Team:USP-EEL-Brazil/Communication

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Thinking about establishing a communication channel with society in a way that we could actually build knowledge in an integrated way, and thinking about all the possible difficulties faced by our team in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed the Synthetic Biology Tournament (TBS) with a public school from our city, the Technical School of Lorena.

The goal then was to establish a means of communication where we could build knowledge together with society, and not just produce technical knowledge inside the university walls and then make it available to the population in a relatively inaccessible way.

For this, we decided to approach high school students from a public school in the city of Lorena-SP. This decision was based on the fact that with these studentes it would be more effective for first contact with society, since they were already in a student context. We also took into consideration the high school students familiarity with remote classes and digital content.

We created a one month Synthetic Biology Tournament, where it was possible to teach the concepts of synthetic biology in a dynamic and adapted way, being more accessible to people who are not in an academic context. We also created a complete digital content about Synthetic Biology, about our project and about the social context related to the problem we choose to work on.

The workbook that we developed has been available to students since the beginning of the TBS. In this workbook the students could reinforce the subjects of the classes and also learn extra content. We also interacted with the tournament participants through a group on a social media group, where we were able to provide personalized assistance to each participant.

This is an English version of the workbook developed by our synthetic biology club:

This is a playful version of the workbook, involving the problem of snakes. This workbook served as a basis for the students:

Besides having the opportunity to spread synthetic biology to people not familiar with this new science, we could learn from the students by analyzing the answers to the proposed case where they had to solve a problem related to the context of ophidic accidents, with a minimally technical approach and taking into account social issues raised by our team.

This is an English version of the case presentation we made for the students:

This is the presentation of the winning group of students:

And also through an essay in the dissertative - argumentative model where each student identified a problem related to the context of ophidian accidents and proposed a solution.

This is an English version of the document with motivational text for the requested essay:

The students' answers to the proposed activities helped us realize that the Brazilian public health system, despite providing great free support to the population, still has some gaps when it comes to peripheral problems (neglected). This encouraged us to continue with the approach of treating ophidian accidents, because we could conclude that it is a problem that needs a relatively quick and low-cost solution, taking into consideration that the current bureaucratic process required for this would make it difficult to deliver this solution to the affected population.

Cotel students also helped us realize the need for student initiatives to solve problems left aside in our society. Brazilian public universities make up the great producing body of national science and we believe that their students are capable of solving many problems currently neglected in our society. With this in mind, we had space to divulge the correct first aid procedures in different media channels, as we mentioned in Human Practices, we also talked about the design and execution model integrated with society, addressed in our project, in order to encourage other groups and student leaderships.

We thank Lucas Sodere Rodrigues, Yago Fernandes Maciel Gomes, Jorge Daniel Pessoa de Oliveira, Fabio dos Santos Ramos, Ana Beatriz Molinari, Ana Júlia Espíndola Braga da Silva, Gabriel Ferrari Paiva, Pedro Augusto Tenório Barbára, Isadora Cristina Batista de Souza, Bethânia Ferreira Nunes Bastos and Luis Felipe do Prado Pinto for participating.

To meet the requirements requested by the case statement, the winning team chose to use a circuit with the following configuration: iron constitutive promoter; RBS (BBa_BOO3O), gene coding region:

• Gene 2: Encodes DM43, an antitoxin isolated from Didelphis marsupialis. DM43 is able to inhibit the effect of hemorrhagins present in viper venom. It is most efficient at pH 7.2 and 35°C.
• Gene 3: Encodes a protein capable of binding to the catalytic site of metalloproteases.
• Gene 4: Snakes are naturally immune to their own venom because of the presence of inhibitors. Gene 4 encodes 𝛾PLI, acidic glycoproteins capable of inhibiting the wide variety of phospholipases.
• Gene 6: Glycoproteins α1β are proteins found in Herpestes ichneumon known as saccharomyces. These proteins can bind to the catalytic site of metalloproteases.

And, terminator (BBa_BOO1O).

This was the image presented in the case resolution:

The students in the winning group demonstrated great understanding of the problem presented and gave us back a clear and objective presentation of their receipts.

We concluded that not only the winning team, but all the rest of the participants were able to understand the main concepts of a biological circuit and genetic modification.

Synthetic Biology Club EEL-USP

Email: symb-lab@usp.br