Team:UMaryland/Collaborations
This year we had the amazing opportunity of hosting our first ever regional iGEM meetup at the University of Maryland. This meetup provided an opportunity for iGEM teams from around the region to come together mid-way through their projects to learn from each, practice presenting, build relationships for future collaboration, and acquire valuable feedback from their peers. The University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, Duke University, and Rock Ridge high School were all in attendance. Each team gave a 25 minute presentation of their project including their progress, goals, and any difficulties they experience so far, followed by a Q&A period with the audience.
I think it would be nice to have each of the following descriptions under or around each team's picture but I'm not sure how to format it :/
Our special high school guest team Rock Ridge added diversity to the meetup and presented on their project intended to help prevent and diagnose Lime Disease, a particularly salient problem in their local community of Northern Virginia.
College of William and Mary presented on their project of
The University of Virginia presented on their project of using modified E. coli to prevent postprandial hyperglycemic spikes
Duke University presented on their project of applying dCas9 to the detection and elimination of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Duke University
University of Virginia
Rock Ridge High School
College of William and Mary
Supplementing the presentations given by each team were several guest speakers who kindly agreed to help make the meetup a great and informative learning experience.
Special Agent Edward You of the FBI spoke about the relationship between iGEM and the future of national security as synthetic biology and DIY and community labs continue to grow with the growth of iGEM, and his work in creating a strong relationship between the biology community and the law enforcement to promote biosecurity without hindering progress.
Distinguished Professor Raymond St. Leger of the University of Maryland dept. of Entomology also spoke about his work on designer pathogens, and various aspects of developing strong genetic engineering projects.