UAM is divided in two main sections, Human Practices and Biological Engineering, that are subdivided as:

Human Practices

• Integrated Human Practices: This part of the team is in charge of connecting the scientific project according to society's needs. One of the main goals was to identify and engage with stakeholders related to the problem and consider the feedback for the improvement of Spidicide.
• Education: It is in charge of organizing educational and collaborative activities for scientific dissemination with the objective of making science more approachable for everyone.
• Bioentrepeneurship: This subsection aims to create a real start-up based on business strategies for our biopesticide.
• Communication: This part of the team is in charge of all the visual material for communicating the ideas we have in our project. This section is also responsible for social media and the image we give to the world.
• Fundraising: Responsible for organizing activities and strategies for raising money.
• Wiki Design: In charge of designing the team webpage.

Biological Engineering

• Biosafety & Biosecurity: Responsible for reviewing the laws and regulations related to synthetic biology in our country and others for having a project that follows the safety protocols. This part of the team was also responsible for performing bioessays.
• Molecular biology: This team was in charge of the selection of the genetic parts. In addition, its assembly and analysis.
• Protein Modeling: This team researched and defined the spider venom peptides used, based on the information provided by the other areas. They used bioinformatic tools to model the interaction peptides-ion channels from insects and humans.
• Math modeling: This section performed the interaction mechanism between the circuit elements, inducer, and our fusion proteins over time. We also tried to make predictions of the production of the protein based on certain relevant parameters.
• Wet Lab: Experimental lab work such as bacterial transformations, PCRs and mainly producing the peptides in the chassis.

Our Instructors



Dra. Yenizey

Principal Investigator (PI)

Professor Yenizey is part of the Biotechnology department. She helped us during the season and guidance in administrative processes. In addition, professor Yenizey advised us about the project organization and the key steps to continue working as a team.



Dr. Javier Barrios

Rol:Research group leader and professor in the Department of Biotechnology of the UAM-I

About me:“I aim to understand life, and science is one of the important paths to do so.
Besides, applying the scientific method to clarify certain biological processes, that interest me, is very exciting. It is like being able to snatch pieces of knowledge from Nature. It is even better when doing it together with my students, as part of their academic formation”



Dr. Roberto Olivares Hernández

Dr. Olivares is a researcher of excellence, introduced us to mathematical modeling and helped us to have a broader perspective of our modeling. With that feedback we knew what we could add but also what we could take away to make it clearer what we wanted to demonstrate in our mathematical model. He also helped us with the fundamentals.



Dr. Álvaro Lara

Dr. Lara helped us to resolve doubts regarding the parameters that we had in mind to measure. Despite the complications that this implied, he gave us a solution to avoid that obstacle.



Dr. Juan Gabriel Vigueras

Dr Vigueras helped us in the hardware area, as he became familiar with this experimental part and the design. In addition to the fact that he sponsored the materials that we required for the construction of our measurement system.



Dr. Carlos Jiménez

Dr. Carlos helped us in protein modeling, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics. He is an Industrial Biochemical Engineer and Doctor in Biotechnology, he was part of the Food Biotechnology group at UAM, analyzing the interaction of aflatoxins with milk components through the use of protein modelling, molecular docking techniques and molecular dynamics.



Dra. María del Rosario Tarragó.

Dra. Tarragó helped us with the part of investigating laws, ethics, and bioessays methods for our project. She has a degree in Biology Reproduction, a master’s degree in Biology of Animal Reproduction, and a doctorate in Biological Sciences at UAM-I. Additionally, she is a member of the Neuroscience Area of the Department of Reproductive Biology and part of the Academic Commission of Ethics of the Division of Biological and Health Sciences (CBS) at UAM-I.

Collaborators

• Alitzel Victoria Tapia Gómez: Human practices work.

• Angel Popoca: Promotional video edition

• Leeslye Valeria Flores Domínguez: Video recording

• Agricultural Engineer Pável Ernesto Damián Díaz: Helped us with advice about possible stakeholders around our project, information about pesticides and idea for the formulation and production process

• Dr. Nemesio Chávez: Helped with the science communication and also with the promotional video.

• Dr. Luis Daniel Ortega Martínez: Helped us with advice about pesticide containers, micronuclei and more information about the agricultural sector.

• Dra. Argelia García Elizalde: Helped us in the development of questionnaires and engagement with community strategies.

Special thanks to our sponsors without them this dream of participating in the competition would not be possible.

“We want to especially thank all mexican communities that provided us with support and whose donations and promotion made this project possible. Without the help of all news channels, social figures, friends, family, professors and even strangers who believed in us, this project would still be only a dream and not a reality like today”
-iGEM UAM