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Team:Consort Alberta/humanpract
From 2013hs.igem.org
In order to educate our community about our project and the benefits of synthetic biology, we started out by talking to our local businesses. Our first objective was to introduce the idea of non-toxic E. coli bacteria, and the benefits of genetic engineering. Every business owner expressed a vested interest in the possibilities of genetic engineering, especially when we revealed our project idea of measuring the amounts of xylene that had escaped into the soil around lease land, and was brought up into plants through root systems. One of our local businesses involved in the oil industry (3-Star) was especially interested, and was the first to be interviewed on their opinions on the matter of using synthetic biology to identify hydrocarbon contamination. Though the business’s representatives hadn’t heard a lot about the new field of synthetic biology, they agreed that it is an extremely useful science and has endless applications in improving the oilfield. Not only did we talk to local people, we also interviewed an oilfield remediation specialist in Calgary for a better idea of just how important avoiding environmental contamination really is.
Consort is a community built on a firm foundation of oil and agriculture. Sometimes, our oil industry will overlap with the agriculture industry in the form of lease lands and oil extraction. A lease land is an area of land the oil company rents from a farmer in order to access the oil resources deep in the earth. This means that the sites of oil extraction are in extremely close proximity to the food we all end up buying in the grocery store. With benzene and benzene derivatives being unhealthy for our cattle, crops and consumers, ranchers have become wary about allowing oil leases in their pastures for fear that the beef we all buy for consumption at the supermarket could potentially contain contaminants. Detecting the hydrocarbons will be our first step to identifying the extent of problems resulting from inadvertent oil spills and if there are dangerous hydrocarbons contaminating an area - oil spills vary in regard to dangerous content. There is a correlative relationship between the amount of xylene and the amount of benzene present in an area, so we have created the plans for E. coli bacteria to measure the amount of xylene and therefore indirectly the amount of benzene. This class of compounds (benzene and benzene derivatives) is able to intercalate into DNA, causing mutations, and is carcinogenic as a result. With dangerous hydrocarbons being so close to our cattle and crops - our main food supply - it becomes a safety consideration for both farmers and oil industry workers to take into account. By introducing the idea of E. coli xylene detectors we have found a cost effective and efficient potential safety method for the wellbeing of businesses and consumers alike.
As our community is built on a foundation of oil and agriculture, we felt this was the best way to support our town, and our local businesses associated with these industries agreed wholeheartedly. Mid-June, we invited community members to join us in the lab so we could show them what we had been up to and to practice presenting. Although it was only our first time presenting, the feedback was positive and encouraging, and our village representatives offered constructive criticism that helped us build on what we had so far to better represent our remote community. We didn't only talk to business leaders in our village, but to a number of other organizations and companies as well. We also presented our project in the elementary end of our school, explaining to them our project and the general procedure of altering DNA to serve a different function. We created a different presentation for the occasion that explained the concepts in a simplified manner, and we're thrilled at the enthusiasm with which it was received. Consort's elementary is now full of little iGem enthusiasts who can't wait to get to high school.
