To improve our project, exchange ideas, and find innovation, we reached out to other iGEM teams for collaborations and ultimately connected with the iGEM community. We collaborated in different styles by hosting online meetings, recording episodes of podcasts, creating a puzzle book, and producing a promotional video. The scale of our collaboration ranges from levels of international university teams to local high school teams. In the following sections of this page, we will go in-depth into each collaboration with each iGEM team.

The purpose of online meetings was to promote more interactions with teams in the iGEM community and broaden our visions through this style of collaboration. By understanding the problems of other teams, we brainstormed ideas to empower our solutions and come up with better ideas. Possibly, we hope for partnerships and potentially reach out even further for other collaborations with more iGEM teams.

Through the sharing of our projects and exchanging of our ideas, we understood their project “E.Color” and they comprehended our project dealing with eutrophication. This collaboration was vital for both teams to impart their knowledge and exchange bateria to implement into the projects of both teams. Therefore, we decided extending our collaboration even further to a long-run partnership .

KCIS was a fitting team to collaborate with because we shared same level and background knowledge in synthetic biology. It was a great experience for us to encompass different biology fields. KCIS introduced their project related to obesity and human health while our team talked about our project about aquatic issues, specifically eutrophication. Finally, we delved into experimental experiences of both teams and took some suggestions on how to enhance our project. Despites the differences in our experimental designs, our team values this experience to share insights with KCIS iGEM team.

It is a unique opportunity to collaborate with team HNU_China who utilize a different approach to deal with eutrophication. Their method was to create a genetic circuit that has the ability to absorb and extract inorganic phosphate. Throughout the meeting, our team asked HNU_China technical questions regarding our product

Our team seeks a shared space for discussions. The Business and Technology Conference held by team Korea_HS gather different iGEM teams to share their inspirations in creating their products. The conference involved team Empire Gene, Insa Lyon1, iGEM Patras, and Korea_HS.

Through ten minute long presentations for every team, we were inspired by unprecedented ideas and novel manufacturing processes. Even though each team concentrated in different issues, we were driven by the same passion for synthetic biology and the strong networks behind the competition. Some teams shared their ten plus interviews with different medical and synbio experts; another explained fervently their ideas to use DNA to store information. The active interactions and communications kept elevating the conversation to a professional level.

Our team was grateful to gain the best entrepreneur at the conference. In our eyes, every innovative product we saw at the conference showcases the stories and efforts behind every team. With the advice and inspiration we learned from them, our team would continue to explore and find a unique position for our product in the market.

By making a collection of podcast episodes, we aimed at delivering potential issues in real-world settings. The podcast collaboration consists of interviews and project sharings. Through the interviews, we informed and reminded the general public about the seriousness of global issues and how would those problems affect society. In every episode, we invited iGEM teams to talk about their projects and, most importantly, give the general public notion of ceasing global issues concerns.

In the second episode of our podcast, we invited team NYCU_Taipei to finish a recording with us. NYCU talked about their project called “E.Color” along with their inspirations and project significance. Their aim was to indicate the growth status of different E.coli by expressing the bacteria with different colors. From this collaboration, we saw great possibilities that their project could be applied in environmental and clinical applications to contribute to the society.

Korea_HS came up with a project to improve the stability of data stored in DNA. They called their project “Tfam DNA Enhancement Kit.” Unlike other DNA storage systems, their project is environmentally friendly because their method does not emit CO₂ or use excess energy. Therefore, after they imparting their knowledge in technology and synthetic biology, DNA storage would become more stable and harmless to the environment. Though their project is not directly related to environmental issues, it is a good example of benefitting the environment from a different facet.

In China (Hunan), a large proportion of water is eutrophic. Similar to our topic, they also came up with an idea to cope with eutrophication. Their project “P Pact” was to build up a genetic circuit to absorb and export inorganic phosphate to lessen eutrophication. Their final goal is to reach sustainable development, purifying water bodies in their region (Hunan). Thanks to them, we learned a different application of synthetic biology to deal with eutrophication.

MSP iGEM's target problem is water scarcity. With their solution, it is possible to not use energy, emit greenhouse gases, and obtain water with a cheap and sustainable price. Similar to our project, our projects focus on water issues and make sure our methods are friendly to the environment.

Puzzle book was initiated by team Aestuarium MSP Maastricht and collaborated with 20 other iGEM teams. In this collaborative project, we included a 150-word project description and 10 words to introduce our team and project. With a brief and creative puzzle book, we hope our project could be easier to understand by the public.

Our team is like a united family : spent time working cohesively and supporting each other in many aspects. All 15 of us are equally determined to achieve the same goal, so everyone is driven and dedicated . While encountering problems, every single one of us is resilient and accountable to dissolve the obstacles.

Our project is measurable and practical in terms of its benefits and achievements. It is not only achievable in monetary aspects, our plan is innovative and eco-friendly aiming at solving Eutrophication issues and providing a stable ecology in the global community.

iGEM team NCHU Taichung, a university in Taiwan, launched an activity to collaborate with all iGEM teams in Taiwan in order to create a video gallery about the projects of each team. The purpose of this collaboration was to let Taiwanese citizens understand local issues and the applications of synthetic biology. By explaining eutrophication and our approach to solving this issue through synthetic biology, our team could deliver our messages and raise public awareness through a video .

To conclude, we hope we can have more interactions and communications with other iGEM teams. We hope to spread more ideas about the seriousness of aquatic issues and help out other iGEM teams to solve problems by working together, gathering ideas, and sharing experiences.