Here is an overview over the accomplishments and the challenges we had to manage during our project. Click on each month to see how our project developed week by week.
This week corresponded to the first week of the end-of-year vacations. We continued to develop our application projects while trying to find other potential topics.
During the last week of the year we continued our research work on topics.
Our iGEM team is formed! After a selection process, the team member list was published.
We had our first meeting, but it was a short one in which we talked a bit about the formation of the new team. We took the rest of the month as vacations.
18th: We had a more formal first meeting. We discussed some administrative things since iGEM is a student group at our university.
19th: We planned out fundraising activities to do during the semester.
27: We made an inventory and a preliminary shopping list with things we might need for the project.
4th: It had been 2 years since our campus participated in iGEM. Thus, we looked out for previous projects from 2021 to catch up on the competition.
Also, Alessandra joined the team!
We did some fundraising activities, such as a raffle for Valentine’s Day.
16th: iGEM at Global Women´s Breakfast! On our campus, Marifer and Elizabeth attended the event and volunteered to help the organizing committee.
18th: We previously formed smaller teams and started brainstorming ideas for our project. We had a reunion with our advisor and PI so they could give us feedback. Our first ideas consisted on:
A diagnostic mechanism for detecting polycystic ovarian syndrome.
A biofungicide against Texas root rot.
A novel procedure for producing snake antivenom.
A biofungicide against chilli wilt.
19th: We started training in the entrepreneurship area. We attended our first MasterClass about value proposals.
23rd: We had our first meeting in person! It worked as a team-building experience.
26th: We continued our entrepreneurship training. This day´s Master Class was about creating a business in a digital ecosystem.
2nd: We had a follow up reunion to present our ideas for the project. We received feedback from advisors and our PI once again.
5th: We continued our entrepreneurship training with a Master Class about capital raising.
9th: We continue exposing our project ideas. Once again, we received feedback. Also, many of our women teammates took part in a national movement called “El nueve ninguna se mueve”. During this day, women cease their daily activities as a way of protesting against the high femicides that occur in Mexico.
16th: We continued with our project idea brainstorm. We presented advances to our advisors and instructor.
22nd: We gave a class to high school students about synthetic biology and introduced them to iGEM.
23rd: Our team is made up of several members with no previous experience in genetic engineering. Thus, we made a short presentation to introduce them to important concepts. We also had our final presentation of project proposals. We presented them to our advisors, instructors, and our PI´s special judges.
It was also our PI´s birthday!
24th: We continued with our classes for high school students. This time, we made a workshop in which we talked about synthetic biology and expression vectors. We carried out an activity in which the students had to create expression systems for different situations.
27th: We sold hamburgers as a fundraising event. We made over 360 burgers in a single day and it was a team-building experience.
31st: iGEM at Women LeadING STEM possibilities! This was an event to make visible the participation of women in engineering and inspire future generations. Our team-mates shared their most significant achievements and experiences in their lives. Cesar and Alejandro just took pictures
April 1st: We officially have a project! Although each idea was very unique and interesting, it was decided to focus on Agrocapsi: A biofungicide against Phytophthora capsici.
It was also Cesar´s birthday!
This week we didn't have a reunion with advisors or our PI, so we just continued doing research about our project.
We didn’t have a reunion this week, but continued with our research.
22nd & 23rd: We presented our project in Biohack. This is a bioentrepreneurship competition held at our institution. We earned 3rd place!
It was also Alejandro´s birthday
28th: Tec-Chihuahua was officially in iGEM!
29th: During this meeting we planned some more fundraising events activities.
6th: We presented our project for the last time to our advisors and instructors. This time, we also shared our plans for human practices, project modeling, entrepreneurship, and all areas of an iGEM project.
13th: We established our team areas! Our team was divided into Human Practices & Entrepreneurship, Wet Lab, Model and Wiki. We voted for area leaders and for our team leader.
18th: We took a brief programming class from Denisse so we could start working on the wiki.
Judith fell asleep.
19th: Lab capacitation started! Cesar and Daniela helped us practice some essential things at the lab. We also had a reunion with new instructors (Alan, Ana Laura, and Ana Victoria). Thus, we made a brief introduction about our project and Human Practices plans.
21st: Our team was present at Solved! This was an event to show attendants our work at the engineering school. We talked to many people about the application of synthetic biology and about iGEM.
20th, 21st & 22nd: We participated in an educational hackathon. It was an opportunity to meet with teachers and experts in pedagogy. We also learned about the main problems of education in our country.
During this week the model team established goals and objectives for this year´s project. We decided to work on a system of ODEs to describe the gene expression of our system. We also designed some future ideas if there was time available.
