Education and Public Outreach
Following in the footsteps of iGEM Aachen 2014, we are building custom made hardware for custom made biology. Since there was no suitable design in any DIY platform (e.g. Hackteria.org, DIYBIO.ORG, Appropedia.org) we started to build our bioreactor system right from scratch.
While demonstrating our first prototype at the MakerFaire in Hannover, we were fascinated by the exhibited DIY Biology projects.
Inspired by the creativity and commitment of the "Makers", we decided take a deeper look into the European
Community Lab scene.
Since not only iGEM teams but also Community Labs shared our problems with the organization of samples in the fridge, we developed tubefront, an organisation software for biological samples.
Speaking of software, the use of software on computers, smartphones or tablets increases in laboratories all around the world. But is it safe to bring in these? In collaboration with iGEM Team Slovenia, we considered respective biosafety aspects by analyzing how many microbes live on the surfaces of such devices.
During the course of our project, we had the pleasure to meet and collaborate with a great number of passionate and creative partners inside and outside of the iGEM community. At our "Collaborations" page, we tell you about our active collaborations and more!
Click on the tiles below to visit our hardware section or to navigate through the different parts of our policy & practices work:
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Achievements
- Gathering and implementing valuable feedback on our bioreactor system design at the MakerFaire and other occasions
- Extensive discussion of and intensive collaboration with Community Labs
- Developing a novel software to easily organize samples in the lab and sharing it with iGEM teams and Community Labs
- Evaluating biosafety and respective concerns about biohacking with Community Labs and iGEM teams
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MakerFaire
Carrying on an Aachen tradition
Last year, the iGEM Team Aachen was invited to the annual MakerFaire in Hannover to exhibit their DIY measurement devices. This year, we went to the MakerFaire to demonstrate the first prototype of our self made
small scale biorector to more than 5500 visitors per day. Thanks a lot to Carsten from the iGEM Team Braunschweig 2014 and to the Stratum Hackerspace for sharing their exhibition booth with us!
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Initiating our collaboration with the iGEM Team Bielefeld
Before going to the MakerFaire, we stopped by at the iGEM Team Bielefeld. While having coffee and cake, each team presented their project followed by a little discussion and receiving feedback.
We were fortunate to get valuable ideas concerning using our pumps in microfluidics. As a consequence, we adjusted the design of our devices and focused on a modular system to support this, and other possible fields of application.
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Teach the teacher
The best part about the MakerFaire was when children at the age of twelve were fascinated by the bioreactor and tried their best to understand the working principles behind every part.
But also adults were affected by our presented hardware. A number of teachers asked us if they could take pictures of us and our work for teaching purposes. One teacher from a private school was even interested in buying our bioreactor.
Together we worked out a possible teaching concept that unites different classes:
Assembly of the bioreactor in a science class, analysis of the software in the computer science class and using the bioreactor in the biology (they have an S1 lab) and chemistry class.
Unfortunately, we could not realize the project before the jamboree because of the summer holidays in German schools.
With all our discussions and explanations we did not only teach others about DIY biology, but also learned a lot about the principles of openly shared knowledge and the opportunities this generates. We got useful tipps and "how to's" about laser cutting, 3D printing, edging and many other standard DIY tools.
Asking the question "what would you add to the bioreactor?", the most common answer was: "microbes".
However, there was also some feedback on the technical aspects of our reactor system, which influenced our next design process, for example the demand to use bioreactors of different volumes.
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First encounter with the Technik Garage
Apart from demonstrating our bioreactor, we had a look at all the amazing projects made by the other makers. It happended that we came across one the very few German Community Labs, the “Technik Garage”. Among other things, they built a pH-value system that automatically corrects the pH of a measured solution by pumping vinegar or diluted drain cleaner into the solution. Such as we do, they use rotation pumps. However, they used to buy pumps from the internet. That is why, they were really interested in our low-cost DIY pump design.
During the discussions about open hardware and open biology, we came to know that one of their projects is perfectly matching our strategy. To be more precise, the Technik Garage developed a DIY system to extract CO2 from thin air. Together with the next generation electrolysis cells of Sunfire which can convert CO2 to methanol, this would be the perfect method to exploit an alternative sustainable carbon source.
Since we had so many overlapping interests, we agreed to meet again. All of this inspired us to have a deeper look into the German Community Lab scene.
