Guanajuato Mexico (GTO_Mexico)

This year, we collaborated with the Guanajuato Mexico team in developing a curriculum as an introduction to synthetic biology for first year university students. This curriculum covered the basics of biology, synthetic biology, and its applications. We specifically designed a lesson plan on the ethics of synthetic biology followed by a debate on the justification of using synthetic biology in a real case study. This helped to expose the students to different viewpoints on the applications of synthetic biology and what we should be aware of as scientists in designing these biological systems. We were able to present this curriculum, including our lesson plan, to a group of first year students in Guanajuato over Skype.

Not everyone in the class shared the same perspective on synthetic biology and genetically modified organisms. From this collaboration, we gained a better understanding of the perception the general public held on the usage of synthetic biology. We learned that a large amount of concern is is due to fear related to the safety and contamination of existing infrastructure. This influenced our project by allowing us to reevaluate some of our project requirements that we initially established. It also helped us find a way to better communicate our research to the general public. Many of the students expressed interest in participating in future iGEM competitions after we shared the applications of synthetic biology with them.

Link: Guanajuato Mexico’s Wiki on our collaboration

Rice University

We contributed to the Humans of Syn Bio Project by adding stories from members of our team about how they became involved with iGEM. Through this collaboration, we were able to help create a network community among iGEMers by sharing our stories. We were able to discover the different stories of iGEMers across the world and the reasons why they became involved, giving us a better sense of connection and creating a stronger network amongst teams.

Link: Our post with Rice University

aGEM Workshop

We helped organized the Alberta iGEM (aGEM) competition in collaboration with MindFuel and GeekStarter. This competition helped to prepare the Alberta high school and collegiate teams for the international iGEM competition by mimicking the presentation layout expected at Jamboree and providing the opportunity to meet with well-known iGEM judges such as Megan Palmer and Todd Kuiken. It included the three collegiate teams in Alberta: Ingenuity_Lab, University of Lethbridge and us, UofC_Calgary. It also included the high school teams of The Breakers, Lethbridge High School and UrbanTundra. Through this collaboration, we were able to help mentor the other high school teams by preparing them for what to expect during their presentations at the Jamboree, as many students were new to the competition. We were also able to share protocols with other teams on wet lab work we had done to help improve their projects.

Through this collaboration, we gained a better understanding of the needs of other iGEM teams and how we could contribute to their projects. These presentations really emphasized the strengths of all teams, but it also illuminated our weaknesses and allowed us to explore how we could better improve upon different aspects of our projects before the Jamboree. We also got a chance to meet and network with the other teams and judges and discuss our interests in synthetic biology.