Collaborations

Introduction

This year, we were honoured to collaborate with a number of different iGEM teams to further our engineering cycles, refine our project designs and participate in fun activities. Together, we were able to develop our understanding of synthetic biology and promote the iGEM community spirit. It was a great pleasure meeting everyone, we wish each team the very best of luck!

To learn more about our collaborations, please click on the respective team logos!

Virtual UK Team Meet-Up

The UK Virtual Meet-Up was an event hosted by our team to promote collaboration across iGEM teams in the UK and Ireland, thus establishing a sense of community, as is particularly important during the present pandemic. We decided to host this event on Zoom in July, in order to ensure our event was accessible to all teams.

The event commenced with a presentation from our sponsor Promega, who gave us an enlightening talk regarding the wide range of career opportunities available to those who wish to continue in the synthetic biology field beyond iGEM. We then had presentations from MTU, Manchester, Warwick, St Andrews and Edinburgh iGEM summarising their projects. This was followed by networking sessions across breakout rooms. Our team helped organize said rooms and provided the meet-up itinerary, thus keeping other teams informed about the structure and organization of the event. Networking with such a variety of individuals helped us gain an invaluable understanding of the various applications of synthetic biology and a fascinating insight into the work of some other iGEM teams.

Virtual UK Team Meet-Up:

On June 27th we hosted a UK Meet-up online to bring together iGEM teams across the UK and Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic, sharing insights into each other’s projects and developing a sense of community. To learn more about the UK Meet-Up, please click on the image.

University of Manchester iGEM Team

We first met with the The Manchester iGEM team during our UK Meet-Up . Here, we were introduced to their project and were able to discuss potential avenues for collaboration. Together, we exchanged ideas on our modelling efforts and helped advise their hydrogel research by suggesting literature reviews on the potential use of MFP based hydrogels and brainstorming the efficacy of using a cellulose-based hydrogel. Furthermore, we discussed our wet lab protocols, since the The Manchester iGEM team had restricted laboratory access, we offered to help complete their cytotoxicity assays. However, later decided to collaborate through our human practices outreach. We developed a programme to assess the perspectives of researchers and doctors on synthetic biology and how this can limit the advances of novel therapies in healthcare; you can learn more on our human practices page! We also participated in their 24-hour Code-A-Thon , which we thoroughly enjoyed and were grateful to have an opportunity to troubleshoot our wiki code. It was a pleasure to meet and work with their team!

Collaborations with the University of Manchester:

The Manchester iGEM team is aiming to utilise a genetically modified lactobacillus plantarum bacteria to produce biofilm degrading enzymes, helping treat catheter induced urinary tract infections. To learn more about our collaboration on science communication and inclusivity, please click on their team logo.

City School of London iGEM Team

In the beginning of the season, we were introduced to the City School of London (CSL) iGEM team. In our initial meeting, we introduced our projects and discussed potential avenues of collaboration. We identified that we would be able to mentor their team by providing access to our laboratory facilities and providing academic input, thus supporting the development of both theoretical and practical elements of their project. With the support of our primary instructor Dr Anatoliy Markiv, the CLS team were able to store their reagents with us, complete their DNA sequencing and troubleshoot their protocols with our team. In addition, we worked alongside our sponsors BMG Labtech to provide their team with a luminometer for their luciferase flash assay. Their team also supported the launch of our pilot competition, Biologix, where their advisors offered feedback on our initial structure and helped promote the initiative to their coursemates. You can learn more about Biologix on our Education Page. It was a pleasure to meet and collaborate with the CSL team!

Collaborations with City School of London:

The City School of London (CSL) iGEM team worked on their project Ribotox, developing a novel screening tool for pre-eclampsia, a condition that causes high blood pressure to the mother during and after pregnancy and foetal growth restriction, low birth weight. They are trying to achieve this by detecting upregulated miRNAs in patients’ serum with toehold switches and isothermal amplification. To learn more about how we mentored the CSL iGEM team on their wet lab work , please click on their logo.

St Andrews iGEM Team

We were first introduced to St Andrews during our virtual UK Meet-Up , together we worked on developing lectures for each-others educational outreach programmes . We are grateful for the support offered by their team members, in developing an introductory lecture on synthetic biology and their project for our pilot competition Biologix; you can learn more on our Education Page! We in turn offered to conduct a workshop for their outreach initiative with primary school students . It was a pleasure working with them to produce educational resources in Synthetic Biology!

Collaborations with St Andrews University:

iGEM St-Andrews is working to combat the problem of coral reef degradation caused by chemical toxins in commercially-available sunscreens. They are creating a sustainable, ocean-friendly sunscreen alternative using shinorine, a natural, UV-protecting compound that could be synthetically overproduced by E. Coli. To learn more about our collaboration on Biologix and educational outreach , please click on their team logo.

Concordia iGEM Team

iGEM Concordia launched an international social media campaign, where teams from around the world submitted pledges supporting different causes in the field of diversity & inclusion. As a collaboration, four of our team members joined this initiative, each pledging to stand in solidarity with a cause of their choosing. As our team comes from a diverse set of backgrounds , we were motivated to participate and promote an accepting and inclusive space in synthetic biology. We really enjoyed collaborating with iGEM Concordia!

