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Collaborations

Table of contents:

Global Virtual Protocol Donation Box
Handheld Fluorometer Collaboration
Most Googled Questions Video Collaboration
Wiki Resource Tutorials Collaboration
Chess Tournament Collaboration
Survey Collaborations

1. Global Virtual Protocol Donation Box

An international Initiative of University of Ottawa iGEM Team

Synthetic biology is hard work. It is even harder for the inexperienced students, who constitute the vast majority of competitors. Added to the stress of inexperience is the financial burden of conducting experiments. This year, our team dedicates itself to tackling the issues of inexperience and financial constraints. One way to address those issues would be by providing new trainees with experimental protocols that are tested, simple, and cost-effective. Synthetic biology techniques can thus be more accessible for future endeavors and iGEM teams. We believe that by compiling and analyzing a wealth of tested protocols and techniques from teams across the globe, we can create a simplified protocol handbook which describes the simplest, most cost-effective, and most reproducible procedures that can make lab life easier, fun and interesting. Therefore, we create a virtual donation box to gather the successful protocol donations from other generous iGEM teams. Thus, the virtual donation box is made so that protocols from different iGEM teams are free for other teams to view and try. In addition, we test the protocols and provide our own protocol handbook to future iGEM teams, which contains optimized protocols for seamless experimentation. The protocol handbook is also ideal for training new iGEM students. Please see the Human Practicesfor more on the protocol handbook.

On June 4th, 2019 our virtual donation box was officially launched.

BIG THANK YOU to:

To all the teams that have contributed and have made this possible, we cannot thank you enough. We compared your protocols to optimize them into one success-guaranteed handbook. Teams accessed the virtual protocol donation box for assistance with troubleshooting their experiments. We are also beyond grateful that it has helped a few iGEM teams out with their project.

One precious moment was when TU Dresden iGEM team contacted us about having a better sense of direction after exploring the protocol donation box in the beginning of their experiment to test out an efficient DNA extract method that gives a high yield. They also like the fact that the protocols are extremely accessible. If curious about their project, check them out! We hope that the Virtual Donation Box will expand in the future and continue to be a resource for iGEMers seeking to learn and improve their synthetic biology skills.

In brief, the Virtual Protocol Donation Box allowed us to create the compiled handbook of optimized synthetic biology protocols and also created a venue for different teams to discuss and share ideas regarding their experimental methods to troubleshoot their respective protocols.

Our Virtual Protocol Donation Box can be found here: https://2019.igem.org/Teams/Collaborations

2. Handheld Fluorometer Collaboration

Design and Troubleshoot for Queen's University iGEM

June 15th, 2019 was a special day. Our team collaborated with Queen’s University iGEM on their exciting dry lab project: the creation of a handheld fluorometer to test for specificity and sensitivity of salivary tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
From June 15th-August 12th, uOttawa iGEM team provided QGEM with design plans and troubleshooting advice for issues that were encountered during the documentation of color-coded entries.
Our team brainstormed ideas for QGEM's device casing and provided troubleshooting advice for possible complications with their HC-05 Bluetooth module and functionality. It was an amazing long-term experience working along with QGEM's dry lab team. We highly recommend checking their device out.

**Figure 1.** Left: Handheld fluorometer. Right: Casing.

3. Most Googled Questions Video Collaboration

Scripted and Filmed Videos for Queen's University iGEM

On July 22nd, uOttawa iGEM team was invited to script and participate in QGEM's video to answer a few of the most googled questions from students about genetic engineering. The questions that were answered by uOttawa iGEM team were:

What is genetic engineering?
Where was genetic engineering invented?
Who benefits from genetic engineering?
Where do genetic engineers work?

We conducted a literature review to write a thorough but succinct answer to each question. We wrote the script, and then filmed it. We then passed the video clips to QGEM which edited them into this video.

Thus, we have been in close correspondence with QGEM as we both shared the goal a similar vision of making synthetic biology more comprehensible to the younger generations.

4. Wiki Resource Tutorials Collaboration

Constructive Feedback to Videos for US AFRL Carroll Highschool iGEM

On June 30th, 2019, US AFRL Carroll High School iGEMreached out to us stating that they had a similar global view as we do, but rather than protocols, they endeavoured to create a handbook/tutorial for wiki website construction. Our team watched their videos and gave them constructive feedback and comments. We also used their tutorials in the construction of our wiki as our team members did not have website design experience. Check out their YouTube channel with the wiki tutorials.

5. Chess Tournament Collaboration

Competed in Blitz Chess Game hosted by Moscow iGEM

October 3rd, iGEM Moscow invited us to join them in a grand chess tournament along with other teams around the globe: iGEM Thessaloniki (Greece), TU Dresden iGEM (Germany), NU iGEM (Kazakhstan) and ULV iGEM (United States). Despite the time zone differences of our countries, with patience and respect, we worked it out in the end through our time together from October 10th to October 16th.

The goal of Moscow’s iGEM team was to provide a venue for teams to have a fun break and to relieve the stress associated with the deadlines of the competition. The competition was much fun and an epic success! It was a pleasurable experience and it served as a reminder for taking care of our mental health!

Here is a picture of the tournament schedule.

6. Survey Collaborations

*Filled Surveys for Multiple**iGEM Teams*

These surveys exposed our team to topics that we would never have thought of.
Featuring the iGEM Teams that ask us to be involved with their project through surveys:

University of Alberta. Demographics and Inclusivity Survey (August 9)
This survey was relevant to our project because it sought to address issues of accessibility in the competition. Team uAlberta focused on the accessibility of participation for contestants from various socioeconomic backgrounds.
University of Virginia. Measure of Styrofoam Use (July 15)
This survey sought to identify the uses of expanded polystyrene (aka EPS or Styrofoam) in different laboratories. The data share will be shared with the University of Virginia Sustainability EPS Task Force to better understand foam waste generated by labs.
University of Strasbourg. Detection of Food Allergens (September 2)
This is another study focused on accessibility. Team Strasbourg was interested in the allergic demographic within the competition and how these allergic individuals were accommodated.
University of California UC Davis. Roadblock to Mammalian Research (September 24)
The UC Davis team’s project paralleled ours. Whereas we sought to facilitate synthetic biology for iGEMers interested in working with yeast, they sought to facilitate synthetic biology for teams interested in working with mammals. Their survey sought to determine why mammalian synthetic biology was underrepresented in iGEM.
University of Copenhagen. Chewing Gum Hormone Detector (October 2)
Because our team is predominantly female, we were very excited about supporting another team who was interested in revolutionizing the world of gynecology using synthetic biology. Team Copenhagen was interested in creating a gum that would detect ovulation and menstrual cycle irregularities.
University of Tartu. Synthetic Biology Awareness (October 8)
Team Tartu was also interested in ensuring comprehension of synthetic biology. They wanted to “check how many people actually know about the [basics of the] biological production of different compounds and pharmaceuticals”.

Lambert High School

Demand for a Low-Cost Bead Homogenizer

Team:uOttawa/Collaborations