Collaborations
Throughout the duration of our project, we established collaborative efforts with various other iGEM teams from across the world. Key to all these meetings was the mutual exchange of expertise along the road, as well as a collaborative book effort between LiU iGEM, IISER Mohali, IISER Tirupati, Nazarbayev University, and NYU Abu Dhabi.
We met with a representative of IISER Tirupati through Zoom. There, we exchanged ideas over potential project applications. Ultimately, our collaboration resulted in the formation of the Slack-based iGEM Aptamer Club, to which we invited all other teams working with aptamers. It was also in this space that the Aptamer Book efforts were coordinated. In the future, we hope to pass the administration of this community to a future iGEM team working with aptamers.
We enjoyed regular correspondence with the 2022 iGEM team of IISER Mohali. Central to their project was the design of aptamers, which enabled the two of our teams to have discussions about how to work with these constructs. Our team was able to compile an IDT guide for IISER Mohali, which aided them in their process of ordering the aptamers that they needed. They also helped co-author the collaborative aptamer book project.
NYU Abu Dhabi’s iGEM team reached out to us as well. They too were looking into utilizing aptamers in neuropathological diagnostics, so we were able to aid them by sharing our protocols for Tau synthesis.
The iGEM team of Nazarbayev University is another team that we held contact with due to our common interest in aptamers. We were able to exchange modeling ideas via Zoom and email, and then work together further on our Aptamer Book.
Nordic iGEM conference (NiC) is an annual event between the iGEM teams of all Nordic countries. The purpose of this event is a local meetup between the teams, enable collaboration and have a mini jamboree amongst the teams. This event is commonly filled with workshops, fun activities, and a friendly competition.
LiU iGEM hosted the Nordic iGEM Conference this year in early August. All ten teams from Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden gathered in Linköping for a weekend. During the first day the teams participated in a safety workshop organized by the iGEM ambassadors Athina Milona and Alonso Flores. This gave all the teams the possibility to discuss the importance of biosafety and biosecurity and the possible risks linked to these. Moreover, presentations were held from leading researchers at Linköping University (LiU) as well as from our platinum sponsor BioArctic. The presentations gave the teams a deep insight into several research fields as well as drug development for neurodegeneration. Moreover, Dorothy Zhang from iGEM Headquarters also joined our event and introduced the Grand Jamboree as well as iGEM values to the teams.
After the presentations, a shared evening was spent by eating and playing board games together.
On the second day the main event was held. The Nordic jamboree amongst the teams. Each team had 15 minutes to present their project followed by a round of questions. The judges for this event were Athina Milona (iGEM), Dorothy Zhang (iGEM), Padraig D’arcy (LiU), and Damon Frampton (LiU). The judges evaluated the teams overall project, presentation, project impact and project creativity. Based on the points a team collected in each category, the team with the most points in a category would win the respective prize. The winner for best impact was iGEM Aboa from Turku, Finland. The winner for the best presentation and most creative project was UCPH iGEM 2022, from Copenhagen University. By winning two awards and having the most points in total UCPH iGEM was winning the golden pipette too which is a wandering trophy and passed each year to the winner of the Nordic iGEM Conference.
Ending the event with dinner at the Scandic City Hotel in Linköping.
On our last day we organized a scavenger hunt through the city as well as a shared evening with pizza.
We in LiU iGEM enjoyed organizing and hosting the Nordic iGEM Conference and would like to thank everybody for joining and making this event so memorable. Furthermore, we would like to congratulate UCPH iGEM and iGEM Aboa for winning at the Nordic Jamboree!