Team:Virginia/Collaborations

TRANSFOAM

Team Attributions
Description Design Experiments Model Safety
Results Future Directions Demonstrate
Parts Collection
Integrated Human Practices Public Engagement Collaborations Mid-Atlantic Meetup
Awards Medals

Our Collaborations

Collaboration gives all iGEM teams a chance to learn more about other teams’ projects as well as work together on shared initiatives. We had so much fun working with all of you. Here are all of our collaborations:

Foam Cooler Survey

“Quantifying EPS consumption in labs across the globe”

When Virginia iGEM joined the EPS Taskforce, a group led by UVA Sustainability dedicated to monitoring EPS consumption in university labs, our first task was to quantify the problem. Realizing that iGEM connects with labs across the world, we created a survey to measure how much EPS was consumed in the labs of iGEM teams and delivered the data to the taskforce. The results are summarized in the figure below. Thanks so much for all the iGEM teams that filled out survey!

Teams that filled out the survey:
UCL iGEM, TelHai-Migal, Stony Brook iGEM, Potsdam, uOttawa iGEM, UAlberta, MITADTBi` o_Pune, Wroclaw, CMUQ, Duesseldorf, Syntex, UCopenhagen, Sao_Carlos-Brazel, Lambert GA, iGEM Costa Rica, iGEM Athens, iGEM Strasbourg, NAWI_Graz

Social Media Hub

Feeling isolated from communications with the majority of iGEM teams, we sought to create a social media database to stay connected to other iGEM teams and open even more channels of communication. This way, we could share our thoughts, interests, and findings with ease! Thanks to all the teams that filled out our survey! It was great getting to know you through social media.

Realizing the value of the data provided in our surveys, we made sure to offer data to any iGEM teams that requested it. Here are the following teams we supported:

  • Team Marburg: provided images of E. coli plates for their colony picking machine.
  • Team UAlberta: completed survey on inclusivity and diversity
  • Team uOttawa: donated to their donation protocol box
  • Team MITADBIO Pune: completed survey on menstrual waste
  • Team Saint Joseph:completed survey on waste water
  • Team Strasbourg: completed survey on allergies
  • Team King’s College London: completed survey on biosecurity

Mid-Atlantic Meetup This year, we hosted the mid-atlantic meetup. You can learn more about it by clicking here.

Providing Feedback

The perspectives of different people and the feedback they offer is crucial for improving designs. Given our fresh perspectives, we reviewed the work of two teams and offered advice on how we would improve their work

Team William and Mary’s SOL curriculum

Team W&M wrote a comprehensive teaching plan to be implemented in the state of Virginia’s Standard of Learning (SOL) science curriculum. We reviewed their work and found that the material could be very overwhelming as there was a lot of concepts in each lesson plan. We suggested increasing the use of graphics and setting more guidelines for instructor guided reflection of content.

Team US AFRL Carroll HS’s wiki guide

Team US AFRL Carroll HS made videos that would teach teams how to build wikis. Our wiki team reviewed their videos and found that they were often included non-instructional content. We suggested to make a more succinct video by cutting out any unnecessary content.

Connecting Through Art

We believe that art is a great way to communicate science, and we weren’t alone in this thought. We worked for the following groups to explore the relationship between art and science.

Team Dusseldorf’s postcards

Team Dusseldorf asked teams around the world to make postcards so we could get to know each other. Hope you all enjoyed our card!

Team Nantes Art competition

Team Nantes challenged us to design an art piece inspired by synbio. Hope you enjoyed our submission!

References

  1. Kanazawa, J., Kubo, H. & Sato, R. Gas-Liquid Chromatography of Organophosphorus Pesticides. Agricultural and Biological Chemistry 29, 56–60 (1965).
  2. Fractional Distillation. http://www.pitt.edu/~ceder/lab7/fractionaldistillation.html.
  3. Karaduman, A. Pyrolysis of Polystyrene Plastic Wastes with Some Organic Compounds for Enhancing Styrene Yield. Energy Sources 24, 667–674 (2002).
  4. Nogales, J., García, J. L. & Díaz, E. Degradation of Aromatic Compounds in Pseudomonas: A Systems Biology View. in Aerobic Utilization of Hydrocarbons, Oils and Lipids (ed. Rojo, F.) 1–49 (Springer International Publishing, 2017). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-39782-5_32-1.
  5. Tischler, D. et al. StyA1 and StyA2B from Rhodococcus opacus 1CP: a Multifunctional Styrene Monooxygenase System. J. Bacteriol. 192, 5220 (2010).
  6. Divyashree, M. S., Rastogi, N. K. & Shamala, T. R. A simple kinetic model for growth and biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoate in Bacillus flexus. New Biotechnology 26, 92–98 (2009).