Human Practices and Outreach

Common perceptions of synthetic biology are misguided in the general, nonscientific population. People often consider synthetic biology practices as tampering with God’s work. Additionally, the fear that dangerous bioweapons will result from such research is not uncommon. As students of the field, we believe it was important to alleviate these fears and educate the public. Synthetic biology will succeed when these fears are eliminated and the general population understands that the promises of the field are great and these fears are unjustified. As members of the Cornell iGEM team and undergraduate students in related disciplines, we believed that participation in outreach programs was important achieving these goals.

CURIE is a one-week summer program for high school girls who have demonstrated an ability to excel in math and science. During the summer, the Cornell University Genetically Engineered Machines (CU GEM) team gave a presentation to the CURIE students about the principles of synthetic biology and the iGEM competition. After the presentation, the CU GEM team gave the students a lab tour and demonstration. CU GEM will continue to work with CURIE in the future, in hopes of promoting the potential of synthetic biology to the rising scientists of the world.

The Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers is a unique opportunity for high school biology teachers to come to Cornell. This one day experience involves guest lectures and lab lectures, in hopes that they can provide a better learning experience for their high school students. CU GEM gave a presentation to the teachers about synthetic biology, in hopes of the teachers teaching certain aspects of the field to their high school students. CU GEM also designed a BioBrick activity for the teachers to try and to present to their own high school students.

We firmly believe in the value of outreach programs that educate the community about the benefits of synthetic biology. Only by achieving public acceptance and support of synthetic biology will the science ascend to its true potential.