Blog
Last year, the teams from our university and from Gothenburg University collaborated by creating a scientific blog. The members we met from last year’s team talked so fondly of this collaboration and had such an attachment to their blog that we immediately considered continuing their project.
After meeting the incredibly friendly members of the Gothenburg team, we enthusiastically decided to keep this legacy alive. Each of our teams wrote biweekly articles on various scientific subjects for the blog, engaging our readers by posting Instagram stories to tease each new idea. We shared weekly Zoom meetings with the Gothenburg team to discuss ideas and the current article, but also get to know our fellow iGEMers. This collaboration was incredibly valuable for both our teams – we met wonderful people with whom we shared our love of science and our iGEM stories. We also produced quality articles to enthuse our readers, giving them a taste of a variety of scientific subjects and each writer’s particular voice. Link to the blog: thetranscriptome.com
Podcast
Although furthering a tradition by doing the blog was a wonderful experience, we wanted to couple it with a new and overdue collaboration: one with our neighbors, the EPFL team. The proximity meant that we could meet with them regularly to build a long-term relationship throughout the competition. After exploring various intriguing ideas, we decided to broadcast a discussion on GMOs in a podcast format. The discussion would be centered on four main ideas, separated in four distinct episodes – an overview on GMOs, their use in agriculture, the legislation surrounding them, and their impact on health. For every episode, a member from each team interviewed an expert knowledgeable on the subject together. We held multiple meetings leading up to each episode to prepare questions and share our viewpoints together. At the end of the collaboration, we were even able to share an in-person coffee party to celebrate our accomplishment!