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principles and practices

CLASS ASSIGNMENT

THEORETICAL HOMEWORK

Introduction

Ethics, safety and security are essential considerations throughout (and beyond!) this class. We have therefore designed an assignment this week to give you a strong foundation, and then will ask you to reflect each week and in the design of your final project. You can find suggestions for completing your assignments in this document and examples from previous classes below. As you are setting up your lab lab/space to grow (almost) anything, including for projects you are considering undertaking through the course, please answer the following questions on your class page. We also strongly suggest that you use these questions to create or update a guide for your lab.

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1. Risk/Safety Level: What is the Safety Level of Your Lab (e.g. BSL1, BSL2, other)? Do you have different spaces with different safety levels? If so, describe which activities are done in different spaces. Include a picture of your lab. For help on safety and risk levels see the iGEM Risk Group Page

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The safety level of the EMW Street Bio lab is BSL1. In this lab, it is allowed to use biological agents that are not associated with disease in healthy adults, e.g. bacillus subtilis, E.coli K-12 and saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast). 

2. Work Area: Which work areas do you use for handling biological materials? (e.g open benches, biosafety cabinet, fume hoods etc)? Include a picture of your work spaces.

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In our lab, we use open benches for handling biological materials. We also have a fume hood. Other safety measures are: tabletop hazardous waste bins, sharps container.

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3. Training: Have you received, or will you receive, any ethics and/or safety training? Who provides this training? Briefly describe any topics covered.

 

We received a lab specific training at EMW, given by Shannon Johnson, research assistant in the Synthetic Neurobiology group at the MIT Media Lab. Besides that, I received formal biosafety training and Chemical Hygiene at MIT and Harvard, in which we learned to dispose chemical hazards and sharps, and what to do when there are spills or other emergencies. 

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4. Rules and Regulations: Which laws and regulations (locally, nationally and internationally) apply to your lab? Include links to any oversight institutions/organizations and policies, and describe which specific rules are pertinent to your lab and project and why.

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Existing regulations for the use of recombinant DNA techniques to create genetically modified organisms (GMOs) vary between different countries or federal states (in the USA for example). Usually one needs to obtain a license for being able to conduct such manipulations but legislation is absolutely not adapted for proposing amateur-specific licenses. Access to raw genetic material such as BioBricks and chemicals such as pure ethanol (one of the key solvents in biology) is still prohibited to amateurs at the present day (Landrain et al, 2013). 

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Lab safety is regulated by numerous organizations, including the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). For universities, OSHA requires a Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP), that describes procedures, equipment and practices to help reduce risk. The Globally Harmonized System (GHS) is an international system of pictograms to communicate chemical hazards. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) diamond is another classification system for chemicals. A Safety Data Sheet (SDS) provides hazard information disclosed by the manufacturer of the material. Each lab needs to have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that describes potential hazards, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) requirements, precautions and emergency procedures. This guide can be used to separate chemicals by compatibility group and store them safely. Chemical hazardous waste should be collected at a Satellite Accumulation Area (SAA) for disposal by a licensed disposal company. All waste containers need to be labeled correctly, sharps containers are specifically for disposal of needles, etc. It is important to wear the right gloves for the right purpose. There should also be a spill kit in the lab for cleaning up minor spills. In regular bio labs, Biosafety Cabinets (BSCs) must be tested and certified by a professional once a year to ensure it is working properly. This is indicated on the sticker. With second-hand BSCs: what are the rules? The type of BSC is also important, because open flames, or toxic or highly flammable chemicals can not be used in a biosafety cabinet that recirculates air through the room. 

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5. Organization and Practices: How do you enforce these rules? Who is responsible for ensuring safety in you lab/space? What happens when safety issues are raised?

 

At this moment, there is not a full-time general lab manager. Everyone in the team is either working or still in school and we share this responsibility on a voluntary basis. We have weekly Street Bio meetings on Sunday afternoon and when safety issues are raised, we take collective action. Everyone is also very responsive through email and most of the time, someone with experience supervises the experiments. 

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As the EMW Street Bio community keeps on growing and the experimental part of HTGAA becomes an integral part of the course, it might be time to hire one person who is responsible for supervising the lab. For example, in the makerspace at Harvard, there is always a group of supervisors for each lab (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer lab, microbiology lab, cell culture lab, environmental engineering lab, etc.). To reduce risks during after-hours, they introduced a buddy system. You always have to be with at least one more person if you want to work past 6-7 pm. It would be a good idea to introduce this in our lab too. 

