Bridging science and society, in this case our iGEM project and society is an important step in our journey. One of our objectives is to raise awareness of our team and project among people not only from Leiden University but also the general public. This can be achieved by connecting with the public, and the easiest way to do so is through media engagement (via newsletters, magazines, websites, and radio stations). This additionally aids in the promotion of our crowdfunding campaign which supports our project. Many positive comments and enthusiastic support from society motivated us to continue working on our project.

Blogs

NEMO Kennislink Biotechnologie

This year, Mirthe Zandbelt, on behalf of the iGEM Leiden 2022 team, had the opportunity to write blogs for NEMO Biotechnologie.nl about our project, iGEM in general, and her experience as an iGEM Leiden team member. NEMO is an organization that brings science and technology closer to the public in an interactive and accessible way. The researchers can show their progress to the non-scientist audience through an easy-to-read article in their NEMO Kennislink Biotechnologie blog. On this website, with two other Dutch teams (iGEM MSP Maastricht and iGEM Groningen), we tried to gain readers’ interest in synthetic biology by reading our blogs in such a fun and creative way. Three of our first blogs were published before the iGEM 2022 Grand Jamboree: ‘Zweten in het lab’ on 11th of August 2022, ‘Wat als alles niet in een keer goed gaat?’ on 23rd of September 2022, and ‘Net als legohuisjes’ on 14th of October 2022. Later, ‘Kers op de taart: wij staan in de top 10!’ was posted after the Grand Jamboree on 20th of November 2022. All four blogs can be found through this link. Furthermore, NEMO Kennislink has also written an article about the iGEM Leiden 2022 Team on their website. It was an interesting experience for us to be able to share some insights into our project with the public, stimulate engagement during our journey, and talk about our achievements during the Jamboree.

Read Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

LINDA.meiden

LINDA.meiden is a well-known magazine for teenage girls in the Netherlands. Besides a magazine, they also have a newsletter and website where our team member Nadine van de Brug, on behalf of iGEM Leiden 2022, had the opportunity to be interviewed in relation to the weekend of science. By this, we not only share our project but also inspire young girls to get into science. The article was published on October 1st, 2022 on their blog.

Read Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

Podcasts

SynBioNL

SynBioNL is an association of synthetic biologists in the Netherlands. They featured us in one of their podcast interview series called ‘Meeting the bio-dreamers’. In this series, three of the iGEM Leiden 2022 members, J.R., Jennifer, and Elise, talked about their experience as iGEMers and the project that we have been working on this year. The interview was conducted on October 10, 2022 and aired on October 21st, 2022. Having this podcast interview posted on their website and associated social media was an excellent opportunity to promote our project within the synthetic biology community in the Netherlands. You can listen to the Bench TALKS SynBioNL podcast episode ‘A nano-yet-golden dream of iGEM Leiden’ on Spotify.

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

Student Association Magazines and Websites

LBC (Leidse Biologen Club)

The LBC is a study association for Biology students at Leiden University. Since a majority of our team members are biology students, it is a privilege to be able to promote our project and crowdfunding to other biology students through this study association. They gave us a session to talk about iGEM, our team, and our project in their evening lecture event (Leidse Biologen Club Symposium) on May 23rd, 2022 (more information can be found on our Education & Public Engagement page). They also helped us by promoting our project through their weekly email (LBC Weekmail #38 on September 29th, 2022) and social media posts. It was a very fitting way to promote our projects with our friends and colleagues within the biology community at Leiden University.

S.V. LIFE

S.V. LIFE is a study association for Life Science & Technology students at Leiden University and TU Delft. Some of the students from our team are connected to this association and helped us to reach out to them. They featured us by interviewing two of iGEM Leiden 2022 members (Olivier and Mirthe) on October 4, 2022 and publishing an article about it in their quarterly magazine (The Vision) in November 2022. They also shared our project and promoted our crowdfunding via their social media. On October 7, 2022 we gave a lunch lecture about our project and the iGEM competition. (more information about the Students Lunch Lecture can be found on our Public Engagement page). It was a perfect way to get non-biology students enthusiastic about synthetic biology.

Newspapers, Websites, and Radio Stations

Leiden University

Leiden University promoted the iGEM Leiden 2022 Team (BINANOX) project and our crowdfunding campaign through their online newsletter. The article was posted on the 8th of September 2022 and can be accessed here. Furthermore, we also had an opportunity to give an evening lecture in collaboration with the Leiden Natural Science Society (NGL) on 29th September 2022. Leiden University also helped us to make a crowdfunding page that launched on September 7, 2022 via the steunleiden website. Since our crowdfunding launched, we received a lot of support and positive responses, not only from the Leiden University community but also their partners and the public in general, making us even more motivated to work on our project in the process. After the iGEM 2022 Grand Jamboree, we also had an opportunity to share our experience in an article that was posted on November 10, 2022. You can view the article here.

