Ethics
The why behind the Delftia Project
Delftia acidovorans is an incredible species of bacteria known for its ability to avoid gold toxicity by producing gold nanoparticles. The Delftia project wants to educate and engage citizen scientists in collaborative research to learn about Delftia acidovorans and other organisms that have adapted unique abilities to scavenge gold and other useful materials as a strategy to survive harsh environments. This is important because we could use these microbial alchemists to address societal challenges. However, we need your help to learn more about Delftia and similar organisms. Join this diverse community!
About us
The Delftia Team is a collective of students, faculty, and staff at North Carolina State University. We are supported and funded by the Biotechnology department and Office for Undergraduate Research at North Carolina State University.
Our objectives
- Share engaging, educational scientific content focused on D. acidovorans and other organisms around us that could yield biotechnology solutions to environmental and public health problems.
- Propose specific solutions to societal and community issues that utilize D. acidovorans
- Promote scientific literacy and communication skills by promoting the discussion of literature and creation of learning artefacts
- Diversify the kinds of ideas and the way of thinking that is traditional to scientific communities by providing a space for individuals to converse and generate knowledge
- Openly share our collective knowledge about D. acidovorans for use in other experiments or lines of inquiry in a way that is visible and accessible
Our projects
We hope to achieve our objectives through our various projects.
- Where is Delftia? aims to characterize the spatial distribution and genomic equivalence of environmental Delftia strains. This project provides an authentic research experience to interdisciplinary cohorts of students.
- The Delftia Hub aims to communicate scientific findings related to Delftia and other similar microbes to promote accessible science and widespread awareness
- Delftia Collaborative Annotation aims to leverage Hypothes.is to address complex and disjointed literature while building public scientific literacy.
- Delftia WikiEDU aims to create an archive of Delftia information on a high-traffic website
Our ethical guidelines
Information Sharing
To promote the policies of open-access science and demonstrate the value of contributions from the public, we will communicate the following information in regards to all projects:
- Collected data from citizen science projects
- Project findings, conclusions, and recommendations
- Publications that draw upon participant-generated knowledge
Get involved
The Delftia Hub is a community where we share ideas, identify issues, and work together towards solutions. You can join the conversations by subscribing to our email list or contribute to the annotation project here.
Do you have questions or suggestions for Delftia Hub Ethics? Let us know directly in the Feedback form, or contact our site administrator.
Carlos Goller—ccgoller@ncsu.edu