Our team was always fascinated by the immense potential of synthetic biology, seeing how it can address real-world problems and significantly impact humanity. While appreciating the beauty of synthetic biology, we learned how research is flying high day to day. Technological and scientific advancements are going beyond our imaginations. At the same time, we were concerned that science is still catered to a narrow community, excluding differently abled, gender diverse and regional communities.
"Diversity is the mix. Inclusivity is making the mix work"
~Andres Tapia
Just as the above quote suggests, look around, and you will be astonished by the diversity - the mix - we possess. Society accepts diversity but often fails to incorporate it into the social norms - 'we fail to make the mix work'. We, as a team, took up this challenge to do our part in making the mix work! Whether it is laboratory accessibility, educational and communicational activities, human practices or project ideation, we put active effort throughout the iGEM duration to incorporate diversity.
Similarly, we ensured that our outreach activities were accessible to people from all walks of life. We held events in both rural and urban areas and made sure our materials were available in multiple languages. Also, having a team with members from different genders, regions and backgrounds helped us to easily merge with different communities during our activities.
This focus on diversity has been immensely rewarding. It has allowed us to reach out to new communities and learn from their perspectives. It has also helped us create a more inclusive environment within our team. We are proud to have taken up this challenge and hope our efforts will inspire others to do likewise.
With diversity hailing from different states of India, our team itself was an inclusive set. How science can be explored beyond barriers has been a topic of discussion in our team meetings. During the nascent stages of our project, we put active efforts into knowing the pronouns preferred by the team members. Some of our members are part of the institute pride club, Mazhavil and do actively take part in discussions organised by the Humanities Collective of IISER Thiruvanathapuram (HCIT). Our mascot Omivon is a gender-neutral character restating the fact that the problem of breast cancer is very alarming for all gender.
As an iGEM team from India, the land of diversity with multitudes of languages, cultures and traditions, we decided to spread synthetic biology going in the sink with the regional Indian pulse.
Most of the scientific content and awareness information generated are in English, which restricts its accessibility to local people.
One of the most critical aspects of inclusivity is language. iGEM has always been committed to ensuring its materials and communications are accessible to as many people as possible. This inspired our team to ensure its materials and communications are available in as many languages as possible.
Our team was committed to making the promo video as accessible as possible. Hence, we translated the script of the promo video into 9 Indian languages including Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Bangla, Assamese and Marathi. We made sure to run through the script by the experts in the language so that our information is easily understandable by the audience. We believe language is a huge barrier towards effective communication and have given our best efforts to tackle the same.
The link for the project promotion video can be found here
Promo Video with Kannada subtitles
There is a need for better data on the burden of breast cancer and on the effectiveness of different strategies
for prevention, early detection, and treatment population-based surveys are an important tool for collecting
this data.
Conducting surveys about breast cancer can help to:
Our team surveyed various myth-busters regarding breast cancer by keeping data collection in mind To expand upon inclusivity, we translated the same to Bangla, English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil. This was done to increase our sample size by including people from different parts of the country, while also keeping in mind the far-reaching communication benefits such a scheme possesses. To increase further the sample size, we did not limit ourselves to online mode of taking survey. We distributed hard copies of survey to people who are not familiar with digital platform. We also got responses from people who are actually not exposed to digital platforms and have very little awareness about breast cancer.
For survey in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Bengali visit Human Practices page.
This was a very fruitful endeavor, since we received over 300 responses from all around the country both via online and printed surveys. This enabled us to track patterns across the population regarding their thoughts on breast cancer. We used this knowledge to better improve our communication with the general populace regarding breast cancer.
Our team's commitment to inclusivity extends to its efforts to make its materials accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of language barriers. In 2022, after analyzing our, the team released an information pamphlet on breast cancer. Later, we translated it into Malayalam, Tamil, and Hindi, making it accessible to speakers of those languages. This enabled team members and participants to spread the word about self-breast examination and prevention to their villages and families. The feedback they received indicated that the translated materials were clear and easy to understand, demonstrating the success of this inclusivity initiative.
