Human Practices

We believe that informing the public about synthetic biology is an essential duty of young scientists like ourselves who are working in this field. This is the only way to spread understanding and promote acceptance.

In our experience, people are often skeptical or even disapproving of genetic engineering and synthetic biology, but we believe that is because of their lack of knowledge about the topic. The ordinary person with no connection to genetics has usually heard small bits and pieces in the media which focus on topics such as GM Maize or Dolly. As a consequence, people are often afraid of the new and unknown technology and oftentimes say things like “I don’t want my food to contain genes”.

While we strongly emphasize how important discussions about synthetic biology and the consideration of ethics are, we think that the first step that needs to be taken is to increase understanding and knowledge within the general public, for this is the basis for a responsible society capable of dealing with important issues.

Today’s children and youth are the foundation for tomorrow’s society and that’s why we decided to contribute our share in “spreading the word”. We visited a number of high school classes as well as two kindergartens where we offered insights into the world of bacteria, DNA, genetic engineering and of course iGEM. In addition to this, members of our team also gave two radio interviews which were aired in Munich. We invite you to read our reports, find out what experiences were made and discover why bacteria have teeth or smiley faces…

The book and the comic were submitted to the Community page.

iGEM Crowdfunding Platform

Before any team can get going with its project, it needs to get going an essential part of iGEM - the sponsoring. Without good finances, the best project ideas cannot be brought into action. However, during our own attempts to reach out to sponsors, we realized that most companies were not willing to support an iGEM team, as this competition is not that famous in Germany, yet. We talked about this to other teams and asked whether they were more successful at organising the sponsoring. In order to make the financial start easier for the future generations of iGEM Teams, we decided to help them by promoting crowdfunding in Europe. Crowdfunding uses the dynamic possibilities of the web 2.0. A team that wants to get money presents its idea on a central website for crowfunding which is available to every user of the World Wide Web. Sponsors (which can be individuals or companies) can have a look at the project, can see whether other companies are already supporting the idea, and are able to demand certain gain, if the project is able to proceed in the future and/or meets their interest. We decided to approach an already existing, and rising network for crowdfunding in Germany by the name of Startnext.

They agreed to give aid us with their existing infrastructure to build up a crowdfunding website, which is solely dedicated to projects from iGEM. This could really mean a quantum leap for the funding situation of future iGEM teams!

Please have a look at our already existing crowdfunding site.

We will be given the chance to talk to Bernd Sibler, the head of the comission for university, research and culture of the Landtag of Bavaria (Bayerischer Landtag). We will be able to present our project and iGEM to him. Furthermore, we will discuss the chances, which the competition provides, as well as the problems that are raised by synthetic biology. On the other hand we will be able to talk about his position in biotechnology and get to know about the position, which politics tend to take in view of this rapidly growing field of research. We are confident to make our point about the impact of iGEM on students and their understanding of reserach, as well as responsibility and hope that we will be able to increase political encouragement for this great, but expensive competition in Germany.