24th, 25th & 26th: We participated in Innovation Week. We learned subjects related to entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology. We also made contacts with entrepreneurs from various areas.
27th: We continued our wiki capacitation with Denisse.
Also, iRNAldo joined our team!
2nd: PhD Carlos Hirales joined our team as a secondary PI. Thus, we had a meeting with him where we presented our project and the wet lab methodology.
This week the Human Practices team collected contacts to form a directory and made a promotional pitch. The modeling team also made a preliminary diagram of how our genetic circuit works.
8th: We participated in Expo Ingenierías, where we had a space to talk about what is iGEM and our team´s project to people at our campus.
The Human Practices team redacted a draft for the interviews to producers and started contacting them. On modeling, we started working on our system of ODEs and also had a meeting with UAM.
During this week the Math model team finished their system of ODEs!
23rd: We performed several interviews in different cities for our Human Practices. We also attented a chilli demonstration! we had the opportunity to talk with producers and agriculture-focused companies.
28th: Saghir joined the team!
30th: Tec-Chihuahua was at Beautiful Patterns! We had the amazing opportunity of talking to a group of girls from all over the country. We made a brief introduction for them to synthetic biology and iGEM.
The Human Practices started working on a manual for chilli producers. They also met with Tec Guadalajara and a team for California to make collaborations. Several interviews were also made. The Wet Lab team prepared some culture media, antibiotics and practiced how to run an SDS-PAGE.
The Model team had a meeting with the TecMonterrey_GDL team. In this meeting we brainstormed about what they could model, and we also helped them to find examples that they could use as a base.
The entrepreneurship area works with the Physical laws. To understand the operation of our product it is necessary to go back to the physical laws that intervene in biopesticide, it is for this reason that we carry out a bibliographic analysis and apply a little analysis and internal reflection in our knowledge to be able to determine the probable mechanism of action of a biopesticide.
The Human Practices team finished working on a synthetic biology manual. They also had several meetings with teams such as UAM, Tec CEM and HKU.
The Wet Lab team prepared chemically competent cells and transformed the following parts:
From 2021: 16M (plate 5), 4E (plate 3), 3G (plate 3), 1J (plate 2), 4K (plate 3), 17D (plate 1)
From 2019: 5G (plate 6), 1J (plate 2), 1I (plate 6), 17D (plate 1), 16M (plate 5), 3G (plate 3), 4K (plate 3)
From 2018: 2J (plate 2), 17D (plate 1), 15N (plate 5), 6D (plate 2). 4G (plate 3), 3L (plate 3)
The Model team solved the differential equations using MATLAB. We also carried out our first engineering cycle in the area!
The entrepreneurship area works Problem One of the most important steps or processes is to know as much as possible about the problem. Ask ourselves what?, how?, when?, where? and why? It will help us determine possible solutions to this problem. That is why it was carried out in a bibliographic way and the field visits were used to know in depth the wilt caused by Phytophthora capsici. This compendium of information focused on the problem section of the project.
The Wet Lab team made and transformed the vector pUC19 with part 16M and a lacI regulated promoter which we characterized.
The Model team alongside team UAM started working on a manual on how to start a mathematical model. The main idea was to share what we had learned to help future teams.
The entrepreneurship area works Preliminary hypothesis After having known the problem, it is easier to brainstorm possible solutions for the resolution of this problem. That is why in addition to our proposal, other possible solution alternatives were created such as genetically modified chili plants that grant resistance to the pathogen or genetically modified biological control that produced antimicrobial peptides against the pathogen.
26th: We sent to iGEM - Tec CEM samples of water taken from the water dam Reliz located in Chihuahua. We sent 2100 mL of these samples.
The Wet Lab team modified the previous assembly strategy. This time they followed a standard assembly and transformed again on the same strain. Also started an IPTG induction of the grown colonies.
In addition to our system of differential equations, the Model team began building the mathematical model in Simbiology.
28th: We reached ICHEA (Instituto Chihuahuense de Educación para Adultos), which is an institution dedicated to education for adults, to see if they could help us out with the translation of our comic and synthetic biology manual to rarámuri. Rarámuri is a native language for an ethnic group here in Chihuahua. They were happy to help and they even offered to translate it to ODAMI as well, another ethnic language.
30 & 31st: We went out to the streets asking for financial support. People really supported our cause!
The entrepreneurship area works with the Product Development deliverable. Product development is a fundamental part of sustainable development as it aims to change the linear economic model to a circular one to reduce the exploitation of natural resources and environmental pollution. This is why this deliverable aimed to design or identify processes and raw materials that are potentially recyclable, reusable or reusable.
