Community Outreach

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The first component of our education and outreach focused on the community at large. In order to target this group, we participated in the 2nd annual William & Mary science-based community open house, compiled a slideshow with educational SynBio information to show on a screen outside of our Bioengineering Lab, and created a fun board game centered around satellite-phage behavior in the gut microbiome.

→ Bioengineering Lab TV Display (Ongoing)

The Integrated Science Center (ISC) is an academic building at William & Mary that holds our largest lecture hall, hosts many public events, and is a major destination for our many tour groups. The ISC is also home to our iGEM Bioengineering Lab (BEL) on the first floor near the entrance. With considerable traffic passing by our lab each day - including dozens of groups touring campus -, the TV display in our window is an ideal location to introduce synthetic biology and our project to the general public and to our university community. It is a popular stopping point for those interested in learning more about our lab or Synbio in general. Our engaging, 24/7 slideshow highlights what synthetic biology is, why synthetic biology research is so important for developing global solutions, and opportunities to get involved in bioengineering research. Additionally, the slideshow introduces iGEM, what the competition is about, our past and present W&M iGEM projects, our outreach and IHP events, and our current team members. While working in the lab, it is a common sight to see people outside reading the slideshow at all hours of the day.

→ Sci-Fri: An Evening of Science for the Public (September 2024)

On September 13, 2024, William & Mary hosted their second annual Sci-Fri event. This event is a night of science, open to the entire Williamsburg community for all ages and academic backgrounds to enjoy. This event included liquid nitrogen ice cream, lab tours, and various hands-on activities run by a select group of labs within the college, including the W&M bioengineering lab, home to our iGEM team.

In order to make Sci-Fri as engaging and accessible for everyone, the W&M iGEM team simultaneously ran three different activities: 1) providing tours of the Bioengineering Lab, 2) explaining DNA circuits with the use of candy, and 3) performing DNA extractions with strawberries and bananas. As this event was two hours long, there was ample time for everyone to participate in as many activities as they wished, giving each person a unique and memorable experience within the lab.

While we take every opportunity to invite the community into the lab, the doors of the bioengineering lab (BEL) are usually closed while team members are hard at work; Sci-Fri offered a new view of the space to the community with doors wide open for all to enjoy. While giving tours of the space, the space became less of a mystery as people gained knowledge of the equipment and how it is used on a day to day basis. Because this event fell during a time where the team was still in the process of data collection, participants got to see firsthand how we sample our soil and ask as many questions as they could on data collection. While touring the lab, many of the undergraduate attendees showed interest in participating in research as a student, especially within the iGEM team.

Candy circuits were particularly popular with the younger scientists-in-training. We taught the components of each biological circuit (promoter, RBS, coding region, and terminator) and how these components contribute to the regulation of the desired gene product. To simplify these harder concepts, we used the analogy of a roller coaster: the promoters and RBS are the employees who start the ride, the coding religion is the particular rollercoaster, and the terminator is the end of the ride. Each person got to then choose candies to represent elements of their DNA circuits, with differing types of candy representing different relative strengths of the element. For example, promoters were represented with Hershey Kisses and the dark chocolate would represent a strong promoter while the rainbow kiss would represent a weak promoter. After choosing their candies, participants were asked to think about the strength of their overall DNA circuit and then, of course, enjoy their candy.

DNA extraction of fruit was a great, hands-on way to excite interest in the sciences. Participants got to choose two pieces of fruit, strawberries, bananas, or a combo of both and put it into a plastic bag. After mashing the fruit, adding DNA binding buffer, filtering the media, and adding ethanol, the DNA was then visible and able to be collected into microcentrifuge tubes. Many of the attendees were very eager to take home their very own DNA to show friends, teachers, and family members. These comments highlighted how impactful a simple activity can be and how that impact can spread to the larger network surrounding them. Attendees asked fantastic questions about the composition of DNA, what each ingredient was, and why they worked the way they did. This activity was also relatively popular with the undergrad students, providing a fun and interactive activity to do with groups of friends.

With an estimated 300 people in attendance, there was something for everyone, whether it be the hands-on science of DNA extraction, building foundational knowledge of DNA circuits, or the more inquisitive Q&A sessions during the lab tours. Overall, the night was a big hit with the community and will continue to make an impact for years to come.

