Team:Virginia/AtP
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Human Practices
“The potential for synthetic biology and biotechnology is vast; we all have an opportunity to create the future TOGETHER.” - Ryan Bethencourt
Human Practices
CHAPTER 6: ADJUST THE PROEJCT
6A) Science Communication
Building Manifold, we realized we have the chance to revolutionize the world of biosynthesis and synthetic biology simply by sharing what we know. It is at the core of science to usher in innovation and advancement by teaching others what we learned so that they can build upon what we did with Manifold. Whether it is further advancements in the pharmaceutical industry or finding future applications in the food industry, we know that our platform technology is only one step away from helping others. The key is science communication. It is our job as the creators of Manifold to bridge the gap between synthetic biology and students that are able to utilize our technology. Hence, In our outreach and education, we wanted to inform, educate and raise awareness for synthetic biology, and inspire future iGEM Teams to pursue ambitious projects like Manifold. Learn more about our education and outreach in the Science Communication tab.
6B) Empathize with Patients
As the final act to our integrated human practices journey, we met with end-users again to update them on our project and ask for their feedback on Manifold’s new direction. Meeting with patients at the free clinic, we were ecstatic to meet familiar faces again and to have the opportunity to thank them for their input into improving Manifold’s design and implementation. But, through our earnest conversations with these patients, they sincerely thanked our team for remembering them. Throughout our project, our Team Values document constantly reaffirmed our team that we needed to build a project that was centered around helping patients. And, although this required redesigning our project and choosing the difficult decision of keeping Manifold as a not-for-profit product, we knew that this would inevitably translate to helping patient lives and pushing our world towards a more sustainable future. Our conversation with patients reminded us our purpose for building Manifold, and hopefully, we encourage the next group of synthetic biologists to realize that science is about helping people.
6C) A New Beginning
When our team first inherited Manifold, we wanted to engineer a synthetic biology platform that could drastically cut the chemical waste, pollution and inefficiencies of chemical synthesis with a sustainable replacement called biosynthesis. But from our journey through integrated human practices, our team uncovered more and more ways to not only improve our project design, but further pave the path towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future in chemical manufacturing: the discovery of inefficient chemical synthesis as the major contributor to drug shortages, chemical waste and pollution; the realization that modularity and standardization simplify chemical manufacturing, regulate product quality, limit pollution, and make biosynthesis industrially viable; the understanding that everyday people suffer the most from inefficient chemical manufacturing through high medication prices and drug inaccessibility. These discoveries and countless other ones shaped Manifold into becoming a more sustainable solution. Although integrated human practices eventually guided our team to bioreactor design and implementing Manifold into the real-world, we unfortunately could not complete all these work. The 2020 Virginia iGEM Team’s goal was centered around designing Manifold. Our team, the 2021 Virginia iGEM Team’s goal was centered around improving Manifold’s design and engineering a working proof-of-concept. Having accomplished these two goals, the future of Manifold laid in the next iGEM team to adopt this project. We encourage the next iGEM Team to finish the work of the 2021 Virginia iGEM Team by looking towards bioreactor design and implementing Manifold in to the chemical manufacturing industry.
The potential for synthetic biology and biotechnology is vast; we all have an opportunity to create the future together. – Ryan Bethencourt
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Chemistry Building
485 McCormick Rd
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA 22903
485 McCormick Rd
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA 22903