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Conclusion
Within three days we
- Initiated the collaboration with the iGEM Team Bielefeld
- Reached a wide variety of people with discussions about DIY Biology and Hardware
- Got specific feedback on our bioreactor design from specialists of the DIY community
To crown it all, the organization commitee of the MakerFaire surprisingly awarded us “Maker of Merit” for an extraordinary exhibition. That meant, we got invited to exhibit our bioreactor at the MakerFaire Berlin in October. Unfortunately, we cannot accept that offer since we will still be in the USA at that time... Nevertheless, this was clearly a highlight of our trip!
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Impressions of the MakerFaire
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Along our journey we were fortunate to meet a great number of interesting as well as dedicated people belonging to various fields, companies and societies.
Out of all people we met, the "Makers" from several Hackerspaces who demonstrated their work at the MakerFaire in Hannover, fascinated us the most. Their creativity and commitment for DIY Biology inspired us to take a deeper look into the DIY community or, to be more precise, the Community Labs Scene.
Established in America - New to Europe
Across the USA, you will find a wide spread of Community Labs. These open labs allow thousands of people to experience and get an understanding of biology. Furthermore, they provide an open platform that promotes discussions about life sciences. In contrast, there is only a tiny number of Community Labs in Europe, which are only scarcely connected.
We therefore started to contact and connect Community Labs in Europe. Due to their polarizing and educating character, the introduction of synthetic biology into the Community Lab Scene could have a huge impact on society.
In cooperation with the Community Labs we met, we already reached a broad variety of open minded people of all ages. By helping and learning from each other we can bring the spirit of iGEM to everyone. Join us in exploring the exeptional world of Community Labs.
Click on the tiles below to navigate through the four main sections of our Community Lab experience.
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Pre-discussion with the iGEM Team Darmstadt
Beyond literature research, we wanted to get more inside information about Community Labs. Luckily, Fabian, a member of the iGEM Team Darmstadt is currently involved in the establishment of a BioHackerSpace!
On the 12th of June, Team Darmstadt was visiting us in Aachen. We, therefore, took the chance to have a general discusson about the potential and perception of the growing number of Communitly Labs in Germany and Europe.
This discussion helped us to sharpen our knowledge and gave us some new aspects about this recent trend. It was particularly interesting, to get to know more about the intrinstic motivation of joining a BioHackerSpace and to hear the most prominent concerns that these labs have to face.
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Discussions and Interviews at an interdisciplinary Symposium
In June, we were invited to a symposium called Synthetic Biology - Opportunities for interdisciplinary Research from Biology to Engineering. We gladly accepted and presented our project to a broad spectrum of scientists. The following discussions lead to a huge amount of feedback on our bioreactor as well as our biological project.
“
It's going to be very hard to keep people from getting access [...]. They're doing it in their garages now. We have to think about how we train people and how we talk about it.
”
Jay Keasling
>How to deal with increasing
availibility of DIY Biology?<
In addition, we were extremely lucky to not only discuss our project, but also get an interview with the keynote speaker of this conference, Jay Keasling. Subsequently, we recorded several conversations with other speakers as well as guests of the symposium. On the one hand, these interviews touched some general questions about the progress and perception of synthetic biology. On the other hand, the main topic was the risks and benefits of community labs. As a result, we gathered a wide spectrum of opinions, which contributed to and influenced our human practices project.
To sum up, by covering a variety of aspects concerning Community Labs we had now aquired enough background knowledge to meet a real Community lab. Fortunately, we already made friends with some members of the "Technik Garage", the Community Lab we had the pleasure to meet at the MakerFaire.
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Meeting the Technik Garage - Passionate Makers
Being curious, how the reality matches our expectations, we invited the “Technik Garage”, a German Community Lab to visit us in Aachen.
Our three main objectives were:
- Connect Community Labs by integrating them into a network of universities and companies
- Inform European Community Labs about iGEM and facilitate cooperations with iGEM teams
- Discuss biosafety standards and compare those of Community Labs to those of Universities
To fulfill the first objective, we invited Dr. Jansen from the life sciences network MedLife. This Network connects around 35 biotechnological and medical companies, 12 research groups and 17 other companies like consultants, patent lawyers and software providers. It is designed to perceive the needs of their members and find solutions within or outside of the network. As a result of our discussion, Dr. Jansen agreed to add the Technik Garage to the Medlife network, which everybody appreciated as a win-win situation.
