Introduction
A new agenda known as the Sustainable Development Goals is founded on the principle of 'Leaving No One Behind'. This emphasizes the need for a comprehensive strategy to achieve sustainable development for everybody. As iGEM participants, it is our duty and passion to contribute to finding ways to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. We considered sustainable development goals and made an effort to meet them when designing our SynBioBot, from project selection to research and implementation. Our project targets Goal 4 (Quality Education), Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), and Goal 17 (Partnerships to achieve the Goal). We hope that SynBioBot will contribute to achieving these goals and that remote robot synthetic biology experiments will help change the world.
Goal 4: Quality Education
The foundation for enhancing people’s lives and attaining sustainable development is having access to quality education. We believe that education is one of the biggest drivers of sustainable development and therefore that quality education should be provided for everyone.
Due to the rapid global spread of COVID-19 since 2020, online education has become an indispensable major form of education, and most students in many countries have conducted online classes. This was a huge setback for the experimental class because it was accomplished by simply skipping the experimental process or replacing it with a video. There was even a class that consisted of only giving experimental data and writing reports.
Our SynBioBot can intrigue students’ interest through remote control even in online classes, allowing them to progress to higher levels of learning. It also lays the groundwork for effective remote experimentation, allowing for effective and long-term education in settings where face-to-face classes are difficult.
Therefore, it can revolutionize synthetic biology education in this respect. This is because anyone can directly or indirectly access the SynBioBot to perform the experimental process, which can stimulate user interest and encourage them to study more relevant tasks. We also developed software to deal with SynBioBot, which allowed us to increase the accessibility to the general public. This will enable people to perform the whole process or individual stages of experimentation.
It will provide quality education to students in places where experimental equipment and environments are not well established, as we aim for in the long run.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Comprehensive and sustainable industrialization, innovation, and infrastructure boost the economy’s dynamism and create jobs and income. It is also essential in introducing and promoting new technologies and efficient use of resources.
Our SynBioBot has the potential to revolutionize the industry by replacing repetitive and simple tasks. It could also be used for dangerous drugs or experiments that necessitate complex and sophisticated movement, moving beyond the level of substitution for basic work.
In fact, we discovered the possibility of replacing certain levels of synthetic biology by experimenting with cell culture and lentiviral transfection via a robot arm. We believe that with the help of SynBioBot, more researchers can get away from repetitive tasks and focus on more efficient research and that SynBioBot can provide effective solutions.
Goal 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
The partnership to achieve the goal is to strengthen international cooperation in science, technology, and innovation, and to enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms through global technology promotion mechanisms. iGEM can also be defined as an organization in which people from various cultural, linguistic, and national backgrounds work together to solve real-world problems using a tool known as synthetic biology. As a result, as a team participating in iGEM, we have engaged in various partnership activities in the spirit of collaboration.
First, we introduced our project to high school students through EBPH and collaborated to design instruments for robot operation. We were able to get feedback on our project, and we were able to exchange opinions on the parts even in small parts.
In addition, we created the Korean Synthetic Biology Association of University Students. Through this association, we held the first Korea Synthetic Biology Debate Competition. We also had the opportunity to unite with high school and college student teams. This helped raise awareness of synthetic biology, and preparations for holding the competition as a combined team served as an opportunity to strengthen the partnership. We will continue this Association and have continued exchanges.
