Education and Outreach

Overview

After we identified pain points and what was needed to make our education and outreach effective, we created integrated initiatives designed to inform, engage, and empower diverse audiences. Each initiative tailored content to specific channels and stakeholder groups, ensuring that our educational efforts resonated with policymakers, students, industry professionals, and the broader community. By combining traditional reports, digital outreach, and in-person engagement, we addressed knowledge gaps as well as fostered inclusive dialogues around bioethics sustainability. As a result, we built the following

1. Newsletter for the Public
2. Socioeconomic Report
3. Regulatory Frameworks
4. Sustainability Report
5. Bioethics-focused Social Media Posts
6. Spread awareness through attending conferences
7. Hosting pop-up booths on University of Toronto Campus during Orientation

Newsletter to the public

We produced a newsletter that explored the past, present, and future of phage therapy by answering three key questions:

• What did the current state of phage therapy look like?
• What was the public outlook on it?
• What did the future hold in terms of company research and our project’s alignment with those goals?

We distilled complex scientific developments and public sentiment into a clear infographic to foster understanding across a general audience.

Socioeconomic Report

We developed a socioeconomic report that examined how our project’s acceleration of phage therapy could reshape economic outcomes by asking:

• Could reduced treatment time lead to lower patient expenses and insurance costs?
• What was the current economic burden of antibiotic-resistant infections
• How might faster phage therapy mitigate those costs?
• How could shortened interventions ease strain on public healthcare systems?
• Could faster phage therapy improve access for low-income or underserved communities and make drug-delivery more affordable?

By analyzing treatment-time data, healthcare utilization metrics, and community burden studies, we provided our readers with evidence-based insights to inform the economic side of our Mystiphage project.

Regulatory Frameworks Infographic

We created an infographic that outlines key available frameworks applicable to our project, defining which regulations applied to engineered phage products, especially in genomics, phage therapy, and AI contexts. It also dives into phage therapy frameworks available around the world, several concepts of which we have implemented in the regulation of our project. This informs readers of the regulation regarding phage therapy in multiple countries as well as the frameworks that guided project decisions and implementations the most, allowing readers to have an understanding of how public safety and ethics were considered throughout the project cycle. Through concise graphics, we clarified approval pathways, compliance requirements, and emerging policy shifts across international, national, and local jurisdictions. By mapping our workflow against these regulations, we demonstrated how we navigated ethical safeguards and safety protocols. We continuously evaluated whether our project aligned with and followed these frameworks.

Sustainability Report

We published an annual sustainability report that probed ecological and operational concerns in phage therapy by asking:

• Were there biological waste issues in large-scale phage purification processes?
• What long-term effects might phage-based biocontrol have on soil health and plant microbiomes?
• Could engineered phages address broader environmental challenges?
• How have we optimized our wetlab and drylab workflows to minimize energy use and material waste?

By combining lifecycle assessments, case studies, and our own workflow innovations, we demonstrated strategies for embedding sustainability at each stage of phage development.

Bioethics-focused Social Media Posts

We crafted social media posts that highlighted ethical dimensions of phage therapy, and asked ethics questions to inform dialogue and highlight current dilemmas that run the current bioethics debate climate. By leveraging hashtags and targeted campaigns on Instagram, we met audiences where they were and fostered real-time conversations among students.

Spread Awareness through Attending Conferences

We participated in national conferences, where we presented posters, delivered talks, and led discussions on bioethics, regulatory trends, as well as sustainability challenges in phage therapy. These face-to-face engagements allowed us to showcase our research, gather feedback from peers and stakeholders, in addition to forging collaborative networks across academia and industry sectors. By maintaining a strong presence at these events, we elevated our visibility.

Great Canadian Meetup Conference

On the Verge 2025

Hosting Pop-up Booths on the University of Toronto Campus during Orientation

We set up interactive pop-up booths during orientation week at the University of Toronto, engaging incoming students, faculty, and staff with hands-on quizzes as well as informational displays on phage therapy and bioethics. Visitors tested their knowledge, explored our workflow models, and learned about potential career pathways. Our team facilitated conversations, distributed brochures, and invited attendees to subscribe to our newsletter and follow our social channels. This on-campus outreach built community awareness from day one.

St. Michael’s College UofT Orientation Pop-Up

iGEM Mentorship Program

Finally, the team launched the iGEM Mentorship Program, spearheaded by Jungyeon Min. This program represents a strategic professional development framework designed to connect and educate undergraduate students who are looking to pursue a biotech career. With the support of industry practitioners and academic researchers, the program’s inaugural session on Oct 3rd, 2025, established a structured networking platform connecting students with domain experts across bioengineering, computational biology, and related biotechnological disciplines.

By providing students with direct access to professional expertise and career guidance, this mentorship infrastructure addresses the critical gap between theoretical academic training and practical industry applications. The program’s systemic approach offers participants diversified exposure to biotechnology career pathways and enables them to carry informed decision-making especially in regards to specialization areas. Planned activities for our inaugural program season (2025-26) include structured networking events, professional development seminars, and collaborative project opportunities for mentees to connect.

The initiative’s inclusive framework ensures accessibility across diverse academic backgrounds, promoting equitable participation in biotechnology career development opportunities. Future program iterations plan to incorporate technical workshops, industry case studies, and practical training modules designed to enhance student competencies in emerging biotechnology sectors.