→ Educational Board Game (Ongoing)

One of the most effective learning methods is through engaging, fun activities. Thus, we designed a board game meant to help educate players on the incredible capabilities of satellite phage in a comprehensive and exciting game. Our game, Gut Busters, seeks to help players better understand the properties of satellite phage by allowing players to play satellite/helper phage pairs alongside trait cards to progress their bacteria game piece to the end of the gut-themed board.

Gut Busters came from the idea that satellite phages have a large diversity of genetic traits that can be optimized to help (or harm) bacteria within the gut microbiome. Thus, we developed a game where each player becomes a bacteria seeking to use satellites and helper phages to aid themselves and hurt other players in order to become the dominant species in the gut. We sought to not only make the cards visually appealing but also to have them reflect actual Satellite/Helper phage pairs. In the spirit of our project, we chose to intertwine this game into our other deliverables, specifically our satellite database. In selecting the Satellite/Helper phage pairs, we utilized our satellite database to find phage combinations that reflected a broad scope of satellite phage families.

Also in line with the interconnectedness of our project, we decided to model the board after the human gut because of its large presence in our project via the model colon system we built.

In order to test the “playability” of Gut Busters and gauge opinions, we asked multiple people to play this game, including professionals, undergraduate students, and members of the William & Mary Tabletop Games Club.

Middle & High School Students

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The next component of our education efforts extended to students at the middle and high school levels. To excite and educate this next generation of scientists on SynBio, we led a gel electrophoresis education event with local high school students, hosted the BLAST camp education program for early high schoolers in partnership with the William & Mary Physics Department, and mentored a high school senior in novel phage satellite screening and characterization.

→ Jamestown High School: Lessons in Gel Electrophoresis and Synthetic Biology (March 2024)

William & Mary’s 2024 iGEM team was able to welcome back AP biology students from Jamestown High School to teach them about the field of synthetic biology. Our team works closely with Jamestown High School, particularly the Biology teacher Ms. Elton. After a brief introduction, members from the 2023 iGEM team presented their project as well as results from the previous year. Following, the 2024 team introduced our current project and explained concepts such as phages, phage satellites, satellite phage diversity, and how we could harness satellites for real-world applications.

Afterwards, we instructed all of the students on how to run a gel electrophoresis and explained the relevance of this procedure within the lab to verify results of an engineering experiment. Each student was instructed on how to operate a pipette and got an opportunity to load a sample into the well of their prepared gel. The DNA samples were either pSUM8 or pSUM9, plasmids engineered by the W&M 2023 iGEM team. Each plasmid was identical, with the exception of the RBS sequence. There were 4 PvuII cut sites on each plasmid, leading to 4 fragments, thus the digest would result in 3 segments remaining the same length between the two plasmids and 1 variable segment depending on the RBS sequence used. pSUM9 had a smaller RBS that would lead to a fragment being 1363 bp, while pSUM8 has a slightly larger RBS that would lead to a fragment being 1547 bp, leading to different band patterns on the gel.

While the gels ran, we continued our discussion about iGEM and satellite phages, as well as answered any questions they had about synthetic biology, undergraduate research, etc. The students, who previously had not heard of satellite phages, had excellent questions about what we could do with satellites and their future applications in the real world such as, “Could the satellites infect us? Could you add antibiotic resistance genes to the satellites? Where are satellites and phages found in the environment?”

Once the students left, the results of the gel were sent to the students via email. The students were extremely excited to receive real data and analyze the results of plasmid used for synthetic biology. Many reported that they were now potentially interested in pursuing molecular biology as a career option.

→ Building Leaders for Advancing Science and Technology (BLAST) Program (June 2024)

As part of the Building Leaders for Advancing Science and Technology (BLAST) program run by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, our team hosted 80 students who participated in bioengineering hands-on activities! The BLAST program is completely free of cost and gives rising high-schoolers from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sciences and without previous experience the opportunity to explore STEM fields.

