Contribution
Overview
Symemco Therapeutics has made significant contributions to the iGEM community as well as to the greater community. Not only have we developed new BioBrick parts and provided additional documentation to old parts, but our team has also made a series of guides on a wide variety of topics including pJUMP plasmids, developing a pitch deck and even how to use GarageBand and Adobe softwares for podcast, video, and promotional content.
Throughout the course of this project we have also expanded on the research relating to novel therapeutic approaches in targeting the multifactorial nature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have chosen to target this neuroinflammatory route by creating a disease-modifying therapeutic that is targeting the pathophysiology of AD rather than its symptoms. Furthermore, we have collated extensive laboratorial protocols and assembly guides that will greatly contribute to the field of synthetic biology and therapeutics. We hope that our project will inspire future iGEM teams and the scientific community to tackle the multifactorial nature of AD through synthetic biology.
Parts contribution
Our team has added sequences necessary for the expression of four enzymes required for the production of pterostilbene. These genes include the tyrosine ammonia-lyase gene from Rhodotorula glutinis, the 4-coumarate:CoA ligase 1 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana, the stilbene synthase gene from Vitis vinifera, as well as the resveratrol O-methyltransferase gene from Vitis vinifera. Descriptions for all parts can be found on our parts page.
Protocols
All protocols utilised in wet-lab are made available for other teams to use as well. These protocols are listed below.
Cloning protocol for creating a level 1 part
Bacterial culturing protocol for pterostilbene production
HPLC-UV protocol
Colony PCR for JUMP plasmids (P1/P2 primers)
Guides
For the benefit of future teams, we have developed a series of guides on a wide variety of topics relevant to the iGEM project. These guides are designed to allow future iGEM teams to more easily navigate tools, protocols and tasks that are crucial to the iGEM experience.
Science Communication
Guides made under the Science Communication umbrella place a large emphasis on the importance of making an accessible feed. Our Canva guides go through the basics of design (e.g. how to make sure there’s enough white space, adding images onto Canva, etc) and also provide instructions on how to take part in our Chroma Campaign. To improve our engagement and reach, attempts have been made to utilise other platforms, such as Spotify for Podcasts and WordPress for blogs. Guides have also been made on how to create a blog using WordPress and edit Podcast audio using GarageBand (for iOS devices). We have also made an additional guide for writers on how to write an article, which then could be published on multiple different platforms.
Podcasting guide
Canva guide
Wordpress guide
How to write an article
How to apply our Chroma Campaign
GarageBand Guide
Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneurship and Finance subgroup this year has placed a lot of effort into building the entrepreneurial aspects of our team. They have made pitch decks, networked, and participated in calls to pitch our projects to industry leaders. Hence, to help future iGEM teams get a good grip on where to start, they have made guides on how to create a pitch deck by explaining the importance of pitch decks and the key aspects of a pitch deck. Having mentioned the importance of networking, the Entrepreneurship subgroup has also provided a guide on how to find opportunities to network and how to present yourself to potential investors.
Pitch Deck quide
How to network
How to create a Gantt Chart
Human Practices
The Human Practices subgroup played a crucial role to make sure that all our research, surveys, and events have correctly aligned with the guidelines. They have constructed guides on the importance of ethical research and how to navigate through it. Having utilised public surveys as part of their research, the Human Practices subgroup have also pieced together a guide on how to conduct anonymous public surveys.
How to navigate ethics in scientific research
How to conduct an anonymous public survey
Laboratory
The JUMP guide is designed for iGEM teams to understand how to use JUMP plasmids, a series of backbones designed to incorporate the standard european vector architecture and the BioBrick standard. This guide is written in such a way as to allow teams to experiment and consider various cloning strategies, providing information and protocols to allow quick transfer from design to construction. This guide has been looked over by both Marko Obrvan and Marcos Valenzuela-Ortega to ensure a high standard of content.
JUMP guide
Wiki coding
The Wiki Development team also created a guide to help future iGEM teams navigate GitLab.
How to use GitLab
Model Construction Code
We have also made the code used for our model to be available for future iGEM teams, particularly:
- Combinations code: This collection of functions that produces predictions for the pterostilbene yield for 256 different copy numbers and 256 different combinations of promoter strengths.
- User input: This collection of functions displays graphs showing the variations in concentrations of reagents over time. It requires user input to select a plasmid copy number, initial concentrations and qualitative promoter strengths.
- Promoter Strengths: This collection of functions outputs the pterostilbene yield over time for the teams selected promoter strength combination, for a variety of plasmid copy numbers.