Genetic Engineering Lesson

On 26.9 we visited the biology class of the Erich Kästner-school to present our project and to do an experiment with the students.
One goal of our project was to eradicate potential misunderstandings about GMOs and involve high schoolers in our project.

After a general introduction into synthetic biology and iGEM, we explained the specifics about BioSpatch and the production of synthetic spider silk with E. coli. As a practical part of the lesson, we showed the students how to isolate DNA from strawberries.

We got very positive feedback from the students. They found the experiment especially exciting, and also the possible uses of spider silk. They also found it interesting that iGEM started the first year with only 5 teams and now there are over 350 teams.

iGEM presentation

Visit of a Vocational College

Since our first school visit went so well, we revisited the school a few days later and gave our presentation again.
On the fifth of October, we visited the Fritz-Henßler-Berufskolleg, a vocational college in Dortmund. It was incredibly interesting to see how adults of various trades engaged with our project and the topic of synthetic biology.

Soon into the presentation, we started a lively discussion about how synthetic biology had already influenced and benefitted their lives.

It was also interesting to see how the different students conceived how projects like ours would contribute to their lives in the future and how these differences shaped our discussion. The chemists, for example, contributed by sharing their experiences in the laboratory, while the scaffolders were especially interested in the wound-healing properties of our project.

All in all, it was a very successful and thought-provoking afternoon.

RUB Guides

Our university has a service for interested high schoolers, to provide orientation, assistance and most importantly a personal view into the different fields of study and everyday life at the university.
We participated and organized a Campus tour with 3 classes of pupils that are almost finished with their A-Levels and are interested in studying at the Ruhr-University. At the buildings of our faculty, we talked about iGEM and our current project.

BIOspektrum article

The Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM) is a scientific society in Germany that focuses on the promotion of research and teaching of biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology.
The BIOspektrum is a magazine published by the society, and we had the opportunity to introduce our project and team. The article can be found here.