MEETING VALENCIA

Past August (18, 19 and 20), Spanish iGEM groups met in the city of Valencia. The purpose of the meeting was to know in depth the rest of the projects and the members from the other teams. At this event we did not only get to know the projects, we also were able to appreciate the great work that the groups were doing.

The initiative came from iGEM group of Valencia, who contacted us and the iGEM team from Barcelona. We were chatting for a few weeks until we agreed on a date for the meeting, which was not hard.

On Friday 19 August, the 3 groups presented their projects in the residence Galileo Galilei. The first group was Valencia UPV with their project “Hack Your Plants Editing”.They decided to be the first because they were the hosts.

Each part of the project was explained by a different member. It was a very entertaining and surprising exhibition. It was very interesting to know the use of biomechanics and biomedicine to create transgenic plants using a new technique much more efficient.

Our group was the second one in presenting the project. We talked about our project, and also explained the techniques we make use of to get our objects. We presented our project "Biofilms Transformer" They were very interested and gave us their views. It was very rewarding for us. Each of us explained his own work, except our friend José who could not come. We finished the exhibition with a Spot of Human Practices.

Finally, it was the turn of UPF-CRG Barcelona. They were a little embarrassed to expose their project because they thought it was not as good as the others. When they began to tell about their idea everyone agreed it was a great project. They made a funny show and we had a great time listening to their progress and difficulties on the creation of a probiotic to act as a preventive treatment for cancer. The other groups gave them some ideas to help them improve their techniques.

Once presentations had finished, all group members got together and talked about what we thought about the other projects and how we could help each other. We had very constructive talks for our projects and ourselves.

After the presentations, all members of the group went out to have dinner together. We took advantage of this opportunity to better know all groups and mostly for fun. We even changed our site in order to sit with different people and know them better.

It was a fun night we enjoyed competing healthily with friends.

On Saturday, Valencia UPV Team had a surprise. As we didn’t know the city, our friends from Valencia were our guides and told us a lot of interesting historical information and some ancient legends of Valencia (such as the bat emblem of the city).

The surprise was a picnic that the people from Valencia had prepared for all of us. It was a very nice surprise and the food was really tasty. That evening we enjoyed together playing different games and recording funny videos.

The last day was the farewell. Nobody wanted to go home.

We took advantage to enjoy the beauty of Valencia until the last moments, through the City of Arts and Sciences and the Malvarrosa beach with some friends from Valencia. Sadly, we had to say goodbye at the train station.

The 3 groups (UPO-Sevilla, UPF-CRG Barcelona and Valencia UPV) discussed constructively on different projects and applications and contributions to science. It was a wonderful way to collaborate and help each other. All projects were very applauded and congratulated by the others. We are really delighted and integrated when interacting with the different disciplines that make up a team, from biotechnologists and biomedical scientists or computer engineers, to a journalist.

Thank to this meeting of different teams, we all made good friends and we are now a great family where everyone helps each other.