Collaborations

During our iGEM journey, we had the privilege and pleasure to work with so many motivated researchers all around the world! This allowed us to get to know many different projects in synthetic biology, opening our minds to application of this field in all aspects of our lives. In our collective challenge, we made amazing connections in an international network of support. Furthermore, meeting other likeminded researchers, albeit online, raised our excitement to meet all of them in Paris. Below, you can find our collaborations with other iGEM teams throughout 2022.

"Coding with Biology" Webinar series

Coding may be intimidating to students in the field of Biology and Life Sciences.However, programming skills are integral to modern research in these fields. Together with iGEM teams from Sheffield, UCL, and Cambridge, we wanted to move a seemingly intimidating topic closer to a community of students like us.

To do that, we organized a 4 part webinar series, consisting of separate introductory-level workshops in which participants could learn about the theory behind programming; additionally, they were given the option to actively participate, so the material could be learned in a more approachable fashion.

These were the workshop that we hosted:

Workshop 1: “Introduction to Python”, organized by iGEM Cambridge
Workshop 2: “Building Mathematical Models with Python”, organized by iGEM UCL
Workshop 3: “Introduction to Metabolic Modelling”, organized by iGEM BOKU-Vienna
Workshop 4: “Introduction to Data Analysis in Julia”, organized by iGEM Sheffield

Test Tube Podcast

Communication to a wider audience is important to us. Thus, we were extremely excited to be kindly invited by iGEM team Exeter to their podcast. We were able to talk to them about our project, our iGEM experiences, and funny stories paired with advice to future teams and other listeners. It was an extremely pleasant episode that our team leader, Tatyana, and lab team leader, Julia, thoroughly enjoyed taking part in. You can find the episode on YouTube in two parts at the Test Tube Podcast.

Synthetic Biology Coloring Book

Concepts of synthetic biology can be introduced at any age; what's important is the method. Team Tec-Chihuahua decided to approach younger age groups with a coloring book in which teams can introduce their project in a child-friendly, fun way. Our team couldn't say no to such an opportunity! You can find our entry and the full coloring book here.

Plushy the Microbe

We hosted iGEM Aachen’s Plushy the Microbe in our home city Vienna, showed it around the city, and had it join us in the lab. On Instagram, we documented Plushy’s time here and translated its words into Viennese.

European meet-up in Hamburg

In July we attended the European Meetup organized by the iGEM team from Hamburg. We spent a weekend getting to know the other teams and presenting our project. It presented a great way of practicing our presentation, recieve amazing feedback, and connect with other iGEMers.

Junior Jam Münster

In August the Münster iGEM Team organized a Junior Jam for teams to prepare for the Jamboree. We got a chance to do a presentation of our project, as well as present our poster and video. Soon after, we recieved written feedback from judges, and thus were able to correct and change our video accordingly. Thanks to everyone, we feel better prepared for the Grand Jamboree in Paris! Additionally, we got to know even more other European teams, and spend quality time as a warm-up for Paris.

Conference of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Düsseldorf

IGEM Düsseldorf invited us to join the annual fall conference by the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. We got the chance to attend exciting talks on state-of-the-art research and even were able to present our poster to academics in the field during the poster session. Connecting with researchers is extremely important to us, and we thank iGEM Düsseldorf for the amazing opportunity!

Pamphlet “How to reduce CO2 like a boss”

Just like us, the iGEM teams from Bonn-Rheinbach and Göttigen, work on a climate change related project. Addressing climate change is very important to us, however we recognise that without a drastic change in how politics handles climate change, our efforts are irrelevant. Yet, so far most European governments lack a promsisng plan on how to handle it and instead of taking responsibility appeal to individuals to reduce CO₂ emissions. To express our feelings around this, and raise awareness, we made a satirical pamphlet on how to reduce CO₂ emissions.

You can find it here