Subsequently, we discussed how synthetic biology can be used in Community Labs. Since the members of the Technik Garage regularly teach in different schools, as well as in their own lab, they were really interested in possible synbio school projects.
As a consequence of sharing experiences in teaching biology, we revised the school project of the iGEM Team Aachen 2014 as well as a suitable protocol of a practical course for bachelor students. Using the provided material, they are able to reach hundreds of students and teachers within the next years and thereby spreading the spirit of synthetic biology.
If you ask the public about Community Labs, biosafety is one of the most prominent concerns. To evaluate biosafety aspects of Community Labs, we invited the iGEM Team of Paris Saclay to join our discussion via Skype. Together, we discussed different approaches to guarantee a high safety level of Communitly Labs. During this dialog, we focussed on the applicability of the two containment strategies of iGEM Paris Saclay, especially concerning the use in Community Labs.
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At the end of the day we
- facilitated the joining of the "Technik Garage" into the Medlife network,
- provided material for a teaching module about synthetic biology and
- learned, how exemplarily the "Technik Garage" cares about biosafety.
To get a second impression, idealy of a lab with quite distinct features, we decided to visit the Waag society, a famous Dutch Community Lab that offers a biohack academy.
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Meeting the Waag society - Infinite Possibilities
Regular open Wetlab
We visited the Waag Society at one of the regular open Wetlab days. Every Tuesday evening, interested guests are invited to have a look at their FabLab as well as their biological lab and are encouraged to participate in various open discussions addressing a wide spectrum of scientific topics.
Afterwards, Lucas Evers, who is leading Waag Society's Open Wetlab, gave us a tour through the castle tower, the Waag Society inhabits.
Quite quickly, a diverse discussion group evolved, mainly consisting of students, artists and scientists.
Some attendants were regular guests, others were visiting the Waag society for the first time.
The following discussions lasted several hours and covered projects of present as well as absent members of the Waag Society. We learned a lot about the multifarious prospects of DIY Biology and discovered the colorful world of bioart. The outlined bioart projects ranged from simply painting with different-colored microbes to experimentally expressing the behavior of a biological network as a theater play with actors as nodes of an computational algorithm.
Using bioart as a starting point, the Waag Society also promotes controversial debates about the progress and opportunities of synthetic biology and biotechnology in general.
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DIY Biology in your own kitchen
One central project of the Waag society is called the "BioHack Academy".
The intention is to teach how to set up your own laboratory at home based on DIY hardware.
In addition to private persons, also newly founded national and international Community Labs use this service.
To make this possible and to maintain the platform provided by the Waag Society, they do not only receive membership fees and donations but also governmental funding.
To sum up, the Waag Society is multinationally connected and involved in a variety of different DIY Biology projects.
When we mentioned that this year only one European Community Lab is participating in the iGEM Competition, they revealed to already consider a participation in 2016.
We would really appreciate that and hope that they can act as role model to encourage more people in Europe to found a Community Lab.
- If you want to get to know more about our visit at the Waag Society, you fill find our respective blog entry
here. -
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Conclusion
As our journey through the multifaceted world of Community Labs comes to an end, we completed it by having a concluding skype call with the people who accompanied us at the start, the members of the iGEM Team Darmstadt.
After our last meeting, the iGEM Team Darmstadt had lead a panel discussion about the "Risks and chances of community labs" (please visit their wiki for further information). They shared their results and we shared our experiences in outlining how we helped Community Labs and how Community Labs helped us. We then came to a joint conclusion.
While they focussed on legal aspects, especially the detailed German laws concerning the creation of a lab at home, we layed our focus on infrastructural, educational and social aspects.
The iGEM Team Darmstadt found out that the very strict laws in Germany make the establishment of a biohackerspace rather difficult.
This matches the disparity in governmental support for the different Community Labs we have met. While the German Technik Garage is subjected to a lot of rules and restrictions, the Dutch Waag Society is even promoted by the government to teach about and enable DIY Biology at home.
Having a realistic risk assessment, most of the public concerns can be resolved easily. Especially the putative threat of bioterrorism is an emotional fear rather than a rational one.
