IISER Pune iGEM
Our ongoing collaboration with the IISER Pune iGEM team covered both Human Practices and Dry-Lab efforts. We co-hosted and organized our panel on ‘International Accessibility to Synthetic Biology Innovations’, as well as exchanged knowledge in mathematical and climate modelling. A more detailed account of our collaboration is found on our Partnerships page.
University of Calgary iGEM
Our collaboration with the UCalgary iGEM team was based on participation in their Canadian iGEM conference and monthly newsletter. JulyGEM is an annual conference hosted by the iGEM Calgary team wherein attending teams are required to present a 5 minute pitch on their current iGEM project followed by a 10 minute Q&A session. The event allows teams to get practice presenting their projects before the Jamboree and develops a collaboration between teams.
Our team presented our project on developing a heat-resistant strain of wheat. We demonstrated the use of three constructs as well as protoplasts as a proof-of-concept. We also relayed our Human Practices and Dry-Lab goals in terms of education, mathematical modelling, and bioinformatics analysis. General feedback about our pitch involved downstream targets and if we were to market this as a product, how we would implement it on the larger plant system since protoplasts are just a proof-of-concept. We also participated in their monthly Canadian newsletter, which built community between Canadian iGEM teams in answering monthly questions about team projects and progress. Some examples of monthly updates that built a Canadian community are in their June and July newsletters.
RIS-Thailand iGEM
We participated in the RIS-Thailand iGEM team's agricultural meetup where 7 teams working on agricultural problems and methods met virtually and continuously to share advice on each others’ projects. Through observing other agricultural projects, we were able to appreciate the need for our project and the issues they addressed. Other teams’ presentations made us develop the value proposition aspect of our slides for our future storytelling initiatives, as well as explain how our Wet-Lab and Dry-Lab initiatives are connected. We also interacted with the IISER Pune team during this meetup which nourished our interactions that ultimately led to our Partnership mentioned above.
UBC Okanagan iGEM
The UBCO iGEM team is a first-time team that we advised for the duration of the iGEM season on team development, project ideation, and logistics. Our mentorship relationship fostered an environment where we were comfortable sharing tips and asking questions related to team development, sponsorship, Wet-Lab work, and other collaborations. They provided the contact for Dr. Luis DeStefano, a speaker in our international accessibility panel, while we provided a contact for obtaining the bacterial strain for their project.
We also participated in their Phototroph Meetup conference, where they fostered a community around working with phototrophs in iGEM given their challenges. The Phototroph community was started by the 2021 Marburg iGEM team to compile useful information for future iGEM teams working with phototrophic organisms to help fill the gap in available resources and protocols. After its success last year, the idea was continued by the UBCO team, and our team got the chance to join the community of 7 teams from around the world. As a part of the community, we participated in two virtual meetups throughout July and August, where we gained insightful advice from academic experts and industry professionals working in plant synthetic biology. Each team within the community was given a chance to share their project and receive feedback from each other as well as experts. We utilized this opportunity to gain insightful troubleshooting advice for our protoplast isolation. As Synaestivum was the first plant-based project any of our members had worked on, being a part of the community and learning from the other teams was an integral part of our project development. We also added protocol documentation to their Phototroph Community Handbook, meant to share methods and protocols related to working with phototrophs to increase documentation for future teams to work with them as well. We outlined the premise and troubleshooting related to our protoplast isolation procedure to increase the amount of teams that could work on this in the future.
Patras iGEM
We discussed our projects with the Patras iGEM team and the common goals between our teams and possible collaborations that could come out of it. We are both working on agricultural projects, where the Patras team is developing a precision agriculture software based on samples to have agricultural growth tailored to soil health. We realized that our projects both addressed the Sustainable Development Goal #12, Responsible Production & Consumption. Both of our projects create tools that will result in more sustainable food production systems, and due to this we decided to collaborate on a podcast that would invite individuals working towards this SDG to inspire others to do similar initiatives. While we developed the first episode independently as discussed in our Education & Communication page, we collaborated with iGEM Patras for the second episode.
The Patras team had a common goal of developing a solution to increase farmer crop viability and quality this year, which provided grounds for collaboration and brainstorming between our teams. Although our projects focused on different parts of the agricultural practice, with their team focusing on the soil the crop was to be grown in instead of the cellular mechanisms of the crop itself, the main objective for both our projects was similar. How our projects may help achieve some of the UN’s Sustainable Develop Goals (SDGs) was a major focus for our Human Practices teams, and we got a chance to discuss education and outreach initiatives each of our teams had taken, and how we could further develop our platforms to incorporate food nutrition, reducing world hunger, and sustainability. Our teams held three collaborative meetings, and it was through this collaboration that the idea for our team’s podcast series focusing on the SDGs was brought to life.
