Brainstorming and planning for the upcoming interviews
Applications closed-Member recruiting
Laboratory safety and regulations introduction
Introduction to the laboratory of Prof. George Patrinos (PI)
Members categorization into subgroups
First extensive meeting to start planning the project
Organizing the laboratory equipment
Ordering of chemicals
Week 3-4:
Testing the equipment
Planning the initial work structure of our project
Reviewing past and recent literature regarding our project
Determining Team Goals and Tasks
Planning the timeline of our project and making adjustments
HP communications with Advisors and Instructors
Fundraising planning
January
Week 1-2:
Start of fundraising
Communication with researchers of the Agricultural Research Institute of Greece ELGO-DIMITRA, Soil and Water Institute
Planning HP interviews with Experts
Literature research on Precision Agriculture in combination with metagenomics, plant growth promoting bacteria and aero transportable equipment
Week 3-4:
Creation of a flow chart and discovering the existing research gaps in Greece, for project design purposes
Evaluation of previous and recent studies concerning NGS, DNA isolation and sequencing techniques
Interaction of HP with other iGEM teams for collaborations
HP/Social media: raising awareness about iGEM at several academic and other communities in Greece
February
Week 1-2:
Literature research evaluation
Study of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGBP)
Meeting with our Secondary PI, Vasileios Kostopoulos, in regards to design ideas for the soil sampling custom-made mechanism for our drone
Laboratory organization and planning of training experiments
General meeting with our PI's and Advisors
Week 3-4:
Brainstorming ideas about our project promotion video, future collaborations and activities
Study of DNA isolation and PCR protocols
Wet members started training in DNA isolation and PCR techniques
Order of PGPB based on our review research for our experiment
March
Week 1-2:
More training of wet members on DNA isolation and PCR techniques
HP team visit and interview of farmers and experts at the agricultural area of Larissa (Greece), for feedback about our project and its applications
Follow-up meeting with our PI's and Advisors
Week 3-4:
Training of wet lab members on primer design, electrophoresis and enzymatic digestion techniques
Communication with Athina Milona (iGEM European Ambassador) and Leandros Tsiotos, to understand better the iGEM guidelines and obtain valuable organizing information
Beginning of the preparation of the Pre Aegean meeting, first contact with the speakers and organization of the online activities
Communication with Vasiliki Mollaki (Scientific Officer at National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics)
April
Week 1-2:
Scheduling and planning the protocol of the tomato plants transplanting
Meeting with our advisors for discussion of the protocols
Preparing the necessary equipment for the transplanting
Finalization of 3D printing design for the custom made soil sampling mechanism
Week 3-4:
Transplanting of tomato plants at the experimental field
Soil impregnation with the selected microorganisms
Beginning of the preparation for the Aegean meeting - first contact with the speakers, the venue and organization of the activities
World DNA day post - collaboration with Patras Medicine iGEM team
Participation of our team in Omic Engine Symposium 2022
Request of approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Patras, for the surveys we created
May
Week 1-2:
Participation of our team at the 1st Conference of Sustainability, at University of Patras
Live interview related to our team and project at the UP FM radio of the University of Patras
Follow-up training from our instructors focused on sequencing techniques
3D printing of our custom-made soil sampling mechanism for our drone
Preparation of the script and illustration for our synthetic biology comic
Participation of the HP sub-group at the 28th Scientific Conference of Medical Students of Greece (ESFIE) & 16th International Forum of Medical Students and Young Doctors of Greece in Athens
Communication with Assistant Professor Hera Karagianni (Department of Biological Applications and Technology, University of Ioannina, Greece) about details on the environmental impact of our project and sustainable agriculture
Organization of the accessibility collaboration, with other fellow iGEM teams for the creation of videos in 7 different languages
Week 3-4:
Pre Aegean online meeting organized by our team took place, including activities for the acquaintance of all the Greek iGEM teams and speeches related to synthetic biology for the general public
Communication with Dr. Vasileios Papasotiropoulos (Professor of Genetics - Plant Breeding, Department of Agriculture at University of Patras)
Lab safety post - iGEM Crete collaboration
Communication with foreign iGEM teams for the translation of our comic in various foreign languages
June
Week 1-2:
