Collaborations
A big part of iGEM is to collaborate with other teams and people. There are different ways of doing this, including organizing events for other teams (our entrepreneurship event), collaborating in workshops and events (such as those hosted by iGEM Ohio state university and iGEM Uppsala) and creating handbooks for the coming generation of iGEM'ers. All in all, we have tried to collaborate with a variety of different teams, which has made this year even more enjoyable!
Entrepreneurship Workshop
In the beginning of the summer 2021, iGEM teams from all over the world signed up for our virtual workshop with the purpose of introducing generic instruments for business planning. Fredrik Blix, associate professor in Cyber Security, invited participants to discuss how they could use tools such as stakeholder and competitor analysis to start their projects' entrepreneurial journey. E-healthcare expert and MD Ulf Osterstad gave additional insight into business planning in healthcare. Conversations on how to approach data collection within iGem and how to integrate sustainability into our business plans were sparked. For our team, this workshop served as the catalyst of our Entrepreneurial journey, which you can read more about on our Entrepreneurship page. All in all, many different teams gained some helpful insights, shown by the question session that lasted almost 30 minutes!
Figure 1: Our entrepreneurship workshop was attended by many different iGEM teams all over the world! Thanks to Fredrik Blix and Ulf Osterstad, many teams started off their entrepreneurship plans on the right foot.
Electron Microscopy
Team MEPhl posted on the international iGEM Slack that they were willing to help teams in need of e.g. electron microscopy to check and establish structures and interactions. This was an amazing opportunity for us: to ensure our aptamers properly bind their target, we would need to image the interaction in some way. Collaborating with the MEPhl team thus allowed us to double-check the validity of our assay. Our samples have not arrived yet but we have received an experiment plan from team MEPhl and the experiments are going to be conducted even after the wikifreeze. Their help means a lot to us! See the experimental plan here
Human Practices Handbook Update
Together with iGEM Gothenburg, we updated the HP handbook made by iGEM Stockholm back in 2017. Especially now that it is more difficult to organize fun and interactive events, we thought it was important to share our knowledge with future teams. Additionally, for the Nordic iGEM countries, a chapter was included on the Nordic iGEM conference (NiC).
NiC is hosted every year by one or more of the Nordic iGEM teams: this was done by iGEM Gothenburg, one of the organizers of this year's NiC event. It is, however, also useful to teams wanting to organize other big events. The new version of the handbook, which can be seen here will hopefully help future teams all over the world!
NiC
This year, the Nordic iGEM Conference was hosted by the iGEM teams of Chalmers-Gothenburg and Linkoping. Our whole team went to Gothenburg over the last weekend of July to participate in the competition, where all of the teams presented their projects. The projects were judged and different prizes were awarded. Our team won the "Best Impact Project" award; as one of the judges said: "I think this project has big business potential". Two other comments were "Creative and interesting ideas for both education and engaging the public" and "The importance of the project was also well underscored by the fact that the vast majority of people asked would like to be tested."
In addition to this, there were a lot of fun events with the other teams and some good feedback on our presentation was received. Overall, it was a rewarding experience: we had the opportunity to discuss with other teams regarding challenges we faced with our projects and how we fixed them.
Figure 2: Of course we had a lot of fun in Gothenburg, both within our team and with the other teams!
Lab Coat Project
The Sorbonne iGEM team approached us: Would we want to participate in a travelling lab coat project? Of course we responded enthusiastically! Our addition to the lab coat was a painting of our logo. We already got the coat with some awesome additions by other teams from all over Europe and are super excited to see what the final result will look like! So far, the coat has managed to bring different teams together, thus bridging the physical distance between all of us.
Figure 3: As part of the lab coat project, we decided to paint the MIKROSKIN logo on the coat
Figure 4: A nice addition to the colourful, fun coat, as modelled by our team leader Elsa!
Postcard Project
We participated in the postcard project, a project set up by iGEM Dusseldorf. The idea was to collect postcards from a variety of different iGEM teams, which were then sent out to the participating teams. Our media team made a cool postcard that included all of our team members: with a focus on the skin, it is only fair to show the team members up close! Other teams had lovely postcards related to their projects, as can be seen in the figure below.
Figure 5: The postcard project was a lovely way of seeing our different projects represented. As you can see, every team gave their own, refreshing spin to the postcard!
The complete postcard collection can be found in digital form here:
The physical postcards that we received in this project were collected and inserted into a physical folder that makes it easy to look at and remember. This folder will be handed over to the next iGEM Stockholm team to give them inspiration for their new project. We think that this will contribute to their brainstorming phase and give them more insights in what they can build further on. See the folder in the figures below:
Figure 6: A physical folder that holds the postcards as a memory from the collaboration. This will hopefully contribute to the brainstorming phase for the coming iGEM Stockholm team.