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6. Uncertainties: Are there any areas where you are uncertain about how to apply these rules, and whether they are relevant to your lab and/or work?

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A point of uncertainty is the evaluation of the DIY equipment. The hardware can be error-prone, and does not always work. How to determine whether the DIY hardware complies to standards? And to what standards and codes do they have to comply? For example, the National Electrical Code (NEC) prescribes standards for electronic installations in buildings, ASTM has standards for electronics, IEEE for electronic products. None of those organizations describe standards for hardware used in biology labs. 

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7. Getting Help: Who can you work with to resolve any problems or uncertainties (both to figure out how you can adhere to standards and update them if needed)? How difficult are they to contact?

 

The core team at EMW is small and approachable, which means that for questions we can always reach out to someone at any time. If we have questions or uncertainties about a protocol we can directly reach out to the faculty of that week's class. 

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8. Beyond the Rules: Are there activities in your lab/project which you think may have ethical, safety or security concerns that are not fully covered by current rules and standards? If so, please briefly describe them.

 

The main uncertainty that has to be sorted out is the disposal of waste. Currently, there is no enclosed waste container, we dispose the waste in regular, open trash bins. We should get one of those large cardboard containers and arrange that a company picks up the waste during the HTGAA season. Secondly, the sink is often clogged with random, unknown materials. Access to and use of the lab is not monitored, so we don't know who is responsible for this. Lastly, it is not clear to me if it is allowed to dispose and transport chemicals and biological materials in a residential/commercial area. We don't have a -80 freezer, so part of the experiments will be done at MIT. This means we have to carry biological reagents through Cambridge. 

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9. Other Information: Is there anything else we should know about your lab?

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Our lab is located in the basement of EMW Bookstore, a community space and resource for peoples from marginalized identities. Because we share the building, it is important to have respect for each other.

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BONUS: Designing for Safety and Ethics: Do you think the design of current regulations is sufficient to ensure safe and ethical practices? If not, how else could you approach the design? We’re interested in your ideas for strategies that could be used to promote safe and ethical practices as it becomes easier to grow almost anything (i.e. monitoring people or information, building safety into the design of equipment, etc). Can you think of any useful examples from other fields?

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Personally, I found the online biosafety trainings at Harvard and MIT extremely helpful. Perhaps it is possible to develop a centralized training portal specifically oriented towards distributed labs, which includes features that are particularly helpful for this community. For example, this can function as a platform to exchange tips and tricks. If you take this idea further, labs can use it to place larger orders together and get collective discount on PPE, reagents, and equipment to lower the overall costs. Launching this platform in an app could also be useful, for on-demand support when you have any lab related questions. To ensure this platform brings value to our entire community, one that is extremely diverse in its interests, cultural backgrounds, and geographical distribution, I think it is important to develop this ‘horizontally’, thus bottom-up to let everyone voice their ideas and intentions. An example is how we organized the Global Community Bio Summit at MIT. This was such an amazing experience because the global community was closely involved with the organization by means of weekly Skype sessions. We really did this together and that creates a feeling of agency, engagement, and support. I imagine a communal bio-safety platform like this to be as lively as the Bio Summit.

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Useful resources

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Every Week Thereafter

In a seperate section on your week 1 class page, answer the following question after each week's class:

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Do your activities this week raise new ethics and/or safety considerations you had not considered in week 1? Describe what activities have raised these considerations and any changes you have implemented in response.

bio design

Ethics and safety considerations of genetic modification are widely debated, and with good reason. This technology enables us to alter the DNA of organisms, plants, and humans, therefore it has large implications on the evolution of society and ecosystems. In my opinion, the ethical framework depends on the application of the technology, the intention behind it and the degree in which negative externalities are taken into consideration. 

