Throughout our iGEM experience we have had the chance to establish a continuous active interaction with BioBrussels. As we are the first ever iGEM team from the University of Bath, we noticed the need of guidance specifically for new-comers and saw the opportunity of collaborating in that aspect. Additionally, we saw that both of our teams dealt with water treatment, and it was from there that we decided to partner up for the remainder of the competition.
In July, we reached out to the BioBrussels team and, after sharing our experiences and keeping each other updated on our activities, we discussed the potential of creating such document together. Producing the manual for future teams has allowed us to reflect upon our advances and learn about how each team might face difference challenges. We believe that this will be extremely valuable and informative for anyone participating in iGEM.
Secondly, since we discovered that our projects both involved water management, we joined BioBrussels’ collaboration with the Maastricht University iGEM team. Together, we designed a triple implementation to remove not only phosphorous from wastewater, but also calcium and salt.
Our partnership with BioBrussels was mutually beneficial. By sharing our websites and giving each other feedback, we both hugely improved our work. We also shared some key resources such as The Phoenix Project initiative, which we thought BioBrussels could find useful.
A discussion between Modelling leads from each team was carried out discussing the best-fitting ODE curves and the data used to fit it separately. Also, we proposed some biologically realistic lower bounds for parameter values. Both sides made changes to their Modelling as a result.
Lastly, BioBrussels has also contributed to increasing the success of our informative leaflets. They have helped us reach a larger user base by translating it to French and Dutch and spreading it in Belgium.
Overall, we are extremely grateful for our partnership with BioBrussels. We acknowledge that it has contributed to the success of our project and improved our iGEM experience. Importantly, it has highlighted the advantages of international collaboration within the field of Synthetic Biology.