Introduction
Promoting both our ideas and breakthrough research on rare cancers while respecting patients and their families is a priority in our effort to communicate our project to the world. On this journey, we strived to inform people about synthetic biology, we sought to raise awareness about cancer. What we learned on this road, we tried to pass on to our fellow citizens. This is not a simple goal when the knowledge we aspire to pass on is riddled with technical terms and difficult words. We would like to spread the basis of our ideas and synthetic biology in the most understandable manner. We meticulously shaped the information to sound as simple as possible, without losing the scientific integrity of the concept.
Thessaloniki International Fair
On our path to meaningful communication, our team participated in the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF Helexpo). TIF is the greatest exhibition in our country and the Balkans. People from all over the world are swarming to exchange ideas, promote business and share cultural heritage and values. This year, TIF hosted 1,500 exhibitors and attracted 263,737 visitors of all ages and ethnicities, with the honoured country being the UAE.
Our team’s exhibition stand was one of the Academia pavilion stands of our university (AUTh). Through our active participation in TIF, we had the chance to talk to more than 60,000 people of different nationalities and ages and to inform them about our project Theriac and synthetic biology. We had informative leaflets both in Greek, English, and also in Braille for those with vision impairment.
In addition, our team members became volunteer bone marrow donors and collaborated with cancer associations that were also exhibitors at TIF. We were able to have a greater impact in informing people more accurately. We met with stakeholders in research, entrepreneurship, and education. We also had a productive conversation with the minister of education, who later invited us to the booth of the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. We are very grateful for this experience and for all the people we got to know.
Events
During this year, we got multiple chances to participate in a variety of events: conferences we were invited to, presentations we organised, fun events we were happy to attend and others where we set up an info desk and presented our project to the attendees passing by. The most important of these are listed below.
Meeting iGEM Thessaloniki: Project Presentation
On the 3rd of October, we organised a one-day conference as our team's swan song… We invited all the people who supported us through this year’s journey, our loved ones, and our followers and fellow students. In this celebration of excellence and science, we were honoured by the presence of professors and iGEM community members and representatives as guest speakers. We also presented our team, Theriac, and our course in the competition. Our event closed with a networking session to bring students and public closer to the scientific community and renowned scientists. Some of the biggest names present were the rector of AuTh: Nikolaos Papaioannou, Dean of Faculty of Health Sciences Theodoros Dardavesis, our PI Dr. Michail Aivaliotis, Dr. Nikolaos Foroglou, Dr. Eleni Nikolakaki, not to forget representatives of cancer associations. More than a hundred members attended and our team is more than proud and moved by the love and support it received!
Society of Applied Neuroscience 2022
On the 15-17th of September, we had the opportunity to set up an information desk at the Society of Applied Neuroscience annual conference. The Society of Applied Neuroscience (SAN) is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to promoting neuroscientific knowledge and its cutting-edge applications. This enabled us to present our project not only to participating students, graduate and undergraduate, but more importantly, to renowned professors in the field of Neuroscience. Discussing our project with people in our field felt like the zenith of our communication of the project; we got to talk about it with experts in the field and take home the memory of their approving faces. We are very grateful for the valuable feedback and kind words that we have received for our endeavour.
Pint of Science
On the 9th-11th of May 2022, we actively participated in the Pint of Science event. Pint of Science is an international festival that aims to bring scientists and the community together, in an accessible and interactive way. The event takes place in bars, pubs, cafes, and a variety of public places, where the general public has the chance to discuss with researchers a variety of topics. Pint of Science, has a network of thousands of volunteers and researchers all around the world since 2012 who are passionate about science communication.
We are very thankful that we were invited to this event and shared our vision and project with other scientists and the general public, who were curious to learn more about Synthetic Biology and Theriac. We discussed with more than 40 people and the bar was full during our presentation.
TEDx AuTh
Our team participated in TEDx Auth 2022. Ted is a non-profit organization, devoted to ‘’ideas worth spreading’’. In this conference, speakers share a ‘’TED-like’’ experience and communicate things about science, art, history, and life experiences that could become a potential source of motivation for the audience. We participated in the event to communicate our project and promote our team and its goals to people with different interests since the audience is diverse at this conference. At the event, there were approximately 400 people in the audience, and almost 100 of them approached us to get informed about iGEM, our team, and our project. TEDx was an eye-opening experience for us; we tried to inspire people to set high goals and never stop trying to become their best version of themselves.
1st Open Day: Faculty of Science
We had an exceptional course this year, so the Dean of our University’s Faculty of Science invited us and gave us a booth at the 1st Open Day: Faculty of Science. This event is open to both students and the public. We had a chance to inform more than 100 people about the iGEM competition, Theriac, and how they could become members of this trip through our team and iGEM communities. We hope that we’ll get to collaborate with some of these bright minds as iGEM participants in the near future!