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Professor George Church from the Harvard Medical School is a leading researcher in genetics. His team works on bringing back the woolly mammoth, by adding its genetic traits to the genome of an Asian elephant. The first response that arises, is why would you resurrect an animal that went extinct 4.000 years ago? Church's motivation is twofold: securing an alternative future for the endangered Asian elephant and to combat climate change by letting woolly mammoths occupy the tundra, thereby lowering the surface temperature and slowing down the ice melting process. Touching upon the second argument; global warming results in a reduced albedo effect, the capacity of a surface to reflect incoming rays of light back into space. According to Church, large animals such as woolly mammoths are heavy enough to knock down trees and "keep the tundra from thawing by punching through snow and allowing cold air to come in." This brave endeavor has good intentions but rises many ethical questions and has received criticism from various perspectives. Personally, I believe Church is well aware of the negative externalities and takes responsibility in addressing them. Yet it remains a complex debate. This assignment triggers a curiosity to learn more about ethical frameworks for synthetic biology, to develop a more substantiated argument in the future. 

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For the lab part of this week's homework, we made specific cuts in DNA and visualized this using a blue-LED transilluminator. This was a relatively straightforward process. After this assignment we disposed the reagents correctly. 

next generation synthesis

Because there is not a -80 fridge in the wet lab at EMW, we had to do part of this experimental homework at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. This brings up the issue of transporting biological materials from one location to another. The solution would be to get a -80 in the community space. 

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It is important to consider the ethical aspects of this technology. In a Q&A session with Drew Endy, George Church, and David Baker in 2013, next generation synthesis is defined as the ability to construct DNA from scratch with the possibility to insert it into an organism to see how it functions. It delivers highly accurate constructs at significantly lower prices and in far greater numbers than has been possible to date. The two application areas are pathway engineering and genome engineering. In 2017, their company Gen9 was acquired by Ginkgo Bioworks. According to a venture capitalist, one of the investors, the knowledge of what to do with cheaper and cheaper genes is not there yet. Democratizing this technology in a context of ethical awareness can help in expanding the use of next generation synthesis for good purposes, such as therapeutics or energy production. Particularly the DIY bio community continues to advocate for a collective responsibility of scientists, governments and individuals to prevent misuse of a technology like this. 

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bio production

Three questions around biosafety and ethics brought up by Patrick Boyle, are: 

  1. Is my chassis strain safe to work with? 

  2. Is any component of the pathway unsafe to work with in the lab? 

  3. What are the economic and environmental impacts of this work?

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The chassis strain is E. coli, which is an organism used in BSL1 labs and is safe to work with. The components of the pathways, lycopene and beta-carotene, are commonly used pigments used in food applications and generally safe to work with. Lycopene (health hazard 0) is chemically a carotene, but it has no vitamin A activity. The reagent is not thought to produce acute adverse health effects or skin irritation. Results in experiments suggest though, that this material may cause disorders in the development of the embryo or fetus, even when no signs of poisoning show in the mother. The MSDS for beta-carotene (health hazard 1) describes that it is not expected to be irritating to skin, it may cause eye irritation by mechanical action, and for ingestion there is a low hazard for usual industrial handling. 

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The third question addresses the consequences of microbial pigment production on the environment and economy. This review from 2014 describes how microbial pigments have environmental advantages over synthetic pigments, because of their non-toxicity and additional anti-carcinogenic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. The environmental benefits result in high marketability, and global sales of microbial pigments are rising significantly. In 2011, an annual growth of more than 7% was depicted.

This paper from 2017 cites global industry analysts, stating that the demand for organic pigments and dyes is expected to reach almost 10 million tons by 2017. Thus, the economic and environmental impacts of this work are significant. Patrick Boyle noted that not all metabolic pathways yield a sustainable process. Make sure you're aware of this while choosing a pathway. 

biomolecule sensors

The protein modeling assignment for Biomolecule Sensors is performed in silico, which means computationally. The accuracy of those models increases with the number of simulations you make. Gupta et al. wrote an article about the possibilities and limitations of in silico protein modeling. A critical point is that "the computational models often represent only fractions of the full-length of desired protein leaving behind the unresolved questions in template-based modeling to combine information from multiple templates, viz., different structural domains, into larger complex assemblies." Indeed, it is much faster to simulate protein folding than setting up laboratory experiments, but algorithms that average out data can lead to misrepresentation of the results.

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Because my computer doesn't have enough power to run hundreds or thousands of simulations, the predicted result of the protein structure was not representative of the 'native' protein structure. In this assignment, luckily the objective is a known molecule which makes it possible to compare the results to. In scientific research, the structure of the molecule is often not known. This makes it important to have a critical view towards the simulated results, and always question the assumptions. 

