COLLABORATIONS
Throughout the duration of the iGEM season, our team collaborated with a wide variety of other teams from around the world! From project mentoring with UBC iGEM, a regional competition hosted by iGEM Calgary, to other smaller collaborations with INSA Lyon iGEM and more, we have connected with teams in many meaningful ways. All of these collaborations were separate from our large-scale Partnership with ASU iGEM in which we organized the revival of the iGEM Phototroph Community over a four-month span.
PROJECT MENTORING
UBC iGEM
Since this is our first year competing in the iGEM competition, our sister campus, UBC Vancouver, who has competed numerous times in the past, aided in our recruitment process and understanding of the competition early on. Additionally, we have been in constant communication regarding this year's competition requirements, fundraising techniques and project ideation through a joint Discord server dedicated to this special relationship. Working with wheat protoplasts, UBC iGEM joined the iGEM Phototroph Community organized by our team. UBC Vancouver benefitted from this community of teams working with plants, microalgae and cyanobacteria by sharing protocols, engaging with related teams, and troubleshooting cloning and cultivation techniques. They participated in all three Community Meetups, and gained valuable insight to protoplast isolation and was integral to their project development, considering their team had no prior experience working with plants. They also helped our team by contributing to the Phototroph Handbook for future iGEM teams to reference.
Our team provided the contact for Dr. Luis De Stefano, a speaker in their international accessibility panel, while their team provided a contact for obtaining our cyanobacterial strain, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 for our project! We met several times throughout the competition season both virtually and in-person during a lab visit to learn more about team structure and provide support to current experiments in-lab!
Gustavo Muro Marchani, UBCO iGEM President, with Janella Schwabb, UBC iGEM President, on the UBC Vancouver Campus during an in-person meetup in August 2022.
REGIONAL Competition
iGEM Calgary
Our collaboration with the iGEM Calgary team was based upon our team’s participation in JulyGEM, a virtual Canadian iGEM conference as well as their monthly newsletter. The 4th annual JulyGEM conference was hosted by the iGEM Calgary team and featured five-minute pitch presentations by attending teams, organized into various pools. Following each pitch, there was a 10-minute Q&A session with former judges and experts from academia. The event allowed teams to practice presenting their research before the Grand Jamboree and gain valuable feedback on their project.
Notable feedback obtained from the judges involved market limitations of our product and concerns about waste management. They encouraged our team to put emphasis on the consumer for human-centric design and compare the environmental impacts of LEDs to Life Bulb. We also participated in their monthly Canadian newsletter, which brought together a community of Canadian iGEM teams to answer questions each month regarding progress, and more generally about our projects. An example of the July newsletter can be viewed here.
BIOLUMINESCENCE INFOGRAPHIC
INSA Lyon iGEM
In our search for other iGEM team projects related to bioluminescence, we came across INSA Lyon iGEM. Their project, FIAT LUX, aims to make phytopathogens detectable under a camera for tracking disease in a variety of plant species! Naturally, we reach out to them, and had a meeting together learn more about each other's projects given the close alignment, and provided feedback to our Human Practices and Wet Lab approach. This meeting was particularly impactful considering both of our teams understood the potential of bioluminescence, and its concrete applications from climate change to diagnostics and more!
Since we are the only two teams working with the glowing phenomena this iGEM season, we decided to create a joint-post for Instagram titled, "What is up with Bioluminescence?". In this post, we told the history of bioluminescence in research, where it can be found in nature, emerging biotechnologies and why it is important. Together, we hope to educate people around the world on the power and beauty of synthetic biology.
OTHER
qGEM
Our team collaborated with the qGEM team for several of their outreach projects. Firstly, UBCO iGEM strongly values amplifying Indigenous voices in STEM research, as a major aspect of our Integrated Human Practices involved obtaining feedback on Life Bulb from the Sylix Okanagan Nation Alliance, in which our team is situated. qGEM organized a social media campaign using the hashtag #IDWIPqGEM2022, in which teams from around the world highlighted accomplished Indigenous researchers for International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9th!
Furthermore, we contributed to a multi-team collaboration on a bacteria picture book called Biome organized by qGEM to promote microbiology education for youth. We were tasked with creating an entry featuring our team's favourite bacteria, in which we choose our strain, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 of course! Our submission can be viewed below.
iGEM Waterloo
In a call to teams on Instagram, the iGEM Waterloo team requested that our newly formed team be interviewed in a study on how iGEM teams are structured, to gain better insight into effective strategies and team building methods to benefit future teams. We were delighted to participate, providing our unique experience as a freshman team and the lessons we have accrued along the way from recruitment to management styles!
