Silk Collaboration and Repository

For future iGEM team : Silk Collaboration PDF

Introduction

From the beginning of HESTIA, we looked out for other teams working on silk proteins. After being contacted by the UCPH team (link to UCPH), we partnered up with Exeter, Vienna and UCPH iGEM teams 2022. Unfortunately the Exeter iGEM team dropped out of the partnership. Nevertheless, we are very thankful for the contribution and the great exchange that we had in the beginning of the partnership.

Before we could conduct experiments in the lab, we had to go through several scientific papers and speak to a lot of experts. All this helped us with the obstacles we faced in the lab, most notably the purification of the silk proteins as they are insoluble in water. It was a tough journey, as can be seen in Engineering Success, until we had gathered the information needed to correctly express and purify our silk proteins.

The aim for the partnership was to create a repository of all the information we have gathered over the course of our iGEM experience. This repository includes all the used recombinant silk proteins, their characterization, the used purification protocols, their different properties and all the key tricks and lab tips we shared with our fellow iGEM teams working with silk proteins and facing the same issues or just to optimise the production techniques. It can be found as a PDF for both preview and download at the bottom of this page.

This partnership was not only an opportunity for the current year silk protein teams to exchange, benefit and learn from each other, but it is also a legacy that we leave behind for all the upcoming iGEM teams who aspire to work with silk proteins in the future and can benefit by acquiring the information more easily.

Beginning of our partnership

Throughout the project, we reached out to the iGEM community to find other teams working with recombinant silk proteins. We were invited by the UCPH team to a Zoom meeting on the 20th of July. A group chat on Instagram was created by the UCPH iGEM team on the 19th July as a common platform to discuss and communicate with each other throughout our partnership journey. This is how later, we met the Vienna and Exeter team by joining a common group to communicate.

During the second meeting with the teams we suggested creating a repository for silk proteins to share information regarding the protocols that we were using in the lab, the constructs we created for our respective protein sequences and the special tricks and tips that each of the team is using that might be useful for all the collaborating teams.

Partnership journey

Meeting : July 22nd

On the 22nd of July, we held our first official partnership meeting with all of the teams present where we discussed our partnership of silk proteins and presented our projects. Furthermore, we elaborated on sharing our protocols, properties, sequences, and our lab methods etc. throughout our project period and discussed several ideas and better means of communication between the teams. Following that, we created a Slack and also a shared Google Drive where the information could be collected and stored as a Silk Protein Repository, for us and the future iGEM teams. On the drive, every participating team was supposed to create their folder with subfolders for the respective purpose of adding their data.

Meeting : August 18th

During our second meeting, we discussed the advancement of our projects and the precise organisation of the drive to be sure of the information we wanted to include as well as how to display our results on the wiki. Plus, we provided advice to the teams facing issues with purification and showed our own results to the teams. We discussed several purification techniques for silk proteins and which one gave the best results. UCPH proposed to add a Tips and Tricks folder where teams were able to ask for advice and share their thoughts directly on the drive.

Meeting : September 6th

This meeting had the purpose to advance our progress in the partnership and have an overview on how the teams are doing with their projects, as well as get an update on the amount of data that has already been uploaded in the repository. Unfortunately, from this meeting onwards the Exeter iGEM team could not continue with us due to lack of time and communication issues and we had to bid them goodbye. We wish them luck for their project and we cherish all the experiences and memories we shared with them.

Meeting : September 21th

As the Grand Jamboree was approaching in a month and we all were having extreme lab days. Throughout this meeting, we talked about creating social media posts to spread the information about our respective projects. The post would be focusing mostly on the different applications of silk proteins as well as communicating with the iGEM community about our partnership and the silk proteins repository that we have created as a joint effort. We proposed a draft and shared our preliminary posts where all the three teams added their data and made the initial draft of the social media post.

Meeting : September 28th

On this day, all teams agreed on a deadline for the partnership data to be finalised and uploaded to the repository as the Wiki Freeze was in less than 2 weeks. We agreed on certain deadlines to finalise the social media post and upload it on our accounts. We also kept motivating each other throughout the process, especially during the last few meetings as we were summing and finalising everything up and all the teams were overwhelmed, nervous and excited.

Meeting : September 30th

The project work was coming to an end and we were summing up our work in the lab and working on the wiki of our respective projects. The meetings took place more frequently but for a shorter duration and only to discuss and finalise the results. This partnership allowed us to reflect on crucial concepts regarding our silk proteins and how to develop an even better material as well as science communication between the iGEM teams throughout our project development. Throughout the process, all the three teams worked collaboratively, offering their knowledge and creative inputs. Through this, not only were we able to help each other to fine-tune our respective materials, but we were also able to learn more about the applications of recombinant silk proteins! And most importantly we could form a partnership where we learned but also had a lot of fun spreading and enjoying the spirit of iGEM together.

Using Social Media to inform about silk

Posting about iGEM Silk projects, the silk proteins and its many applications on social media allowed us to a reach a much more general public. Additionally, it allowed us to get feedback on our understanding of Silk as well as being a great bonding experience between iGEM teams!