On the contrary, a spreading of Community Labs promotes “open science” and possesses an inherent beneficial potential. One of the great benefits would be to give the people the chance to make chemical and biological tests of water quality, food, medicine etc. This would largely increase the consumer protection.
In addition, Community Labs are often very ambitious in their efforts to educate the public. They also contribute to society on other levels e.g. driving forward exeptional aspects as BioArt.
To conclude, we are convinced, that a further growing European Community Lab scene will have benefits for society and science.
However, to promote the establishments of more Community Labs in Europe, we need to review the strict restrictions and increase connectivity through cross-linking networks like Medlife.
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People involved
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tubefront
Introduction
If you ask iGEM veterans about the organization of their freezers, you often get the same anwer: "chaotic". What if iGEMers would always know where to put and find their samples? Two organization paradigms are most popular:
- organization by type — e.g. putting all primers in one box
- organization by purpose/person — e.g. everything related to the kill switch in one box
But both of these paradigms lead to the same problem: For good scientific practice many parameters must be recorded. In most cases, this includes date, name, insert, backbone, strain, clone number, medium and sometimes even the growth medium.
“
All this has to be scribbled in very small, and hopefully permanent penmanship on the top of the tube, which is a circle about 1cm in diameter. [...] It's an organizational nightmare held together by a very thin thread of paperwork.
”
Jeff Shrager, Ph.D, 14th July 2000[1]
When teams and projects grow, the number of samples steadily increases and at some point people tend to loose control and oversight. Freezers are collapsing under highly frequent usage and samples get lost. For iGEM teams this typically results in nightly phone calls to find stuff and match the project deadline. In 2014 we had many of these troubles and knew something had to change so we could scale up.
Therefore we developed and deployed a mobile-first sample management system for humans. It solves the problem of sample identification and tracking without the need for expensive equipment.
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- does not require additional equipment
- thoroughly tested integration with the wiki documentation
- reduces cost and workload by avoiding redundancies
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For the time of the Jamboree, we are opening the gates to the tubefront instance of iGEM Aachen. Feel free to visit and browse our sample inventory at http://tubefront.com/public/iGEM_Aachen.
Alternatively you can visit http://tubefront.com/Demo and log in with "demouser" and "password" to try editing yourself!
We have used tubefront throughout the project and accumulated some basic statistics showing how it was used:
Interface
In the pictures below you can see how tubefront looks like on a mobile device. Of course, you can also use it on your laptop.
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By adding tags, you can add more information that can also be filtered by in the search function.
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Tips and Tricks
Our experience shows that you should use tubefront-IDs for almost any sample/container that is stored for more than two days. This includes for example cryos of different clones, purified plasmids, purified PCR products etc.
Tubes that are too small to be labeled, such as PCR tubes can be stored together with their siblings in 15-50 ml tubes.
Short box names are better, because then you can easily write ID, box and slot (eg. XE3D P':B7) on a post-it before going to the freezer.
We use tubefront IDs for the primers in our cloning software and for ordering. Upon arrival the 100 μM stocks go into our boxes P or Q, while the 10/20 μM dilutions go into the same positions in boxes P' or Q'.
In our survey on lab organization, we also collected advice for newcomer teams. Make sure to take a look at the survey results.
MediaWiki Integration
To integrate tubefront with your MediaWiki, create a new MediaWiki-Template with the name "tubefront". Paste this code into the template:
<html> <!-- jQuery --> <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <!-- tubefront integration script for group "iGEM_Aachen" --> <script> $('p').each(function () { var templ = '<a href="http://tubefront.com/iGEM_Aachen/editcontainer.php?id=$1" onmouseover="loadTooltip(this,' + "'$1'" + ')">$1</a>'; var replaced = $('body').html().replace(/#(\S*)#/g, templ); $('body').html(replaced); return false; }); function loadTooltip(el, containerid) { $.get("http://tubefront.com/getinfo.php", { group: "iGEM_Aachen", containerid: containerid }).done(function( data ) { el.title = data; }); } </script></html>
On any wiki page, type # before and after an ID and call the template on the bottom of the page once.
References
- ↑ Jeff Shrager - Diary of an Insane Cell Mechanic http://jeffshrager.org/diary/diary.html
Survey
How do iGEM teams usually organize their wetlab work? Could tubefront be deployed to other laboratories?
