Collaborations
Of course we collaborated with a variety of different teams. We hope these collaborations have given other teams similar results and help as it has done for us. Amongst others, the collaborations have been fun and have given us a lot more insight into our different stakeholders, as well as helped us prepare some handbooks for the next generation of iGEMers!
Entrepreneurship Workshop
In the beginning of the summer 20 iGem teams from all over the world signed up for our virtual workshop with the purpose of introducing generic instruments of 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: Of course we had a lot of fun in Gothenburg, next to all of the more serious events!
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: their help means a lot to us!
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 nice and interactive events, we thought it was important to share our knowledge with future teams. Additionally, for the Nordic iGEM countries a chapter was added to the Nordic iGEM conference (NiC).
The NiC is hosted every year by one 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!
Finance
In collaboration with the finance members of our iGEM Stockholm team, we made a finance handbook that can be used by the next iterations of the iGEM Stockholm team. The handbook, which includes deadlines for grant applications, information on previous collaborators and tips and tricks, can be found here.
NiC
This year the Nordic iGEM Conference was hosted by the iGEM teams of Chalmers and Linköping. Our whole team went to Gothenburg over the last weekend of July to participate in the competition, where all of the teams presented their project. The projects were judged and different prizes could be won. 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 was a lot of fun with the other teams and some good feedback on our presentation was received. Overall it was a rewarding experience: we had discussions with the other teams regarding difficulties we have had with our projects and how we fixed them.
Figure 2: 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.
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 patch ????. We already got the coat with some awesome additions to the coat by other teams from all over Europe and are super excited to see what the final result will look like!
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 LINK THEM???. 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 cool postcards related to their projects, as can be seen in the figure below.
Figure 5: A nice addition to the colourful, fun coat, as modelled by our team leader Elsa!
Ohio Workshop
The Ohio State University's iGEM team LINK THEM? 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 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 model to show what you are actually planning on making! It was thus a fun and useful 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 6: All of the different break out rooms had a specific function, to ensure discussions focused solely on one topic
iGEM Uppsala & iGEM Maastricht Agriculture Workshop
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 diverse stakeholders was taken into account throughout the whole of the Future of Farming 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 7: 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 hosted 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