Distributing Pamphlet
Interacting with audience
Our translation efforts not only make its materials more accessible to a wider audience but also help to break down barriers between people of different linguistic backgrounds. This facilitates communication and understanding, which are essential for effective breast cancer prevention and treatment. This enabled the team members to spread it to their villagers and family, which we believe is a marker of our success.
Pamphlet in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam.
Art is a very powerful medium of communication. It unites people of all ages, genders and regions. We used various forms of art to cross the language barrier and reach out to a larger audience. Individuals not exposed to an academic and scientific environment usually turn a blind eye towards the advances in science and how it affects their lives too. As an iGEM team working with synthetic biology we set out to influence those who do not speak the language.
It is said that art imitates life. In a way, art can be seen as a window into someone's soul, reflecting one's thoughts, emotions, and experiences. It is a way of communicating that cannot be conveyed through words alone. Art can be used to communicate scientific ideas, and Science can be used to create works of art. By combining the two, we can not only create beautiful things but also gain a deeper understanding of the world around us.
Kalakrithi was an event that aimed to do just that – to inspire kids to envision the Science around them through art. The target audience was children from classes 1 to 12, and they were given complete freedom to choose their art medium. Through this event, we hope to have inspired a new generation of scientists and artists who can see the world in a new light and use their creativity to make a difference.
Our event was designed to be accessible and welcoming to people of all ages, genders, and cultures. Using Theatre as a medium for social awareness, allowed us to communicate our message. Including vernacular translations of our props and pamphlets ensured that everyone present could understand and participate in the campaign.
Stage play performance
We organised a stage play, "Let's Fight with Courage", with the theme of breast cancer awareness in collaboration with Theatrics Society IISER TVM. The drama was staged in the native language, Malayalam, and all the posters used in the drama were in Malayalam. The event was also held in a public space (Mall of Travancore, Thiruvananthapuram) which is accessible to all. We distributed pamphlets and had discussions with interested individuals after the performance in order to encourage open dialogue and exchange of ideas. Ultimately, our goal was to create an event that would include as many people as possible to maximise its impact and reach.
The contest BIOKU was created to capture the biology lab's spirit in a haiku, a traditional Japanese three-line poem with a total of seventeen syllables. The competition's theme was "In the Biology lab", and its target audience was college students. The figurative haiku form of poetry is known for its focus on nature imagery and emphasis on minimalism, intensity, and clarity.
BIOKU, in its very approach, encourages students to use figurative language to capture the spirit of the biology lab. This allows a more diverse range of perspectives and experiences to be represented in the contest. In addition, the game is open to all college students, which makes it accessible to a wide range of people. The focus on nature imagery and emphasis on minimalism, intensity, and clarity also allows for various interpretations and experiences to be shared. Thus we were successfully able to reach a broad audience and make the event beneficial to a diverse audience.
Women-centric to inclusive stakeholders
The project being a dual nano-vesicle drug delivery system against breast cancer,we thought it would be a ‘woman-centric’ project.
While breast cancer awareness Month is a time to celebrate these advances and bring attention to early detection, it’s also important to remember that breast cancer does not just affect women. Men and the LGBTQ+ community can get breast cancer, too, and we need to do more to support all those affected by this disease.Incorporating this change in our perspective, we restructured our outreach and awareness projects to include all stakeholders without a bias towards any gender
As part of the human practices segment of the project, we spoke to breast cancer survivors. We interacted with both men and women who beat the disease. They shared their experiences and struggles. One male breast cancer survivor told us about how the misconception that 'men do not get breast cancer made it difficult for him to identify the disease at first. This was an important takeaway as our team thought this was something we needed to address and emphasise in our campaigns. We also interacted with people who got breast cancer at the very early age of 19. Again, this states that people of any age can be affected by breast cancer.
Cancer does not care about your gender, race, or age. However, breast cancer is commonly thought of as a 'woman's disease'. This is harmful for two reasons:
We saw that this attitude of society should be well informed of. We need to be more inclusive in the way we talk about breast cancer. We need to make sure that everyone knows that breast cancer is not just a woman's disease but a human disease. By doing so, we will not only make the breast cancer community more inclusive, but we will also help to break down the barriers that prevent men from getting the help and support they need. We ensured that this was properly conveyed through our information pamphlet, and it was also one of the critical questions in the ‘Public Interview Series’ to spread awareness among the public that 'Men can also get breast cancer'.
