Team:Virginia/iGEM Outreach

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Our outreach to other iGEM teams included attending at a Mini Jamboree, conducting an iGEM-wide survey, producing a pamphlet on biocontainment for iGEM teams, and designing a widget to help teams choose a biocontainment method.

First, we needed to assess the biocontainment knowledge of iGEM teams. We wanted to find out what people knew, and more importantly didn’t know, about biocontainment. We accomplished this first on a small scale, by attending the Mid-Atlantic Mini Jamboree, hosted by the University of Maryland. We exchanged project ideas with other teams. We also hosted a biocontainment forum with the other attending teams. This forum inspired us to create electronic tools and expand our outreach to other teams. We created our online biocontainment surveyto gauge understanding of biocontainment across iGEM teams. Using the results of this survey, we developed a comprehensive pamphlet. We also created an interactive web widget that allows iGEM teams to customize biocontainment that fits their project. Do teams need something robust, something quick, or a method that fulfils other criteria? With our widget, they can find the perfect solution.


UMaryland Mini Jamboree

Pamphlet

User Input Form

What are you looking for in a biocontainment method?

Intended use of your system Is the intended use of your synthetic organism only in the laboratory?
Yes No

Is the intended use of your synthetic organism only in the human body?
Yes No

Indicate your level of concern for each biocontainment characteristic (1=not a concern, 3=kind of a concern, 5=very concerned).

NOTE: For best results, be selective about your choices; i.e. avoid choosing 5 for every category.

Ease of implementation: 1 2 3 4 5

Cost of implementation: 1 2 3 4 5

Ease of maintaining the contained organism in the environment: 1 2 3 4 5

Cost of maintaining the contained organism in the environment: 1 2 3 4 5

Effectiveness: 1 2 3 4 5

Toxicity to environment: 1 2 3 4 5