We met the Aalto-Helsinki team during the Münster meet-up, and we decided to discuss a possible collaboration regarding dry lab work. Julia, Zosia, Xiaodie, and Shekoufeh met with a few members from Aalto-Helsinki on 15^th August. Initially, to gain a better understanding of our respective projects, we delved into the specifics of what our dry lab teams were involved in. Although our projects differed, there were some common aspects to them.

Henri from Aalto-Helsinki's dry lab team suggested that we explore CarveMe, a genome-scale metabolic model reconstruction tool. With CarveMe, we could gain a deeper understanding of the pathways involving Yarrowia lipolytica and extract valuable insights for our models. We also discussed molecular docking and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, as our team was currently engaged in these activities, and the Aalto-Helsinki team was considering them as well. We shared the obstacles we had encountered and how we had overcome them, offering our assistance with docking and MD simulations if they decided to pursue these approaches. Furthermore, we discussed the Best Model prize and the criteria for potential nominations. On 17^th August, we shared our docking protocols with the Aalto-Helsinki team.

On 16^th August, Julia, our dry lab subteam captain, met with Qal and Matias from the Bonn-Rheinbach team. We initiated the meeting by providing an overview of our projects and delving deeper into the specific activities of each team in the dry lab. It turned out that both teams were working on molecular docking and MD simulations, although we used slightly different software. Despite these differences, we discussed our plans. At the time of the meeting, the Bonn-Rheinbach team was researching and preparing to start with MD simulations first, followed by molecular docking (this order was determined by the specificity of their project). We also suggested that if they had enough time, they could also perform MD simulations with their docked structures to study the stability of the complex. Additionally, we shared our experiences and discussed the obstacles we had overcome during the project execution, offering our assistance to the Bonn-Rheinbach team if needed.

Following some preliminary discussions we had during the Münster meetup, we decided to plan a meeting to discuss some general aspects of team management. This meeting took place on 14^th August with two members of the iGEM Hamburg team. Since the Hamburg team has 15 members and our team has 13, it was very interesting for us to compare how both teams tackled the issue of managing a large team. After all, collaboration regarding technical aspects of the project is very interesting, but having an efficient structure and workflow is also crucial, so we thought we might inspire each other on that front.

…and it turns out we were right! It was a very productive talk, and we learned a lot from each other. We discussed, among others, how to organize efficient team meetings (agendas and reports), how to organize an efficient workflow (the Agile-inspired methodology that our team used in particular), how to keep people motivated, recruitment, and finally the relationship between the team leaders and the team members. This last part was especially enlightening, since this revealed that team Hamburg had a more collaborative structure while our team has a slightly more hierarchical structure that's based on delegating tasks to get to-do's done.

In summary, we highly encourage other teams to also inspire each other regarding topics like this. There's plenty to learn from each other, and we consider the issue of team management an integral part of the collaborations suggested by iGEM.

Our team leader, Tom, met with the Cambridge team in early September to discuss our projects. It turned out that they were also working on molecular docking and had encountered some issues with it, just as we had. On 13^th September, Julia and Yinfu from our team met with the Cambridge iGEM team.

Despite differences in the software and approach used by both teams, we were still able to exchange our experiences on docking and give each other advice. Our team used AutoDock Vina in Chimera, while the Cambridge team used HDOCK. The primary reason for this difference was that we were docking a small molecule, whereas the Cambridge team was docking macromolecules and examining both protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions. This distinction was the main difference in our dry lab docking subprojects. The Cambridge team mentioned that they had difficulty assessing whether their docked conformations were correct since they were unsure of how the structure should look. We advised them to explore tools for predicting protein-protein interaction sites to gain an indication of the accuracy of their docking. They offered to investigate various force fields for use in MD simulations, as both teams were conducting them as well. Following the meeting, Julia sent the Cambridge team an email with a short list of tools for macromolecule binding site prediction (including meta-PPISP, DISPLAR, InterPep, and others), a link to an article on deep learning in PPI site prediction, and she suggested looking into the prediction of interaction hotspots.

On 7^th July, all Dutch (or Dutch-speaking) iGEMers gathered in the Center of Living Technologies in Utrecht to discuss and showcase their team projects. This allowed teams to network, explore collaborations and gain different insights through lectures provided by the organizers TU-Eindhoven & Wageningen UR on various topics in the sphere of synthetic biology.

Our team members Tom and Dania were the team's two representatives. We pitched our project and answered questions from other teams regarding our project in a Q&A session. At this event, Dirk Stermerding (that we later contacted for the stakeholder analysis on our Integrated Human Practices page), an independent researcher in biotechnology and society and Zoe Robaey from Wageningen UR gave keynote speeches. The session showcasing of the projects from different teams provided us with some insights of project progress and pitches. It was a great experience for us to meet other enthusiastic iGEMers, share insights, and get feedback and input on (what were back then) the ongoing aspects of our project.

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In the heart of Münster, our team members Julia, Tom and Aby attended the iGEM Junior Jam 2023 organized on 4^th August. The event began with an evocative introduction by iGEM Münster at Schloss Münster, followed by the talks of Jochen Schmid and Sonja Billerbeck which shed light on synthetic biology's nuances. Teams took the stage to introduce their projects and expectations, and the next day was a flurry of 19 project presentations, interspersed with enlightening scientific discussions. The final day of the event hosted a "From Science to Start-Up" workshop, nurturing entrepreneurial ideas (which we further implemented into our Entrepeneurship page). We very proudly secured the second-best presentation during the event. Junior Jam showcased KU Leuven's team, sparked cross-border collaborations, and further allowed us to refine our Jamboree pitch.

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