We have asked other teams to answer several questions on wetlab organization. The results indicate that there could not be more diversity between teams. Some already have certain organization systems that they are happy with, but many have problems or don't have a good system yet.
Demographics
In total 32 teams participated in the survey. Most of them (88 %) were European or Asian teams.
As team size increases, the number of samples in the freezers go up to. When we did the survey in July/August, some teams had already accumulated more than 1500 samples.
Freezer Organization Performance
While 72 % of the teams are able to get a sample in less than a minute, only 22 % are able to achieve the same performance in the theoretical scenario of the tube being not were expected. Half of the participants indicated that they search for more than 2 minutes and sometimes for more than five minutes when they do not find a sample right away.
Documentation Strategies
Almost two thirds of the teams use handwritten (38.9 %) or Word (24.1 %) documents for the documentation of their wetlab work. 18.6 % of the teams that participated in our survey used a wiki-based documentation system. Among another 18.5 % did not use a text- or wiki-based system, the lab management software labguru was most popular.
Conclusion of survey
From write-in-questions, we have condensed the following advices for newcomer iGEM teams:
- think of organization rules before starting in the lab
- use a centralized system and enforce the rules
- get rid of old samples that are not longer relevant
- connect your sample labels with your documentation
- involve everyone with the sample storage rules
- don't forget important information like date, concentration, name, strain...
Especially for teams that are already using Wikis to document their work, we recommend our new sample management system at [http://tubefront.com tubefront.com] because it helped us to avoid chaos-driven frustration and increase our wetlab efficiency.
Safety
Overview
We regard safety regulations as a necessity for our own well being and the environment. A high-quality solution of a problem is of no value if the damaged created exceeds the benefits of the solution.
Like any other work, the work in laboratories has its own workplace health and safety regulations. In our About Our Lab, About Our Project, and the Final Safety Form we described how we handle chemicals, microorganism and waste in our laboratory, and how we think our organism and bioreactor will be used by other people.
During the competition period we have collaborated and discussed about safety issues with many iGEM teams, but also with people from community labs and the industry.
Risks of our Biological Project
Our project falls into the category of metabolic engineering and our genetically modified cells are not intended for any use outside of an industrial facility.
On the other hand, handling genetically modified organisms and methanol in a production facility does require several safety measures.
Not only did we discuss biosafety throughout our project, but we were also very aware of working responsibly and safely with methanol in our growth experiments. Learn more about it on our safety form.
Risks and Chances for Methanol in the Industry
Methanol is an important part of the chemical industry as it is used for plastics, paints, glues, and pharmaceuticals. It is also increasingly used as biodiesel, as gasoline blends, and in fuel cells. But methanol belongs to “Flammable Liquids” Class 3.2 (Primary Class) and “Toxic Substances” Class 6.1 (Secondary Class) [1] so it is quite dangerous to handle. Problematic situations especially occur when methanol gets out of a continuous, closed system or when it gets transported to a different facility.
Consequently, there is the need to advance the methanol generating industry with a low proximity conversion system. This system will convert the methanol into a universal, complex, easy to handle and safe carbon source which is suited to be the starting point for a huge variety of industrial processes. As a result, the safety risks of using methanol are decreased remarkably while maintaining the high energy capacity of methanol.
methanol
Use of Modern Devices in the Lab
Even though biological laboratories in Germany are tightly regulated, biosafety is still a major concern to the public.
One question that we wanted to answer was: Are touchscreens a good idea in the lab?
tubefront is designed to be used with modern devices such as phones and tablets. But what about contamination risk when people use touchscreens in the lab? And how does it compare to computers with a mechanical keyboard?
To find out, we did a simple experiment: Sampling of microbes from keyboards and other surfaces in the lab.
Protocol
Making Chips
- prepare 250 ml LB with 2 % Agar (2.5 g NaCl, 2.5 g Peptone/Tryptone, 1.25 g Yeast extract, 5 g Agar)
- sterilize the black chip-mold by wiping it with 70 % Ethanol
- fill the mold with hot LB and let it cool down for 1-10 minutes
- use a sterile (wiped with Ethanol) scalpel to cut along the markings
- move agar chips into sterile petri dishes with a spatula
- store at 4 °C
Sampling Procedure
- using disinfected gloves, slightly press an agar chip onto the surface for 5 seconds
- put the chip back into the petri dish and incubate at 37 °C for 24 hours
- clean & disinfect the surface
- for analysis count the number of:
- bacterial colonies
- fungal colonies
Results
In cooperation with team Slovenia HS[2], we took samples from different surfaces in the lab.
