Collaborations
Even though the category of collaborations was not necessary anymore to win a medal since this year we still really wanted to work together with other teams. That’s why we collaborated with many teams from all around the world. We shared our project ideas and got to know so much about their own amazing projects. There was also a focus on educating the public, especially when it comes to such important topics like keeping our earth clean or an early detection of diseases. These cooperations did not only were a great opportunity to network with so many amazing, diverse people but were also so helpful to expand our knowledge as well as our horizons!
World Health day with Patras Medicine
The 7th of April marks the anniversary of the establishment of the World Health Organisation. Countries of the world came together in aim to achieve the highest possible level of health. That is what the WHO is trying until this day. This is celebrated annually to draw attention to specific health topics that affect people everywhere.
To point up the importance of health we participated in the instagram post of Patras Medicine with the message „Health is not valued until sickness comes“ to celebrate the „World Health day“.
World Earth day with iGEM Bulgaria
The earth, as our only place to live on, should be our greatest treasure. But it is getting more and more destroyed every day by deforestation, pollution, littering and so much more. The 22nd April is the yearly date for the „World Earth day“ to raise awareness and demonstrate support for environmental protection. This year’s focus was the shift towards sustainable practices under the theme „Invest in Our Planet“.
To make a contribution to that topic we collaborated with iGEM Bulgaria and organized a local cleanup for our team to tidy up a nearby forest. Through their instagram post about this cooperation we tried to spread the important message „stop littering the environment“ to the public.
National DNA day with Patras Medicine
As DNA is the basis of all life, it’s find was a huge breakthrough in the world of biology. On the 25th of April 1953 it’s structure was published in the journal ‚Nature’. Due to it’s structural elucidation it even enabled many other successes in different fields like medicine, agriculture or forensics.
To celebrate the day of this discovery we participated in a video of Patras Medicine. This instagram post was meant to share information about DNA. The focus was on it’s uncovering, composition as well as how it is used in synthetic biology, to present some of the many opportunities of working with DNA.
Environment day with iGEM Aboa
Sadly, the deterioration of our environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil, the destruction of ecosystems, habitat destruction, the extinction of wildlife and pollution is an ongoing event. As a recollection of the first World Environmental Conference there is an annual event on the 5th of July which is called the „Environment day“.
To increase public awareness of environmental challenges we participated in an instagram video of iGEM Aboa. Different teams from many countries took part and tried to encourage action to save our environment.
Screening-week with iGEM Patras
Both of our teams decided on a project that has to do with some kind of disease. So we initiated a week where we wanted to inform our followers about something they could do for their health. Since health screenings are a great way to detect medical conditions at an early stage and prevent severe disease progression we wanted to spread awareness about it so more people will use this opportunity. We started a week where we posted daily about these screenings. Starting with the basic facts on what a screening is and why it is so helpful, followed by the different types.
In addition to that we participated in one episode of their podcast where we talked about our projects and the possibilities that they bring.
Posts of our screening week
Icebox decoration with iGEM Bulgaria
The iGEM Team Bulgaria invited us to join their creative collaboration with many other iGEM teams. For that we were asked to decorate our own icebox and write a short story about it. After some discussions we decides to shape it just like a biobric and add the iGEM logo. Additional we decided to dibble some plants inside so it can be used as a flowerpot.
Junior Jam Münster
As preparation for the Grand Jamboree in Paris we attended the Junior Jam in Münster for a weekend. Münster’s team organized very interesting talks and helpful workshops. We even got the opportunity to give a presentation about our project in front of an audience, answer questions and collect some feedback. There was also a poster session where we showed our poster to the other iGEM teams and got to have a closer look at their projects.
The meetup really helped us to make some new contacts and exchange ideas. Through this exchange we got to gather new impressions and perspectives that could be integrated into our project.
Exchange with iGEM Groningen
After we got to meet the Team of iGEM Groningen at the Junior Jam in Münster we realized that our projects have one important aspect in common: they are meant to help patients. In our case people with the mental condition are bipolar and in their case people with prosthetic joints, where a biofilm can form really easily. Since the goal of both projects is that the patients can test by themselves at home, we agreed that it is still important that these results are checked by a professional. We talked a lot about how these findings should be communicated with the patients to reassure them that they still feel safe and what other hurdles to watch out for when communicating medical results back to patients. This exchange really helped us to plan our software in a user-friendly way.