Vilnius meeting 2017

Photo: Ursula Damm

siNbiozė

The newly shaping DIYBio network is emerging in Nordic and Baltic region which connects the researchers, makers, artists, scientists via their shared interest in DIYBio and their desire to shape own future by the process of making. It brings together biolabs, individuals and organisations from Nordic, Baltic and other European countries and represents the critical mass currently working in DIYBio field, coming from grassroots initiatives.

The international meeting DIYbio Vilnius 2017 with a coded name "siNbiozė" is an attempt to realise the possibility of symbiosis of scientific and artistic practices, aimed at development and presentation of ideas, questioning the possibility to visualise essential scientific information and approach such areas as genetic engineering and life-programming.

A lab with two public workshops and a panel with discussion will take place during DIYbio Vilnius 2017, followed by internal meeting of network participants. Offering activities in real laboratory and also home-like environment, as well as philosophical/theoretical, scientific and hands-on approaches, this meeting will allow to discuss the issues of self-repair, creation/altering of organisms as well as bioethics/biosafety from multiplicity of perspectives.

The event is organized by Institutio Media in collaboration with Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM and Technarium. It is kindly supported by the Nordic Culture Point, Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Vilnius Municipality and International Semiotics Institute of Kaunas University of Technology.

More information on the project http://www.howto-things.com

Public Programme

Friday, September 29, 2017

• 12:00 Workshop with Technarium “Lichen biohacking: revealing the secrets of the forgotten part of the forgotten kingdom” and Fingerprint workshop. „Sodų 4“, Sodų Str. 4, Vilnius

• 17:00 Keynote lectures: Ursula Damm, Gabrielius Jakutis. Life Sciences Center, Saulėtekio Al. 7, Vilnius

• 18:00 Panel/Discussion “Bioethics, biosafety, creation of organisms”. Participants: Ursula Damm, Gabrielius Jakutis, Mindaugas Gapševičius, Gediminas Drabavičius. Moderation: Kristupas Sabolius. Life Sciences Center, Saulėtekio Al. 7, Vilnius

Saturday, September 30, 2017

• 12:00 Workshop with Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM / “How genetic modification influences the functioning of bacteria?”. Life Sciences Center, Saulėtekio Al. 7, Vilnius

• 17:00 Internal meeting. Project space „Sodų 4“, Sodų Str. 4, Vilnius

• 19:00 “Self-repair" lab. "Self-repair" is conceived and realized by Mindaugas Gapševičius in collaboration with Lina Rukevičiūtė, Gailė Griciūtė, Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team, and Technarium. Project space „Sodų 4“, Sodų Str. 4, Vilnius

"Self-repair" Lab

Conceived and realized by Mindaugas Gapševičius in collaboration with Lina Rukevičiūtė, Gailė Griciūtė, Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team, and Technarium. Project space „Sodų 4“, Sodų Str. 4, Vilnius

Recent workshops on making penicillin at home and research on how to clone one’s own body have opened up a relatively unexplored field of DIY practices related to experiments with the body. On the other hand, similar experiments are often associated with AI in science fiction movies and novels.

One of the better known self-surgeries under “real-life conditions” was performed by Leonid Rogozov. In 1961 during his expedition to the Antarctic, which at that time was not really an inhabited place, Rogozov performed an appendectomy on himself. While humanity dreams about space travel, we often forget to ponder the question of “What if…?” What if there is no chance of asking others for help, fulfilling one or the other task? What if certain experimentation is restricted by law? There are also other related questions, like “How far can I experiment with my own body?” or “To whom do parts of my body belong if they are detached from my body?

In the context of this event, self-repair is a reference to non-traditional cases where certain social considerations are excluded under existing circumstances, or a reference to the contexts of malfunctioning systems, especially of those related to one’s own body. Self-repair is about an ability to identify and to fix one’s own systems. Self-repair is also about experiments that might not be tolerated by society and that might instead be considered unethical.

Bioethics

1. Gene editing

Paveldima informacija, kurią organizmai perduoda iš kartos į kartą, yra sudaryta iš funkcinių vienetų, vadinamų genais. Jie apibrėžia kiekvieną organizmo savybę, o skirtingi jų variantai nulemia požymių įvairovę. Genų sekos pokyčiai, dar vadinami mutacijomis, dažnai yra daugelio ligų, pavyzdžiui, I tipo diabeto ar vėžio, išsivystymo priežastis. Mokslininkų sukurti metodai leidžia redaguoti genus, pakeičiant juos kitais jų variantais arba ištaisant atsiradusias mutacijas. Visai neseniai buvo sėkmingai išbandytas ir žmogaus embriono genų redagavimas. Tai gali ne tik padėti įveikti nepagydomas įgimtas ligas, bet ir atverti kelius tobulesnių, viršesnių žmonių kūrimui.

2. GMO

Genų inžinerijos metodai atvėrė galimybes kurti genetiškai modifikuotus organizmus (GMO). Keičiant įprastą organizmų genetinį kodą, jiems dažniausiai suteikiamos naudingos savybės, pvz. gebėjimas gaminti reikalingas medžiagas, didesnis produktyvumas ar atsparumas ligoms. Šiuo metu GMO naudojami įvairiuose tyrimuose, vaistų gamyboje, genetiškai modifikuoto maisto (pavyzdžiui, auksinių ryžių ar herbicidams atsparių augalų) kūrimui. Toks platus GMO panaudojimas kelia daug su biosaugumu susijusių klausimų, kuriais siekiama atkreipti dėmesį į tokių organizmų paplitimo aplinkoje riziką. (gal dar pridėt panaudojimą blogiems tikslams kaip nors? )

3. Synthetic biology

Sintetinė biologija remiasi genų inžinerijos metodais, tačiau siekia patobulinti arba iš naujo sukurti visą biologinę sistemą ir ją panaudoti norimiems tikslams pasiekti. Tai galėtų būti mikroorganizmai, naudojami skaitmeninės informacijos saugojimui arba aplinkos taršos nustatymui ir valymui. Sintetinė biologija leidžia peržengti iki šiol egzistavusias biologijos ribas ir pereiti į neribojamą idėjų įgyvendinimo laisvę, kuriant organizmus, kuriems, matyt, natūraliai niekad nebuvo lemta atsirasti.

