Difference between revisions of "Team:Paris Saclay/Practices"

Human Practices

Exchange with iGEM teams

6th July - Meet up iGEM Pasteur

Attending the Parisian meetup hosted by iGEM Pasteur team, was an opportunity to interact with members of the Parisian teams. The presentations on the different iGEM 2015 projects, although not yet fully accomplished at that time, were sufficient to understand the origin, reflexion, and main challenges of each project conducted by the involved teams (Ionis, Evry, Paris-Bettencourt, and Paris-Pasteur). Additionally, since, the meet-up took place at Pasteur Institute, we visited the Pasteur Museum and the house of Louis Pasteur which brought us an overview about his main contributions to biology. Finally we had a funny extra collaboration with Ionis iGEM team: they filmed a short video in which we presented the main lines around our SafetE.coli project.

29th and 30th August - Meet up Bordeaux

Our team has made or sharing her eperiences and interacting with other iGEM team one of our priorities. Thus we have covered hundred miles to the city of Bordeaux by joining a scavenger hunt, based on questions about biology and iGEM projects, with team of Bordeaux, KU_Leuven, EPLF-Lausanne, Paris-Pasteur, Aix-Marseille and Toulouse. Also the meetup gave us a unique opportunity to present our respective projects over a simplified view and accessible to an audience unfamiliar with the principles of synthetic biology in the premises of Science Museum in Bordeaux ([http://www.cap-sciences.net Cap Sciences]). Given by a theatre expert, we have had a constructive feedback and valuable advices about our presentation. Besides popularization activities, we participated to a discussion about the project of the iGEM Pasteur team and answered a survey helping them to consider impact of the throw of plastic waste in the oceans. Finally our team conducted a debate about biosafety and how it is important to consider it in each iGEM project.

7th September - Meet up Leuven

The iGEM team of KU_Leuven invited us to join the synthetic biology and ethical Symposium hosted at KU Campus of Leuven (Belgium). It was a great opportunity for us to present our 2015 project in front of an audience composed of scientists and other iGEM teams (TU Eindhoven, Amsterdam and KU_Leuven). We also have had the chance to attend conferences covering various aspects of the synthetic biology such as the functionality of a minimal synthetic organism, Cell-Free living, or even further by an introducing to the entrepreneurial opportunities of synthetic biology.

21st August - Skype Aachen

We had a chat with both the iGEM Aachen and a Community German lab to lead a reflection on biosafety in experiments and more precisely on potential applications of our SafetE.coli project among iGEM community but also for external labs. The experience was an opportunity to present our model and raise questions about its limits. Moreover, the debate led us to get valuable information about determining vital cellular concentration using a measurement capacity applicable in our physical containment system.

Sensitize public to the challenges of synthetic biology

Paris-Montagne Association

We collaborated with the Paris-Montagne Association to organize a scientific meeting. Hosted, at the campus of the University Paris-Saclay, the event intended to connect researchers and students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds to introduce them to the practice of research and give them a taste for scientific studies. After explaining fundamentals and challenges of synthetic biology, members of iGEM Paris-Saclay team held a discussion with the group of High school students and help them to think about a future iGEM project. Some ideas such as designing a fluorescent human body appears to be very popular among the group of young students! In order to transpose theory into practice, we offered the young scientists a private visit into the lab ([http://www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr Institute of Integrative Biology of the Cell]). They had an overview of the necessary tools and techniques commonly used to manipulate genome.

IT Magazine

IT is a web magazine publishing articles covering subjects about industries and technologies. We corresponded with one of their journalists to explain the iGEM competition, the main concepts of synthetic biology and its numerous application. We also presented the concept and objectives of our SafetE.coli project with a simplified view so it can reach the general public. Therefore an [http://www.industrie-techno.com/igem-2015-l-equipe-paris-saclay-veut-eviter-la-dissemination-des-bacteries-genetiquement-modifiees.39207 article dedicated to the project of iGEM Paris-Saclay team was published] on the 28th of August 2015.

