Team:Aachen/Beyond Basics
Beyond The Basics
Apart from basic lab work we also established a dialogue with the public.
Our outreach included contributing to conferences, socializing and scientific events.
Beyond that we asked ourselves how to maximize the future impact of our project and made an effort to get as much feedback from outsiders as possible. This motivated us to evaluate the economic perspectives of our LIPs, as well.
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Many iGEM teams create great ideas and great projects, but when it comes to the implementation and application in real life, it is also important to deal with the following questions: Would this project be applicable in reality? Would there be a market for this product? What opportunities are there to make the product more appealing to consumers? Apart from "Integrated Practices", it was also of great interest for us to examine the potential of our idea on the laundry detergents market. |
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That is why we created an economical analysis in cooperation with a business administration student from the University in Nantes, France.
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Policies of the New Product |
Policy Regarding the Distribution of the New Product |
Policies of Communication of the New Product
The new product of the iGEM Team Aachen should be communicated as an alternative to already existing washing detergents and there should be a focus on the ecological impacts of boric acid. The product of the iGEM Team Aachen should ban boric acid and make it possible to use the washing detergents with the same quality as before. Instead of boric acid they want to communicate the use of light to activate the protease. As the iGEM Team wants people to activate the protease with light, they also have to communicate this difference. That’s where I see the biggest problem for the iGEM Team Aachen. They have to convince the people that they should not only invest more time in the washing process, but also to change their customs when it comes to cleaning their clothes. Moreover they would need to convince big companies. Although the iGEM Team invented a gadget for activating the protease and in a survey the team performed the majority of the people said that they would spend more time for activating the protease, this idea has to be transferred in the daily life of the customers. For that reason this device has to be as user friendly as possible, the application should only differ in a very small way from today’s application and the price should be in the same range like before. If they take care of these purposes and still maintain the ecological part, the products can have a chance on the global market.
NRW Day
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This year the state North-Rhine Westphalia celebrated its 70th birthday, with event days for the public, in its capital Düsseldorf. Because of that, the iGEM Team Düsseldorf invited members of our team and other iGEM teams from North Rhine Westphalia to come to Düsseldorf. Here we were given the possibility to present our project idea to the public and to talk about the advantages of synthetic biology. This gave us the chance to review our project and integrate the opinions, fears and ideas from other people. We want to thank the iGEM team Düsseldorf for organizing this. |
Future Lab Gala
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Future lab is a gala organized by different institutes and organizations in Aachen to present Aachen as the perfect place for research, science and industry. During this gala, the participants presented themselves with the help of scientific experiments, art, and speeches. It was a great opportunity for us to get in touch with politicians, people from the industry, and different universities and to tell them about iGEM and our project. |
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Annual meeting of DECHEMA
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Analytica
We visited the trade fair “Analytica”, for analysis, biotechnology, laboratory technology, and devices in Munich. Here we got in touch with different companies and presented our project to them. Moreover, this trade fair gave us the possibility to win over supporters for our project. We also met members from the iGEM Team Munich.
SynBioBeta
SynBioBeta is one of the main communities of entrepreneurs, investors, and policy makers devoted to promote the responsible growth of the synthetic biology field. On their international conferences and events many members of the synthetic biology community come together and discuss possibilities to promote the development of this industrial field. The background of people, visiting these conferences, is very diverse and therefore various aspects are discussed. Our members were not only able to meet industrial members and scientist, but also other iGEM Teams and Randy, founder of the iGEM organization. This was an amazing experience for us and left a big impression on our members during their visit in London. Furthermore, our members were able to listen to different lectures and participate in many discussion rounds.
Biomedica
In 2016 the Biomedica trade fair took place in Aachen from the 30th to the 31st of May. So, many members of our team decided to visit this conference and look at the different topics, which were presented. Moreover, the four headwords: “Pharma, Biotech, Meditech, and Innovation” called our attention. Biomedica started in 2007, as the first Euregional conference on lifesciences. Biomedica started as a joint conference of three already existing conferences in Liege, Aachen and Maastricht. It focusses on combining business and science.
