Medals

Jamboree Results

Gold Medal

Best Wiki Nomination


Bronze	Description
Attributions https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/attributions	Our team provided explicit attributions, detailing the significant papers that inspired the project, lab donations, instructional support, individual member contributions and external feedback. Our attributions page provides a holistic and complete perspective towards all the work that has been completed by internal members and feedback of external supporters. We provided a specific breakdown of how each member contributed to the project in a table. This table categorizes each member's contribution in various areas such as the general team aspects, wet lab aspects and human practices. In addition, the attributions page specifies how each instructor and external expert supported the team. There is a brief description for each external contributor clarifying how they supported the team. As such, our team fulfills this criteria for the bronze medal by providing all necessary attributions to every contributing individual and organization.
Project Description https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/description	Our project aims to tackle the climate crisis by focusing on one ubiquitous source of energy consumption whose effects are often taken for granted; lighting. Through our project description page, we addressed the problem of modern lighting and inspirations for our solution. We described how we looked to nature for ways of “growing” lights and found the solution in bioluminescence. Furthermore, we also discussed the reasons why we approached the problem in this manner. We have described how attempts have been made in the past with plants and bacteria, but these systems have many disadvantages, such as lack of versatility, space consumption, strict legal regulations, and efficiency. We described how our project has many advantages; the photosynthetic cyanobacteria we chose to work with has a quicker doubling time and are easier to handle. Our project description page also discusses how our project was a useful application towards synthetic biology by bringing sustainable light to areas without adequate infrastructure and provide new opportunities for illumination and artistic expression. Citations for all references can be found on the bottom of their respective pages.
Contribution https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/contribution	Our team made new contributions to multiple Registry parts based on literature review. We expanded upon existing information for the fungal luciferase gene (Luz) and hispidin-3-hydroxylase gene (H3H) Registry pages, describing enzyme kinetics, enzyme structure, and history of heterologous expression. These parts offer many potential applications for the expression of bioluminescent systems, however, proper characterization is essential for their use in synthetic biology. In addition to existing parts, we also contributed new basic and composite parts for the expression of the fungal bioluminescence pathway, including all genes codon-optimized for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 as coding sequences, and included in transcriptional units. Additionally, we created new registry pages for promoters and terminators included in the CyanoGate Kit for the engineering of cyanobacteria. BBa_K3107000 BBa_K3107001
Silver	Description
Engineering Sucess https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/engineering	We have assembled level 2 and level T plasmids with 5 transcriptional units. 3 of these have never been expressed in prokaryotes (NpgA, HispS, and CPH). These expression vectors are for use in both E. coli (Level 2) and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (Level T) containing 5 transcriptional units each. We have successfully transformed E. coli with this expression vector (selected by antibiotic resistance), and will prove successful expression of these transcriptional units using methods such as RT-PCR and SDS-PAGE. Time constrains did not allow us to conduct LC-MS to generate spectra of metabolites in transformed cells, as well as wild-type. If expression is successful, we will perform assays and more analysis to determine bioluminescent potential. If not, we will attempt expression of each TU on its own to determine which are compatible and which are not. From there we can determine if expression of fungal bioluminescent pathways in prokaryotes is viable for the future. Tests with caffeic acid (the substrate for the pathway) showed no bioluminescence, but, we did not have dense colonies at the time of the test. BBa_K4350818 BBa_K4350830 BBa_K4350832
Collaboration https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/collaborations	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, as well as collaboration with 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 also helped our team by contributing to the Phototroph Handbook for future iGEM teams to reference. Our teams 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. In addition, we also participated in iGEM Calgary’s JulyGEM to present our project, worked with INSA Lyon iGEM to create a bioluminescent infographic, collaborated in with qGEM to promote indigenous scientists, and were interviewed by iGEM Waterloo regarding our team structure.
Human Practices https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/human-practices	In the process of designing Life Bulb, we contacted several experts in diverse fields to build off their feedback. We consulted with local Indigneous communities with a passion for environmental conservation for their opinions on our project and gave us their ideas on how to build a more inclusive project, reflecting off their indigenous values. We collaborated with an Indigenous artist to design an art piece inspired by Life Bulb, combining the values of the Sylix Okanagan Nation with iGEM, opening up a bidirectional conversation on the importance of First Nation perspectives in STEM research which is an unfortunate underrepresentation in many cases. Our team values working towards reconciliation in Canada and amplifying Indigenous voices for more conscious community integration. Environmentally, UBCO iGEM aims to reduce the high energy consumption and GHG emissions of electrical lighting. We spoke with a renowned lighting designer, Leela Shanker, who advocates for more efficient and environmentally-friendly lighting solutions, compared to LEDs. She was excited to work with us in turning our project into reality, in which she offered both networking and technical support. We worked with cyanobacteria and bioluminescence experts to discuss the feasibility of Life Bulb and how best to focus our efforts in hardware design and market research to maximize the product impact, simultaneously meeting safety requirements. Leela gave us more perspective regarding the sustainability of the lighting industry and the impact of lighting on human psychology which we kept in mind while designing the Life Bulb. In addition, we also released a survey to see the general consensus about our project concept and bioluminescent lighting, and received over 140 results.
