Our first collaboration was with Stony Brook University in New York, United States. Stony Brook reached out to collaborate in their outreach project of compiling a journal of scientific articles and highlighting different iGEM teams. Team Stony Brook 2022 tackled the issue of protein S deficiency, which is a genetic disorder of blood clotting. More information about Stony Brook’s project can be found here. Our team therefore submitted a two-page, double-spaced, non-technical article showing how our team is addressing social inequity.

Additionally, we designed an infographic for Stony Brook’s biosensor research. The infographic contained the Objective, Design, Application, and Quantification of: A Biosensor that will enable detection and quantification of protein S in blood samples. We came up with an Aptazyme-based design of the biosensor for Stony Brook. Furthermore, we made an animation of the project, which is shown below.

To help with our modelling, Team Stony Brook University gave us a mathematical guide for protein expression. They helped the team with the gold-sensing module. They used the hill function kinematics and ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to develop the sensing module (shown under modelling). They also used MATLAB to generate the graphs to show the various concentrations of gold that triggers our system. By modelling the gold sensing module, Stony brook gave us a template on how we could model our other systems (Arsenic and iron sensing modules). During the collaboration, both Ashesi and Stony Brook met via Zoom and communicated through email and Instagram.