1st: The human area had the opportunity to make a visit to the Foster Home “Unidas por Amor”. There we gave an introduction into science and synthetic biology to kids around 10-18 years old. Later we got the chance to give them our comic story and invited them to paint it. We rad it with them and had a session of comprehensive questions.
3rd: We got a chance to speak about our project at a press conference in the city of Cuauhtemoc. Our interview was broadcasted in several news media from the city. Also, this was the day our distribution kit arrived!
4th: Tec-Chihuahua in Clubes de Ciencia! Our PI made a presentation about the competition and our team at the Science Coffee.
The PhD Estefanía Ramírez has a wide experience in Phytophthora capsici. She helped us fully understand the way this oomycete attacks, and why it is classified as a strong pathogen. This information was useful to shape or find a way to strengthen the solution we are trying to develop for this infection.
5th: The university Tecnologico de Monterrey makes sure new students feel comfortable their first days of classes and for that they make this event called HiTEC. In this event the new students get to know each other through ice breaker activities. We participated in the event with an activity that resembled a ‘laser’ like situation. We used yarn as the lasers and the students were meant to move from one side to another without touching the ‘lasers’. As they went from one side to the other, they needed to pick a biobrick to make a construction.
We reached the Institute of Mexican Sign Language in the city of Chihuahua. We believe science should be accessible for everyone, but not everyone makes their content thinking of all the people that may have trouble accessing it. So we thought of making our videos accessible for deaf people. The Institute was really kind in helping us translate our videos.
The wet Lab team continued trying to induce the expression of the GAFP-1 protein assembled weeks before. In order to see if the induction was successful, they started doing SDS-PAGE.
The entrepreneurship area works with basic principles. After having reflected on what is needed to carry out this, we learned the basic principles that govern an entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Likewise it has been made the feasible product deliverable After having determined the preliminary hypotheses for the solution following the methodology of the pre-incubation program.
The model team had their first results by solving the system of ODEs in Matlab. We later had a meeting with our instructor to analyze the behavior of our graphics.
This week the Wet Lab team received the IDT sequences, so they ran PCR of selected fragments in order to amplify them and do digestion protocol. The results were not favorable :(
The entrepreneurial team began with the design of a landing page for the future implementation of our product as well as the plans and models for the future biopesticide marketing company.
The entrepreneurship area works Business model hypothesis like the preliminary hypothesis once having a broader picture of all the implications that a startup entails for the development and production of biopesticides through a business model canvas, the following aspects necessary to carry out this achievable business were reflected.
This week the modeling team started working on the industrial scale-up of our process. We also ran into some problems with Symbio, so we kept working to try and solve them.
11th: We had the opportunity to visit a girls only foster home to teach them basic science concepts and we reinforced them with some activities. They learned about what a cell is and the instruction book (DNA) each of them has to know what they should do. We also gave each girl our comic for them to color and that way they learned about chilli wilt.
15th: We talked to SEECH (Servicios Educativos del Estado de Chihuahua), which is a governmental organization that looks after educational services in the state of Chihuahua. They were kind to help us distribute the comic and manuals that were previously translated to two different ethnic languages to said ethnic groups.
19th: Our shooting for the promotion video started.
The wet lab team worked on trying to amplify and reamplify some sequences. They found out the primers were amplifying when they made a test with sequences from previous years, so that way they could identify that the DNA from IDT was degraded.
The model team didn’t have much luck with Symbio, so unfortunately they left it behind. On the other hand, they presented some results of the industrial scale-up.
The entrepreneurship area carried out the format of the label with the requirements of the agencies of the federal commission for the protection of health risks and the environmental protection agency. The trademark registration process for the product. This with the purpose of giving formality to the legal process as well as having the sustenance in case of being falsified.
Likewise, a photo session was also held for the landing page, presentations and social networks.
19th: We visited the Secretaria de Desarrollo Rural, which is the gubernamental institution that oversees the development of the rural areas of Chihuahua. They were kind enough to explain to us the importance of the production of chilli and how we should promote a culture of prevention of pathogens to agricultors to preserve their crops. Especially with the pathogen we are trying to attack, the best way to avoid it is through prevention.
23rd: We had a meeting with the faculty of forestry and agricultural sciences where we talked about presenting our conference of the introduction to synthetic biology and distribution of our manual. They invited us to make this a requirement in the institution so that everyone has to take the course.
24th: The Human area presented a conference in collaboration with the scientific diffusion network Divulgare where 2 team members performed the process of DNA extraction in strawberries with home materials. This was shown via zoom where we had 32 expectators.
Also we finished the comic book compendium in english, meaning all of the collaborators material was unified in a single document.
25th: We had a meeting with the Zootecnia Faculty where we talked about giving a conference about our project and synthetic biology and the distribution of our manual.
