Collaborate with IGEM TAU!

During the last year, we had some collaborations with igem teams from all over the world! We believe in sharing knowledge, practice together and help wherever we can.

1. Hosting the Mini Jamboree - October 6th

Somewhere along April we came up with the idea of hosting a meetup for all the Israeli groups. While considering different dates, we came to the conclusion that hosting the meetup close to the competition, in a mini Jamboree form, would be enormously beneficial to all those participating.
We have published our meetup at the iGEM website in order to enable other groups from all over the world to come join us, besides the Israeli teams. To our delight, a representative from MSP-Maastricht , Netherlands arrived to our mini Jamboree and presented their project.

On October 6th, around 50 people arrived to Tel Aviv University, including all the Israeli teams that participate this year and came from all over Israel – BGU from the south and TelHai-Migal and Technion from the north. As mentioned, we had a special guest from Maastricht - Abraham. The mini Jamboree kicked off with some socializing, poster session and an Italian lunch. The aim of the meet-up was to provide a platform for all the participating iGEM teams to present their project and get feedback and tips for improvement.
After the gathering, we had two sessions of presentations in which each team presented its project, while a panel of judges asked questions and gave tips for improvement. The judges panel included some of the PI's of the different teams and past participants that shared with us their experience and gave constructive criticism to the teams.
After the teams presented, Dr. Ben Maoz gave us an interesting and useful lecture about how to make a good presentation. In order to finish this meetup in a good mood, we went to the university's bar to make a toast and wish good luck at the Giant Jamboree with some cold beer!

In conclusion, the mini Jamboree was a wonderful event that made all the participants feel a little more prepared towards the Giant Jamboree. We would like to thank all the teams for coming and the panel of judges.

2. Hair Donation

The iGEM Tel-Hai - Migal team has organized a lovely hair donation event to promote awareness to cancer and collect as many donations as possible. All the hair donated during the event (30 braids!) was sent to an organization called "Zichron Menachem" for making wigs for women battling cancer. In order to support this important cause, our own wonderful team member Ofir Vardi took an active part in the event and donated her hair. IGEM TAU 2019 team supports the fight against cancer and wishes health to all the cancer patients.

3.BGU Meetup

On June 13th, we had the pleasure of attending a meetup in Beer Sheva hosted by the iGEM BGU team. This was the first meeting between the Israeli's iGEM teams for 2019. During the meetup, each team presented its iGEM project, which set the ground for new collaboration opportunities. Later on, the day was concluded with socializing over snacks and drinks. We greatly appreciate the effort of iGEM BGU and thank them for inviting us.

4. Instagram Challenge

On June 2019, we had the pleasure to be a part of the "Instagram Challenge" created by iGEM Stony Brook. This challenge was a fantastic opportunity to share some of our work on social media, while introducing iGEM and synthetic biology work to our followers. We had a great time and loved seeing the posts created by the other teams. We had created our pyocin as an agar art!

5. SDG Challenge

We were happy to take part in the SDG Challenge which was created by TAS_Taipei iGEM team from Taiwan, Tuebingen iGEM team from Germany and Costa RicaiGEM team.
We chose three SDG goals that match our project PYO-PYO:
1. Good health and well being - 10 million people are predicted to die annually by the year of 2050 from antibiotic resistant bacteria. Pyocins, as an effective alternative, can help stop this catastrophe.
2. Clean water and sanitation - not only do bacteria make us sick, but it can also pollute our water. Our pyocins will be able to fight bacteria in any terrain!
3. Reduced inequalities - antibiotic resistant bacteria mainly harm people in poor countries, which do not have access to the expensive last resort antibiotics. We hope that pyocins will make anti bacterial drugs available for everyone.

6. Translating a children's book and an activity on synthetic biology

iGEM Bilkent-UNAMBG from Turkey created a beautiful and inspiring story for children, introducing them to synthetic biology and its applications. To support this important cause, we created a Hebrew translation of the story. In this way, we are enabling Israel's young generation and scientists to be exposed to this amazing world of synthetic biology.
In addition, we had an extra collaboration of translating a booklet made by Washington iGEM 2019 team. The booklet contains an accessible synthetic biology curriculum with hands-on activities made for students by students. We are happy to help Washington iGEM and the booklet is now accessible for Hebrew speaking students.