Introduction

Many people are to thank for the succesful completion of the iGEM 2022 cycle of DTU BioBuilders. On this page, everyone who contributed to the project has been attributed. We want to thank each and everyone of you from the bottom of our hearts!

Synthetic Biology at DTU and the formalities of the DTU BioBuilders project

The work of DTU BioBuilders began in February 2022 with brainstorming. Lab work initiated from May 2022. DTU teaches a synthetic biology course, recommended for all Stud. MSc Biotechnology with the Cell Factory Engineering specialization and completed by 7/10 students prior to starting the iGEM project. Unfortunately, the course material is not freely available online. All members of DTU BioBuilders 2022 were awarded 5-15 ECTS points for their work done on the iGEM project, based on individual requests.

Contributions of DTU BioBuilders 2022 team members

Star = Area lead
Check mark = Contributed to area

• Christian Wistrøm - Economics lead, led the lab track “Testing the furfural conversion enzymes”, assisted with human practices, data analysis, fundraising, project administration, safety
• Dóra Katalin Jánoska - Creative lead, assisted with outreach efforts, collaboration, various lab work, fundraising, safety, visualization
  
• Giovanni Gendarini - Teambuilding lead, led the lab track “Testing fungal promoters induced by furfural”, project administration, data analysis
• Jake Pham - Admin and dry lab lead. Assisted in data analysis, data curation, software, project administration, safety, visualization
• Magnus Haahr - Data analysis lead, lead the lab track “Hybrid Transcription Factors”, assisted with partnerships (wet lab work with TUDelft and BOKU-Vienna, human practices, project administration
• Naiara Hurtado Lopez - Assisted with outreach efforts, various lab work, create work and visualization
• Nanna Marie Tørring Koefoed - Education lead, assisted with human practices, outreach efforts, various lab work, fundraising, project administration, safety, visualization and creative work
• Sebastian Bundgaard - Human practices lead, led the lab track “Growth experiment”, collaboration, assisted with outreach efforts, fundraising, project administration
• Trine Rasmussen - Outreach and video lead, assisted with human practices, education efforts, various lab work, assisted with data analysis, modelling and partnerships and creative work
• Varun Shankar - Collaborations and partnerships lead, dry lab team member (dry lab work for Tübingen), assisted with wiki design, data analysis, data curation, software, visualization

All team members contributed to conceptualization, background research and wiki writing.
All team members who have done wet lab work contributed to investigation and lab maintenance.

We would like to thank

Besides the student members of DTU BioBuilders 2022, several people assisted with the making of a successful project.

Project supervisors

• Christopher T. Workman - Associate Professor at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology DTU. Worked with us throughout the project duration and gave guidance when needed. Was especially helpful in setting up wet lab dry labs and providing iGEM-specific advice
• Henrik T. Simonsen - Associate Professor at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology, DTU. Worked with us throughout the project duration and gave guidance when needed. Was especially helpful in regards to brainstorming ideas in the lab

Project advisors

• Fabiano J. Contesini - Assistant Professor at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology, DTU. Worked with us throughout the project duration and gave guidance when needed. Was especially helpful with specific lab matters and troubleshooting ideas
• Jacob Mejlsted - Student advisor, previous DTU BioBuilders team member (2018 and 2019). Worked with us throughout the project duration and gave guidance when needed. Was especially helpful in in silico design and iGEM-specific matters

Laboratory support

• Aaron John Christian Andersen - DTU Metabolomics Core Manager, Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, DTU
• Fabiano Jares Contesini - Assistant Professor at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology, DTU
• Jannie Felskov Agersten - Laboratory Technician at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology, DTU
• Tina Johansen - Laboratory Technician at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology, DTU
• Jaqueline Aline Gerhardt - Guest PhD at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology, DTU
• Louise La Barbera Kastberg - PhD at Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Section for Synthetic Biology, DTU
• David Lokjær Faurdal - DTU Biobuilders 2018, Research Assistant, DTU Biosustain - assisted with the BioBrick Tutorial
• Marcus Medom Ryding - DTU Biobuilders 2019 - assisted with the BioBrick Tutorial
• Philip Thomsen - DTU Biobuilders 2019, PhD student at DTU Biosustain - assisted with the BioBrick Tutorial
• BOKU-Vienna team - Link to Partnership
• TUDelft - Link to Partnership

Modelling support

• Fabio Parmeggiani - BrisSynBio Fellow in Synthetic Biology, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol. Helped us in refining the ligand docking in Rosetta
• Georgie Hau Sørensen - PhD student at University of Bristol. Provided us with precious AlphaFold and experiment design advice

Human practices support

• Kyle Rothschild -Research Scientist at Novozymes. Gave us excellent advice on Integrated Human Practice work in general, and presentation techniques
• Carsten Hjort - Senior Research Director at Novozymes. Provided us with insight into the Novozymes way of research and fermentation, and provided early guidance on the paths to pursue to make the biggest impact and reach the best market
• Anders Ødum - Co-founder of Chromologics. Provided us with insight of how Chromologics uses filamentous fungi in fermentation of valuable compounds, and discussed the use of lignocellulosic material as a carbon and energy source in said fermentation
• Mette Lübeck - Associate Professor and lecturer at the institute for Chemistry and Life Sciences at the University of Aalborg. Was kind in giving feedback on the feasibility of our product in a real life setting.
• Jacob Blæsbjerg - Associate Professor. Gave us insight into the biology of filamentous fungi and shared precious experience on work with A. niger in the lab
• Verena Siewers - Research professor at Chalmers University of Technology. Informed us of experimental approaches for tanscription factor optimization, and provided advice for biosensor design

Outreach, education and PR

• High school teacher and students from Svendborg Gymnasium - Helped us test the game developed to improve it to fit the needs of the target group
• Leila Lo Leggio and Meike Burrow, Research Scientists from University of Copenhagen, met at Transcription Factors Symposium - Provided feedback in our synthetic transcription factor design and feasibility, and provided valuable feedback on the relevance of our project
• Employees from Experimentarium, Danish Science Center - Provided tips on how to best mediate the knowledge we want to share to a young audience. Allowed us to use their facilities to host workshops
• Anthony C. Forster, Professor and University Chair in Chemical Biology, Uppsala University Sweden - Inspired us and many other iGEM teams at an early stage to fully experience our projects
• Nicolas Krink, Research Scientist At DTU Biosustain - Provided tips on how best to communicate complicated science, e.g. through writing a wiki page based on their own experience in several iGEM editions and German Association for Synthetic Biology
• Thomas Fruergaard Astrup, Professor at DTU Sustain - Gave advice on sustainability issues in regards to our projects, and what areas could be interesting to investigate to ensure our project feeds into a sustainable life cycle

Creative and visualization work

• Nadia Schlosser and Matilde Fogh - Creators of the animation and multimedia used in the promo video
• Emil Thjellesen - Responsible for the acoustics and multimedia used in the promo video
• Mikkel Swartz - Photo shooting and editing for social media content
• Mirjana Balogh - Collaborator in the design of our project logo
• Canva - Used with valid subscription to create figures for the wiki
• BioRender - Used with valid subscription to create figures for the wiki

Sponsors of DTU BioBuilders 2022

• DTU BlueDot Projects
• Novo Nordisk Foundation
• Bodil Pedersen Fonden
• Ampliqon
• IDT - Integrated DNA Technologies
• monday.com
• New England Biolabs - NEB
• Eurofins Genomics