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synthetic minimal cells

After this lecture, I had many questions regarding the ethics and biosafety of engineering synthetic minimal cells. For example, is it possible for a minimal cell to reproduce? And if this cell reproduces, does it does it evolve? What is the impact on ecology and ecosystems when an organism is (accidentally) released in the environment or our bodies?

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The paper 'Engineering and ethical perspectives in synthetic biology' provides a framework and resources for answering these questions. It confirms that one of the most challenging aspects of synthetic biology is the engineering of evolution. One way to address this issue is by the design an external feedback loop, such that the organism cannot be sustained without an external control signal: a given nutrient or a light source. This makes the synthetic circuit controllable, because the organism will not survive in the absence of this control signal. Nevertheless, this is not a flawless safety system. Our ability to predict evolution and adaptation of synthetic organisms is limited. A second reference that addresses the above questions is the publication Synthetic Biology: social and ethical issues from the Synbiosafe project, funded by the European Commission. According to the authors, the five main concerns of synbio are: uncontrolled release of novel genetically modified organisms (GMO's) in the environment, bioterrorism, patenting and the creation of monopolies that prevent widespread use, a greater discrepancy of wealth and health between rich and poor nations (addressing global injustice) and creating artificial life. Key recommendation is that scientists should debate the implications of their research and engage with broader society around the issues raised by synthetic biology. The BioBricks Foundation is an example of an initiative that facilitates open scientific research. 

gut microbiome

Initially, the assignment was to take a swab of the bacteria on the top of our hands and culture this on a plate. At the time of this assignment I had a local skin rash on one hand. After seeing the results on a plate, I brought up the issue that it might not be a good idea to grow and sequence bacteria harnessed from the skin, as they might be harmful. In response, the instructors changed the assignment. We started over with the experiment and used fermented foods like kombucha, yogurt and cheese. 

Silk is a non-toxic, bio-compatible naturally derived material, which can be used for high-technological applications. The processing requires low energy and has little environmental impact. One thing that bothers me is step two of the protocol: "cut cocoons with titanium scissors into dime-sized pieces and dispose of silkworms." How did those silk worms live and die? A quick online search reveals numerous terrifying stories whereas in scientific literature little papers are written about the ethics of silk production. The search term 'silkworms ethics' yields zero studies in the first 10 pages of the Google Scholar database, that directly evaluate the ethical consequences of silkworm production. The focus of the papers is mostly on improving silk production efficiency and reproduction of silk worms, or about bioethics and animal welfare in general. 

The paper "Animal welfare and use of silkworm as a model animal" seems promising, but further evaluation shows that the objective is to use invertebrate animals instead of vertebrate animals for drug development experiments to get around animal welfare policies and acts. 

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In terms of safety measures for the experimental part of this assignment, precautions should be taken when working with the chemical lithium bromide, that is needed for the dialyzing process. The MSDS data sheet lists lithium bromide as health hazard level 2. The reagent is harmful to the body when absorbed through the skin, with eye contact, inhalation and ingestion. The MSDS data sheet of sodium carbonate, another reagent used in this assignment, is also categorized as health hazard 2 and has low reactivity. The personal protection equipment (PPE) for both chemicals should include gloves, splash goggles, a lab coat and dust respirator. During this assignment, we didn't use a respirator and goggles. If this is important, the faculty could send out a reminder to students in the upcoming HTGAA cycle. 

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3D bioprinting

synthetic development biology

Epibone found a way to grow bones from a patient's own stem cells. This allows for better integration of bone implants, less chance of an immune rejection and the potential of the implant to continue growing and remodeling to meet the body's needs. The authors of Ethical Issues in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Tissue Engineering describe that the use of adult stem cell research is broadly acceptable to the population. Still there are widely unresolved ethical, legal, religious and policy questions, representing viewpoints that vary per country. Aside from the discussion whether or not we should use stem cells for tissue engineering, how can we ensure an equitable distribution of this technology? I cite: "Several ethicists have argued that genes and genetically modified organisms should be considered part of the common heritage of all people." In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that ‘Genetic services for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease should be available to all, without regard to ability to pay, and should be provided first to those whose needs are greatest.' Reducing the costs of a product that is custom made is challenging, because the production process can only be standardized to a certain degree. I would love to see if and how Epibone is planning to address this challenge. 

imaging 1: fisseq & expansion microscopy

​Some reagents used in this experiment, such as acrylamide, are hazardous in case of skin contact (permeator), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation, and are also known carcinogens. We've read and followed the acrylamide MSDS (health hazard level 2), used PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), and did the experiment under our fume hood. Still I don't feel comfortable working with those materials, also because they have a negative impact on the environment. 

