In order to connect the gap between our research in the laboratory and the public, our iGEM team initiated and took part in several science communication events over the course of the summer. Furthermore, we engaged in and organised multiple occasions to bond with other iGEM teams to strengthen the community of synthetic biology and support and inspire one another.
Day of Initiatives at TUM
The Day of Initiatives at the Technical University of Munich, is a fair where student initiatives and groups have the possibilty to present their work. We had the chance to introduce our iGEM team to many visitors and since it was very early on in the iGEM cycle, we presented last year's project. This was a great opportunity to get our first experience in presenting a poster and meet other students interested in our work.
Open Day at Biology Center of LMU
Once a year the Biology faculty of the LMU opens up its doors for the public and offers an insight into research and University life in the Biological Sciences. The LMU offered us the great opportunity to set up our own booth at the Open Day where we presented our project to a large number of interested visitors ranging from school students, parents, elderly visitors, to other scientists working at the LMU.
To bring scientific methods closer to our visitors and get them involved, we offered fun and simple experiments to try themselves. Visitors could learn how to extract DNA with household products and even try to extract it from oranges. The highlight for younger school children was our “Coffee filter experiment” in which participants could make the concept of chromatography visible on coffee filters using felt tip pens.
The day gave us a first idea on how our project is perceived by the public and how to present it to different audiences. Fruitful discussions with fellow scientists from LMU helped us to get new ideas and to see our project from different perspectives. We also got to meet İlayda, a member of the Bilkent UNAMBG Team from Turkey!
15x4 Munich – Bringing Science to the Public
Not only is it important to ask questions and find the answers, as a scientist I felt obligated to communicate with the world what we were learning.
Stephen Hawking
Synthetic biology in the general public is often linked with negative associations like discussions about GMOs. We wanted to learn about the public's percepetion of our project and especially, how to explain the science behind our project in a comprehensible manner. Therefore, we decided to present the potentials and problems that synthetic biology withholds, at the 15x4 science communication event in Munich!
Not only did we pitch our project in 15 minutes on stage to an audience of over 200 people with mostly non-scientific background, but we also got to thoroughly improve our presentation and science communication skills with our mentor from the 15x4 organization team, Evgeny Labzin over the course of several weekly meetings. We took on the challenge to introduce our audience to highly scientific concepts by breaking the aspects of our project down in an understandable matter and therefore creating a dialogue about our research with the public.
After our talk we were approached by numerous attendees with valuable feedback and interesting questions which helped us to receive an outsider's view on our project and identify matters we have to address in the future. Furthermore, it was a perfect opportunity to practice for our presentation at the Giant Jamboree and bring more people in Munich into contact with our research and the iGEM competition in general!
iGEM@school
Our team was excited to see that we could spark many school student's interest in sience at previous open days we took part in. This inspired us to initiate the iGEM@school event in response to the broad interest of the school students.
Getting an insight into the life of a University student and into their possible prospective future is especially interesting for school students at the end of their school career. Therefore, we organised and hosted iGEM@school, where high school students could extend and deepen their knowledge of synthetic biology in a lecture prepared and held by us. Furthermore, we offered the students to be actual scientists for a day at the LMU Biocenter and apply their newly acquired knowledge in hands-on experiments which we perform on a daily basis in the laboratory in iGEM.
In order to get used to the most important tool of a scientist, the pipette, students pipetted a serial dilution and checked their accuracy with a photometer. To match the focus of our school lecture, the transient genetic modification of bacteria using plasmids, students got to make their own plasmid restriction and work out which plasmid they recieved via checking the fragment sizes on an agarose gel. In addition, students got a glimpse at the very commonly used model organisms E. coli and Yeast under the microscope, as well as fluorescently dyed HEK293T cells, which is the cell line of our project.
Experiments and the lecture were designed and prepared by Theresa Keil and Annika Elimelech with the help of Dr. Michael Germ and Dr. Andreas Brachmann. The organization of laboratory rooms and material was supported by Lehrerbildung@LMU.
