Our Partnerships
Figure 1. Logo of national partnership between Tecnológico de Monterrey
Our team: iGEM Tec-Monterrey , located in the city of Monterrey, is one of the 31 campuses located throughout Mexico. The total student population accounts for almost 100,000 students, distributed throughout the country. This year, 6 teams from 6 different campuses belonging to the university: Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Tecnológico de Monterrey) are participating in IGEM 2022. Therefore, due to the nature of how we have this in common, and we believed we could make a highly valuable contribution, we decided to get together , and work together in different areas and with different teams depending on the nature of our projects, and how we could help one another.
We consider this a partnership, as we joined forces at different stages throughout the IGEM season. Our project wouldn't have been the same without these meetings , and joined efforts. Therefore, together we created this logo symbolizing the strength, union, and power of networking in our projects. Rather than looking at it as an individual collaboration, we see it as a network , as a system of support.
First we held meetings with representatives of each campus, and got to know each other, talk about our projects, our needs, and how we could work together. Here we identified possible contributions with Tec-Chihuahua, TecCEM and another with Tec-Querétaro.
Partnered Teams
Figure 2. In silico analysis of target genes
We worked together with Tec-Chihuahua to strengthen and validate each other's work. During these meetings, we got together via Zoom and performed an in silico analysis of their target gene (from P. capsici RXLR ) for studying the hybridization-efficiency profile of the entire mRNA sequence (see modeling), and thus comparing the predicted hybridization efficiency of their previously designed RNAi with the dataset of asRNA (antisense RNAs) that our software created. This was highly valuable for both of us , as it helped us validate our proof of concept, and for our partners, our software showed that there was a hybridization of 93%, indicating that their siRNA was very likely to hybridize and thus, were able to validate that their active compound works.
Furthermore, as part of this national partnership, we collaborated to collect antibiotic and drug leftover treatments for their proper disposal in our respective campuses. Tec-Guadalajara was in charge of finding the necessary authorization to install the recollection modules in campus. After our university (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey) authorized, we installed a stand and collected leftover medication during our activities with the community every Wednesday, and then created a sculpture with the boxes for our Human , and properly discarded the drug leftovers to the appropriate third party national institution : Sistema Nacional de Gestión de Residuos de Envases de Medicamentos A.C. (National Drug Packaging Waste Management System A.C.)
We collaborated in the development of an alternative plan for our cloning strategies, since Tec CEM had a stock of a phagemid that we could use in case our constructs were not being packaged on the M13 bacteriophage correctly. For this, igem team Tec CEM sent us a PblueScript KS and gave us valuable feedback.
Figure 3. Meeting with Tec CEM
We collaborated with Tec Querétaro by imparting a Benchling course with the purpose of teaching students in silico plasmid design and digestions, also the general use of the tool and providing insight into experimental design as part of their “SYNBIO WEEK”, an event aimed to educate people about topics related to synthetic biology and biotechnology free of charge. In this event many other teams from all Latin America participated, with the objective of promoting synthetic biology among our different communities. This collaboration allowed us to accomplish our goal of synthetic biology divulgation and education in antibiotic resistance.
Figure 4. Syn Bio Week Diploma