Finalization and study of protocols for DNA extraction from soil samples and 16S rRNA sequencing
Meeting with the scientific staff of two greek companies, ELBAK S.A. (Food Processing Company) and Del Monte (Canned Fruit Company), for feedback on our project
Beginning of work on our team's representation for the iGEM Maastricht University Journal
Article publication in “The Best” Website - addressing the general public
Filming of our project promotion video
Week 3-4:
Training of team members on regulations, operational requirements, and procedures for safe drone flight
Article publication at the Scientific journal of the University of Patras
Participation at the 4th Panhellenic Scientific Conference of Pharmacy Students
Follow-up meeting with our PI's and Advisors
Article publication in “Agropublic Magazine”, for farmers and scientists in the field of agriculture
July
Week 1-2:
Soil sample collection from the experimental field
Appropriate storage of the collected samples
Start of the Aegean meeting - speeches and activities related to synthetic biology and project presentation of greek iGEM teams
End of the Aegean meeting
Lab tour posted on TikTok - iGEM IISER TVM collaboration
Communication with Athina Milona to present project's progress
Communication with Alexandros Kontos for advice on literature research, in regards to metagenomic analysis
Week 3-4:
Communication with iGEM ULaval, iGEM Stockholm and iGEM Thessaloniki about iGEM Day for our Science Communication Collaboration
Launch of our synthetic biology comic at our social media accounts
Interview of farmers, experts in the field of agriculture and the general public about their perspectives on Precision Agriculture and the application of the PAGGAIA project by distributing surveys
Beginning of planning our Wiki pages, choosing template and making basic design choices
Participation at the Synbio for Agriculture Team Meetup
Contribution to the creation of a picture book (an initiative of McGill, Cornell and Queens iGEM teams) - sending information and pictures for the Paenibacillus vortex bacterium
Contribution to the GMO's and Synthetic Biology survey of iGEM IISER Mohali team- translation of the survey in Greek and publication at our social media platforms
August
Week 1-2:
DNA extraction from soil samples, 16S rRNA library preparation and sequencing and qPCR- execution of the experiments
Based on prior knowledge regarding the format of the data, the implementation of the algorithm began
Organizing of the 2022 International Bioremediation Conference with iGEM TecCEM and ASU iGEM
Podcast with iGEM ITESO
Data analysis of 16S rRNA sequencing results
Collaboration with Queens' University iGEM team for the World Indigenous Day- post on our social media
Week 3-4:
Communication with Dr. Alexandra Meziti, in regards to NGS analysis and general feedback for our project.
Writing scripts in programming language R (version 4.2.0). R for the rapid development of code for different classifiers
Collaboration with iGEM Aboa and iGEM TecCEM with the aim of creating Farmer's Handbook of Synthetic Biology
Podcast with iGEM ASU
Communication with our Team's Advisor, Dimitrios Leonidakis, for evaluation on the project's progress and the development of a business plan based on the experts' feedback
September
Week 1-2:
Analysis of the data collected from sequencing took place, using mothur 1.44.1 version and SILVA 138 database for alignment and taxonomic classification
Participation in iGEM Pharaohs Conference
After formatting the data to a final tsv file, the best performing model in terms of speed and accuracy was found and hyperparameter tuning was applied
Podcast with KU Leuven iGEM team
Conduction of 2022 International Bioremediation Conference with iGEM TecCEM and ASU iGEM
Webinar on Sustainable Agriculture and the role of Synthetic Biology with iGEM Thessaly and Averofeio Agro-Food Technology Park, in order to communicate our projects and sustainable agricultural practices
Accessibility Collaboration posted on YouTube
Communication with agricultural consultancy company, AgroAPPS
SynBioOTD collaboration with iGEM CUHK-HongKong-SBS & iGEM City UHK
Week 3-4:
The algorithm was tested and the final report was created
Feedback on the report and the Farmer's Handbook from farmers and agronomists - second cycle of Integrated HP
Collaboration with ASU iGEM and TecCEM - organization of the '2022 International Bioremediation Conference'
Blog translation - iGEM UNIL collaboration
Participation at the Golden Helix Summer School
Collaboration with iGEM Aboa and iGEM TecCEM - organization of an online meeting with SDGs experts Karla Nayeli Munoz Rubio and Ana Gabriela Gonzalez Castillo
Visit at the Experimental High School of Chalkida (Greece) to promote synthetic biology - talk about our project and distribution of our synthetic biology comic
October
Week 1-2:
Participation of our team at TEDxPatras, at the Conference and Cultural Center of the University of Patras
Translation in Greek of the 'A full mother's guide to PKU', in collaboration with iGEM AFCM
