Public Engagement and Education

A poll conducted by Ipsos1 shows that at least 47% of people in the Netherlands are not aware of modern gene editing methods. We actively engaged with people of all ages and walks of life in the events listed below using interactive and thought-provoking materials developed to suit the message we wanted to get across at each event. Read more below about the events and how we approached engaging the different types of visitors at each of them.

iGEM Leiden Comic Science

On our Instagram page, we shared multiple self-made science comics that are accessible to a wide audience and explain some essentials of biotechnology and science in general. We did this on our Instagram page to lower the threshold and make it as easy as possible to learn about SynBio.

Images obtained from Freepik

Outreach

On multiple occasions, we reached out to the public to tell them more about our project. Below you can find a concise overview of where we reached out to audiences about our project.

biotechnologie.nl is a website created in order to convey the importance of developments in biotechnology to the Dutch public. On the website of biotechnologie.nl, Mirthe has written multiple blogs documenting our iGEM experiences. Biotechnologie.nl has in turn also written about us, this can be read on our Featured page.

On October 7 Mirthe and Olivier gave a lunch lecture for S.V. LIFE, the study association for Life, Science and Technology students from Leiden University. The topics were our project and the iGEM competition. Here we inspired future researchers about the possibilities of synthetic biology.

On July 7, a synthetic biology symposium was organized at the Institute of Biology Leiden. We held a talk detailing our project, but were in turn also inspired by the other speakers. Among them was Dr. Sandra Irmisch who told about her use of SynBio to increase the production of specialized biomolecules in plants.

The Leidse Biologen Club is an association for students of biology at Leiden University. On May 23, they organized a symposium where we were invited to give a presentation about our project. Jennifer and J.R. gave a talk at the Symposium, to inspire future researchers about the possibilities of synthetic biology.

The Leiden Bio Science park is the largest life sciences cluster in the Netherlands and ranks in the top five of the most successful science parks in Europe. We had a good collaboration with the Entrepreneurs Association Bio Science Park, as they were one of our main sponsors. They also invited us to present our project at their Life Sciences Café event on September 15. Nadine, Elise and Eva discussed our project with the audience, and were inspired in turn by their feedback, especially in regard to Entrepreneurship.

The Natuurwetenschappelijk Gezelschap Leiden (NGL, Natural Sciences Society Leiden) has been organizing lectures by renowned lecturers for more than 150 years for everyone interested in a range of topics, from astronomy to archeology. On the 29th of September, Moor, Tino and Mirthe gave a one hour lecture on the project. The attendants were very enthusiastic, asked us many questions and in turn also gave feedback on our results. This led to a fruitful exchange of thoughts.

Science meets Business organizes a number of events throughout the year with the goal of sparking collaboration between science and business through networking and of closing the gap between the Leiden Bio Science Park and Leiden center by demonstrating the amazing things that are happening there. On the 13th of October Jennifer and Mirthe gave a presentation at such a networking event. We had engaging conversations with the attendants afterwards, ranging from nanoparticle patent possibilities to data analysis.

References

  1. The Greens/EFA. (2021, March). GMO survey data. http://extranet.greens-efa.eu/public/media/file/1/6912
  2. Leiden Science Family Day. (n.d.). Leiden Science Family Day - Leiden University. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/sciencefamilyday
  3. Beyer, P., Al-Babili, S., Ye, X., Lucca, P., Schaub, P., Welsch, R., & Potrykus, I. (2002). Golden rice: introducing the β-carotene biosynthesis pathway into rice endosperm by genetic engineering to defeat vitamin A deficiency. The Journal of nutrition, 132(3), 506S-510S.