Alpine Meetup
One of the highlights of our summer was the Alpine Meetup that we hosted in Munich. From the 30th - 31st of August, we invited teams from the Alpine area, mainly Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland and France to come together for a weekend in Munich. We set up a great program including everything from interesting talks and exciting workshops, to fun games and our highlight: a Mini Jamboree!
Friday 30.08.2019
We welcomed our visitors at the Biomedical Center of the LMU, where we hosted the Meetup. Everyone was welcomed with a great goodie bag and the first contacts where made during the poster set-up. After a short welcome speech, our supervisor Prof. Gil Westmeyer gave us an insight into his research in the first talk of the weekend, followed by a second talk about Engineering Principles in Synthetic Biology by Prof. Friedrich Simmel. After exchanging ideas and getting to know the details of each others projects, we ended the day together with dinner, followed by a small pub tour through Munich.
Saturday 31.08.2019
On the second day of our Meetup we listened to a talk by Dr. Andreas Brachmann about Opiod Synthesis in Yeast. After the talk, we offered great workshops by Eppendorf and Abcam, where experts in their field gave us very helpful tips on the correct application of their products in our experiments. After a group picture and lunch, Dr. Bettina Bölter gave an interesting insight into her research approach in the field of Plant Biochemistry. Before we got very scientific at our Mini Jamboree, we relaxed and had lots of fun during our science themed games outside in the sun. At the highlight of our Meetup, we simulated the situation at the Giant Jamboree and every team presented their project and got valuable feedback from the other teams. We finished the second day with some time to bond over dinner in one of Munich's best beergardens .
Sunday 01.09.2019
For the last day of the Meetup, we had no scientific program anymore but enjoyed a city tour and some sightseeing in Munich together. Spending time in the sunny English Garden was a perfect way to end an exciting weekend with many new friends!
Abcam
Antibodies: versatile tools for research
Janina Burkhardt and Tanja Büsgen from Abcam came all the way from Cambridge to give a workshop about antibodies, the field in which Abcam is one of the market leaders! They gave us an insight into the world of antibodies and talked about about the correct applications and what to pay attention to when using them.
Eppendorf
Liquid Handling Workshop
Gary Kusdian from Eppendorf introduced us into the world of Eppendorf pipettes. In his talk he gave a glance at dosing systems, operating principles and dosing techniques. In addition, he talked about factors influencing correct pipetting results.
Twist Bioscience
Oliver Latz and Kai Seehaus from Twist Bioscience offered us interesting insights into the iGEM supporting company Twist Bioscience at their booth.
The work of his laboratory focuses on bioengineering of next-generation molecular sensors and actuators for functional imaging and remote spatiotemporal control of cellular processes with whole organ(ism) coverage. To this end, mammalian cell engineering, nanotechnological and synthetic techniques are combined with non-invasive imaging methods such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT), complemented with fast fluorescence imaging. The new molecular imaging agents and actuators are applied for dynamic analyses of organoids and neurobehavioral imaging of preclinical model organisms to dissect cellular network function and contribute to future imaging-controlled tissue engineering as well as regenerative and cell therapies. Prof. Westmeyer studied medicine and philosophy in Munich and conducted his doctoral work on the molecular basis of Alzheimer’s disease in Prof. Christian Haass’ laboratory in Munich before receiving a part of his clinical education at Harvard Medical School. Starting in 2005 he worked with Prof. Alan Jasanoff as a postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T before he was appointed to TUM School of Medicine in 2012.
