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iGEM_Athens_2021_AdAPTED

Collaborations

Introduction

Engaging with other iGEM teams as part of the iGEM experience is not only a way to meet like-minded people and share common interests, but also a stepping stone to reaching our goals through mutual help and support. The collaborations we had this year helped us come closer to the accomplishment of both our and our partners’ ideas, explore other perspectives, get inspired and most importantly, have fun.

PCR and dNTPs Survey

Every year iGEM Teams use experimental procedures in which the use of dNTPs and DNA polymerases is of significant importance. As a result, the opinion and experiences of this target group was highly important for us in order to design an end-product that responds to their needs successfully. In our opinion, the most efficient way to achieve this was by creating a survey, distributing it to the iGEM community all around the world and then analyzing their feedback. For more information on how the survey guided our decisions on the design of the end-product see our Integrated Human Practices page!

iGEM Meet-up: Greek edition

iGEM in Greece started in 2017 and within some years reached the point of having 8 teams participating, resulting in the flourishing of Synthetic Biology in Greece. However, these teams come from different cities across the country and considering the travelling limitations during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was quite difficult to meet with any of them. However, our genuine need to interact with students of our age with common academic interests and a common passion for iGEM, led to the organization of the iGEM MeetUp: Greek Edition!

We decided along with four other teams: iGEM Thrace, iGEM Crete, iGEM Thessaloniki and iGEM NOUS to organize a two-day webinar covering iGEM-related subjects, interactive workshops and project presentations. It was open for anyone, it took place virtually via the Zoom platform with a live streaming at iGEM Video Universe and it was held in English, in an attempt to keep it as inclusive as possible to Greek iGEMers, iGEMers from all over the world but also to non-specific audience. Click on each team’s name to read about this collaboration through their lenses!

At first, we set up a Discord Server to assemble and organize our ideas through weekly meetings. We started discussing the possible topics of the meetup and the final main categories were Graphics, Human Practices, Fundraising, Wet Lab, Dry Lab, talks by After iGEM Alumnis from international teams, Motivational Talks, Web Development and Games!

The second step was to reach out to people who inspired us for each of the above-mentioned categories and organise the talks to fit in a two-day webinar. Fascinating professionals of many different fields responded positively to our call. We organised calls with them to brainstorm on their talks or workshops and to ensure that they would be interesting and entertaining for everyone. With the intention of getting to know each other in a substantial way, we decided to create funny semi-formal videos where each team presented their members. A vital part of the webinar was the presentation of our projects, which was followed by extensive discussions about our progress, challenges we ‘ve been through and troubleshooting. This was of great help for everyone. Additionally, iGEM alumnis and ambassadors answered our questions about their experiences in an interview-like way and initiated great conversations. Games were also a funny part of the meetup at the end of each day.

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27th SCHMS

Through our participation in the Scientific Conference of Hellenic Medical Students (SCHMS)/ Round Table “One Health” we had the opportunity to join forces with our fellow greek teams iGEM Thessaloniki, iGEM Thessaly, iGEM Crete and iGEM Ioannina. Our presentation entitled “Environment and Health: a holistic approach towards Safety” was inspired by our previous project MORPHÆ, and was centered around the Biosafety and Biosecurity aspects every iGEM project has to take into consideration. Since this framework promoted by iGEM is fundamental for every project design and truly embraces the principles of One Health initiative, it was a pleasure for us to educate ourselves more about these topics while enjoying our interaction with our collaborators and friends. Additionally, we hope the subject we addressed provides useful insight to our fellow team iGEM Ioannina, whose project idea is to tackle one of the most serious One Health challenges: Antimicrobial Resistance.

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iGEM MSP-Maastricht Journal

iGEM MSP-Maastricht collected this year's iGEM projects all together by creating the iGEM Proceedings Journal 2021, an online Journal accessible to everyone interested in synthetic biology. We are honored to be a part of it.

Firstly, we had the opportunity to present our project through a scientific paper written by us. In this article we describe in detail the genetic circuit design, the experimental procedure that we aimed to follow and the model design. Working on this paper thoroughly was an invaluable experience which helped us delve deeper into the design of our system and be as accurate as possible in the way we communicate our research within the synbio community.

The next step was to peer-review the papers of two different teams. We are glad to have reviewed iGEM Calgary’s and iGEM Tuebingen’s articles! Additionally, those two teams peer-reviewed our paper. All the comments and advice were taken into account so that we can improve our paper in order for our project to be fully understood by the scientific community. You can find more about iGEM MSP-Maastricht team’s Journal here and our final submission here!

Postcard Challenge by iGEM Düsseldorf

iGEM Düsseldorf brought together for the 6th year in a row iGEM teams from all around the globe with the means of exchanging postcards! We were more than happy to combine our creativity and science communication skills in an initiative that always inspires teams to share their ideas in unexpected ways! You can also view our postcard at pages 12 and 13 of the following file, along with many more imaginative artistic creations.