It was the first time we participated in the competition, and during these exciting months, we have learned what is iGEM’s true virtue: its community!
We have been able to meet open, like-minded, and friendliest people who bonded by synthetic biology. We were very excited about all the opportunities to get to know each other and meet so many impressive projects and people. We believe that one of iGEM's greatest strengths is its ability to bring closer people and young researchers from far-flung parts of the world and stimulate shared thinking.

During the competition, we met the following teams:

DTU-Denmark

We will be eternally grateful to DTU-Denmark, our mentor team, throughout the competition, and we were in contact until the very end. In May, they reached out to us, asking if we needed any help, for which we are particularly thankful because, as newbies, we found all the information, dates, and rules overwhelming. The mentoring started with a structured lecture about the competition, which helped us get to know and get oriented in iGEM. From the first meeting, it was clear how fantastic these guys are, and we had a great time with them. In subsequent meetings, they answered relentlessly all the questions we had, even the silly ones. There has been no shying away from answering the more difficult questions. Maybe needless to say, DTU-Denmark was incredibly professional in the way they helped us, they put a lot of energy into this collaboration. Without their help, our project couldn’t succeed, since their work was essential. Not to mention that we enjoyed every interaction immensely. Thank you, DTU-Denmark!

Wageningen_UR

We approached the Wageningen_UR team because we found out that we shared similar goals. Soon we had a meeting with could get to know better each other's work. It was here that we discovered that both teams had produced a similar GMO-related questionnaire for the Human Practice part of the competition. Therefore, we aimed to compare the results of our survey form and try to conclude together.
See the Survey Form page to get to know the fruits of our work!

UPenn - PARTNERSHIP

Like our team, the UPenn team has also been working on a light-induced system, so it was logical to get to know each other. Their team was very kind to us and helped us get to know our project better and even the field of optogenetics. We learnt a lot from each other during the competition, we have been in constant contact, and we shared ideas and troubleshot together our projects, despite their differences. Our relationship grew into a fruitful partnership, and we planned to conduct experiments together, providing valuable insight into both projects. As part of this, Team UPenn sent us their plasmids (Photocrete-luciferase system) to try them out with our illumination device, for which our Team prepared: maintained HEK-293T mammalian cell line and made the reagents for the transfection. It made our project more well-rounded since we have worked with bacterial strains and were excited to demonstrate our illumination device's usability in other optogenetic applications. Unfortunately, the measurements could only be scheduled for mid-October due to postal delays.

Worldshaper-HZ

We met with the Chinese team to get to know each other and showcase our projects. During the meeting, the teams showed mutual interest in each other's projects, and we met again a partner from which we left with a wealth of new knowledge. We hope to continue this good friendship and acquaintance at the Jamboree, as the team made a strong positive impression on us.

NTHU_Taiwan

The NTHU_Taiwan team contacted us via Instagram. Their goal was to gather as many as possible iGEM teams from 2022 and mark a map. We were delighted to help them with the small step of sending them our logo, which they used to create this project. With the resulting map, it was great to see how many countries like ours have enthusiastic young researchers who are bravely taking up the iGEM challenge. The results of the collaboration can be accessed here.

MSP-Maastricht

The team in the Netherlands very kindly asked us to help by distributing their questionnaire. Of course, we were happy to do so. And they helped us by helping us test and check our Wiki page. Thanks for the help, guys!

BOKU-Vienna

One of the biggest challenges for our team during the competition was modeling, so we were delighted when we found the Vienna team organized a Webinar on this topic. The organization and delivery of the event were also of a very high standard. The speaker was Professor Jürgen Zanghelini, who spoke about metabolic modeling, a relevant topic for us. On this occasion, we learnt a lot of useful new information, and he helped us build our models.

Eastern Europe meetup

From the early stages of the competition, our team had a big plan to get to know the teams from the region of Europe we belong. We hoped to be able to meet these teams, either individually or as a group. So we decided to try to organize a meetup in Eastern Europe. Looking through the list of iGEM teams, we noticed that relatively few teams from the Eastern region of Europe had started. Therefore, we decide not to put out a call on Slack or any other platform to advertise the event but to contact each university team from the region one by one, thus increasing the personal nature of the program. After all, we planned the program with a dual purpose: On the one hand, we would have liked the teams to get to know each other's ideas/projects. On the other hand, we would have liked the teams to get to know each other so that when we meet at the big Jamboree, we can participate with confidence, knowing each other.

So we set about organizing the event, to which we planned to invite four teams. The idea of an online event had been in the original plans, but when we learned that, unfortunately, one team would not be able to attend, we dropped the idea of meeting in person. We tried to be good hosts and be well-prepared for the event.

Schedule of the meetup:

On 23.09.2022 at 10:00 Budapest time, the event was held. It started with a presentation by our team after a short introduction. During the meetup, we were not only curious about the project and the actual lab work of the teams but also about what the teams had come up with for the other elements of the competition, such as Human Practice or Collaboration.

The second speaker was the Latvia-Riga team, who presented a really fascinating idea. You could see that the team was well-prepared and represented professional standards. We were also pleased that the team not only reported on their successes but also on their unsuccessful attempts, which helped to build trust between our teams. After all, there are difficult stages in every project, but the good thing is that we didn't meet any teams during the competition (in this meeting or elsewhere) who gave up. Great presentation, great team! Thanks for participating, Latvia-Riga!

Team Latvia-Riga during holding their presentation:

Unfortunately, the scheduled third team could not join us due to technical problems but luckily the Estonia_TUIT team was waiting to jump in and present their slides. And they didn't disappoint us with their creativity and expertise. As it turned out, this was the team's umpteenth time participating in the event, and they boast several gold and silver medals. There was no questioning of their experience, as their expertise radiated from every slide of their presentation. Simple and easy-to-understand slides and fantastic explanations. Thank you for the experience, Estonia_TUIT!

Team Estonia_TUIT during holding their presentation:

To close the meetup, we organized a Q&A event. Our team prepared some questions for the other teams, and we asked them to answer. These included "Where did the idea to start in the competition come from?" or "What was the most memorable moment of the project so far?". Of course, there was also a discussion about the big Jamboree in Paris. We wanted to know what the teams were expecting and how they were preparing for the event.

We would like to thank all the teams for the opportunity, their help, and their cooperation. Without you, this competition would not have been this amazing! See you in Paris!