Team:Dundee/Collaborations

Collaboration

Collaboration

Surveys

We completed surveys for multiple teams throughout the project including University College London, Delft University of Technology and University of Westminster, and joined in an international survey consisting of teams from Germany, Mexico, Israel, Taiwan, England, Austria, India, Pakistan, France and Lithuania.

We completed surveys for other teams to help enhance their scope of knowledge of genetic engineering and modification. We took part in the international survey as it represents public attitudes across the globe – here in Scotland we feel that GMOs are represented in a negative light and wanted to understand whether this attitude was constricted to Scotland, the United Kingdom (by checking Sheffield’s results), Europe (other European teams) or global.

Northern Meet Up at the University of Edinburgh

The undergraduate team at the University of Edinburgh organised for all teams in Scotland and the team from Newcastle University to meet up near the end of August to practice our presentations and receive constructive feedback on how to better deliver our project.

This was the first time we had presented to other teams and received encouraging feedback that our project and delivery were interesting enough to keep listener’s attention, however our presentation should be reordered as it was difficult to follow. There were also some slides that were not important that we should remove, as well as using that time to include greater detail on our lab work. We were told we had the knowledge to answer questions effectively however we needed to be more concise. This feedback was vital in shaping our presentation.

UK Meet Up at the University of Westminster

The University of Westminster hosted a similar meet up to Edinburgh’s, this time inviting all the teams in the UK. We delivered our presentation again; incorporating the feedback received in Edinburgh, and were met with similar enthusiasm. We were advised to make our presentation more of a story with one slide following on from the former, as it seemed like we were just rattling off what we had completed over the summer. Once again this enabled us to improve. The questions in London were tougher but our answers held up to scrutiny and we considered the presentation a success.

We also presented our poster for the first time in London, with many teams commenting that they enjoyed our infographic style as it differed from all the other teams. Feedback included that it was easy to read and follow; there should be more lab work and results present and that the layout should follow the presentation so they link seamlessly together.

Edinburgh Debate

We teamed up with the undergraduate team from Edinburgh to organise a debate regarding GMOs to help us better understand perceptions from non-scientists and what they main points are for arguing for and against the use of GMOs. We enrolled the University of Dundee and Edinburgh debating unions to present and chair the debate, which was a massive success and contributed to our understanding of public opposition to GMOs.

The debate leaned heavily towards GM crops, as it does in Scotland, and focused on the profit that could be made by large companies such as Monsanto who develop GM seeds that outperform their natural siblings. There is a fear that these companies would hold their seeds ransom for an extremely high price, with farmers obliged to pay due to their undoubted benefits. This was countered with the notion that whilst companies such as Monsanto make a profit, it is not comparable to the saving of millions of lives due to these improved agrichemicals producing better yields, and in harsher environments.

Mentoring

The Dundee High School Team was the first from Dundee and first from Scotland. They entered the lab with little experience and very basic knowledge of the correct procedures and protocols that they would require to complete their lab work.

We mentored them throughout their first month in the lab to develop their skills, grow their confidence and spent most of our days with them, either in the wet or dry lab, assisting in any way we could. Kieron, Chris, Holly and Rachel taught them how to pipette as well as carry out minipreps, restriction digests, ligations and transformations and showed them how to make and run agarose gels. We also made sure they were aware of the correct safety procedures and when to wear appropriate PPE. Fatima helped them to get to grips with mathematical modelling and Ummi helped them to design their poster and presentation.

UCL Testing

UCL are sending us their device to test in the stomach simulator. We tested their lycopene construct at pH5 in our stomach simulator, taking samples and measuring their absorbance every 15 minutes.

Sheffied iGEM team

Our supervisors professors Frank Sargent and Tracy Palmer gave advice to the Sheffield iGEM team since they are new to iGEM this year.