Team:UAlberta/Collaborations
COLLABORATIONS
This year, the University of Alberta iGEM team collaborated with 13 different teams on large projects and also with every team that completed our demographics survey. As our survey was anonymous we are unable to list every team that participated, and as a result we recognize that we have collaborated with every team that lists us on their wiki for having participated in our survey. Our extensive collaborations helped us to develop our project and build a community, allowing us to make great friends and strengthen our projects’ findings.
Project Collaborations
Calgary, Lethbridge, and Lethbridge HS
This year we collaborated extensively with the University of Calgary team, including attending their JulyGem event where we were able to meet with the Lethbridge and Lethbridge HS iGEM teams in Alberta to participate in workshops and present our project. The University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, and Lethbridge HS teams also attended our aGEM event that our team co-hosted with geekStarter. This particular province-wide collaboration allowed us to bring all of the Alberta iGEM teams together for a mock iGEM experience in aGEM we had each team present, participate in workshops, and work together to mutually improve our respective projects and presentations.
Finally, we collaborated with the University of Calgary team to create a scale-up and business model for the UAlberta iGEM team’s 2018 project, APIS, which also affects our current work, as the Beetector and APIS could be used as a complete treatment-and-detection system to tackle the issue of Nosema ceranae. This collaboration also affects our work as the Alberta Beekeeping Commission (the body which asked us to create the Beetector and represents all beekeepers in Alberta) wanted us to create this report to show them that our project could have a future. This collaboration provided the opportunity for both iGEM teams to learn about each others project, learn about business models, and try our own hand at scale-up.
The report for the scale-up and business model can be found here.
TU Dresden
TU Dresden reached out to our team this summer to help them with their “How To iGEM” project, which aims to act as a database for how new iGEM teams should do the basics of iGEM. This led to us writing the script for “How to iGEM #2 - Integrated Human Practices”, which they used to make the video. This video can be found . Writing the script allowed us to reflect on our own work from this year, and we are happy that we were able to share our findings with new iGEM teams.
Waterloo
At the beginning of the year, our team was lost on where to start with modeling. To solve this issue we spoke with the University of Waterloo iGEM team. They helped to answer our initial questions about modeling and taught us how to effectively model for iGEM. This helped address some of our most poignant questions about how many bees we would need to use to give reliable results? And how we could ensure that the signal would be visible?
This collaboration was very valuable as we could not have completed our modeling without them. Additionally, in the fall with one of team Waterloo's members (Alina) during their co-op placement at the University of Alberta helped the UAlberta team. Alina was able to help out in the lab with troubleshooting some experiments surrounding the construction of their construct and be an extra hand on deck before the wiki freeze (which is why our writeups about each other are very similar)!
British Columbia
At the beginning of the year, we learned that the University of British Columbia iGEM team was also working to develop a sensor. While their project is very different from ours, one of our team members went to visit them to learn about their work, tour their lab, and get to know their team better.
iGEM Community Collaborations
Stony Brook
We participated in two Stony Brook iGEM collaborations this year, with the first being the Stony Brook iGEM Instagram challenge. In this challenge, different iGEM teams posted every day for a week on their respective Instagrams with posts that centered on different topics about iGEM. Our posts can be found on our Instagram here. We also participated in their lab coat challenge. These collaborations were very fun and allowed us to get to know different iGEM teams from around the world!
The different sensors we considered included electrochemical sensors, such as microfluidics, as well as a reporter gene plan involving antibodies, chromoproteins, GFPs, and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET). As such, our initial idea was given to us from the community we are trying to serve, and our solution was heavily influenced and funded by their largest representative body.
Virginia
The University of Virginia iGEM team sent out a survey to gather information about styrofoam use in iGEM labs and ways that usage can be reduced. Our team completed their“Styrofoam Use in iGEM Labs” survey. We also emailed and discussed sustainability!
Dusseldorf
Every year the Dusseldorf iGEM team carries out the “Postcard” project collaboration where teams make, print, and send postcards to each other to spread awareness about each other's projects and promote synthetic biology to the public. This was our postcard:
MIT-ADT
This year, the MIT-ADT iGEM team developed a survey to gather more information about the menstrual waste crisis, which our team participated in it.
Costa Rica, Tuebingen, and TAS Taipei
We also participated in Costa Rica, Tuebingen and TAS Taipei's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) collab where we considered how our project worked towards achieving the SDGsas outlined by the United Nations. Our team determined that the Beetector works towards accomplishing goals 5, 9, 13, and 15: Gender Equality, Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, Climate Action, and Life on Land, respectively.
Laval University
At the beginning of the year we were interested in having an art piece made that would describe our project in an artistic manner! We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to collaborate with another team and have them learn about our project! So, Laval created a graphic that artistically describes our project! “I've tried to embody your project in an image, as well as keeping your last year's wiki color scheme, hope you find it cool”
