Introduction

iGEM is an extracurricular course provided by the Biomolecular Sciences (BiMos) master faculty and passes by unlike any other course found in the BiMos curriculum. iGEM is taught in a very independent and unique manner. Groningen iGEM teams get the complete freedom to divide their time themselves, as well as all of their activities and research goals.

Just like any other year, our iGEM team was formed halfway through January 2021. We started by ideating and brainstorming for a topic that we would like to address through our iGEM project. We also decided early on how the team roles would be distributed among the team. After finally landing on the final preliminary designs of our project around April, we started to make our planned wet-lab activities a reality. Around August, we started conducting our wet-lab experiments, around the same time that our human practices and educational outreach took some traction. We worked throughout the whole summer to make the best out of our project, and with the efforts of our truly amazing team members and supervisors, we have managed to create a respectable iGEM project this year.

We are very proud of all we have accomplished and would like to thank everyone that helped us along the way. On this page, we will discuss the team attributions and address everyone that helped us during the project.


Team

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Success is best when shared!

Name

Role

Involvement

Anastasiia Marfiychuk

Design

Social Media

Responsible for handling of Social Media; Co-creater of all the designs that are involved in the project.

Bindert Algra

Educational Outreach

Nanobody Killswitch

Meeting Chair

Merchandise

Nanobody Secretion

Sponsorships

Wet Lab

As meeting chair, I was responsible for creating the meeting agendas and chairing the meetings. I also worked on the background research for the secretion project and did work for the killswitch project. In general, I took part in brainstorming for the main project, and educational outreach. I worked on Merchandise and social media output. In addition, I worked a lot on the wetlab and aided with acquisition. I performed most of the general lab maintenance and the InterLab study. Lastly I aided with the wiki writing and the educational outreach activities.

Harshith Sai Gavi

Nanobody Design

Wet Lab

Wiki

Modeling

I helped with the background research and brainstorming ideas for the nanobody design, and was responsible for using AI methodologies for modeling purposes. I was also the co-creative designer for the final Wiki of the team, and assisted in the wet lab on occasion.

Isis Teunissen

Educational Outreach

Merchandise

Secretary

Social Media

Treasurer

Wet Lab

I assisted in the project idea brainstorming, and researching the impact of avian flu on the Netherlands, as well as a bit of research on kill switch. As the team's treasurer: I kept an overview of the income and expenses. As the team secretary: I kept track of the mails coming in and coming out. I also helped with sponsorships, developed team shirts (with Nastia) and possible other merchandise (shirts). In addition, I was responsible for the educational outreach, creating the ‘Escape the Classroom’ and other educational material. I also assisted in the wet lab and contributed to wiki writing. On top of all this, I was the driving force behind our Tiktoks :)

Laurens Adriaan Peer

Educational Outreach

Wet Lab

I was involved in the wet Lab, education, project idea brainstorming, and background research for the killswitch. I also did work on the designs of the killswitch, and helped with the partnership with Wagenigen.

Lorena Gallo Larco

Educational Outreach

Merchandise

Meeting Vice-Chair

Nanobody Design

Wet Lab

Wiki

Modeling

I worked as a Vice-Chair in the meetings; helped with the project ideas brainstorming and background research for Nanobody design. I was in charge of the initial planning for social media strategy and platforms; and later oversaw and designed merchandise (socks, caps, etc.) and finding of suppliers. I was in charge of the overview, and organizing of writing and design of the wiki; as well as the coding for the modeling sub-project. I was in charge of the organization and oversight of educational outreach; writing of scripts and storyboards for promotional videos; Spokesperson in team videos and presentations; Occasional assist in the Wet Lab.

Maya Semaan

Design

Wiki

Co-creater of all the designs that are involved in the project; Co-creative programmer and designer for the Wiki; Made a colouring book :)

Mink Sieders

Integrated Human Practices

Nanobody Killswitch

Wet Lab

I was responsible for the (integrated) human practices, the survey, and the corresponding wiki pieces. I worked on the background research behind the killswitch and general project idea brainstorming. I am also planning and organizing the microbiome analysis side-project. Besides that I also assist in the wetlab. Lastly, I am involved in the writing of various other wiki pieces.

Ronald van der Meulen

Nanobody Design

Wet Lab

Modeling

I was involved in the project idea brainstorming and background research regarding choice of nanobody, nanobody secretion, and modeling approaches. I was also in charge of all wet lab activities concerning molecular cloning, protein production and purification, and experimentation. I also oversaw the modeling sub-project, mainly from the structural biology aspect. In addition, I was responsible for most of the data analysis of our results. I assisted in troubleshooting for the lung microbiome analysis sub-project, assisted in setting up acquisition for our project, and assisted in educational outreach. Lastly, I assisted in budgeting regarding lab materials and contributed to wiki writing.

Sander Annema

Educational Outreach

Nanobody Killswitch

Wet Lab

I was one of the lab managers, and also heavily involved in project idea brainstorming. I am the lead designer of all DNA related sections, nanobody secretion design, Killswitch design, Cloning strategy design, and functioned as the Wageningen partnership lead. On top of that I also assisted in educational outreach, and assisted in other wet lab activities.

Shree Bagchi

Educational Outreach

Social Media

Sponsorships

Wet Lab

I was involved in the project idea brainstorming, and monitored communication on social media. On top of that I was involved in sponsorship, assisted in the wet lab and helped in educational outreach. I also wrote some wiki pieces.

