Welcome to iGEM Aachen 2016

Beyond The Basics

Apart from basic lab work we also established a dialogue with the public.
Our outreach included contributing to conferences, socializing and scientific events.
Beyond that we asked ourselves how to maximize the future impact of our project and made an effort to get as much feedback from outsiders as possible. This motivated us to evaluated the economic perspectives of our LIPs, as well.

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 regarding the distribution 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

Special Events

NRW Day

Figure 1: Presenting our project 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: Presenting our project at DECHEMA convention

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 for their invitation.

Figure 5: iGEM team gathering

German iGEM Meet up

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

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.

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.

Competitors and Partners at once

iGEM – an international competition in synthetic biology. Teams from all over the world are competing to win the Grand Prize at the finale in Boston. However, we did not only see each other as competitors, we also took the opportunity to get in contact with them and share our knowledge and experience to improve each other’s projects.

It is great to be part of the iGEM community and here we would like to thank every team who helped us in making our project in and outside the lab successful!

Click on the logos to find out more about our mutual support!

NCTU Formosa We found out that our universities are partners so it was obvious to get in contact via skype. We shared our knowledge concerning research and lab work. The Team from Taiwan also participated in our international survey and helped distributing it to other teams as well	XMU China The iGEM Team from the Xiamen University in China collected newsletters from international iGEM teams. We were happy to not only share our newsletter on a national basis but also international with their help.
TecCEM We got in touch with the iGEM team from Mexico. First we only helped sharing their survey. After that we stayed in touch with the team and further cooperation possibilities emerged. For example, they participated in our international survey and advertised it to other teams. Moreover, we participated in their international video project and made two videos in German for them.
Göttingen iGEM Göttingen visited Aachen and spend some time with us, when the DECHEMA Jahrestagung took place. While giving them a tour around Aachen, we were talking about the progress of our projects.	HHU Düsseldorf We participated in the postcard projec which they initiated. Moreover, we visited the NRW Day in Düsseldorf and presented our work to the public and to other iGEM Teams from North Rhine-Westphalia.

Contribution to METU HS Ankara Lab Protocols Collection

We were contacted by the iGEM Team METU HS Ankara. They had translated iGEM experiment protocols to Turkish and now had the idea to create a database consisting of protocols translated to different languages. We liked the idea of making those protocols accessible in every country, so we also contributed to this collection.

Thank you, for contacting us, iGEM METU HS Ankara and giving us the chance to add to the success of your project.
Click here to see the protocols we translated to German.

Survey

A useful tool to get different opinions on topics related to the iGEM team’s projects is conducting surveys. Therefore, you need as many participants as possible to get a broad spectrum of opinions. So our team decided to take part in the surveys of the different teams which can be seen below.
Thank you

Perspective of Professors

Interview with Our Supervisor Prof. Schwaneberg

1. How do You evaluate the the iGEM competition in general and the influence which the former iGEM teams from Aachen had?
In general, I see the iGEM competition as a very good opportunity for students to learn how to work and act in a team by proposing ideas, fighting for them, getting exposed to their consequences. In essence, it is a very good training for students to learn how to take over responsibilities and to work in and as a team. I strongly support the participation of students in the iGEM competition and it is great if they have the chance to travel to Boston and present their concept at the Giant Jamboree. There they will be exposed to other brilliant students all over the world which share common interests. Apart from this, the iGEM competition has a very positive role in terms of visibility for the nature science faculty of the RWTH Aachen University and even generated interest from companies.

2. How do You think: Can iGEM support the education of the students?
I would say that iGEM also has a very positive influence and shapes their personality to become leaders in research. Members of the iGEM team will get a totally different insight of lab work and research by developing own ideas and experience how challenging the realization on the molecular level can be. However, taking and learning from these frustrations enables students to grow by discovering and analyzing challenges as well as finally solving them totally on their own. The letter fosters their believes in own abilities and strengthens their personality and leadership skills to tackle important scientific questions in the future.

3. What makes iGEM special in comparison to other student programs and practical courses?
I think the most important part of iGEM is the aspect of self-organization in terms of selected topics and fundraising to support iGEM activities. The latter experiences makes iGEM outstanding and much more challenging than other student activities and internships in which research topics are usually provided by the supervisor.

4. How do You evaluate the complexity of the iGEM competition (financial support, organisation, and public relations)?
iGEM teams have more or less to act like a biotech start up company which has to develop and to market their own development to finance their challenging activities and thereby establishing their organization, public relations and fundraising. The complexity of the iGEM competition and the limited time for idea development makes iGEM a highly complex and challenging endeavor.

5. What do You think about this years iGEM team Aachen and its project ideas?
In one word: GREAT. Light switchable proteins are a very promising and challenging topic in biotechnology and in material science and will emerge in the future as a hot topic in national research agenda on bioeconomy in Germany.

Team:Aachen/Beyond Basics