During the nascent stages of our project, we were focusing only on women as our primary stakeholders, but as time progressed through multiple interactions, we realised that the male and LGBTQ community is also affected by it. The LGBTQ community has long been ignored or excluded when it comes to breast cancer. This is primarily because most research and support have been geared towards cisgender women. However, it is essential to note that breast cancer does not discriminate and can affect anyone, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Uncertain about how to reach out to the LGBTQ community or spread breast cancer awareness, we reached out to Mazhavil, our institute IISER TVM's very own pride club. Mazhavil is a club under Humanities Collective of IISER TVM (HCIT). Mazhavil, a subsidiary of HCIT, supports the LGBTQ+ community by creating awareness and making our campus a safe space for everyone.
Meet with Mazhavil
From Mazhavil members, we gained insight as to how susceptible the LQBTQ+ community is to breast cancer and the limited healthcare facilities available for them. They were only able to find one government initiative relating to breast cancer that focused on transgender people [2]. here are several reasons why the LGBTQ community is at a higher risk of developing breast cancer. One of the most significant factors is that many members of the community do not have access to quality healthcare [3]. This is often due to discrimination from healthcare providers or a lack of insurance coverage. Additionally, members of the LGBTQ community are more likely to experience stress and anxiety due to their minority status. This can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as smoking or drinking, increasing cancer risk [4]. Read more.
There are also several unique challenges that individuals belonging to the LGBTQ+ community face when it comes to breast cancer. For example, transgender men who have been treated with hormone therapy may have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Only one study shows the increased risk of breast cancer in transgender women [4]. Additionally, lesbian and bisexual women may be less likely to perform self-breast exams or to get mammograms, as they may not feel comfortable doing so in a heteronormative healthcare setting [5].
The good news is that there are a number of organisations that are working to support the LGBTQ+ community when it comes to breast cancer. For example, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation has awarded grants to several studies focusing on LGBTQ health [6]. Additionally, organisations like the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association offer resources and support for LGBTQ+ individuals dealing with cancer.
More needs to be done to support the LGBTQ community regarding breast cancer. However, there are a number of organisations working to address this issue. By increasing awareness and ensuring access to quality care, we can help reduce the burden of this disease on the LGBTQ+ community.
As a result of this interaction, we revised our breast cancer awareness pamphlet in order to make it more inclusive and gender-neutral by incorporating the suggestions that the members of Mazhavil provided. We looked into the statistics of breast cancer incidence in the LGBTQ community. Taking our initiatives further, we plan on spreading out the word to the community and among doctors as we received feedback that most of the time, health spaces aren't safe for the members of the LGBTQ community. Our institute has promised that the breast cancer screening camp that we organised will be done on campus on an annual basis. In addition to the plans to spreading awareness through social media content, we will convey the suggestion of Mazhavil to the institute to add a technician, especially for the breast cancer screening of LGBTQ members.
Due to the high incidence rate of Breast cancer in our locality, we realised the lack of awareness about breast cancer in the people of rural areas and the necessity of Breast Cancer campaign to collectively spread awareness and importance of early detection in breast cancer. Entecding our efforts, we also made effort to know our stakeholders outside our locality.
Due to the high incidence rate of breast cancer in our locality, we realised the lack of awareness about breast cancer in the people of rural areas and the necessity of teaching them Self - breast Examination for early detection. Hence, we organised a free of cost breast cancer screening camp and awareness drive in our institute for the housekeeping staff from nearby rural areas. The event was organised in collaboration with Indian Medical Association (IMA). We distributed flyers for the event in our native language, Malayalam. More than 100 people attended the awareness session. Our medical officer conducted the awareness session in Malayalam, and the presentation slides were prepared in Malayalam. This enabled the audience to better understand the problem and importance of Self - Breast examination in their easily understandable language. Read more.
The English and Malayalam version of the slides can be found on the Education page following the awareness talk. Prior to the screening, we did a risk assessment survey for the interested participants and thus could give priority for screening based on their risk category. Out of 50 participants, around 30 participants either felt trouble with their breasts or had a family history of breast cancer. We also witnessed a breast cancer survivor who wanted to do the screening as a precaution after a mastectomy.
