European Science Week – Learn how to use genetic edition for the good: The CHIC project, Sustainable and Healthy Agriculture

Can gene editing help to make future agriculture fit to the wishes of high school students?

During the Science Week in Madrid, high school students from all over Europe get a unique chance to meet and discuss with scientists and artists working on gene editing in plants. The scientists and artists all take part in the EU-funded research project called CHIC. CHIC aims to find out whether gene editing techniques can help to improve chicory in such a way that society will appreciate the crop. The team is studying technological and societal aspects of chicory that will be producing more and better food fibers and plant-compounds that can be used to male medicines. The team is passionate about the work and about discussing their work with society.

Date: 10 November 2020, 18:00, Central European Time (CET)

Online platform: Zoom

Register in advance for this webinar event:

• • https://zoom.us/webinar/register/9016015355865/WN_dVNimzAzSSC8YIFuFxJkeg
  • After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Opening Remark/Introduction:

• • Erik Toussaint, Sr. PR & Communication Officer, KeyGene

• • Augmented Reality (AI) & Virtual Reality Games Short Introduction
    • Dr. Paloma Díaz Pérez, Catedrática de Universidad. UC3M
    • Teresa Onorati, Profesora Doctora de la UC3M

• • Plant Research and Gene Editing
    • Katarina Cankar, Researcher of Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen (WUR)

Katarina Cankar is a scientist working at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. Her research interest lies in plant compounds that give plants special properties, such as plant protection, flavor & fragrance, color or human health promotion. In the CHIC project Katarina is involved in gene editing of chicory for enhancement of chicory to produce improved food fibers and healthy terpenes.

• • Agricultural Innovation
    • Matthew De Roode, Innovation Manager at Sensus

• • Art: Biotechnology from the Blue Flower
    • Anna Dumitriu, Artista Visual

Anna Dumitriu will describle her artistic collaboration with the CHIC consortium and her project with Alex May entitled “Biotechnology from the Blue Flower”, a journey through plant evolution, the romantic movement and synthetic biology. Anna Dumitriu is an internationally renowned British artist who works with BioArt, sculpture, installation, and digital media to explore our relationship to infectious diseases, synthetic biology, and robotics. Past exhibitions include ZKM, Ars Electronica, BOZAR, The Picasso Museum, HeK Basel, Science Gallery Detroit, MOCA Taipei, LABoral, Art Laboratory Berlin, and Eden Project. She holds visiting research fellowships at the University of Hertfordshire, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and Waag Society, as well as artist-in-residence roles with the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project at the University of Oxford, and with the National Collection of Type Cultures at Public Health England. She was the 2018 President of the Science and the Arts Section of the British Science Association. Her work has featured in many significant publications including Frieze, Artforum International Magazine, Leonardo Journal, The Art Newspaper, Nature and The Lancet. Current collaborations include the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology at BOKU – Universität für Bodenkultur in Vienna, the EU H2020 CHIC Consortium, the University of Leeds and the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells at Helmholtz Zentrum in München. https://annadumitriu.co.uk/

• • Engagement of Stakeholders in the CHIC project
    • Armin Spök, Science, Graz University of Technology, Austria

Armin Spök is a researcher at the Science, Technology and Society Unit of Graz University of Technology in Austria. In his early years as a molecular geneticist he witnessed and got involved into the first wave of public debates about genetically modified organisms and derived food. This experience triggered a transition of his research interests from natural science towards social science, from basic research in molecular biology lab towards the challenges for impact assessment and policy development that came and keep coming along with the progress of agricultural biotechnology. Since more than 20 years he has been doing research and providing policy advice in these fields, in recent years a particular focus was how to engage publics in research and innovation in order to bring it more in line with public needs and concerns.

Discussion/Debates

Question & Answer

For half an hour, Erik will take questions from the audience and allow the panels to respond. You may ‘raise’ your hand, send in your questions via our twitter account @H2020_CHIC with the hashtag #CHICroundtable2020 or email us at social@chicproject.eu. We will try to answer as many questions as possible.

Bubble VR Game

• • Dr. Paloma Díaz Pérez, Catedrática de Universidad. UC3M

Closing Remark

Follow up!

We hope that you enjoy the roundtable discussion and learn more about the CHIC project as well as topics on genome editing, CRISPR-Cas, and chicory plants. Feel free to check out our website, https://chicproject.eu/, for more information about the project. Do you want more? We encourage the audience to keep the conversation going. Feel free to share your questions or comments via social media using the hashtag #CHICroundtable2020 and @H2020_CHIC. We will forward your questions to our panellists and answer them when possible. You may also send us your questions or concerns via social@chicproject.eu. We look forward to hearing your responses.