La fête de la science (The Science Party)

[http://www.fetedelascience.fr “La fête de la science”] is an international Science Festival undertaken by the Ministry of National Research. Scientific events are held all over the country to promote sciences and interact with people from different horizons. iGEM Paris-Saclay team attends every year events in the campus that hosts students, personal, academic and general public in its laboratories in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics and geology. Our team is planning activities for this year festival that will take place on 11th October. The main purpose is to induce debate and promote synthetic biology by exhibiting popularization posters made by our team and potentially meet students interested for joining the iGEM Paris-Saclay 2016 team.

CURIOSITas Festival

CURIOSITas is a rotary festival born from the meeting between scientist and artist is held at Orsay and transported into different cities through the Parisian region from 24 of September to 24 of October. iGEM Paris-Saclay team is presenting « This is not a lemon  », this is related to last year iGEM Paris-Saclay 2014 project. We decided to continue the story by creating a sculpture made with collaboration between iGEM Paris-Saclay team 2015 and Mr. [http://pascal-masi.com Pascal Masi]. Our project aims to create reflexion around the following questions:

• What will you eat in 50 years?
• How could synthetic biology change your way of thinking about living?

Moreover the iGEM exhibition presents synthetic biology and invites public to explore the new frontiers of living. We have planned an interactive installation made by seven posters designed by iGEM Paris-Saclay team: describing history, principals and functional application of synthetic biology (photo). Also in collaboration with [http://fablabdigiscope.wordpress.com/ Fablab Digiscop], we printed a set of 3D Biobricks Legos composed by a promotor, a coding sequence and a terminator (photo).To complete our eye-catching exhibition, a video will be available. This short movies present key moments extracted from several interviews made by our team in Paris. The video shows people’s reflexion firstly about what synthetic biological could be used for and secondly to raise ethical issues. This is a good way to simplify and integrate concept of biology engineering and make it accessible for targeted public of this festival: families, children, youths, students, scientists and artists and all those who want to discover this original project that push the boundaries of art and science.

Collaborations

iGEM 2015 teams Biosafety Survey

Our SafetE.coli project implied to know more about the chassis used among iGEM teams. Besides, we needed to know more about safety measures undertaken by other teams. A biosafety survey had been made by our team and sent to all 2015 teams asking them to answer few questions about their project. A [http://twitter.com/iGEMParisSaclay/status/639350658852892672 contributing Badge] has been sent to collaborative teams. Many of them did publish it on their wiki. The results from the survey, are considered as background and to justify the frequently of chassis used in SafetE.coli projects. Additionally, it shows the amount of team that are really considering a system to avoid dissemination of their engineered organism in the environment and its limits. Result of the survey can be accessed here: (LIEN)

Draw my Biosafety

Seven iGEM teams attended the Bordeaux Meetup. We seized this opportunity to spark reflections concerning every iGEM projects. Therefore we encouraged present teams to think about a safety mechanism suitable for their project. We then helped them to optimize it in order to prevent dissemination of their genetically engineered organism. To make it a funny and traceable experience we asked each team to draw the mechanism developed.

iGEM Rhizi

Our team enriched the graphic database, initiated by iGEM Paris-Bettencourt, by sharing key information of our SafetE.coli project. Thus completing the platform with keywords relating to our project make us visible by other iGEM teams. It is a fast and interactive way to find out subjects on which are working other teams. Beside the fact that the platform was available lately in 2015 Competition, Rhizi is promising for future teams. This could certainly become a fast way to find possible collaborations among iGEM community.

Newsletter

• iGEM Amoy University
• SYSU iGEM team

Surveys

We have completed the following surveys from various teams.

• iGEM Nankai Tianjin Team about an all-round resource sharing platform
• iGEM Korea_U_Seoul Team about a software called “Gil”
• iGEM Tec Monterrey Team about customs