Proposed Implementation https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/implementation	On this page, we explained how Life Bulb would be implemented in personal, architectural, and artistic settings. To achieve this, our team designed artistic mockups of both outdoor and indoor spaces demonstrating a proof of concept for Life Bulb in the real-world, as well as detailed hardware designs in Solidworks and Unreal Engine. As mentioned in the Human Practices section, we worked with a local Indigenous artist to brainstorm and adapt Life Bulb to traditional Sylix-Okanagan art and to emphasize the importance of First Nations perspectives in achieving proper community integration. With advice from the engineering faculty on our campus, our drylab team developed Life Bulb hardware to feature both pump and gear systems, modeling fluid dynamics of cyanobacteria and detailing the materials for several architectural designs and a consumer lamp. Our design also accounts for the accidental release of the genetically modified organisms to the environment through the development of a secondary containment system. The proposed implementations for our consumer lamp were detailed further in an instructional manual intended to be marketed towards children interested in STEM, with the goal of educating the public of synthetic biology and reducing the stigma surrounding GMOs given the beauty and interactivity of our product.
Gold	Description
Integrated Human Practices https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/human-practices	Our team conducted interviews with PhD students specializing in engineering phototrophs, including an iGEM Plant Subcommittee representative for experimental, hardware, and market support. We reached out to regional biotechnology companies like Nyoka Design Labs and Spira Inc who work with cyanobacteria and bioluminescence, respectively. In our numerous conversations, we obtained a more nuanced understanding of the possibilities of introducing Life Bulb to the market and gained valuable feedback on the feasibility of our hardware design. In addition, we spoke with a bioartist and educator from Okada Design who advised our team on effective community integration, and urged us to frame our project with an educational focus. Since our project is aimed to tackle the climate crisis, we had several conversations with a renowned lighting designer from the Greenlight Alliance who is passionate about bioluminescence and the idea of replacing electrical lighting solutions, given their large embodied carbon impact resulting in high energy consumption and GHG emissions. Furthermore, UBCO iGEM had meetings with members of local Indigneous communities with a passion for traditional art and environmental conservation for their opinions on our project, including designing an art piece inspired by Life Bulb in collaboration with an Indigenous artist, combining the values of the Sylix Okanagan Nation with iGEM, opening up a bidirectional conversation. Our team integrated the feedback from experts and community members throughout all aspects of the project.
Improvement of Existing Parts	Existing Parts that are improved: Part Number: BBa_K3107000 BBa_K3107001 New Parts: Part Number: BBa_K4350822 BBa_K4350823 BBa_K4350824 BBa_K4350826
Partnership https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/partnership	UBCO iGEM and ASU iGEM formed a strong partnership throughout the duration of the 2022 season, given that both our projects involved engineering phototrophic organisms. The iGEM Phototroph Community was founded by the grand-prize winning team, iGEM Marburg and top-ten-ranking iGEM Bielefeld in 2021, with the aim of bringing together teams working with phototrophic organisms in the iGEM competition. Those include cyanobacteria, microalgae and higher plants. These teams are underrepresented in the competition given the lack of standardization in protocols for engineering phototrophs, as well as their more intensive growth requirements. Continuing the tradition of last year, our two teams organized various community meetups, engaging twelve teams total. We featured guest speakers from the iGEM Plant Subcommittee, researchers in phototrophic cultivation and cloning for team troubleshooting, as well as a Virtual Conference with experts from academia and industry to share the state-of-the-art in phototroph synthetic biology and give iGEM teams an opportunity to practice presenting ahead of the Grand Jamboree. Our teams organized the development of Phototroph Handbook Volume II, a comprehensive collection of protocols and helpful background information on engineering phototrophs for future iGEM teams to reference. We worked with the iGEM Plant Subcommittee who have agreed to upload the Handbook to their webpage, further expanding the impact of our contribution and partnership for years to come!
Education and Communication https://2022.igem.wiki/ubc-okanagan/communication	Our iGEM team has collaborated with several educational programs such as the Canadian Non-profit organization, Let’s Talk Science, and the Integrative STEM Team Advancing Networks of Diversity (iSTAND) to educate the youth about biotechnology. Our team held a synthetic biology booth for the Okanagan STEM Fair, where we held workshops and activities for a large group of Indigenous Grade 7 students and introduced them to the concept of biotechnology. In addition, our team visited several iSTAND summer camps for children of ages 6-13. For these events, we developed our own workshop, BioBrick Activity where children are introduced to the creative possibilities of biotechnology. In this workshop, children use PlayDough to create organisms of various morphologies after looking at slides under a microscope and then express fun characteristics such as mermaid tails using paper cutouts. The workshop material is open source and can be found on our wiki, allowing other educators and parents to explore the creative nature of synthetic biology with their students and children. Ultimately, we provided a fun and easy way of exploring synthetic biology for the youth. Lastly, we created an instructional manual to supplement our Life Bulb, with information GMOs and indigenous culture. Through this manual, we frame the concept of GMOs in a unique and friendly manner.