Controllable and flexible multi-plasmid system

In the field of synthetic biology there is a need for a standardized, stable and quickly expandable multi-plasmid system (A system in which different, unique plasmid groups in could be kept in a cell culture, and no plasmid group would be lost during cell replication). Due to plasmid incompatibility*, current commercially available systems offer up to 5 different plasmids in a cell using different origin of replication (ori) sequences that do not interfere with each other. Yet, these systems are often unstable and unpredictable, as well as limited due to the fact that ori sequences are taken from plasmids that originate from different organisms. It is currently hard to expand the compatible ORI sequence list because we would need to discover those new specific sequences in nature, which would require a considerable amount of effort and time. Also, previously mentioned systems do not offer any way to control plasmid copy number of each plasmid group separately.

With that in mind we have set ourselves several goals that we want to accomplish in our project.

Workshop “Lichen biohacking: revealing the secrets of the forgotten part of the forgotten kingdom”

Led by Technarium team: Eglė Marija Ramanauskaitė and Simona Bekeraitė aka Opit

Lichens are great symbiotic organisms, able to survive the most hostile conditions and forming the basis of the ecosystems in which other organisms are unable to grow. Lichens grow very slowly; some of their species are known as one of the oldest organisms on Earth. Unfortunately, lichens are yet largely understudied by scientists and misunderstood by the public. Molecular features of lichens are of particular importance due to their specific growing conditions and the variety of species – what mechanisms and materials influence lichen “longevity”? Can we use such mechanisms for ourselves, for example, solving the crisis of antibiotics. During this lichen biohacking workshop different types of DNA will be analysed aiming to uncover this underestimated source of useful information.

Workshop “How genetic modification influences the functioning of bacteria?”

Led by Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM: Gabrielius Jakutis, Miglė Kalvaitytė, Emilija Vasiliūnaitė

Transformation is one of the main methods in recent biotechnology and genetic engineering, used to genetically modify microorganisms. During this process plasmids (small circular DNA molecules, which contain genetic information and which grant new scientist-determined features to microorganisms) are transferred into the cell. Thus microorganisms can be turned into micro–factories, producing products needed by humans – from insulin for treating diabetes, to various ferments, included as ingredients in washing powder for stain removal.

Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria is the bacteria most commonly modified by scientists. By changing information, stored in the plasmids, this bacteria can gain new, naturally uncommon features rather easily. This workshop will present a method allowing to visually distinguish the activities and features between natural and genetically modified E. coli bacteria. Also questions such as “How did scientists ‘domesticate’ microorganisms and what tricks did they teach them?”, “Are these creatures obedient, and what else is awaiting us?” will be discussed.

Panel/Discussion “The Future of Life: Do We Understand What We Create?”

Bioethics, biosafety, creation of organisms

Participants: Ursula Damm, Gabrielius Jakutis, Mindaugas Gapševičius, Gediminas Drabavičius. Moderation: Kristupas Sabolius.

Keynote presentations: Ursula Damm, Gabrielius Jakutis

Synthetic biologists often refer to a famous quote by theoretical physicist Richard Feynman: “What I cannot create, I do not understand”. Today, the advancement of this field of science enabled the synthesis of customized genetic elements and systems for various applications on an unprecedented scale. Contemporaneously, this raised a wave of critical reconsideration of the role and meaning of human creation itself. Do we really understand what we create? Are we satisfied with current definitions of life? Who is in charge to define the future of humanity? What are the boundaries between human and non-human agencies?

Set along with the challenges of contemporary life, scientists are in a constant need to compare and contrast their definitions of creation, innovation and engineering of life with specialists in the humanities, social sciences and arts. This discussion creates an opportunity for collective thinking on the progression of synthetic biology and life sciences within the perspective of big themes of responsibility, safety and future of humanity.

In her presentation, Prof. Ursula Damm talks about experiences gained during the iGEM 2010 competition in a collaborative science & arts project. Referring to Jakob von Uexküll's biosemiotics, Damm will delineate a behavior-based approach for future Bioart projects. Gabrielius Jakutis will present ethical issues and biosafety concerns relevant to the field of synthetic biology and the construction of synthetic life, as well as explain the importance of establishing a mutual partnership between scientists, lay public, and specialists of social sciences and arts.

Participants

Prof. Ursula Damm holds Media Environments chair at the Bauhaus University Weimar. Her artistic work incorporates the media-based deployment of living environments and interactive spaces.

Gabrielius Jakutis is the last-year medical student at the Vilnius University and currently is preparing for the international synthetic biology competition with Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team.

Kristupas Sabolius is an associate professor of philosophy at Vilnius University (Lithuania) and a Fulbright Scholar alumnus at SUNY (Stony Brook). He is the author of a number of books as well as numerous essays, signalizing the contradictory function of imagination, appearing in all the major theories of Western thought.