Take a look at three of our most significant collaborations. Working alongside UAM, TecCEM and TecMonterrey_GDL we were able to carry out our most critical goals.
Model manual, agriculture workshop, delivery mechanism comic book collaboration.
During June, we heard about team UAM from one of their crowdfunding videos on social media. It was at that moment we found out they were also working with antimicrobial peptides. Furthermore, they were also applying them on an agricultural project. Team UAM's work focuses on developing a biopesticide against the weevil, a devastating pest on prickly pear crops. These similarities represented a great opportunity for us to work along their side. Having the chance to partner up with a team from your same home country while researching something close to what your doing isn't something you can get to enjoy everyday. Naturally, we got in touch.
Initially, we thought of sharing data and ideas related to our gene expression systems. As both of us wanted to express proteins that coarsely seemed similar, it appered to be a feasible proposal. Yet, after deeper discussion on details, we noticed that both projects weren't that similar, at least at a technical aspect. The main difference implying that we were using a bacterial system when theirs relied on yeasts, representing divergence in the expression and regulation systems. Nonetheless this didn't stop us from working together. After some brainstorming sessions we found a second option we could collaborate on. We noticed that mathematical modeling is a challeging area for various teams. Mostly because not all teams include students with a math-oriented formation, especially ocurring on Latin American teams (us included).
With this partnership we could overcome our difficulties, getting a head start on modeling concepts that were new to us. But our goal went further, was there a way to share this same guidance to other teams regardless of the project and/or partnership?
We decided to make an introductory manual about the modeling part of an iGEM project. This way, future teams can get ideas about proposals to execute in their own projects. We describe math modeling tools, bioinformatic programs, iGEM examples, and computational tools.
You can check our modeling manual by clicking here or at our contribution page!
Alongside UAM, we organized an agriculture-related workshop. In this event, we shared our projects with producers, we had guest panelists and a space for open discussion. This was a great place to know about one of our stakeholders' perspectives on GMOs and general problems in agriculture. To participate in this event, each team had to:
The event allowed both teams to generate a major impact with their work since it allowed us to reach a broader audience, in our case, not just any audience, but one of our main targets: agricultors. The workshop was a crucial event for both teams' projects, same projects that must go further than just the scientific aspect. It was important for us to generate consciousness, as well as sharing the importance of preventive measures in crop production. We additionally had the opportunity to validate our solution, firstly noticing the negative perspective other synthetic biology alternatives have, such as GMOs. This allowed us to see that a solution consisting of AMPs is an even better alternative for our public. This event required weeks of preparation, but it was worth it in the end.
This was one of the last activities we carried out. While working on other tasks, conversations about our projects oftenly came up. When deciding on new activities to develop together, we noticed we both lacked the delivery mechanism our products would have, mainly because of the high complexity this topic entails. Yet, it is an essential aspect easily skyrocketing the costs of the product. Hence, we decided to solve this issue together, having frequent meetings on brainstorming, discussions and reviewing the proposed solutions for over a month. Our goal was to establish the optimal alternative to ensure our active compounds' integrity in the field. After some research, we set up meetings with specialists to validate our solution.
As one of our educational strategies, we made a short comic book talking about our project. The aim was to make an appealing and interactive experience for our younger audiences. When we decided to share an invitation to the iGEM community to join us, UAM rapidly answered the call. They were one of the teams that joined our initiative by sending us a short illustrative story about their project.
Shipment of water samples, material exchange, donation of iGEM parts and comic book collaboration.
TecCEM and Tec-Chihuahua had many instances where we had the opportunity of collaborating. Their project consisted on developing a biosensor for detecting water contaminants. Also, they focused their application on studying water used for irrigation. Although our projects focus on different tracks, we still had the opportunity of helping each other out. Without this interactions our projects would've been widely slowed down and impaired.