The research conducted by Prof. Simmel revolves around bionanotechnology and the physics of synthetic biological systems. His particular areas of interest include artificial molecular machines and nanostructures composed of DNA molecules and the design of artificial biochemical circuits. After studying physics and completing his doctorate (1999) at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), he did research work at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, USA. He returned to LMU in 2002 to work in a junior research group sponsored by the German Research Foundation’s Emmy Noether program. In 2005, Prof. Simmel qualified as a lecturer in experimental physics at LMU. He has been Chair of Experimental Physics (Physics of Synthetic Biological Systems) at TUM since 2007. Since 2013, Prof. Simmel has been a member of acatech - the National Academy of Science and Engineering.
Dr. Brachmann is a group leader in the Genetics
department of the LMU since 2005, where research is
focused on Microbial Functional Genomics. He is
specifically focused on Glomeromycota.
Dr. Brachmann studied Biology at the LMU Munich.
After his Diploma he did his doctoral studies in the
Gentetics Institute of LMU Munich in the laboratory of
Prof. Dr. Regine Kahmann. During his Postdoctoral
Fellow Dr. Brachmann joined the laboratory of Reed
Wickner for Biochemistry and Genetics in Bethesda,
Maryland, USA.
"What is the purpose of all this?" man asked politely.
"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.
"Certainly," said man.
"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said
God. And He went away.
(The First Book of Bokonon).
PD Dr. Bettina Bölter
Overcoming Barriers - Protein Translocation into Chloroplasts
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Dr. Bölter is a group leader in the plant science department of the LMU working on the characterisation of protein transport into chloroplasts and the analysis of the composition and the regulation of translocation complexes. Dr. Bölter studied Biology at the University of Kiel and completed her doctorate in Cell Biology in Kiel in 2000. During her postdoctoral fellowship she worked with Prof. Soll in Kiel and Prof. Hartl in Martinsried at the MPI for Biochemistry. Since 2004 she is a research assistant of Prof. Soll, Chair of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants at the LMU and since 2010 she is a private lecturer at LMU.
During the Poster Session and the Mini Jamboree, our participants had the opportunity to get into Giant Jamboree mood! All teams got to practice on their poster and presentation skills, got lots of feedback from other teams, professors and company experts that were present. Every team got to choose the best poster and presentation which gave the chance to win cool prizes as a little extra motivation!
Science Games
During our science themed games our visitors had the chance to relax and have fun with other teams.
City Tour
We let the Meetup come to an end with a city tour through sunny Munich and exchanged last talks and discussion over lunch in a beergarden.
Introduction to new students at TUM and LMU
Every year our universites offer an insight into interesting student activities for new Bachelor and Master students. We introduced our project and the iGEM competition to new Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering students at TUM and LMU. We included not only various interesting projects from the last years but also presented the different tasks our team members had over the summer and all aspects one can learn in- and outside of the laboratory. We hope that we could inspire some of the students to get interested in synthetic biology or even apply to become a member of our next year's team!
Social Media takeover - German Network of Young Scientists e.V.
The German Network of Young Scientist e.V. is a network for ambitious scientists from all different fields in Science, Engineering and IT, as well as scientists at different points in their career, ranging from school students to PhD students. Since the network developed from the German Science competition for students "Jugend forscht", this network was a great audience to inspire interdisciplinary cooperations and to exchange views on the experiences in taking part in a competition. By taking over their social media account for several days, we gave their followers an idea about our tasks in- and outside of the laboratory, how we decided on our project and how scientists of different fields can complement each other in synthetic biology and iGEM.
Eurofins Blog
Under the heading "The Next Generation’s Life Science", Eurofins Genomic offered us to publish an article about our project on their Eurofins Blog. We were delighted to take the opportunity to get a bigger outreach and improve our written communication skills at the same time.
iGEM Spring Festival
Very early on in the iGEM season, the iGEM Spring Festival was a great event to get in touch with other iGEM teams and learn about their first experiences, hear about other projects and get the first feeling of being part of the big iGEM community.
German Meetup
Together with some of the members of 2018's iGEM Munich team, we attended the German Meetup in Düsseldorf. It was a weekend full of interesting scientific exchange, poster presentations and new friendship and collaboration ideas.
