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From 2011.igem.org

Motivation and Summary for our Human Practice Advance

In Germany there is an ongoing debate about synthetic biology and iGEM. This discussion is often affected by concerns, skepticisms, fear and the criticism about “playing god”. Many big German newspapers published about these topics ([http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,670081,00.html Der Spiegel], [http://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/weltausstellung-fuer-leben-vom-reissbrett/3814770.html Der Tagesspiegel], [http://www.zeit.de/2010/22/N-Biologie-Studentenwettbewerb Die Zeit]), there are even political movements which want to prevent the application of synthetic biology. These movements are for example initiating petitions with the collection of signatures against the design of synthetic organisms ([http://www.testbiotech.org/taxonomy/term/224 Testbiotech]). Even the German government had to face questions about synthetic biology and iGEM by members of the German parliament. The questions were answered by the State Secretary Dr. Helge Braun of the [http://www.bmbf.de/en/index.php Federal Ministry of Education and Research]. The questions concerning iGEM were about the minimal equipment and education level needed for the participation in iGEM, if the German government is planning a similar competition, from which universities the iGEM teams are coming from, how the German government is judging the participation in iGEM, if it would be possible to start something like iGEM in Germany, which actions the government is taking to prevent the expression of toxic proteins and what the legal possibilities are to regulate this.

The answers were based on the facts or referring to common laws and there was no judging on the participation in iGEM, but this shows that synthetic biology and iGEM are part of an uprising controversial discussion. Hence we know that our work might raise public concerns and that we are always in the focus of the public opinion. This is the reason why we are pursuing an open public relations strategy. We think that only if the people are informed about synthetic biology, the discussion can be objective.

Our goals are to awake the public awareness, start public discussions and participate in the outreach about iGEM. Further we want to promote the open source principle behind iGEM, arouse interest and hopefully prevented fear when facing the principles of synthetic biology.

For our Human Practices advance we organized and participated in various events. We managed an open lab day for children, visited a local high school, presented and discussed in a science café, talked at a (PhD) Student Convention, showed our posters to an influential expert audience at the Strategic Process Biotechnology 2020+ and invited other iGEM teams to the 6th CeBiTec Symposium. We reached various people of all ages and with different educational backgrounds with the topics of synthetic biology.

In November the German Ethic Council is hosting a conference with the topic: “Workshop Life. Importance of Synthetic Biology for Science and Society”. The members of the German Ethic Council are appointed by the German president after they are proposed by the government or parliament. The mission of these experts is to convey the dialogue and advice in ethical, societal, science, medicine and legal questions as well as probable consequences of life sciences for individuals and society. As one of the experts our advisor and 2010 team member Nils Lübke is invited to the stakeholder discussion during the Ethic Council conference. For us this is a great honor because it shows that our public relations work is appreciated and respected.