European iGEM Meet up
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The iGEM Teams from Paris invited us to visit the European iGEM Meet up in Paris. For our members it was a great experience to participate, because they had the opportunity to get in touch with other iGEM teams, learn something about the different projects and establish a personal contact with other members. Moreover, they had the chance to include the expertise and suggestions from other teams in the planning process of our project. But of course we also had a lot of fun in this amazing city. In this context we want to thank once again the iGEM Teams in Paris for their invitation. |
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German iGEM Meet up
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All German teams came together at this Meet up in Marburg. iGEM Marburg organized a tour through their town and for the scientific exchange, they invited local scientists, industry representatives, and of course Traci from iGEM headquarters to give talks. Moreover, we had the opportunity to present our project ideas in front of all the other teams. It was a lot of fun and after the weekend we went home tired but happy. |
iGEM Team Göttingen
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When iGEM Göttingen came to Aachen for DECHEMA we took the opportunity to show them around our city and have a nice time with fellow iGEMers. |
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iGEM Team Bielefeld
We visited Bielefeld and its university and with a nice barbecue and interesting chats, we enjoyed the social site of iGEM there.
Competitors and Partners at the Same Time
iGEM – an international competition in synthetic biology. Teams from all over the world are competing to win the Grand Prize at the finale in Boston. However, we did not only see each other as competitors, we also took the opportunity to get in contact with them and share our knowledge and experience to improve each other’s projects.
It is great to be part of the iGEM community and here we would like to thank every team who helped us in making our project in and outside the lab successful!
Click on the logos to find out more about our mutual support!
NCTU Formosa |
XMU China |
TecCEM |
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Göttingen |
HHU Düsseldorf |
Contribution to METU HS Ankara Lab Protocols Collection
We were contacted by the iGEM Team METU HS Ankara. They had translated iGEM experiment protocols to Turkish and now had the idea to create a database consisting of protocols translated to different languages. We liked the idea of making those protocols accessible in every country, so we also contributed to this collection.
Thank you, for contacting us, iGEM METU HS Ankara and giving us the chance to add to the success of your project.
Click here to see the protocols we translated to German.
Survey
A useful tool to get different opinions on topics related to the iGEM team’s projects is conducting surveys. Therefore, you need as many participants as possible to get a broad spectrum of opinions. So our team decided to take part in the surveys of the different teams which can be seen below.
We got in contact with many different politicians and asked for their opinion about genetic engineering and the political situation in Germany.
The answers from the different political parties can be seen in the PDF files below.
Svenja Schulze - SPD - minister for innovation, science and research
She is head of the ministry for innovation, science and research of North-Rhine-Westphalia and sent us greetings: "Wenn sich junge Nachwuchswissenschaftlerinnen und Nachwuchswissenschaftler zu einem interdisziplinären Team zusammenschließen, um sich mit großem Engagement einem wichtigen Alltagsproblem zu widmen, dann verdient das Respekt und Anerkennung. Ich freue mich sehr, dass sich im iGEM 2016 Team Aachen Studierende der Fachrichtungen Biologie, Biotechnologie, Biomedizintechnik und Informatik zusammengefunden haben, um den Wissenschaftsstandort Nordrhein-Westfalen bei diesem internationalen Wettbewerb zu vertreten. Die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer leisten damit einen Beitrag zur internationalen Sichtbarkeit unsers Standortes. Und sie leisten einen Beitrag für die Zukunft unserer Gesellschaft. Denn genau das ist schließlich Ziel von Forschung: die Zukunft unserer Gesellschaft gestalten. Das gilt auch für den Bereich der Synthetischen Biologie. Sie stellt aber insofern eine Besonderheit dar, als hier in besonderer Weise ethische Fragen eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Ich wünsche dem iGEM 2016 Team Aachen viel Freude bei der spannenden Forschungsarbeit und viel Erfolg beim internationalen Wettbewerb!" Dr. Kay Zerlin answered our questions on behalf of her. He pointed out the importance of interdisciplinary work. The full interview can be found here.
