The event
In June, the two students of our team who completed their Matura in Switzerland in 2019 contacted our former biology teachers to present the core concepts of synthetic biology and our project. In a 2-hour presentation, the students of an 11th grade biology class and a 12th grade biology focus class were exposed to the basics of synthetic biology and the iGEM competition. First, we had to introduce ourselves of course, and why we were speaking to them on that day. A general summary of what it means to participate in iGEM and how multi-faceted our tasks were. Then, we introduced the concept of synthetic biology, which sounds counterintuitive at first glance, but clears in meaning if we understand cells as very complex machines. After recapitulating the central dogma of molecular biology, the idea of Parts was introduced, and how one could, by combining these, create complex and responsive systems. The students were shown some applications of synthetic biology, including prominent examples like the carotin-containing golden rice and CAR T cells. The recent advances in tools like cheap DNA sequencing, that make synthetic biology as we know it today possible, were briefly touched on. We explained the engineering cycle and different ways to manipulate biological systems. As an example, we used something close to our own project: a cellular biosensor, where some transcription factor induces expression of some reporter. Then, we briefly covered lab techniques necessary to get from a design to a working sensor, including Oligonucleotide synthesis, PCR, Gibson assembly and transformation using antibiotic selection markers. After a break, the students got to apply their newfound knowledge on their own: We introduced a problem statement, and components of a biosensor solution derived from a real-life example. Just as the research group, the students were to find a way to couple detection of the toxic pesticide Parathion to an RFP reporter gene. They were supplied a list of possible parts and tasked to pick and place them in the correct order in a plasmid in pair work. At first, this seemed like an overwhelming task to many, but by guiding them individually with the right questions almost all of the students came to the right conclusions. We presented the solution of the research group and compared it to the student’s solutions. Nearing the end of the lecture, we presented the iGEM project we had been working on. We presented the function of ROS both in healthy immune response and in disease and showed our plasmid construct. We compared our solution to the one derived in the exercise to emphasize their similarity. We concluded by answering some burning questions of the students about the project and our studies at ETH.
What we learned
When going to a university, one can become so immersed in the subject matter that it becomes hard to grasp what students before their Matura graduation know and which concepts they lack. We had to remind ourselves that words like e.g. transcription factor, that have become second nature to us, must be recapitulated before moving on. Before the lecture, many students had never heard of synthetic biology and only parenthetically heard of its applications. Responding to the question, whether some of the students wanted to pursue a career related to synthetic biology, many reacted positively. By entering dialogue with the students, we could invite them to think about problem solving using synthetic biology and discuss important safety questions about GMOs that came up. All in all, both the class teachers and the students engaged with the lecture came up with interesting solutions for the exercise and posed important questions.