Team:Duesseldorf/Meetup

Meetup

This iGEM year, our team hosted the official German iGEM Meetup “#iGEMDasMeetup”. We were incredibly happy that we were able to invite not only all German iGEM teams, but even more to our charming city in the west of Germany close to the Dutch border. In total 150 people came to visit us in Düsseldorf.

It was our aim to support and give back to the amazing iGEM community that has helped us so much during the last couple of competition years. This is why we created a weekend full of opportunities for exchange, growth, discussions, collaborations and lots of fun. GASB's "Altbier" reception was particularly well received.

Panel discussion

Outreach work can sometimes become an undervalued part of iGEM when the focus relies too much on the scientific side. However, the advances of science are always based and regulated by laws that are, in the case of democracy, in place made by the public opinion.

Especially in Germany and Europe, where genetic engineering has a very bad reputation and laws that restrict its usage. Additionally the madness of bureaucracy makes it difficult to use genetic engineering. It is very important to make people aware of synthetic biology and its advances. But nevertheless, it is also necessary to talk about possible issues as well as security and safety concerns to find solutions for a good balance between regulations and progress.

But that is not the only dilemma in regards to science. This is why the welcome of our Meetup was directly followed by a public panel discussion "Ethics or Success". Five very experienced experts with different perspectives came together to debate on the problem: Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen, Prof. Dr. Lutz Schmitt, Dr. Mark Benecke, Susanne Günther and Dr. Amrei Bahr were invited to discuss with the iGEM teams and the rest of the audience, guided by Prof. Dr. Peter Westhoff as a moderator.

For more information, click here.

Fig. 1:Participants of the panel discussion about „Ethics or Success“ from left to right: Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen, Prof. Dr. Lutz Schmitt, Dr. Mark Benecke, Susanne Günther and Dr. Amrei Bahr. In the front: Prof. Dr. Peter Westhoff, the moderator of the discussion.

Scientific Talks

In order to help teams with their projects and provide them with scientific input, we invited several renowned professors to give informative presentations about their field of research.

In the beginning, a scientific introductory lecture on Synthetic Biology was given by Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen. Prof. Dr. Peter Westhoff held a talk about how to improve crops by using “The toolbox of Modern Gene Technology.” and Prof. Dr. Weber presented a possible solution for the food problem caused by overpopulation: “Feeding 10 Billion by defusing photorespiration”.

Fig. 1: Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen giving his introductory lecture.
Fig. 2: Prof. Dr. Peter Westhoff giving his talk about “The toolbox of Modern Gene Technology”.
Fig. 3: Prof. Dr. Andreas Weber giving his talk about “Feeding 10 Billion by defusing photorespiration”.

After iGEM

The two European Ambassadors Nemanja Stijepovic and Niek Savelkoul also took part in our Meetup. Nemanja Stijepovic talked about the After iGEM program.
During his talk, we learned how we can stay in touch with iGEM and the past participants even after the Giant Jamboree and how a great community for the worldwide development of Synthetic Biology in connection with iGEM can emerge.

Fig. 1: iGEM European Ambassador Nemanja Stijepovic.

Workshops

While the scientific talks were insightful regarding the scientific aspect of iGEM, workshops shed light on other areas of the competition, such as the final presentation at the Giant Jamboree. In this regard, it was especially helpful - and a truly collaborative effort - that some workshops were organized from iGEM team members for iGEM teams.

Dr. Christian Dumpitak gave valued advice on “fraud, tricks and research integrity”.  The iGEM team of Bielefeld 2018 held a workshop about “Dual Use and Dual Use Research of Concern: Between Science Misuse and Science Communication”, which won the special prize for “Best Safety & Biosecurity” in the iGEM competition 2018.

Bryan Nowak from iGEM Potsdam gave answers to the questions “Why should I care about your talk?” - a workshop about presentation skills in and outside of iGEM.

Fig. 1: Dr. Christian Dumpitak giving his talk about "Fraud, tricks and research integrity“.
Fig. 2: Two Member of the iGEM team of Bielefeld 2018 giving their talk about "Dual Use and Dual Use Research of Concern: Between Science Misuse and Science Communication“.

Poster Sessions

Next to the final presentation in Boston, each poster presentation is judged at the Giant Jamboree and has a big impact on the final score. This is why it is very important for each team to learn how to give a proper poster presentation and how to answer questions regarding their project professionally.

Every day every team was able to practice their poster presentation in front of a real audience while simultaneously being able to receive insight into the projects of other teams. Hence, valuable feedback was exchanged, as well as new ideas and collaboration plans created and manifested.

In the following, you can see some impressions of the poster sessions.

Socializing

Making new contacts and collaborations is what we believe a very significant aspect for winning the iGEM competition. By connecting with each other, knowledge can be build on one another to improve and adapt projects - a very vital aspect of science in general.

To facilitate this, we not only organized shared meals with a food truck and „Düsseldorfer Altbier“, but also fun lab games and a guided city tour through the old town of Düsseldorf. In the end, every day held several opportunities for everyone to get to know each other and members of different teams better, while having lots and lots of fun.

In the following, you can see some impressions of our socializing events.

Awards

To honor outstanding performances during the German Meetup, we organized an award show at the end of the weekend.

During the entire Meetup, all teams were able to vote for the best poster. The winners received a cash prize of 200 Euro for their team, sponsored by GBM (Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie).

Additionally, the team that won the lab games was gifted with an award.

Congratulations to iGEM Team Darmstadt and Potsdam!

Fig. 1: iGEM Teams Darmstadt and Potsdam receiving their awards for the best poster and winner of the lab games.

Thank you!

We would like to thank the 18 participating teams who made this event an unforgettable weekend: Aachen, Bielefeld, Bonn, Darmstadt, Dresden, Freiburg, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Berlin, Kaiserslautern, Marburg, Munich, Potsdam, Stuttgart and Tübingen, as well as the iGEM team Munich 2018, iGEM Bielefeld 2018, the Dutch team Groningen and the Swiss team ETH Zurich. Thank you for traveling all the way to Düsseldorf!

We also want to thank everyone who participated, helped, presented and supported us. Without you we would not have been able to achieve such a fun and successful Meetup. We highly appreciate your efforts!



Participating Teams

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