The average numbers of colonies per agar chip show that keyboards are among the most contaminated surfaces in the lab. Smartphone touchscreens are equally contaminated as the cover of a paper lab notebook. But while it is easy to disinfect a touchscreen, you wouldn't spray disinfectant on your paper notebook. Taking this into consideration with the increased productivity, reproducability and safety, we think that paper-based documentation systems should be replaced by digital documentation methods.
tubefront
Community labs and containment strategies
Community labs do not undergo stricter monitoring than commercial (industrial, analysis) or institutional laboratories. Although people have a higher suspicion towards community labs.
We invited people from the Technik Garage[3], a community lab close to Hannover (Beckedorf), to Aachen and discussed via Skype call with the team Paris Saclay[4] about biosafety in general and about strategies against accidentially introduction of GMOs into the environment, which is by far the greatest concern of the public.
To address that concern team Paris Saclay developed two containment strategies for GMOs, which could be used
by community labs as well. For more information about our discussions with community labs visit our Community Labs page.
Collaborations
Cooperation & Celebration
During the course of our project, we had the pleasure to meet and collaborate with a great number of passionate and creative partners inside and outside of the iGEM community. On the one hand, we will elaborate all active collaborations with iGEM Teams and companies. On the other hand, we will name all iGEM teams we simply visited for some scientific exchange and having fun together. In short, this is the page of Cooperation & Celebration!
Click on the tiles below to navigate through our Collaborations:
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Cooperation within iGEM
Future iGEM Team of the "Westfälische Hochschule"
Quite at the start of our project, we were contacted by a group of students and their professor from the college from Recklinghausen. They are considering to participate in iGEM 2016 and had a lot of questions on how to build up an iGEM Team and manage an iGEM project. We were glad to welcome them in Aachen and answer all of their questions regarding BioBricks, judging and project organization. We hope that they will become part of iGEM next year and wish them all the best!
The students from Recklinghausen were accompanied by a supporting and potential future instructor Dr. Frank Eiden. Later that year Dr. Eiden was attending the same SynBio Symposium as our team. We took the chance to get some feedback on our project and won him over for an [http://igem.rwth-aachen.de/2015/index.php/Team:Aachen/Practices#Discussions_and_Interviews_at_an_interdisciplinary_Symposium interview on Community Labs].
We also met him at the Maker Faire and had an interessting discussion about synthetic biology and our prototype.
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HS Slovenia - Biosafety
In cooperation with the highschool-team from Slovenia, we have assessed the contamination level of different surfaces in the lab. A detailed description of these experiments is located on the safety page.
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University of Oslo - MDH Assays
When the project descriptions came online it became apparent that team UiOslo and we were working with a very similar methanol dehydrogenase. After some initial Skype calls where we discussed our projects, we started to collaborate on Mdh activity assays. Team Oslo did not have access to a microplate reader, but luckily we were able to find the optimal conditions for doing the Nash-Assay for formaldehyde detection. In addition to that, they built upon the methane sensor that we developed previously.
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At the 12th of June, the iGEM Team Darmstadt came to visit us. Quite soon it became apparent that they seem to be in tune with us. As a consequence, collaborations on several levels arised.
Some weeks ago, we had offered them to use the first version of our lab organization software tubefront. The feedback that we got from team Darmstadt helped us to understand how we could improve our software.
Beyond only presenting and discussing ours as well as their project, the members of the iGEM Team Darmstadt stayed the night within the scope of their Labsurfing journey. For the second day, we invited them to have a deeper discussion about the growing Community Lab scene in Germany. Together, we had a first evaluation of the general pros and cons of community labs.
The elaborated protocol of our discussion is shown here. Since both teams were very interested in the respective development, we agreed to stay in contact throughout the year and to have a final joint conclusion.
Click on the tiles below to navigate through our Collaborations with the iGEM Team Darmstadt:
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Bielefeld-CeBiTec
On the 5th of June, we visited the iGEM Team Bielefeld. While having coffee and cake, each team presented their project followed by a little discussion and receiving feedback.