Simon Adenauer - CDU
He is a member of CDU and works in Aachen. A summary of his considerations can be found here.
Lasse Klopstein - Die Linke
Lasse Klopstein expressed the doubts of the political party "Die Linke" about genetic engineering. There would be to many risks and more disadvantages than benefits of this technology. His answers in German are written down here.
Piraten
The party "Piraten" also expressed doubts and talked about the location of Aachen. Read the whole interview here.
Until now we did not look at the ethical perspective of our project. After our conversations with the public and some other professors it is not surprising, that synthetic biology, which adapts and designs living organisms with many different applications, has a broad ethical dimension. An ethical dimension, an ethical discussion … ethical questions … ethics?
Many of us maybe heard about ethics, because of their philosophy courses or because of their religious education at school. Some of us maybe saw an ethic expert in television or in some TV discussion rounds. But what is ethic exactly?
Ethic is a branch of philosophy and refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong. Normally it defines what humans ought to do and what is wrong about their actions. Ethics is about trying to give answers to questions about how we have to react to or act in specific situations, what we have to consider to develop a well- founded decision or what is wrong about the way we handle different topics.
As we do not know so many aspects related to ethics and because of our non-objective perspective, we started to contact different experts in Germany.
The interview with Dr. Ach who talked about the responsibility of scientists and the importance of integrating ethical considerations in the development of a project, can be found here.
Interview with Our Supervisor Prof. Schwaneberg
How do You evaluate the iGEM competition in general and the influence which the former iGEM teams from Aachen had?
In general, I see the iGEM competition as a very good opportunity for students to learn how to work and act in a team by proposing ideas, fighting for them, getting exposed to their consequences. In essence, it is a very good training for students to learn how to take over responsibilities and to work in and as a team. I strongly support the participation of students in the iGEM competition and it is great if they have the chance to travel to Boston and present their concept at the Giant Jamboree. There they will be exposed to other brilliant students all over the world which share common interests. Apart from this, the iGEM competition has a very positive role in terms of visibility for the nature science faculty of the RWTH Aachen University and even generated interest from companies.
What do You think: Can iGEM support the education of the students?
I would say that iGEM also has a very positive influence and shapes their personality to become leaders in research. Members of the iGEM team will get a totally different insight of lab work and research by developing own ideas and experience how challenging the realization on the molecular level can be. However, taking and learning from these frustrations enables students to grow by discovering and analyzing challenges as well as finally solving them totally on their own. The letter fosters their believes in own abilities and strengthens their personality and leadership skills to tackle important scientific questions in the future.
What makes iGEM special in comparison to other student programs and practical courses?
I think the most important part of iGEM is the aspect of self-organization in terms of selected topics and fundraising to support iGEM activities. The latter experiences makes iGEM outstanding and much more challenging than other student activities and internships in which research topics are usually provided by the supervisor.
How do You evaluate the complexity of the iGEM competition (financial support, organisation, and public relations)?
iGEM teams have more or less to act like a biotech start up company which has to develop and to market their own development to finance their challenging activities and thereby establishing their organization, public relations and fundraising. The complexity of the iGEM competition and the limited time for idea development makes iGEM a highly complex and challenging endeavor.
What do You think about this years iGEM team Aachen and its project ideas?
In one word: GREAT. Light switchable proteins are a very promising and challenging topic in biotechnology and in material science and will emerge in the future as a hot topic in national research agenda on bioeconomy in Germany.
Please name three terms that describe the iGEM teams in Aachen and their work?
The three terms that come directly to my mind to describe RWTH’s iGEM team Aachen are “international”, ”interdisciplinary” and ” innovative” (triple i work).
Could You please tell us something about the previous work of the iGEM teams in Aachen?
The past two iGEM teams from Aachen were SENSATIONAL. They won several gold medals and awards as best newcomers. I am very proud of our students!
How do You feel to be a part of the iGEM team Aachen 2016?
It is fun to discuss with them and it is my pleasure to support these excellent young scientists with experience/infrastructure and to see them to grow with their challenges and success.
Interview with Our Supervisor Prof. Blank
How do You evaluate the iGEM competition in general and the influence which the former iGEM teams from Aachen had?