 

The penetrating smell of N,N,N′,N′-Tetramethylethylenediamine (displayed in the picture on the left) caused headaches, which is bothering to me. The MSDS shows that it is even worse for your health than acrylamide (health hazard level 3). For next year's HTGAA, I would recommend to rethink this assignment and see if it is possible to use cheaper and less toxic reagents.  

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imaging 2: dna paint

In the Q&A after the lecture of William Shih, he mentioned that at the moment, the ethical implications and safety issues of DNA origami are not so much of an issue. The main reason is because the technological development is still in its infancy, and not advanced enough to scale up to real applications. However, this recently published Nature article (December 2017) features papers about DNA self-assembly that explain that it now is possible to overcome the problems of size and quantity, and scale up the technology. "The papers offer solutions for long-standing challenges in the field of biomolecular engineering, providing low-cost methods for fabricating self-assembled structures from smaller building blocks, at sizes that can be integrated into objects made using complementary ‘top-down’ techniques (those that carve structures out of bulk material). Furthermore, the reported DNA structures are large enough to enable the production of devices that interact with cells for therapeutic applications, or to make sophisticated molecular machines and assembly lines that make synthetic polymers or program cell–cell interactions. Such self-assembled structures might even be used in synthetic organelles to create systems that sense, monitor and regulate biological processes in living cells." This brings up bio-ethical issues described in the paper cited in the Synthetic Minimal Cells section. 

gene drives

The preprint assigned for the theoretical assignment of this week already made us think about ethics, safety aspects, and community engagement. Some additional resources are presented here. The first is another publication of Esvelt, Church and others, which goes deeper into the technical details of safeguards, control and reversibility strategies, along with release precautions and notes on the interaction with the public, transparency and evaluation. Their recommendation on whether or not a gene drive should be utilized for a specific purpose, is that each situation should be evaluated separately. To allow for an independent assessment, scientists are responsible to share empirical data and predictive models to the public to weigh the opportunities and risks. The second article is a high-level overview of political decision making process around gene drives, written by Sam Weiss Evans and Megan Palmer. They offer a broad set of anomaly handling strategies with as main question: "Are gene drives anomalies within the current regulatory system, and if so, what should be done about them?" The third is a publication which gives an ethical framework for the use of gene drives specifically. Six focus areas are defined as (1) standard research ethics; (2) identification and interpretation of risk; (3) fiduciary responsibility; (4) democratizing technology; (5) epistemology and power and (6) procedural ethics. Particularly the section about epistemology provides an interesting new standpoint. Male dominance in science, exclusion of racial groups and privileged socioeconomic norms systematically leads to areas of ignorance that can produce lacunae in both knowledge and in research procedure. Awareness of this issue can be improved by bringing in underrepresented perspectives. Sculpting Evolution is in itself a diverse group, and they closely collaborate with the public, for example in town hall meetings, to make sure all perspectives are represented. The last resource is from the Australian Academy of Science. They recently published a discussion paper on the potential uses of gene drives in Australia. The technology is proposed as an alternative strategy in solving problems around mosquito-borne diseases, invasive plant and animal species and the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture. The paper presents an overview of potential site-specific hazards and challenges, social and economic dimensions, mitigation strategies, and the current regulatory status. They arrive at roughly the same recommendations. Clear and transparent communication is key, and the intended and potentially unintended consequences should be tested in contained laboratory settings. The decision making process should be based on a case-by-case comprehensive environmental risk assessment that includes ecological and evolutionary modelling. 