TecCEM didn't limit themselves to analyzing water bodies from their region only, they wanted to analyze as mamy samples as they could and find differences on the contaminants present in different regions. For this reason, they requested us to send water samples from our city used for irrigation. To help out, we took samples from dams in Chihuahua, San Francisco de Conchos, and Cuauhtémoc. In the end, we sent 1.5 liters (~50.72 fl oz.) per sample. This allowed them to expand the impact their project is generating.
The water shipment was a significant collaboration with our friends at TecCEM. However, this wasn't the first approach we had with them. At the beginning, they contacted us looking for MS culture. After making a quick check of our inventory, we told them we would be happy to assist them. In return, they provided us with Escherichia coli HT115, a very difficult to obtain piece in our project.
A new opportunity to work together arrived in the summer, same time we were creating our constructs for expression with parts from editions 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, the results were not going as expected: the parts used were not producing any colony forming units (CFUs). Thus, we reached out to team TecCEM and they were kind enough to share some leftover parts from the 2021 Part Distribution kit. This allowed us to keep advancing inside the lab.
Later on in the competition, TecCEM, Chihuahua, and most of the Mexican teams had problems receiving the distribution kit. The main reason behind this was that Customs and Border Protection had it retained. After several calls and e-mails, we finally acquired our kit in early August. Nonetheless, TecCEM was still having trouble getting it. Thus, we shared with them the parts we knew they needed so they could keep their project going. We also attached a thank you letter for all they had done for us!
As one of our educational strategies, we made a short comic book talking about our project. The aim was to make an appealing and interactive experience for our younger audiences. When we decided to share an invitation to the iGEM community to join us, UAM answered the call. They were one of the teams that joined our initiative by sending us a short story about their project.
Contact exchange, model brainstorm, stakeholders, value chain definition and lab aid.
This team was one of the first teams we got in touch with. At the beginning of the competition, the team contacted us to work together to define the stakeholders. TecMonterrey_GDL project's intention is to detect emergent contaminants in water. So, we had a meeting to help them to define their main stakeholders.
Their team contacted us because they liked our work in Human Practices from previous years and wanted some guidance. We held a zoom meeting where we:
This allowed both teams to better shape their human practices on each project. From our end, exchanging contacts was really valuable because we wanted to validate our problematic on a national scale. On their side, they began defining work plans now being certain on what social actors they were impacting.
Our PI got a chance to visit their campus and meet them in person. When she got back, she told us the team expressed some concerns about what to model on their project. Thus, we got in touch once again for a model collaboration. This time, our model team helped TecMonterrey_GDL by brainstorming ideas they could apply to their project. After checking together previous iGEM teams with similar projects, they got a clearer idea for their model.
On the last days of the competition, team TecMonterrey_GDL asked for help in verifying the overexpression of EryK protein from one of its expression vectors by SDS-PAGE. Also, both teams have worked together to implement TecMonterrey_GDL proposal of an antibiotic collection box in our school.
Figure 1. Gel electrophoresis done for Tec-GDL.
Team UAM was a key piece in the development of our project. Our joint efforts allowed us to create excellent extra material, such as our model manual and their contribution to the comic book. Furthermore, the sum of both teams' forces enabled us to accomplish mutual and crucial goals. A great example of these goals is in the technical area, by collaborating on deciding on the delivery mechanism. Additionally, our cooperative work allowed us to organize an agriculture-focused workshop. The event was a fundamental element of our projects based on the urgency of educating about the importance of preventive measures in agricultural practices.
The relationship with TecCEM was beneficial and allowed us both to keep advancing in our project. We are glad we could help them reach out a wider region to analyze their biosensor via the exchange of materials and parts we did. It was of great support to have a team that had what we needed and was willing to share it with us (just like we did with them). As a perfect extra, they also took part in our comic book compendium by sendind us a short story.
Our alliance with TecMonterrey_GDL allowed us to define both projects accurately. At a first glance, brainstorming helped a lot to come up with some new strategies. We additionally helped each other out to spruce up our human and model areas, guiding them on an certainly adecuate direction. Finally, we gladly helped them check out their bio-part so that they could keep working towards the finalization of their project.
