Team:Valencia/Community

Making the Synthetic Biology known…

After analysing the results of our surveys, we discovered that the field of the synthetic biology is widely unknown. Thus, we gave a class to students with ages between 13 and 15, in order to introduce them to the basis of this science.

Our starting point was telling them that the synthetic biology is an emerging field of investigation which gathers different scientific traditions around the objective of designing and manufacturing new biologic systems with an industrial interest.

We introduced them to the world of genetics, explaining them the structure of DNA, a sequence of nitrogenous bases which form the genetic information of every living being. Then we explained them how this new science –synthetic biology- started to emerge because of the discovering of mechanisms with which to manipulate and to modify this information.

The students told us how unknown it was to them this field of science. They also told us that they knew subtly the existence of the DNA, but they didn’t know exactly what it was. They were unaware of its use and its possible modifications, as well as the implications of all the advances carried out in the field.

We made them understand how, with new technologies, it is getting feasible to design and manufacture new devices and systems which don’t exist in the natural world, as well as to redesign existing ones so that they can perform specific tasks. They also learnt that, through investigation, scientists are finding new fields where synthetic biology can become very useful.

Concerning its applications, it was curious to verify that they associated it very rapidly with the environment, and how it might help us to preserve it. So, we spoke about its applications, as a possible technical remedy for energy, agriculture and medicine.

We also talked about the social debate that it causes because of its implications concerning socioeconomics, environment, safety, health and human rights.

After this theoretic introduction, we went into the laboratory, showing them the different used devices, and some of the means that we were culturing, while we told them our project and what we were working at. They showed a great interest, getting interested in its possibilities, knowing thus more closely this science, synthetic biology.