Our iGEM experience has provided an incredible opportunity to actively engage with the iGEM community, collaborate with fellow teams, participate in events, and connect with the public, all aimed at sharing synthetic biology concepts beyond the confines of our laboratory. This section of our Wiki highlights the network of connections that we have cultivated throughout our journey.

In July we attended the Dutch iGEM meetup, where all teams from Benelux were present. It was the first meetup where we had direct contact with other iGEM teams. We gained insights into each other’s projects and had some sessions where we had the opportunity to ask questions for a deeper understanding. This experience helped us understand how to organize ourselves in order to be more productive and how to communicate more effectively. We also attended some interesting talks about ethics and ethical research, which helped with further developing our Human Practices approach. We ended up staying in touch with a couple of teams and left the meetup with new perspectives for the project.

Figure 1: Picture from our presentation at the Utrecht iGEM meetup

Figure 2: Picture from the Utrecht iGEM meetup

We participated in a 2-day iGEM meetup in Münster where a total of 19 teams gathered to listen to expert talks, present and discuss their own projects, and network. It was a wonderful experience we look back on fondly. We met many iGEM teams and were able to deliberate and evaluate our own and each other's projects. The Munster mini jamboree offered a platform to brainstorm new ideas and troubleshoot challenges together. To mention two highlights of the weekend: 1. The participating teams awarded our team with the 2nd best presentation, and 2. The event allowed us to participate in the REACH euregio start-up workshop which not only taught us about the start-up landscape and process, but also showed us how we can better promote and pitch our project.

Figure 3: Picture from the REACH_euregio instagram from the Start-up workshop organized on the Munster iGEM mini jamboree

Figure 4: Picture from our presentation at the Münster iGEM mini jamboree

Shortly before the Jamboree in Paris, we will be attending the Eindhoven mini jamboree. For us, this will be the last moment to get feedback from fellow iGEM teams for our presentation and poster which we will be presenting in Paris. We are looking forward to seeing teams we previously met at the Utrecht and Münster jamborees as well as meeting new teams. Additionally, at this point, all teams will have completed their research and we will all be able to evaluate and look back on 8 months of iGEM.

The Faculty of Science and Engineering, from the University of Groningen, houses a technical support service. This team houses various technical experts to support, order and build researchers the equipment they need for their research projects. We made extensive use of the electrical knowledge in the department. The technical support facility was of enormous help with the design of our electronic sensor. Furthermore, the department helped us via sponsoring part of the equipment via an internal project. Their help regarding the design of our project focused mostly on advising on the right equipment and creating the right experiments to test the validity of our sensor. This collaboration also helped us incorporate a multidisciplinary approach into our project by providing us new skills outside of synthetic biology.

As part of iGEM, we participated in the InterLaboratory study. This was the 7th iteration of the study and this year was focused on expanding last year’s single-color calibration to calibrations for multiple colors. We participated in experiment 2, where we investigated the calibration of dual fluorescence in a single cell. We hope that the collective data from all participating teams will aid in the effort to create calibrated and comparable fluorescence protocols.

We collaborated with Biotechnologie.nl and wrote several Dutch blog posts which were published on their website (https://www.biotechnologie.nl/igem-competitie-2023/igem-2023-team-groningen/). These posts discussed our experiences as an iGEM team as well as the development of our project. We believe science communication is an invaluable skill for any scientist to have. This is why we further developed this skill by showcasing our project in several ways, including writing the wiki and blog, posting on social media, and presenting our project at several events.

In November we are invited to give a guest lecture to a Dutch primary school located in Winschoten, 40 km outside of Groningen. We will provide 34 school children in the age of 12 to 13 years old with a lesson in microbiology. We are grateful for the opportunity to show these children how they can answer questions, such as: ‘how do bacteria spread’ and ‘how can you detect them’, using simple laboratory techniques.

We were interviewed by the Groningen Life Science student magazine, a magazine targeting students in the life sciences and with a reach of roughly 800 interested life scientists in Groningen it is able to communicate interesting and provoking ideas about biology to their platform. This was a great opportunity for us to take a moment to look back on all the progress we made and appreciate the outcome. We also took our time to explain iGEM as a student competition and highlight the opportunities that participating can offer students. From developing a neck for entrepreneurialism, to lab management, multidisciplinary group work and improving your general lab skills, there is a lot to learn for everyone. We are happy to have conveyed that message for the students and generations to come. 

During the course of our project, the Groningen team participated in two meetups (The Utrecht meetup and the Munster meetup) where we first were introduced to the iGEM community and were enthused by the prospect of going to Paris. Here we could not only meet the entire community, but also meet up with old friends. A particular aspect of meeting the other teams in Munster, was that most teams were grouped at different hostel locations. We noticed that social bonds bloomed between the people that had to walk back and forth together, spending more time and getting to know each other. Therefore we arranged the following two things. 1: We invited all iGEM teams in our network to stay at the same location, resulting in at least 4 teams residing there during the iGEM jamboree. 2: The location agreed on organizing a party for the iGEM teams staying there in the course of the week further stimulating the social interactions to be had.

The Groningen iGEM team is every year dependent on the willingness of a new set of students to devote their time and knowledge towards a new problem. To both enthuse and motivate students to join the next iteration of the competition and to show students the possibilities and challenges in synthetic biology we are organizing a Groningen iGEM symposium. The goal of this symposium is to present the results of our Bye-o-Film project and to highlight the possibilities iGEM and being part of an iGEM project brings with them. We aim for BSc and MSc students and research staff from relevant research institutes to be present to generate awareness and willingness to help with future projects.