Read The First Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

LUMC (Leiden University Medical Center)

Leiden University Medical Center has their own website and newsletter. We contacted them to promote our project and crowdfunding campaign to medical students and experts. They helped us with promotion on their LinkedIn and Twitter. The partnership with LUMC also brought our project to the attention of many people who connect to their social media. It was a good opportunity for us to gain more attention towards our team and our project.

PLNT & PLNT Student

PLNT is an office space that houses many student teams and startups in Leiden. We had an office space in PLNT where we had our meetings and worked together on non-lab work such as our Wiki page. PLNT not only provided us with a workspace, but also helped us by sharing our project and crowdfunding campaign through their various social media channels and website to gather attention from a wider network among young professionals, entrepreneurs, and stakeholders. From this connection, we hope this will impact our project growth positively, with a bigger social impact. Our news posted on the 20th of September 2022 on their website can be found here. After the iGEM Jamboree, PLNT Student also posted our accomplishments on their social media.

Read Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

unlock_ (Life Science Incubator Leiden)

unlock_ is a place for life science and health startups, entrepreneurs, and scale-ups at Leiden Bio Science Park to develop and grow. They helped us by promoting our project and crowdfunding through their social media and website. They published the article about us on 20th September 2022. This is a good way for us to reach as many entrepreneurs as possible in the Leiden area which can also help our project development in the future.

Read Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

Ondernemers Vereniging Bio Science Park

The OVBSP is an association for companies and institutions at the Leiden Bio Science Park. They helped us promote our project and crowdfunding campaign through an article on their website on 27th July 2022. We also had an opportunity to present our research during the Life Science Café on 15th September 2022 (this event also can be found on our Education & Public Engagement page), where we learned how to make the transition from the iGEM project to start-up. This tremendous opportunity brought the iGEM Leiden 2022 project and crowdfunding known by the general public.

Read Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

Science meets Business

Science meets Business is an organization that bridges academia (the University and Institute in Leiden) with numerous companies at the Leiden Bio Science Park. They helped us promote our project and crowdfunding campaign via their website and social media channels. We also talked about our project during their SmB Cafe event on October 13, 2022. The information about this event also can be found on our Public Engagement page. It was a good opportunity to share our project with many companies and start-ups in Leiden as well as learn from them about entrepreneurship.

Oncode Institute

Oncode Institute is an independent institute dedicated to understanding cancer and translating research into practice which organizes the collaborative effort of 61 oncology research groups across the Netherlands. They featured iGEM Leiden 2022 team by sharing our project via their social media channels on October 11, 2022. Oncode Institute also shared our achievements at the iGEM 2022 Grand Jamboree which can be accessed via this link. It was such a perfect opportunity to share our project with many cancer research groups in the Netherlands because one of the applications of our nanoparticles is for head and cancer photothermal therapy.

Mare

Mare is a university’s weekly newspaper that publishes academic news from Leiden University. This newspaper is usually distributed to each Leiden University building and read by many students and employees. We had an interview on October 17, 2022 and they put an article about iGEM Leiden 2022 in their newspaper on October 20, 2022. With this news in Mare, we were able to share information about our project and promoted our crowdfunding campaign with other students and colleagues at Leiden University. We also use this as an opportunity to share what iGEM and synthetic biology are about within the Leiden University community.

Read Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

Leidsch Dagblad

Leidsch Dagblad is a daily Dutch newspaper that is distributed locally in the city of Leiden. They also have a website that can reach people outside the Leiden area via their online newspaper. Our project and team introduction was shared via an online article on September 14, 2022. We also had an interview on October 15, 2022 and the second article published on October 18, 2022. After the Grand Jamboree we had the opportunity to have a follow up interview on November 25, 2022, where we shared our experiences and accomplishments with Leidsch Dagblad readers in an article which was issued on December 02, 2022. All three articles can be found here. By sharing our project and crowdfunding via regional newspapers, we reached more locals (outside of Leiden University) and got in touch with them during our iGEM journey.

Read Article:

The article of Voorschotense krant. Click on it the read the full article

Leiden Science Magazine

Leiden Science Magazine is a website made by students from the FWN faculty in Leiden. They mostly write articles about scientific topics (research or interesting news from the scientific world) and interview scientists from Leiden. An interview was conducted on 10th of November, 2022 and an article was published on 12th December 2022 on their website and social media. Getting in touch with Leiden Science Magazine helps us promote iGEM and our project to a broader audience.

KNCV - Royal Netherlands Chemical Society

The KNCV is a professional association of people who share a passion for molecules. It includes chemists, life scientists, process technologists and (bio-)molecular scientists in the Netherlands. For the achievements we attained during our project and the iGEM 2022 Grand Jamboree, the KNCV put BINANOX on their rubric in the C2W magazine (Mens & Molecule) on December 2nd, 2022. This page is a special article where multiple people or institutions are acknowledged for their hard work. We are honored and really proud to be featured in this rubric. It also helps us with making our project known in the scientific community.