Team:RUBochum/Communication

Genetic engineering lesson

To prepare for a school visit to teach a class about genetic engineering, we held meetings with two professors of our university, Professor Grefen on the 18th and Professor Piotrowski on the 25th of August.

They told us how to explain genetic engineering correctly and we talked about good examples. Also, they gave us the necessary know-how to teach a class. The both of them even provided some of their own materials for us to use. It was really interesting and helped us a lot for our school visit which took place on the 22th of September.
After that, the school wrote an article about our project and the visit.
You can check it out here.

Translated article of the school

“Platypus milk from yeast cultures - visit of the iGEM working group in the LK Biology Q2
25 September 2021

Platypuses are primitive mammals, found exclusively in Australia, they lay eggs, have a beak and a beaver-like tail - so far, so good. But who knows that these cute furry animals excrete their mother's milk over their body, and that this milk has a strong antibacterial effect? This peculiarity aroused the interest of the iGEM working group of the synthetic biology course at the Ruhr University Bochum.

iGEM (international Genetically Engineered Machine Competition) is a non-commercial competition for students from all over the world who formulate a project idea in working groups and implement it comprehensively. The task is not only to use genetic engineering methods, but also to generate the necessary funds, obtain equipment, materials and create the needed communication structures.

The spokesperson of the working group, Marius Schnutenhaus, a Waldstrasse high school graduate (2017), comprehensively explained the steps of the project and thus gave an impression of modern laboratory work:
The genes that code for the different proteins in platypus milk are stored in genetic databases. The required base sequences are ordered from specialised suppliers and can then be processed further. These chemical companies often also supply the gene shuttles (e.g. plasmids) needed to insert the genes into microorganisms. The selected microorganisms (in this case yeast) then convert the genetic information into the desired protein. This sounds quite simple at first, but of course it requires precise work and a lot of patience.

For the students of the advanced biology course, there was not only a lot of old and new information about genetic engineering, but also an insight into the study of synthetic biology and, beyond that, into the career prospects of biologists and biochemists.”

Figure 1: Marius during genetic engineering class.

Part of our project was to involve the general public and to eradicate potential fears and misunderstandings about GMOs and their use to produce food items. To achieve this, we strived to explain the benefits and the need to develop new and more sustainable ways of food production, whilst also creating a general understanding of methods that can be used for this cause.

Since we wanted to give a good understanding of our project too, we chose to contact a former teacher of our team member and lab leader Marius and ask if the school would be interested in giving us this opportunity. To our delight, we received positive feedback and an invitation to visit an advanced biology course to teach genetic engineering and present our project.

BIOspektrum article

The BIOspektrum is a German magazine that informs about current topics in science and politics. We were given the opportunity to publish our article “Platylicious - Schnabeltier-Joghurt für den Umweltschutz” (Platylicious - Platypus joghurt for environmental Protection) in the September issue of 2021.
The article can be found here.

Figure 2: Our BIOspektrum about Project Platylicious.

Maastricht Journal Initiative

We also participated in the Journal initiative from MSP-Maastricht, where we published a paper about our Project. This gave us the opportunity to practice scientific writing and how to present our project.
We also peer reviewed interesting papers from other Teams and got helpful feedback on our own.
Our paper can be found here.

Figure 3: Our Paper in the Maastricht Journal.

Newspaper article and television appearance

We also tried to engage the public through communicating our project and educating about genetic engineering and thus help remove misunderstandings and preconceptions about GMOs in food production.
To achieve this goal we reached out to newspapers in our area and asked if they were interested in featuring our project.
Two reporters of the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” (WAZ) visited us in our lab, and we talked about our project, answered questions and explained the science behind synthetic biology.

Figure 4: Our article in the newspaper WAZ.

After the newspaper article we were contacted by Dirk Groß-Langenhoff, a journalist from the “Lokalzeit Ruhr” from the WDR.
He visited us in our laboratory, and we filmed a short three minutes long video where we showcased our project and showed some lab work we did at the time. The video was aired on 30th September, and we had the opportunity to visit the Lokalzeit Ruhr WDR-Studios in Essen for a live interview.
The television host had interesting questions for Marius, who was chosen to represent our team. We are very grateful to have the opportunity to present our project and synthetic biology to a broader audience.

Figure 5: Marius at the live interview about Project Platylicious.

Survey about milk consumption and flavor

As we didn’t know what flavor we should use for our product, we created a survey to find out what consumers would like. We also asked about their milk consumption habits, such as how often milk products are consumed and if people consume either animal or plant based milk or even both, and we also asked them to tell us the reasons, as it is important for us to know what people prefer.
To promote our survey, we contacted everyone we know and asked them to spread it. Overall, a total of 292 people participated, and we would like to say: “Thank you’’, because these results can be crucial for our project.

89% of our participants were European, while 11% were from non-European countries. 62% of all participants were 21-30 years old (Figure 6) and 64% were female (Figure 7).

Figure 6: The age of all survey participants.

Figure 7: The genders of all survey participants.

Vanilla was the most favorite with 28%. Also, 28% chose the option to write down their favorite flavor other than the standards (Figure 8). A total of 68% (of participants who wrote down their favorite flavor) chose a fruit and with 11% peach was given as an answer the most. It’s also interesting that 8% want a natural flavor (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Flavors favored and other flavors chosen by participants..

We also questioned how often participants consume dairy products and came to the conclusion that 49% of them do consume them often, with six to seven times a week, which is only just a little underneath half of the participants.

Figure 9: Total amount of participant’s dairy product consumption

We also asked participants if they prefer animal products, plant based products or if they like both and what the reasons are.

The results indicated that it was very close between only animals with 39% and both with 40%. It was only 21% who preferred only plant based products (figure 10).

Figure 10: Results what people like more: Only animal, only plant based products or both.

Most people who wrote down only animal products said they do so because it tastes better with 32%, out of habit with 19% and because it is cheaper with 17%. Also, worth mentioning is that 10% of the participants did not find an alternative that they like yet and for 6% there is not an alternative available (Figure 11).

The most significant reason to consume only plant based products is for ethical reasons, with 36%. 21% wrote they are vegan, which of course is also connected to ethics. Ecological reasons also played a role with 10%. Only 8% think it tastes better (Figure 12), which is a very low percentage in comparison to the results of only animal products, in which it was the main reason for participants to consume it (Figure 11).

As stated above, almost as many participants as in only animal products chose both. Most people wrote they have no specific reason, they just like both with 28%. 19% are trying to reduce consuming animal products. 12% prefer animal products but are lactose intolerant. Only a few percent consume both out of ethical or ecological reasons (Figure 13).

Figure 11: Reasons for consuming only animal products by survey participants.

Figure 12: Reasons to consume only plant based products by participants.

Figure 13: Reasons to consume both products by participants.