Scientific Congress of Hellenic Medical Students (SCHMS)
On the 14th of May 2022, we participated in the Scientific Congress of Hellenic Medical Students (SCHMS) in Athens. SCHMS has been an annually organised bilingual event since 1994, aiming to educate health science students on the latest topics of health science. The conference lasted 3 days, there were more than 150 oral sessions and 1500 participants.
The aim of our presentation “Synthetic Biology in the service of Medicine” was to set the stage for a meaningful exchange of ideas on precision medicine. We brought up the subject of how synthetic biology could help clinical doctors and the importance of research in the development of new targeted therapies. Our team presented Theriac’s basic idea and mechanisms to more than 1,000 participants, while we briefly explained how this approach can be used in other medical applications, too. The Q&A session was very rewarding, as we had very interesting feedback on our work from future doctors and researchers.
4th Panhellenic Scientific Conference of Pharmacy Students (P.E.S.F.FA.)
The 4th Panhellenic Scientific Conference of Pharmacy Students (in Greek: P.E.S.F.FA.) took place on the 14th and 15th of May at the Ceremony Hall of the AUTh and was organized by the ATP, pharmacist’s student team. We presented our work and talked about synthetic biology and theranostics to approximately 150 participants. We also discussed why the available GBM therapeutic methods are inadequate and future approaches toward better treatments. We hope we motivated the pharmacy students to search more about synthetic biology and GBM.
Chemical Engineering School
More than 100 chemical engineering students from both the AUTh and the University of Patras, along with professors from both universities participated in this event. After presenting our team and our project, we discussed what a chemical engineer can do as an iGEM member and explained the dry lab part of an iGEM project. The students and the professors were very interested in the iGEM Competition. Their questions included how they could participate, how time-consuming the development of such a project is, how our fundraising team works, and the kind of expertise a member needs in order to join an iGEM team. We hope to see them in the next iGEM teams from both universities.
Television & Newspapers
One of the most traditional ways we communicated our project through was TV channels and newspapers. Giving interviews is an opportunity to get more people to know about us and our work. We got the chance to inform people about cancer, synthetic biology, and the revolutionary field of theranostics.
Tv 100
On the 15th of May 2022, we featured in the weekend program of TV100, the most important local TV channel in our city, Thessaloniki. We went live on the news, answering questions and informing the viewers about our project, synthetic biology, and our experience in the iGEM competition.
Ert TV
We gave an interview on ERT TV. Ert TV is the national radio and television broadcaster of Greece. We appeared on the O3 show (Omicron 3) on the ERT3 channel with our pre-recorded interview, presenting our project and its innovations. The interview was filmed in the lab, then aired at a later date.
Iatronet
A medical reporter from Iatronet approached us about an article on our team and its project. As Iatronet is a well-known online informative site with health-related articles, we accepted his proposal. We were pleased to present our project, Theriac, and answer all of his questions. On the 13th of August, our interview was uploaded to the Iatronet site .
AUSoM Newsletter
We were asked to participate in an interview with the Aristotle University School of Medicine (AUSoM) regarding the team, "Theriac," and synthetic biology. We enthusiastically agreed to the interview, which was published by the Department of Medicine in an online newsletter .
Conclusion
Through all these actions and events, we reached more than 65,000 people, establishing meaningful communication. It also meant we creatively had fun, gained unforgettable memories deeply etched in our minds, and finally, strengthened our relationship and communication with the general public.
Social Media
We are going through an era in which technology and social media play a crucial role in our everyday lives. Social media, if used wisely, could be a powerful ally in spreading scientific and complex ideas. Our goal was to help our followers obtain a better understanding of our project and synthetic biology.Our team used its social media accounts to communicate, from the very beginning, our ideas and project as clearly as possible. We uploaded scientific quizzes and posts on a weekly basis; they were constructed on three key components:
Every time, we uploaded an educational post as an explanation of the topic after each scientific quiz. We hope we helped our followers understand our project and synthetic biology.
During all these months, we had the chance to meet and collaborate with fellow iGEMers and other student teams. In the context of our collaboration, we did various posts with those teams. Specifically, we did a series of posts regarding the common aspects of our projects with our partner iGEM Toulouse. We also uploaded weekly funny Instagram stories (SynBio stories), in collaboration with iGEM Athens. We participated in TU Braunschweig and ASIJ Tokyo team’s cancer awareness Instagram campaign with two posts about brain cancer.
This year's census of our social media is an approximate calculation of the people we interacted with; we mustered 2.04K followers on Instagram, 3.9K followers on Facebook, and 390 followers on Linkedin. These platforms empowered us with a way to communicate our project and provide accurate scientific information to our followers without the intermediation of factors prone to misinformation. We sincerely appreciate all of the support we received! It was the starting point of introducing our project, and we hope our interaction was beneficial in both ways!