Welcome to iGEM Aachen 2016

Beyond The Basics

To achieve a great outreach we worked on many more projects in the field of public relations.

Business Plan

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 detergent market. That is why we created an economical analysis in cooperation with a business administration student from the University in Nantes, France.

Special Events

NRW Day

Figure 1: Presenting our topic in Düsseldorf

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

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 politicans, people from the industry and different universities and to tell them about iGEM and our project.

Figure 2: Our Team visiting the Future Lab Gala in Aachen

Conferences

Annual meeting of DECHEMA

Figure 3:

In September, the team from Göttingen and us, the iGEM Team Aachen, were invited to the “DECHEMA Jahrestagung”. The “Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology” gave us a slot to present our project in front of a scientific audience. Our presentations were included in the “Zukunftsforum”, a subitem of the conference with focus on the future perspective and strategies for the biotechnological industry in Germany. We are thankful for the opportunity to establish a dialogue with the scientific community and practice our presentational skills for the Giant Jamboree.

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.

Figure 4: Some members of our team meeting Randy and other iGEM Teams at SynBioBeta

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.

Meet ups

European iGEM Meet up

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 again for their invitation.

German iGEM Meet up

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.

Figure 5: Members of our team playing bubble soccer at the German iGEM Meetup

iGEM Team Göttingen

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.

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.

Economical perspective

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 detergent market.

That is why we created an economical analysis in cooperation with a business administration student from the University in Nantes, France.

Politic of the new product
The iGEM team Aachen wants to produce the photocaged Subtilisin E and the organisms which can produce the new enzymes. So they are in direct competition to companies like Novozymes or Roche, which offer enzymes for different applications. Until now they only produce in a very small scale. Maybe they can work together with other enzyme producing companies or directly with washing companies. It would definitely be necessary to have an industrial partner to benefit from their experiences on the global market, because the German laundry detergent market is too competitive and controlled by a few corporations.

Politic of the new product
The distribution of the new product depends on the way the iGEM Team Aachen wants to introduce the new product on the market. On one hand they can try to industrialize it with the help of already existing enzyme companies. One the other hand their product could be applied in the washing industry and used for washing detergents. That’s the most probable application of their protease. With the help of these already existing companies it is possible to distribute their product. For example it could be sold in local supermarkets and drugstores. Probably it won´t be sold in low budget supermarkets, because of the production and developmental costs. Moreover, the iGEM Team Aachen has to care about the distribution of their light tool. Maybe they can include it as a free give-away to the first bottle of washing detergent and start in this way promoting the use of its product.

Politic 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 clean 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

Team:Aachen/Beyond Basics