The kindergarten class consisted of 30 children between 4 and 6 years old. We explained to the children why it's so important to wash your hands with soap after going to the bathroom, playing outside, etc. Surprisingly, some children did already know that they need to wash their hands because of the bacteria on them, others had no idea. We explained what bacteria are and why soap is needed to remove them from our hands. Moreover, we brought two LB-agar plates where the children could see the difference in bacteria growth when 'dirty’ and ‘clean’ hands were pressed on them. They also tested this themselves. A few days after our visit they could see the influence of washing hands. They thought it was very exciting to actually see the bacteria!

To make sure children would not become scared of the presence of bacteria on their bodies, we told them that there are also ‘good’ bacteria. Whether a bacterium is ‘good’ or 'bad’ is decided by its code (DNA). Humans also have these codes; it determines how we visually look and how our personality is. The children made their own code using ropes and colored beads. This showed them that they are all unique.

Finally, we had some coloring pages about bacteria for the children. These can also be found as a PDF below so everyone can have fun with them!

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Coloring page version 1, click to download.

Coloring page version 2, click to download.

Coloring page version 3, click to download.

On June 1st, high school students from 15 to 18 years old came to our university to work on different challenges from student teams from our university. All students had different backgrounds, both in educational level and interest. This day was meant to familiarize them with the term synthetic biology, what is possible with it, and with entrepreneurship.

First, we introduced them to synthetic biology, its applications, the iGEM competition, and our project. The next step was to work on their own mini iGEM project. Just like we have done, they needed to come up with a solution for a real-world problem using synthetic biology. After a few hours of brainstorming, literature research, discussing, and finally visualizing on a poster they had to pitch their idea to a jury. They also had to present their view on ethics, societal impact, and finance regarding their self-conceived project.

Overall, the students were very surprised and enthusiastic about the applications of synthetic biology and the impact that can be made with it. We also showed that even without a background in biology you think about an enormous number of aspects that are useful for the development of a project.

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On the 13th of September, we visited Bernardinuscollege, a high school in Heerlen. Here, we gave a lecture to one of their pre-exam classes that just started learning about DNA. After an introduction about the iGEM competition and synthetic biology, we explained to them what our project consists of. For them to understand the components of our project, it was necessary to clarify what a plasmid is, how we make it, and how we get from DNA to proteins. In addition to our lecture, they did an experiment similar to the one we demonstrated at the 6th grade of the primary school we visited. The only difference is that they had to do it themselves and come up with the function of every step. Of course, we discussed all the questions at the end, so that there would be no remaining questions left.

Fortunately, we got some really positive feedback from the teacher! He liked the lecture that we gave and thought it was very useful for the exams that the students would have in a few weeks. An impression of the day can be seen below.

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In July, the NU Kazakhstan iGEM team contacted us with the announcement that they would organize a summer camp for high school students from Kazakhstan. The team was looking for teams that would help them by giving guest lectures and assignments. After a meeting with the team, we discovered that both of our projects involve a system with bacteria and a hydrogel. However, the bacteria from our project have the hydrogel inside (hydrocells) whereas the bacteria from the NU Kazakhstan project are loaded in a hydrogel. They use this system to treat cancer. Therefore, the summer camp was focused on cancer and its diagnosis and treatment.

The team asked us to give a lecture about how our hydrocells could be used in cancer treatment. We saw this as a challenge since we haven't done any research on this topic yet. After some literature research, we made a recorded lecture of 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately, because of the time difference, we were not able to give the lecture live. However, later that day we joined the summer camp online for a Q&A session and to explain the assignment. The students asked lots of great questions, such as how cancer cells get recognized by hydrocells, how the therapeutic gets released, and more. After this, they worked on the assignment where they had to come up with a special application of hydrocells in cancer treatment. To come up with a good solution they had to think about what cancer type they would target, how they would target the cells, etc.

The students were very enthusiastic and had great input. We would like to thank the NU Kazakhstan team for giving us the opportunity to host a guest lecture!

You can download the letter of appreciation as pdf here.

In our first few months as the new TU/e iGEM team, we worked on the organization of the Challenge Day. The Challenge Day is meant for high school students with biology in their study program to get familiar with synthetic biology. However, due to the final exams of last year's high school students, the communications with schools and teachers did not go smoothly. Therefore, there were not enough registrations and our event had to be canceled.

Despite canceling the Challenge Day, a lot of work was already done. We would like to share the assignments that we came up with, so that others can use them for similar events! The day was divided into three parts: a treasure hunt on our campus, a small poster project, and an experiment in the lab. The treasure hunt is not only for fun or to get to know the campus, but there are several biology-related questions within. The goal of the poster project is to learn about the possibilities of synthetic biology and its techniques. Lastly, the experiment in the lab is called E. coli art where E. coli bacteria and glycerol stocks will be used to color an LB-agar plate. All of these parts of the Challenge Day can be seen below. Despite that the route for the treasure hunt is at our university, other teams can be inspired by it.