The iGEM competition allows self-organized research. The aspect of bringing engineering into biology is fitting very well to the RWTH Aachen University and the Jülich Research Center. The three teams competing as the iGEM teams Aachen paved the way for synthetic biology at RWTH Aachen.
How do You think: Can iGEM support the education of the students?
iGEM can support the education because the students work self-motivated. Moreover the concept of research-based teaching intensifies the teaching experience. That the newest synthetic biology technologies can be applied is lifting the teaching in Aachen on a different level.. After their iGEM time many members have accelerate expertise and working skills. For sure, the softskills were practiced, working in a group of about 15 people. Students have the chance to develop new skills, new management experiences and to work with new devices.
What makes iGEM special in comparison to other student programs and practical courses?
A huge difference is that students have the chance to work on their own. Moreover, they have the chance to develop a project on their own and work on it till the end of the competition. Furthermore the students can get in touch with local companies and learn how to ask for financial supports for their project. Especially in Aachen, the topic is chosen by the students hence the students have the chance to integrate project ideas, in which they are really interested. Students have the chance to learn everything on their own and make special experiences, which they could not get from other student initiatives or other practical courses. These differences make iGEM clearly a unique experience.
How do You evaluate the complexity of the iGEM competition (financial support, organisation, and public relations)?
Again very positive. Students have the chance to integrate their different interests and talents into the competition and into the project. Moreover it is great that students can work several months together on the same topic and work with students who are interested in very different subjects. Additionally, this is a good practice for their professional life.
Attracting funds and raising public awareness for the project is central to iGEM. Without the initiative of the students the presence of iGEM in Aachen and the special iGEM spirit would not be the same. The RWTH Aachen University and the FZJ support the iGEM team every year. The supporters of the iGEM team think that the “Bottom up” strategy, i.e., students first, fits best to Aachen. Because the students have the chance to develop their OWN project, obviously with support from the experts and institutes.
What do You think about this year’s iGEM team Aachen and its project ideas?
Super, you can talk about the topic with many different people, who are unfamiliar with synthetic biology and biotechnology. Everybody uses liquid washing detergents because of the absence of dusts and allergenic substances. Moreover, it is possible to explain the environmental problem caused by boric acid to the public and still present a very interesting topic in the field of synthetic biology. Photocaging is still a very new and innovative strategy to work with. So it is possible to break down the topic of synthetic biology into a problematic aspect of our daily life. Do the test: can you explain the project to your family in a few sentences? I think you can do this.
Please name tree terms that describe the iGEM teams in Aachen and their work?
Self determination
Stick to details
Application orientated work
Could You please tell us something about the previous work of the iGEM teams in Aachen?
The success of the iGEM team 2014 was very unexpected and a great experience for all involved. This success motivated many and raised the attention for the iGEM team Aachen. The iGEM team 2015 repeated the success in a very similar way, showing how ambitious the members of the iGEM team Aachen are.
How do You feel to be a part of the iGEM team Aachen 2016?
Great! When the chance evolved to start an iGEM team in Aachen I was directly very positive. The interests of students and the idea of teaching are combined in the iGEM competition. Also I am very happy to see how the iGEM competition developed in the past few years, and I am excited how it will continue. I think it is also good that many students participate with fun and passion. In total iGEM is a great experience for me.
Can You tell us something about the atmosphere in Boston and at the Giant Jamboree?
The atmosphere is unique. All the teams live in the same hotel and when you enter into the convention centre, you can feel the iGEM spirit immediately. You will be very focused before you present your project in front of people, but afterwards you will just feel relieved and can enjoy the atmosphere. Besides it is great to represent the RWTH Aachen University and spend time with your team members. It is important to be recognized as iGEM team Aachen till the competition is over. Moreover, it is great to feel the international spirit. You can learn about so many projects and you have the chance to talk to many other teams about their iGEM experiences. Do not only look at the well-known teams, but talk also to teams with very difficult working conditions. Their enthusiasm is truly inspiring. In summary, enjoy Boston!