genome engineering

As expected, most ethical debates about genome engineering center around applications in human reproduction. This is out of scope for our HTGAA assignment, because we focus on using biochemical pathways to fix carbon from CO2, and strategies to minimize the genome of a bacteria and a yeast. If you're interested in genome editing of human DNA, the National Human Genome Research Institute provides specific information about ethical concerns. While the benefits of reducing an organism's genome for large scale production of biofuels are obvious, my main reservation is as follows. When you remove 'junk' DNA from any organism, what functions are removed? The scientific name is satellite DNA, representing the part of the genome that does not encode proteins. Scientists still do not comprehend its function. But does that mean we can get rid of it? The University of Michigan had the same question. They used a common model organism, the fruit fly, and mouse cells to study the function of these long, repetitive satellite sequences. It turns out that satellite DNA plays a crucial role in holding the genome together. Without it, they observed chromosomal instability in the form of micro-nuclei formation, DNA damage and cell death. Looping this back to the use of a minimal bacterial genome for large-scale fuel production or biomedical applications, it should be taken into consideration that the organism can be more vulnerable. A final resource in this evaluation is about the ethical challenges of synthetic biology for energy production, in which scientists have to balance their curiosity-driven intrinsic motivation to work with bacteria with policy-driven motivations for extrinsic economic gains. This article presents the results of ethnographic research with synthetic biologists in the UK. The basic conflict in the new biopolitical landscape is between power and responsibility, "between individual agents assuming responsibility and collective policy bodies and larger structures imposing responsibility". Deplazes et al. are cited because they identified three potential types of ethical issues related to synthetic biology: “method-related” (ethical questions relating to the ‘moral status’ of the products of synthetic biology); “application-related” (ethical considerations about the potential impacts of future synthetic biology applications); and “distribution-related” (ensuring synthetic biology products are delivered where needed most). The British authors conclude that tensions associated with engineering bacteria are illustrative of the complex interplay between agency, structure and power in the context of the politics of energy - also referred to as 'energopolitics'. At the moment, I do not have enough knowledge to propose a solution, but it certainly sparked my interest to learn more about ways to deal with these issues. 

FINAL PROJECT

Find a creative way to reflect on the following questions through the design and implementation of your final project: Is your project safe, responsible and good for the world?

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The intention to work with biology to create non-toxic, biodegradable and carbon neutral building materials inherently contemplates the ambition to bring safe, responsible and good projects into the world. Nevertheless, an intention alone is not enough. To give a proper answer to this question, the definition of 'safe', 'responsible' and 'good' should be explained for each of the potential uses and applications, and benchmarked against existing solutions to determine its value and economic viability. In addition, whether the biological building material is inert or still alive when installed - or grown - will result in a different discussion. Mapping out the potential risks is the second step. In Realizing the potential of synthetic biology, Christina D. Smolke comments on the ethical and regulatory concerns of bringing synthetic biology outside the lab. "If the organism is to be used outside of a contained environment (such as an enclosed bioreactor), then potential effects on the environment and existing ecosystems should be addressed, as well as related issues such as evolution, adaptation, containment and removal. Part of the challenge for the field is being able to design in accordance with quantitative design, performance specifications and tolerance." Besides addressing these technical and design aspects, emphasis should also be on engagement with the public, e.g. by means of a participatory design process. This brings us to the third step, which includes the identification of stakeholders and their interests. In this context, stakeholders are defined as everyone who will benefit from or is affected by this material. Community engagement is crucial for the implementation of such technology, to ensure equitable and broad participation. Introducing biotechnology into the field of architecture requires architects, structural engineers and (sub)contractors to adapt and develop new standards and procedures. Secondly, low-cost hardware for biotechnology has the premise to enable people to grow their own (building) materials. This does not only change the way we make buildings, but also has the potential to drastically change dynamics of power and responsibility. To summarize, the design and implementation of synthetic biology for architectural applications includes a clear definition of shared moral values in collaboration with stakeholders, bench-marking to compare the material to existing solutions and mapping out risks carefully. Transparency is key. 

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Beyond This Class: How can you help prepare yourself, and the world, for many more people being able to grow (almost) anything?

 

Spreading the word about DIY bio, HTGAA and the free online course from Synthetic Biology One is a first step in creating more awareness about synthetic biology. At the MIT Media Lab, we organize an annual Global Community Bio Summit which brings together biohackers from all over the world. Our goal is to create a platform for individuals and open-source biotech labs, and build an infrastructure for this movement to enable broader participation, better sharing, and teaching. In addition, during this HTGAA cycle I gave two Dutch undergraduate students the opportunity to join the team in Cambridge (MA) and participate in the course. This internship was arranged in collaboration with a non-profit in the northern Netherlands. On a personal level, exposure to the topics in HTGAA inspired me to deepen some of the skills I've learned here. During the next two years at MIT, I am planning to take courses in synthetic biology with the intention to work on sustainable, bio-based materials. I really enjoy teaching, so I am excited to share my findings and experiences with the rest of the world. 

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