Moreover, we made several other small games to play if there was any time left. These can be seen in the section mini games.

You can download the protocol for E. coli art here.

You can download the poster project here.

You can download the treasure hunt pdf here.

Together with our sponsor Cell4Pharma we have organized a fun and interactive lunch lecture where they gave about 90 Biomedical Engineering bachelor, master, and PhD students more information about their company. More information can be read on our Sponsor Page. Apart from this, they told us more about how they use synthetic biology in their company. It was a great lecture where Cell4Pharma inspired students by showing them the immense amount of job possibilities there are with synthetic biology.

Two weeks before the official opening of the academic year, all new master's students have a master kick-off with different activities both educational and entertaining. On Monday, the day was focused on solving challenges from student teams and companies. We also gave a group of students a challenge that is comparable to the first two/three months of our iGEM journey. It was their task to come up with a solution for a societal problem using synthetic biology. Furthermore, they had to think about the necessary budget, further implementation, the impact on society, and the technique. Lastly, they visualized the solution on a poster as support for a sales pitch to potential investors.

The students thought it was very difficult since there were so many problems that they would want to solve, but not everything would be possible. Eventually, they came up with the idea of vitamin deficiency of elderly people. There are two reasons this problem occurs; 1. They do not eat enough, and therefore there is not a sufficient number of vitamins in their food. 2. Their stomach acid is not strong enough to break down the nutrients in their food, therefore a deficiency will be caused. Both came up with great solutions, especially considering the fact that they only had three hours for everything.

Throughout the whole project, facts about synthetic biology were consistently posted on Instagram. The aim was to educate our followers on all kinds of different terms within synthetic biology, such as ‘PCR’, ‘DNA cloning’, ‘E. coli’ and more. On the Instagram post itself, only a definition was shown, but it was elaborated on in the captions, along with resources. Below some of these posts can be found.

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To teach people from all ages more about synthetic biology in a fun way, we have developed an iGEM version of the game Spot it! The game is very simple, each card has 9 icons on it that all have to do with iGEM or synthetic biology and working in the lab. In total, there are 57 icons on 55 different cards. An impression of the cards can be found below and the whole game can be downloaded as a pdf. We would like to encourage other teams to download the game and try it for themselves!

Every card has 1 similar icon to all other cards. The goal of the game is to find and name the icon that is the same on one of your opponent’s cards as fast as possible. You then place your card on top of the card of your opponent, and they keep searching for a similar icon on the cards of the other players.

We have tried the game with different groups of people, and have noticed it is a fun way for everyone to learn new words about synthetic biology!

You can download Spot it! here.

In order to teach people more about biology in a fun way, we came up with a biology edition of the game ’30 seconds’. The game goes as follows: in the pdf below, fifty cards can be found. On each card, there are five words. Four of them are biology related, one is completely random. You will need a minimum of two players. If you are playing with two people, you take turns. One takes a card, and then has thirty seconds to explain each word on the card. The other person needs to guess which word the other is referring to. So if the word on the card is ‘oxygen’, it could be explained as ‘what you need to breathe’. If the other guesses the word right, the one explaining gets a point. So if someone guesses four out of five words, the explainer receives four points. It can also be played in teams. Here, the explainer and guesser are both in the same team. The team with the most amount of points in total wins at the end. It is not just a fun and educational game, but also a really funny one, so have fun playing it with friends!

You can download the iGEM version of 30 seconds here.

We probably all know the feeling – finishing a puzzle and feeling that great sense of accomplishment. With some of our team members consistently playing mind games like crossword puzzles, we thought, why not make one of our own? Below, an iGEM crossword puzzle with synthetic biology related words can be found to challenge people to learn more about synthetic biology in a fun way.

You can download the crossword puzzle here.

In august, we were asked by one of our sponsors, the Institute of Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) to write a column that will be published in one of their newsletters. We will be writing a piece about our project that will be published in January 2023.

To find out more about what IBD patients think about current treatments, the biggest issues regarding IBD, and our solution cELPro, we came in contact with the Dutch Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. They kindly agreed to post about our project and a patient survey on their social media. This way, we were able to reach a large audience. The results of the survey can be read on our Integrated Human Practices Page. Below, a screenshot of the Instagram post can be found.

Qiagen, one of our sponsors, invited us to come vitit them in Hilden, Germany on the 14th of September. During the company visit, multiple pictures were made that will be published on their website in the future. We would like to thank them for giving us the opportunity to see their production lines!

We were given the opportunity to post a column in the magazine of our study association. The text below will be published soon.

You can download the text for the ProtaType here.