Figure 7: The inside of the postcard folder, with all the amazing postcards inside
Ohio Workshop
The Ohio State University's iGEM team was one of the first teams to organize an event. Many of the other teams that joined were, like the iGEM Stockholm team, still in their brainstorming phases. Different Zoom rooms were set up to exchange project ideas, as well as tips and tricks, including on how to test protein expression using GFP, how to ensure good group dynamics and about the importance of having a predictive maths model to show what we are actually planning on doing! It was thus a fun and insightful event that helped us a lot going forth with the project. All in all, the event was a great way for us to get to know some other teams!
Figure 8: All of the different break out rooms had a specific function, to ensure discussions focused solely on one topic
iGEM Uppsala Future of Farming Event
On the 29th and 30th of August, the iGEM Uppsala team hosted their "Future of Farming" event. An amazing opportunity for us to learn more about their project, as well as the impact current problems, e.g. climate change and overpopulation, have on the future of food. There was a diverse range of speakers and the view of several stakeholders was taken into account throughout the whole of the event. This has inspired us to once again take a look at MIKROSKIN's stakeholders and how to ensure all of them are treated in the best possible way!
Figure 9: Our partner team iGEM Uppsala hosted an amazing two day event with a focus on different stakeholders in farming and cultured meat. It was amazing to be able to listen to the talks and all of the different perspectives represented!
iGEM Memes on Instagram
The iGEM meme account on Instagram, @igem_memes, is a page that is handled by the iGEM Stockholm team. Together with a range of other teams, we have provided the iGEM community with some fun, relatable memes ever since the beginning of 2021. The account has the aim to bring the community together, which is especially important in Covid times. Together with members from teams all over the world, we have kept the iGEM feeling alive in an easily accessible way! For the memes, make sure to take a look at iGEM memes
iGEM 2021 Collaborative Videos
We were engaged in the iGEM 2021 collaborative video project organized by iGEM Nantes. The aim of this collaboration was to show the broadness of the iGEM community and for us to greet each other in our native languages. We sent in a greeting saying "Hello, my name is Elsa and I am a part of iGEM Stockholm" to the video. Over 35 other teams sent in a greeting in their language and the final video can be seen below.
Engineering Biology Problems Book
Apart from the electron microscopy, we collaborated in the project "Engineering biology problems book" organised by the MEPhI iGEM team. The book is a growing collection of problems within the field of engineering biology and their possible solutions. We were invited to draw up unsolved problems of biological engineering. We contributed to a problem related to human health, contamination and accumulation of so-called "forever chemicals".
iGEM Barcelona Antibiotic Resistance Conference
During this conference we got more information about the state and risks of antibiotic resistance. The risks brought up during the conference show that we need to improve the way in which we use antibiotics. With MIKROSKIN, we want to find the root of the problem so that we can get better diagnosis and treatments of skin problems. This can help reduce the amount of antibiotics that is used to treat certain skin problems and therefore lower the risk of antibiotic resistance! This conference was thus extra interesting to us and, once again, showed why we dedicate our summer breaks to MIKROSKIN!
Figure 10: The certificate we were given for attending the event
Association Lunch with Organ Lunchen
iGEM Stockholm participated in the association fair organised by the chemistry chapter at KTH. This fair is particularly targeted towards first year bachelor's and master's students. During this event we addressed questions regarding iGEM, importance of synthetic biology, project topic for 2021, previous teams and contributions, etc.
Figure 11: Our team speaking to Swedish students in Stockholm
Figure 12: Some more students being recruited to next years team!
Amphiox Games
Similar to KTH, Karolinska Institute organised a fun filled event at Vasaparken for their first year bachelor's and master's student called the Amphiox games. We received an overwhelming participation from the students who visited our stand where iGEM Stockholm had planned some interesting biotechnology-based activities. During this event we addressed questions regarding iGEM, importance of synthetic biology, project topic for 2021, previous teams and contributions, etc.
Figure 13: A selfie from our team leader Intisar, showing a group of KI students dressed up for the Amphiox games
Master Kickoff at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
iGEM Stockholm was invited to present about the team and the competition to the first year master's degree student during their program kickoff session. We also addressed questions during and after the presentation.
Figure 14: Our team leader Intisar, and dry lab member Simon, presenting to master students at KTH
Karolinska Institute Master Kickoff
iGEM Stockholm was invited to present about the team and the competition to the first year master's degree student during their program kickoff session. We also addressed questions during and after the presentation.
Figure 15: Our team leader Intisar presenting to master students at KI