We were fortunate to get valuable ideas concerning using our pumps in microfluidics. As a consequence, we adjusted the design of our devices and customized the control program software to support this field of application.
Some weeks later, we could return the favor:
Team Bielefeld was searching for different sources of water to test their genetically engineered machine. Therefore, we took two samples, one from a pont in a parc of our city and an additional sample from the famous warm sulfurous terrestrial spring, which was already the favourite place of Charlemagne the founder of Aachen.
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Survey and tubefront Feedback from Team Heidelberg
In July, Michael visited team Heidelberg and introduced them to the prototype of tubefront. At that point we were preparing a survey on laboratory organization and the feedback by team Heidelberg helped a lot to improve the questions of the survey. On their collaborations page they also wrote a nice review of that early version of tubefront.
Cooperation with industry
Sunfire
The sunfire company was one of the reasons to go for our project. We first met them at the researchcenter in Jülich, where they convinced us with their efficient technical conversion of CO2 and water to Methanol and other fuels. With such an efficienty, area independend way to get a sustainable, high energy chemical, it was a natural decision to find a way to integrate it into the bioeconomy.
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Cargill
Early in the project we visited a production plant of Cargill. They process around 2.000 tonnes of maize each day.
There main products are starch, sugar and a prestep of vitamin C. We got an excellent impression of the current starch industry in europe and globally, inkluding resources, prices, products and customers.
Though they were interested in our project, they didn't want to sponsor us because of the difficult reputation of genetic engineering especially in the food industry.
However, they helped us with all our questions regarding the starch industry throughout the project.
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MedLife
Located in Aachen, there is a Life Sciences network called MedLife. Resulting from the fusion of a biotechnological and a biomedical network, the represent several memebers from the industry and universal research. Together with several partners they especially support Start ups but also global player like Bayer or Philips. We started to collaborate with them to get contact to possible sponsors, but soon recognized the immense greater potential. With their support, we could not only find new applications for our product, but also found a great way to connect community labs with other partners in the Life Science. They even invited us to their smmer event, where we met a lot of interesting people and partner for the future.
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Stora Enzo
We got into contact with the paper industry through the MedLife network. As on of the main customers for starch in the industry, they were especially interested in our process. We were visited by two employees of Stora Enso, Heiner Grussenmeyer (chemical process engineering) and Kathrin Berger (paper manufactoring). We discussed the properties of paper starch and possible collaborations. They offered us to test our produced glycogen if it is suitable for the paper industry. Unfortunately, we didn't get any results before the jamboree.
Celebration
Marburg - Meet up
We followed the invitation of the iGEM Team Marburg and went for their Meet up with six students of our team. During the weekend we had a lot of fun meeting the other iGEM Teams, racing in canoes and enjoying a great barbecue and music. Of course we also talked a lot about the project of each team and tried to support other teams as good as possible. Many collaborations were turned up during the Meet up. One of them was the collaboration with Team Göttingen.
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iGEM Team Amsterdam
Since the iGEM Team Amsterdam and we are tackling the same problem, we decided to visit them and have a look at their solution. During the few hours we spend with them, we got to know a very likeable team that did a great job in working out their solution.
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Team Mexico
In August, Roger Rubio from this year's TecCEM Collegiate Team Mexico City visited us in our lab. We talked a lot about our projects and showed him how we organize our labwork in tubefront. Furthermore, we discussed the public perception of synthetic biology in Germany and Mexico and saw many similarities. Amazed about how iGEM brings people from totally different places together, we finished our gathering with a dinner in town.
Celebrating the Success of the iGEM Team Sumbawagen 2014
Follow up of last year´s collaboration between Aachen and Sumbawagen
During the 2014 Giant Jamboree it came to our attention that iGEM Team Sumbawagen was in need of a fluorescence detector to finalize their project.
Part of our project in 2014 was the development of a low budget Do-It-Yourself device for measurement of optical density (OD) as well as fluorescence, the OD/F device, which would have perfectly matched their needs.
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A collaboration was thus established between both teams to ship one of the OD/F devices to team Sumbawagen´s University in Indonesia.
This year’s iGEM Team Aachen 2015 continued this collaboration by assembling an OD/F device, calibrating it and finally shipping the device to team Sumbawagen.
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