Collaborations with Concordia University

iGEM Concordia is working to provide a platform for bioproduction using baker’s yeast that can be used on long space missions. They are using a strain of microgravity tolerant S. cerevisiae and a bioreactor that mitigates the effect of microgravity on liquid cultures. Click on their logo to learn more about our collaboration on

USP-EEL iGEM Team

We first met with the USP-EEL team on the 18th of April, where we presented our projects and identified potential avenues of collaboration. We were excited to learn about their project, which aims to develop a phospholipase inhibitor to treat pit viper bites of the bothrops genus and initially offered dry-lab support for their protein model. We later collaborated on developing our educational outreach programmes, together we worked on translating their synthetic biology textbook from Portuguese into English, which can be found on our Education Page. In addition, we both troubleshot our competition design and structure, in order to effectively tailor our outreach programmes. We are grateful for the valuable feedback USP-EEL provided on their experience hosting a high-school competition and from this we understood the importance of maintaining regular communication with our competition participants and ensuring we deliver appropriate content relative to their level of literacy in STEM.

Collaborations with USP-EEL:

USP-EEL iGEM team is working to provide a treatment for ophidic accidents with the bothrops genus venom, which is a neglected tropical disease defined by the World's Health Organization (WHO). They are using a recombinant γPLI, a broad spectrum inhibitor of the venom as their therapeutic agent. To learn more about our collaboration on education outreach , please click on their logo.

Phystech iGEM Team

We reached out to the Phystech iGEM team in order to support our dry lab research on our protein, chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) . Since ChABC is thermally sensitive and loses function at temperatures higher than 37°C, we needed to identify a method to effectively thermostabilized it for use within the spinal cord. As such, we investigated the efficacy of computationally mutating our protein. However, we identified that conducting this mutagenesis study would require a large amount of computer processing power, which we did not have available to us. Instead, we reached out to Phystech Moscow, whose team is composed primarily of bioinformaticians. They were able to help us conduct our mutagenesis study and further our project design relative to implementing ChABC. In summary, they were able to verify that our mutations to the ChABC sequence conferred a greater thermostability, which you can learn more about on our SCI Biochemistry Page.

Collaborations with Phystech:

Phystech Moscow iGEM is working to develop a universal tool for predicting the interaction of the long non-coding RNAs and microRNAs which will greatly simplify the work of many molecular biologists, as well as speed up the search for drugs for diseases related to these RNAs. To learn more about the collaboration on dry laboratory measures we worked on together, please click their team logo.

Warwick iGEM Team

We collaborated on developing a textbook a collection of different iGEM 2021 Team projects collated together to show the diversity of the field of synthetic biology. The booklet promotes the iGEM spirit: spreading the importance of synthetic biology to provide solutions to real-life problems. We distributed amongst students aged 16-18 across the globe aiming to pursue further studies and or careers in biology.

Collaborations with Warwick University:

iGEM Warwick is working to develop a fast detection method for carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) using CRISPR riboswitches. To learn more about our collaboration in inclusivity and education, please click on their team logo!

Düsseldorf iGEM Team

We greatly appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with Düsseldorf iGEM, who organised another round of their postcard project this year. We were tasked to design a postcard, describing our project, for their team to distribute amongst participating iGEM teams. We loved to receive all the beautiful postcards designed by the iGEM community!

Collaborations with iGEM Düsseldorf:

The Düsseldorf iGEM team is aiming to design an adaptable quick-test with potential to detect common plant diseases. To learn more about our collaboration on science communication, please click on their team logo.

McMaster iGEM Team

We were approached by the McMaster iGEM team to discuss the application of MFP in the context of irritable bowel disease (IBD). They were interested in learning about the polymerisation of MFP, as they were considering implementing it within their project design to protect the gut lining. After our conversation, we provided the team with literature resources on our mussel foot protein. We were happy to collaborate with their team in further incorporating synthetic biology into their project.

Collaborations with McMaster University iGEM:

iGEM McMaster is utilizing genetically modified bacteria for targeted elimination of adherent-invasive E. Coli in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). To learn more about our collaboration, please click on their team logo.

KU Leuven iGEM Team

We are grateful for the collaboration that iGEM KU Leuven set up for us to deliver our pitch deck online to other iGEM teams and investors with broad and intricate knowledge and experience in how to start up a business. We also listened to speakers giving talks about how to pitch bio business start-up ideas and the biotechnology industry.

Collaborations with KU Leuven iGEM:

iGEM KU Leuven is working to accelerate the evolution of needed plant phenotypes utilizing a platform based on CRISPR-Cas-based nickase and error-prone DNA polymerase. To learn more about our collaboration on the entrepreneurship part of our projects, please click on their team logo.

Sorbonne iGEM Team

It was a pleasure working with the iGEM Sorbonne 2021 team who developed the exciting initiative of the “iGEM Travelling Lab Coat” and were tasked to decorate a plain lab coat with our teams’ logo. We received the lab coat from Nantes in France and were tasked to send it to KU Leuven, after we completed our personalisation. Our team thoroughly enjoyed participating in this initiative, especially since due to the pandemic, it was much harder to collaborate with other iGEM teams and learn about their projects.

Collaborations with Sorbonne

Sorbonne_U_Paris iGEM team is working to make Chlamydomonas reinhardtii produce an antioxidant to overcome reactive oxygen species (ROS) formed from exposure to ionizing radiation, which affect the genome and the proteome of cells. To learn more about our collaboration on science communication, please click on their team logo.

Team:KCL UK/Collaborations