Entrepreneurship: Stella Orion invited us to practice our pitch and gave us feedback on our product, our company and our presentation.
This week the model team made a sensitivity analysis of their system of ODEs.
30th: We attended “Agronomy” (Agronomía), an event in which we held a conference about our project: Agrocapsi and an introduction to iGEM and synthetic biology. The public (95 people) were experts in phytopathology and agriculture, they gave us feedback and asked a lot of questions. We also distributed our manual.
We gave a presentation of our project in “Faciatec” (Faculty of Agrotechnological Sciences). Around 80 people attended and we received a lot of feedback and asked many questions.
We attended the elementary school ” Colegio Pierre Faure”, where we gave a small class about science and synthetic biology and an activity regarding molecular biology.
2nd: We submitted our work at the 2022 Agrigenomics for Food and Health: Connecting Engineering, Science and Industry. For this congress, we made a scientific poster to spread the work we have done.
The model team had a reunion with team Tec-Monterrey to analyze the characteristics of our siRNA sequence.
5th: Our instructor Cesar broke a watermelon with his legs. This was clearly a crucial event in the development of our project.
6th: The Human team had a meeting with Zootecnia and Ecology Faculty where Wilting and our product development was exposed, focusing on the environmental impact that pesticides have and how this situation can be diminished with the use of Synthetic Biology.
8th: The Human team assisted Agrogreen to perform an interview with Judith Cambia on the Certification Norms required for those who cultivate to commerce it or to people like us who are trying to create a product.
10th: Through zoom we had the agricultural workshop we planned alongside UAM’s team. It was in the morning and lasted around 2 hours. We had a lot of participation from the audience and asked interesting questions about current problematics and the use of new technologies to solve them.
11th: Astronomia (astronomy science group) invited us to an event they planned. They had a ‘Watch the moon and the planets’ night where they gave us a space to talk to the attendees about how synthetic biology can be used for space.
The model team encountered some troubles in the solution of their system of ODEs. This was due to some parameters being wrong, so they started correcting that right away. They also analyzed the behavior of the system under different conditions.
The wet lab team received some sequences from Twist so finally could work on digestion and ligation of the interest parts of our project. At this point the ligation protocol was already standardized to the better conditions of enzyme and ratio.
12th: We had a meeting with ICHEA (Chihuahua’s Institute for Adult’s Education) where they helped us translate our comic and manual to Rarámuri (indigenous language in Chihuahua). In this meeting we made sure to explain the intention of the manual, the objective and general contents of it.
14th: We attended a primary school named Carmen Serdan in Delicias City in Chihuahua State. We had a small 30 minute talk with all the elementary kids, 12 groups total. The small presentation was about basic concepts of science such as what is a microorganism and what is DNA. That way we could give examples of how these are used in synthetic biology to help humanity out.
22nd: CBTA90 is a high school in Cuauhtemoc City where kids can graduate with a technician degree. We had the opportunity with 3rd and 5th semester biotechnology students from that school to make a mini iGEM. All this with the purpose of awakening the interest in biology applications and to show them that their ideas could actually be great future solutions.
23rd: In Camargo City there is this news broadcast called Impacto Noticias, they kindly gave us about 10 minutes airtime to talk about our project and the competition. This interview highlighted the importance of finding a solution to chilli wilt due to its impact nationally. The clip of the interview can be found on their Facebook page.
After making some corrections, the model team had a reunion with PhD Roberto to analyze the new behavior of the system. They also had a reunion with instructor Silveyra to review the sensitivity analysis from a statistical point of view.
The wet lab team received the rest of the sequences from Twist. The vectors were pretty good at transforming our strain. We finally had A LOT of colonies.
21st: We collected several books to give away to those in need. We went to a foster home we had gone to before to give them these books.
24th: In order to receive feedback from producers, we had this event we named Agrohack so that we could talk about our project. After we explained the technicalities of our solution that gave us suggestions and were really glad that some of the previous comments they made were taken into consideration. We also had Dr. Juan Aguirre talk about his work and investigation in agricultural topics.
24th: A public high school gave us the opportunity of making our intelligences rally on saturday with a couple of their groups.
The wet lab team started to induce the sequences they transformed from vectors. They also set up an expression kinetic for the model team to recover information of the promoters and include that data into our mathematical model. The data were not reliable :(
The modeling and entrepreneurship team worked on scaling up our process.
6th: As our mini iGEM activity proved to be a success, they gave us an opportunity to do it once again in our school’s high school. These kids also had some kind of biotechnological background, cause in 5th semester they have a topic class where they can choose biotechnology.
8th: We had a sleepover at school to finish our wiki.
It has been months of hard work. We are glad you took the time to read our notebook.
Thank you so much!