Our screening drive gave people from rural areas who usually don't have proper facilities to undergo medical check-ups and an opportunity to preliminarily undergo screening for breast cancer free of cost. We also received feedback from the participants that we should not limit it to breast cancer but conduct other cancer screening tests too. Here we concentrated on women because the probability of breast cancer in women is 100 times higher than in men.
Inauguration ceremony for breast cancer screening camp
Team along with technicians and other medical professionals
Awareness pamphlet
While doing our surveys and regional awareness campaigns, we became aware that we were only interacting with or receiving input from a small group of people, therefore we decided against limiting our sample size. This realisation inspired us to devise and carry out a series of interviews in various states across India, breaking down the geographical barriers that had been holding us back.
To gain a basic sense of how issues related to breast cancer are perceived, various team members travelled to their home states in various parts of India—Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and New Delhi—and spoke with individuals from diverse walks of life. We travelled to several parts of the state in an effort to meet people with varying occupations, age ranges, and outlooks on life. We went to shopping centres, the beach, stores, a police station, a school, a transportation hub, and housing lanes in the area to meet and interact with people.
People responded thoughtfully, and many of them thanked us for reaching out to them in their responses. This assisted us in altering how we perceived our campaigns. We customised each of our online events in response to the feedback we received, thereby overcoming the barriers that location offered to sharing our work.
Most of the time, scientific advances are constrained to the research community. Although various science communication organisations and associations are established, outreach activities are still limited to research students. Science remains limited in some hands, due to regional, technical, financial, and linguistic limitations. Team iGEM IISER TVM is putting forth active efforts to make science more accessible beyond the barriers. Our team strongly felt that the general populace, i.e. the stakeholders, should know what is going on in science. Knowing about up-and-coming research could help them make informed decisions on various aspects of their lives. So we set out to make science, for the lack of a better word," accessible".
Through science camps, we aim to spread scientific reasoning in children. To improve accessibility, we also live-streamed our online session on youtube. During our sessions, we realised the lack of career guidance and gave the students a perspective on STEM and non-STEM careers that one can take up after higher studies. Our Synbio Conclave 2.0 provides opportunities for students to interact with some of the pioneers in the field of synthetic biology and gain more insights into cutting-edge science and technology. Read More.
Mobile biology workshops are a great way to reach out to schools, which has less accessibility to advance facilities. Synbio-On-Wheels is such a mobile workshop van to give students hands-on experience with lab techniques and equipment. This mobile education van was equipped with microscopes, pipettes, Petri dishes, etc., basically a mobile lab for creating opportunities for students to explore the microbial world and learn the functioning of basic lab instruments.
Our Synbio on Wheels had the chance to participate in the outreach programme conducted by our institute's Science and Technology Council. We also went to public places to create curiosity about these topics in general audiences without formal science education. After seeing our informative posters in the van, the general public becomes more curious to know more about the scientific topics, including concepts of cancer and the working principle behind viral infection owing to the pandemic.
As research students, we are responsible for inspiring people to think scientifically and encouraging the student community to learn Science. To introduce the laboratory facilities across the globe to communities with poor lab accessibility, we collaborated with iGEM Patras, IISER Tirupati, Tec CEM, ABOA Finland and IISER Mohali to bring forth “Come Work with Us”, a mega lab tour video with snippets from the respective collab teams’ iGEM labs. We hope to give wings to the students who dream of flying high but are limited by regional barriers. As a first step towards that big dream, look at the Lab tour video below.
We have been considering ways to include disabled individuals in the active societal loop. In this regard, we attempted to learn how a cerebral palsy student on our campus appreciates Science. Despite her day-to-day hurdles, she continues to be a successful student in our institute. Our team communicated with Ms Lincy Varghese, technical assistant at IISER Thiruvananthapuram, regarding the disabled students who are residents of the campus. disabled students are guided and mentored by Ms Lincy. The institute recently added a back-supported chair in the bio lab to help her with basic lab techniques such as pipetting.
In addition, our All India Art contest witnessed entries from disabled individuals. We supported them in sending entries. One winning entry from a student with Autism is added below:
Artwork of an Autistic child who participated in class 1-4 category
