Team:AFCM-Egypt/Fever
CU iGEM Team
Back in January we were thrilled to receive an email from a group of Biotech students from Cairo University asking about our experience in the competition. So far, there had always been only a single Egyptian team participating in iGEM every season and we were incredibly excited to change that. We hosted the CU iGEMers on our campus for an orientation session that took place on the 10th of January, 2019. We talked about the challenges they might face while starting a team and important considerations for African teams. Serving as a starting point for their iGEM journey and helping them design their team’s infrastructure was an amazing experience. Together we made iGEM history with two Egyptian teams participating simultaneously for the first time!
Tunisian Team
We enjoyed helping in the process of starting a team so much that we decided to do it again! On the 24th of September we had a conference call with a team from the National Institute of Applied Science and Technology in Tunisia. We brainstormed with them the appropriate channels through which they could start the team. We also provided them with a starting pack including our presentations from the iGEM Bootcamp. We can’t wait to see them in the 2020 season!
iGEM on The Nile
Back in April we attended the first ever iGEM On The Nile: Cairo Meetup hosted by our iGEM Ambassador for Africa Hana M. Abdelzaher .
The meetup brought together iGEMers, as well as SynBio enthusiasts in a lovely evening cruising the Egyptian river. Guests learned about the AfteriGEM programs, listened to talks from distinguished speakers and broke out into networking groups.
iGEM BootCamp
The first Egyptian iGEM Bootcamp was an interactive 4-day event covering the competition, its history and effect, principles of SynBio, biobrick design, biosafety and security, human practices, fundraising, bioentrepreneurship and the skill of idea presentation and delivery.
The event was hosted by the iGEM Ambassador for Africa Hana Abdelzaher. The event was held at the Darb 1718 Contemporary Art and Culture Center, a veritable hub of Egyptian culture. The attendees were from different universities such as, Ain Shams University (ASU), Zewail University, October University for Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA) and the Armed forces College of Medicine (AFCM).
We were thrilled to participate in this event as preceptors, where AFCM AfteriGEMers spoke about their 3-year experience in the competition, presenting an introduction for iGEM, starting a team, track selection while team members gave an introduction to SynBio introduction and biobrick tutorial, requirements of presentation and the skills needed to deliver the project idea.
A Wiki Club where attendees critically appraised previous projects with support from the preceptors were incredibly fun. Finally, the attendees were assigned to prepare presentations with the help of the preceptors displaying a preliminary project idea.
We were thrilled to participate in the event as it was a fruitful experience spreading the love of iGEM all over Egypt and yet to come Africa.
Symposium
On 26th January, 2019 Africa had an iGEM Cairo Symposium headed by Ambassador to Africa Japheth Kelly.
We got the chance to help the ambassador teach and give out more about the iGEM Competition, After iGEM, Synthetic Biology, and become a part of our international community. We were excited to meet other Representatives from different Egyptian colleges, where they were introduced to Synthetic Biology, iGEM Competition and After iGEM.
