Our Meetup

On June 22nd, 2019, our team hosted our very own meetup where four other teams from three different states attended (Rose Hulman Institute of Technology’s iGEM team, Ohio State’s iGEM Team, the United States Air Force Academy Team, and Alma College’s team). We played ice breaker games to get to know the other groups as well ate snacks and took a walking tour of our hometown, Dayton. After the tour, all the teams ate lunch together and skyped our Northamerican representative, Amy. Amy provided helpful tips regarding our and what to expect at the iGEM jamboree. Lastly, we concluded the meetup with presentations from each group. All the teams provided feedback, and our team provided helpful tips for the jamboree. 

USAFA iGEM Team

For the last two summers, we were able to work with the United States Air Force Academy team in and outside the labs. In the lab, we learned different techniques from each other, shared protocols, and gave project updates with one another. Outside the lab, both teams ate meals together, discussed projects to look for improvements as well as bounce ideas off each other. Lastly, both teams were able to discuss their experiences regarding iGEM last year at the jamboree and gave helpful tips for this year.

Went to MSU Meetup

For the last three years, our team has attended the Midwestern Meetup, hosted by Michigan State, where we get the opportunity to collaborate with other iGEM teams including the University of Michigan, RHIT, and OSU. We did various icebreakers, ate lunch together, and had discussions about our presentations. We gave each other feedback on our presentations and discussed our times at the iGEM jamboree. 

Mike the Microbe

Three years ago, we created a “Flat Stanley” called Mike the Microbe. Since then, we have continued the tradition of sending Mike the Microbe along with Chia the Chitinase across the world to create collaborations with other teams. By sending Mike and Chia out, we were able to talk to other groups about our project as well as receive pictures of Mike and Chia at different places around the world.

A huge thank you to all the participating teams: Marburg, Costa Rica, Stony Brook, NYU Shanghai, University of Western Ontario, University of Potsdam, SoundBio, Queens, TU Eindhoven, Ionis, Copenhagen, Kaiserslautern, DTUBioBuilders, Athens, UPNAvarra, Wageningen, OSU, Saint-Joseph, Estonia, TU_Dresden, Bulgaria, and IIT Madras.

TAS-Taipei

Over the summer, we collaborated with the TAS-Taipei team for our wiki guide and the iGEMxSDGs challenge. We also participated in a Skype call with Jessica Chen and other members of their team to talk about the wiki, wetlab, and applications of our projects. 

Wiki Guide

Our Wiki Guide is a multi-team collaboration to compile wiki knowledge in a way that is easy to comprehend. Our team made a series of Youtube videos and laid out steps for creating a successful wiki page. This benefitted new teams that had a lot of questions and wanted to suggest content to add to the guide such as bootstrap. It also allowed returning teams to share their tips and expertise. 

Thank you to the multitude of teams that contributed including:

• Ohio State
• NYU Shanghai
• University of Western Ontario 
• Athens
• TU_Dresden
• TAS_Taipei
• Costarica
• UOttawa
• Moscow
• TAU_Israel
• Thessaly
• Nottingham
• Edinburgh
• ASIJ Tokyo
• Stockholm
• Aix Marseille
• NCTU_Formosa
• Chalmers-Gothenburg
• UCL iGEM
• NCKU-Tainan
• OUC-China
• Ruperto Carola
• UNSW Australia
• MSP-Maastricht
• IISER-Pune-India
• Manchester
• Northern BC
• GIFU_TOKAI
• FDR-HB_Peru
• Chapel Hill
• Lubbock_TTU
• BOKU-Vienna
• University of Melbourne
• UFPR-Curitiba-Brazil
• WLC-Milwaukee
• ShanghaiFLS_China
• ICT-Mumbai
• TU Delft

Other Collaborations

Some other collaborations in which we participated include: 

• Marburg’s Golden Gate Webinar
• Stonybrook’s LabCoat Challenge
• UOttawa’s Virtual Protocol Donation Box
• iGEMxSDGS Challenge (Team TAS_Taipei, Team Costa Rica and Team Tuebingen) 
• Multiple surveys including UAlberta’s Diversity Inclusiveness Survey and Moscow’s Tick Survey.