A major part of the human practices aspect of our project was visiting the wastewater treatment plant that serves the University of Connecticut. As a team, we set up a tour of the wastewater facility and had the chance to see different aspects of the water treatment process from entrance to effluent. Seeing the various steps, we better understood where to target our genetically-engineered bacteria and areas in the process that can be utilized as solar killswitch or inactivation points. A future design consideration for our plasmid was incorporation of a gene that ensures inactivation of the engineered bacteria under ultraviolet light and prevents its release into the environment in the final water effluent.
Team Discussions
As a university club, we teach our new members who are interested in synthetic biology about the current project, the iGEM process, and the meaning of human practices. We held a discussion with new members about the ethical considerations we made while creating Estro. We asked them who Estro effects, who they would go to for feedback about the project, what potential obstacles there are, and how they would approach those barriers. The purpose of this group communication was to emphasize the overall responsibility required to engage in synthetic biology. This was held so that the next generation of UConn iGEM can responsibly create their next project, make conscientious decisions, and remember to keep human practices in the forefront of their design.