We hosted 4 three-hour sessions in which students (1) collected soil samples and plated diluted samples to screen for bacteria present in the soil, (2) visualized soil samples under a microscope, (3) performed a plaque assay to screen for novel satellite phage in bacteria-enriched soil samples, (4) performed a gram stain on samples of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and visualized the results under a microscope with oil immersion, (5) extracted DNA from various fruits and vegetables to visualize the ‘building blocks of life’ and compare DNA yields, (6) built their own SynBio circuits from candy ‘parts’, and (7) toured our SynBio lab spaces and attended a career talk given by Dr. Saha and other professors here at William & Mary

We talked to the students about the focus of our project this year and how their experiments were directly relevant to finding novel satellite phages in the soil and understanding their behavior in natural environments. In fact, results from students’ experiments helped justify the continuation of the satellite screening portion of our project showing that bacteria, phage, and phage satellites are present all around our campus. Overall, our sessions on SynBio were the second favorite among students with 60 students listing it as “a favorite” or “liked it” in the post event survey conducted by the William & Mary Physics department. In fact, the team had many requests from participating students to conduct internships next summer in our bioengineering lab. A few representative quotes include:

→ Mentoring High School Students: Internship with Tania (June 2024)

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Last year's iGEM team had the opportunity to mentor Tania Arora, a local high school student eager to learn about synthetic biology and bioengineering. After learning about soil synthetic biology, she was eager to return again this season for another summer internship to learn even more about synthetic biology. For several weeks during the summer, we mentored Tania and she conducted collegiate-level research, screening for novel satellite phages in soil samples using the modified protocols we created for satellite specific screening. She mastered both wet lab techniques and bioinformatics, including how to differentiate satellite phages from helper phages and how to analyze sequences using computational tools. We also introduced Tania to many of the potential applications of these viruses and policy issues. In addition, she shadowed and participated in foundational techniques used in bioengineering, such as Gibson assembly, transformations, gel electrophoresis, and minipreps of plasmid DNA. Tania reported a wonderful summer and will spread her knowledge and experience by reporting back to her class this semester and introducing them to the field of synthetic biology. Tania is a senior and is currently applying to matriculate at a university this fall and major in biology! Clearly, this internship was impactful for both Tania and the iGEM team.

Current and Future SynBio Practitioners

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The third, and final, level of our education and outreach extended to SynBio practitioners, current and future. To motivate these individuals to learn more about SynBio, we presented at a Biology conference at Harvard University, hosted a workshop and gave a presentation at William & Mary’s annual Hackathon, and compiled an extensive guidebook on all things satellite phage.

→ Harvard OpenBio (April 2024)

As part of Harvard OpenBio’s 2024 future of biology conference William and Mary iGEM was an eager participant in this valuable and exciting conference. Our team presented a virtual workshop on genome scale metabolic models (GEMs) which are potentially very useful in synthetic biology. We outlined the mathematical basis of GEMs, including a primer on linear programing and constraint-based modeling approaches. We then discussed both early and contemporary iterations and applications of constraint-based metabolic models, including WM iGEM 2023’s model of M. smegmatis metabolism, as well as a number of other uses of GEMs in recent literature we found to be interesting and useful. Finally we provided recommendations for a number of open source software tools for formulating and analyzing GEMs. Attendees included high school and undergraduate students, as well as educators, from a number of institutions in Asia and the Americas.

→ TribeHacks IX (April 2024)

For William and Mary’s ninth annual hackathon, “TribeHacks IX”, our team hosted a workshop with the goal of fostering interest in synthetic biology applications within the broader community of students, particularly those interested in creative computer science and coding. Our presentation was titled “Learn Machine Learning for Biology Research,” providing a basic overview of SynBio concepts as well as current uses of machine learning in synthetic biology, including core programs like AlphaFold. Following this, we led an interactive workshop that, using a partially filled-out Jupyter notebook, simulated the process of building good datasets, model training, and validation, all while using identification of prophage integrases as an example to further demonstrate the relevance of interdisciplinary research and connect to our overall project.

During the workshop, we also discussed the basis of our project, and how we plan to use these exact tools and methods in the development of our two software tools.

Educational Materials

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The third, and final, level of our education and outreach extended to SynBio practitioners, current and future. To motivate these individuals to learn more about SynBio, we presented at a Biology conference at Harvard University, hosted a workshop and gave a presentation at William & Mary’s annual Hackathon, and compiled an extensive guidebook on all things satellite phage.

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For BLAST Camp materials Click Here!

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For Gut Busters materials Click Here!

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For Satellite Guidebook Click Here!