On Monday October 23rd, our team is organizing the Mini Jamboree. This is a day at Eindhoven University of Technology on which 12 iGEM teams from The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany get together to practice one last time before the Grand Jamboree. We started preparing for it 3 to 4 months in advance to ensure a smooth organization of the event. The teams will give a presentation for which they get judged by a jury panel, consisting of three judges from different backgrounds. There are two awards to win: one for the general project and one for a special prize of choice. Last year, the 2022 team also organized the Mini Jamboree, but we wanted to make it even bigger this year by including Germany as well!

Aside from the presentations, the day will also include a networking market, a poster market, a panel talk, and an award ceremony. Our partners and other members of the academic community will also be present. The poster market is where teams can stand with their poster, so that the jury and anyone else who still has questions left after the presentation will be able to ask them. During the panel talk, some helpful things for current iGEM teams will be discussed about iGEM and synthetic biology in general.

We hope that this will be an inspiring and innovative day for everyone attending!

To get a small impression, the after movie of the Mini Jamboree 2022 can be found below.

On May 26th, we went to Leiden for the SynBioNL event. It was organized by SynBioNL, which has the goal of bringing different stakeholders in synthetic biology together. For this event, there were members from Dutch iGEM teams and companies associated with synthetic biology. The day started with pitches from (startup) companies, an iGEM ambassador, and researchers. After lunch, we had a network activity followed by more pitches. At the end of the day, there was a panel discussion with the experts. It was a nice and educational day with a variety of speakers. Some of them contributed to the iGEM community in the past, others led several companies and are almost retired. We learned a lot about the possibilities after iGEM, with both our project and personally.

Together with Sowmya Shreedhar of Centre for Living Technologies, iGEM teams TU Eindhoven and Wageningen organized the Dutch iGEM meetup. The aim of this event was to personally meet the other iGEM teams and give each other the opportunity to present their ideas and provide each other with feedback. We oversaw the organization and maintenance of the communication between iGEM teams for this meetup.

The day started with presentations from the present iGEM teams. Each team had the chance to explain their project, followed by a Q&A and feedback from the other teams and professors. After that, a lecture was given by Zoë Robaey and Dirk Stemerding that mainly focused on the ethical aspect of synthetic biology projects. This was followed by an opportunity to ask questions regarding each individual iGEM project.

The iGEM teams from Leiden, Wageningen, Delft, Maastricht, and one Belgian team from Leuven attended the event, shared their experiences and created a memorable moment.

Our team took part in the TU/e Contest. This is a competition where student teams, start-ups, and individual students with great ideas participate. From early March through June 22nd we participated in numerous workshops, pitching sessions, and events where we met multiple partners who helped us develop our project further. The workshops were hosted by TU/e Innovation Space, a community that develops and facilitates interdisciplinary hands-on challenge-based learning on engineering design and entrepreneurship. “TU/e Contest is a nice opportunity for developing yourself as an engineer of the future, by improving your entrepreneurial competences. Together with the partners in the network, TU/e Innovation Space will help you on your way from dream to demo to world market.” says Isabelle Reyman, scientific director of TU/e Innovation Space, which exactly describes how our team experienced this competition!

Participating in this contest helped us in several ways. We were able to attend multiple workshops about different parts of our project, such as intellectual property, entrepreneurial finance, writing a business plan, sustainable development goals, and problem validation. These workshops helped us reflect on our idea and think of the real-world impact that our solution can have. Workshops on our business model and market analysis helped us improve the entrepreneurial side of our project.

Moreover, we pitched our project in several ways to several partners, including the companies Bio-connection, Nobian, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Medtronic, which provided us with valuable feedback. They all had great suggestions for the development and direction of our project. We were also able to meet many other people who proved to be very valuable to our team, such as Bart van Grevenhof and Nasata Marsic from The Gate. They gave great advice when it comes to persuading IP and business, giving us insight in the added value it could be to us, but at the same time pointing out some drawbacks that we might come across in the process. Their knowledge has been very helpful in making choices throughout the project. Our Human Practices Page describes how we integrated this into our project.

We competed against about 50 different teams and start-ups and we were able to make it to the final 15 who got the opportunity to pitch their project in front of a large audience in the finale. Over 300 people were present at the event, ranging from company stakeholders, to jury members, to students, and even press from newspapers. We want to thank Soapbox and TU/e Innovation Space for hosting the event and we want to congratulate all the winning teams! It was amazing to see the innovative solutions they had for a wide range of real-world problems while using their own field of expertise.

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In the beginning of our iGEM journey in April, our team was given the opportunity to present iGEM to the Delegation of the The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who were interested in who we are, and how we function as a student team at the TU/e. Team manager Merel explained the concept and roles of our student team, and also talked about this year's iGEM project.