own project of SynBio as part of the iGEM Competition, work that led us to ask ourselves how to bring it on the best possible way, but it also appear the question of whether we were leaving something behind or if we were not covering all the aspects that we should really worry about. At this moment came the question of safety due, which made us wonder about all the institutions and agencies that should be around a draft synbio.

Then our advisors began the labor of introducing us on the issue of the implications of SynBio in all aspects of society, and they also provided reading materials as the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues Repor (PCSBI) called "New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies"[1] or the "Ethical Issues on Synthetic Biology"[2]. In particular, the recommendation on PCSBI left us with a some questions to solve.

From these reflections, readings and the realization of our project was born the ideas to do the outreach on synthetic biology to the inner of our university, but especially it was born from the vision of creating two tools:

a) Introducing into the field of SynBio and its basic subjects to the ones that are not familiar with this science, for which we proposed the creation of the SB UTP 1.0

b) Help people who needs to develop SynBio project at all levels, with a self-assessment tool and guidance on the most relevant aspects that you need to consider for which your project is within the regulatory, ethical, moral or institutional field, but primarily to discover what are the realities that exist around them (environment) for advancing or hindering the development of your project. Our solution for this aspect is the creation of the SB UTP PROJECT 1.0

The Problem

In our role as iGEMers, we faced many issues to develop synthetic biology in our country. Some of them were:

1. Explain and introduce what is synthetic biology at all levels of society, emphasizing the engineers.
2. Planning a synthetic biology project.
3. Be able to find all the availability of institutions and the clear regulatory frame to develop our endevour.
4. Be able to cover all the implications and possibilities that synthetic biology brings to the human civilization, both positive and negative.

Our Project

Our team's goal was to introduce and disseminate the issues and implications related to synthetic biology. To meet these objectives we developed three separate projects:
1. The development of an education campaign about synthetic biology topics inside our team, in order to achieve a campaign at the university level (engineers).
2. The development of an interactive software introducing the basics of synthetic biology and the iGEM competition.
3. The development of an interactive software that assists the user in the execution of projects related with synthetic biology.

Here are the parts of our project:

I. OUTREACH

Our first challenge was to train traditional engineers (not trained in life-science) in the field of synthetic biology, especially in traditional engineering applications.

We began with a survey after our speech and slides presentation at the lobby of the main builging of the campus:
Here we present the results:

II. WHAT IS SB UTP 1.0?

The UTP-Panama team developed a plan for introducing of the concepts of synthetic biology to the people who are not acquainted with the field of synthetic biology to the theoretical foundations, applications, and finally the social implications of this science. The program also introduces the iGEM competition. The great contribution of the program is to introduce users to the recommendations and ethical principles discussed in the PCSBI (Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues), Human Practice Trust, and other reports as a reference to the ethical, legal and social issues.

Flowchart1: It shows the three parts the SB UTP 1.0 is composed: about synthetic biology, about iGEM and a multiple selection quiz about general knowledges on .

III. WHAT IS SB UTP PROJECT 1.0?

Some of the main questions that arise when teams are developing a synthetic biology project are: where to go (institutions)?; under what legal framework for both scientific research and commercial projects do we proceed?; what kind of ethical challenges can we find, and how to introduce these issues into the education system?.The UTP SB PROJECT 1.0 is aiming to set these questions to be asked and answered when developing a project related to synthetic biology. Our program also seeks to link the sources of information to help address these questions.

UTP-Panama The team encourages other teams and other players in the field of synthetic biology to collaborate with the growth and improvement of our program to include other aspects and problems that we havent developed in this first initiative.

Flowchart2: It shows how do you implement the synthetic biology on your community, institution or country. It is to do some reflections about repercussions of our projects in synthetic biology on the human practices.

Notes

The original SB UTP 1.0 Program is available in Visual Basic 2010. If you want a copy please tell us at the Americas Regional Jamboree 2011.

REFERENCES

[1] New Directions:the Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies, 2010. PresidenPresidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues Report.File:PCSBI-Synthetic-Biology-Report-12.16.10.pdf

[2] Erik Parens, Josephine Johnston, and Jacob Moses 2009 Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology. The Hastings Center, Garrison, New York. Synthetic Biology Project / SYNBIo 3, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.