Yasmin

Educational Outreach

Integrated Human Practices

Sponsorships

Wet Lab

I have been involved in project idea brainstorming, researching the impact of our project ideas, and I was responsible for leading and organizing sponsorships and grants. Besides that I worked on human practices with a special focus on conducting the interviews. I also worked on the lung microbiome analysis, organizing educational outreach, writing for the wiki, uploading the parts, and assisting wet lab work and budgeting.

Supervisors

Dr. Sonja Billerbeck (UG, Molecular Microbiology and Synthetic Biology)

Primary Supervisor

Thanks to Sonja for providing invaluable insight during team discussions; for helping us troubleshoot when issues inevitably arose; and guiding us to form our project to what it has become today.

Dr Patricia Alvarez Sieiro (Lecturer Biology (SSE), Department of Molecular Microbiology)

Secondary Supervisor

Thank you for your resourcefulness when we were in need of new solutions; your patience when not everything worked out by trying once; your kind feedback.

Darshak Bhatt (UMCG, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention)

Instructor

Thanks to Darshak for the fast support whenever we had a question; for the insider iGEM suggestions and insight; for teaching us how to make beautiful graphs and how to present our research.

Rianne Prins (UG, Molecular Microbiology)

Instructor

Thanks to Rianne for the daily supervision and lab tips; for the insider iGEM suggestions and insight; your resourcefulness

Dr Julia Kamenz (Molecular Systems Biology)

Advisor

Thanks to Julia for helping us with our wet-lab activities, and for providing valuable feedback; thanks for the use of your laboratory equipment

Maaike IJpenberg (lecturer in visualization, animation, and film at the Minerva Academy

Advisor

Thanks to Maaike for guiding all our design choices into what they have become today.)

Others that helped us!

Dr. Simon Hufton

Special Thanks

Thank you so much for providing us access to the nanobodies that we use, as well as answering our questions about them; and for giving us permission to use the nanobodies for research purposes.

iGEM team Freiburg 2022

General help

For getting us into contact with the Sydney Nanobodies team, which resulted in a fun collaboration; for providing us with memes in the times of need.

GBB symposium

General help

Giving us the opportunity to present our research to over 90 researchers in the field of Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology to gain experience presenting and valuable input from experienced researchers

Barbora Armonaitė

General help

Thank you for lending us your lab equipment; lifting our spirits when needed, reminding us of the importance of taking a break and organizing group-bonding activities.

Prerna Waran

General help

Thank you for your help on the lab and proofreading during hectic times, additionally for supporting Ronald, this has been of enormous value to the team.

MolMic group (Wet lab team)

Wet Lab

Thank you all for the occasional lab tips, and for hosting us in your lab, and of course, for dealing with the randomly dispersed unlabeled bottles of blue liquids we forgot about.

Tim van den Akker

Wet Lab

Thank you for advising us on our protein purification method and on SDS-PAGE.

Max den Uijl

Wet Lab

Thank you for explaining how to sonicate E. coli cells and teaching us how to operate an ultracentrifuge.

Mirthe Hoekzema

Wet Lab

Thank you for helping us in the lab with insightful tips and help with the ELISA components.

Rogier Houwerzijl (Practicum coördinator Linnaeusborg)

Wet Lab

Supporting us with the use of the lab equipment.

Kunja Slopsema (and colleagues)

Wet Lab

Thank you all for your hospitality.

Gerard Overkamp

Wet Lab

Thank you for supporting us with the technicalities regarding our lung microbiome analysis.

Martin Beukema

Wet Lab

Thank you for the help with the ELISA experiment and providing the chemiluminescent substrate 1,2-Phenylenediamine (OPD).

Dr. Maximilian Fürst

Modeling

Thank you for supporting us with our modeling project.

iGEM team Sydney 2022

Modeling

For the collaboration on modeling and for having a great project name.

Sebastian Berendson

Modeling

Thank you for the help with coding the sequence-based binding affinity prediction for our modeling project.

iGEM team Groningen 2021

Wiki

Thank you for proofreading our wiki.

Sander Ronald Kaatee

Wiki

Thank you for helping to build the website and supporting Maya

iGEM team Groningen 2021 (Milou)

Human Practices

Thank you so much for your elaborate work and explanations on their human practices, this truly brought our project to another level.

Tessa Alexanian from the iGEM safety committee

Human Practices

For always answering promptly, and helping us extremely well regarding the numerous questions we had throughout the competition.

Survey pilot group

Human Practices

Giving us valuable feedback on the survey.

All of the stakeholders

Human Practices

For giving us feedback that helped us make our project the best it could be.

Chienes Metus (Business Coordinator GBB)

Sponsorship and Budget

Thank you for all your help regarding sponsor and account management. We are grateful for your quick responses and always positive outlook.

Manon Dusseljee (Secretary Molecular Genetics)

Sponsorship and Budget

Thanks for supporting us with the planning of the trip to Paris.

iGEM team Groningen 2021 (Ritten)

Sponsorship and Budget

Thank you for helping out to realize our budget.

Jeanine

Education

Thank you for helped organizing the elementary school activity

Niels Alberts (Coördinator Bètasteunpunt)

Education

Thank you for helped organizing our activities on Zpannend Zernike

iGEM team Wageningen 2022

Design

Thank you for your partnership on the killswitch design. It has been a pleasure working with you.