Team:Warwick/Collaborations
Glasgow Collaboration
Manchester-Graz Collaboration
A key element of iGEM is outreach into schools in order to get the next generation of scientists thinking about synthetic biology and what they can do. As one of our team was born and bred Mancunion, we decided to set out on a collaborative outreach with the Manchester-Graz team. This involved iGEM members from the competing teams pairing up via the web to prepare lessons and presentations; ultimately leading to a full day of teaching where we presented to over 450 students. Our aim was to get the students thinking about going to university, studying a scientific degree, and for the older students; what they could achieve with synthetic biology. This collaboration brought together two teams to work alongside each other to plan and execute outreach within a school, this enabled a variety of experiences to be shared with students. We see this collaboration as a success; the Manchester-Graz team were fantastic to work with, and feedback from teachers has been hugely positive!
NTNU Modelling Collaboration
We got in contact with NTNU to ask for assistance and they came back with a stochastic method for calculating said probabilities. After discussing the problem further we came up with various equations such as S_i= Σ_j (K_i,j / Σ_j K_i,j ) log K_i,j / E_j[K_i,j], where S is how well a zinc finger binds to an arm and P_i = S_i / W (S_i) where P is the probability of formation for that zinc finger arm.
Oxford Collaboration
Oxford's team sped up he production of our DNA origami by conducting a PCR using primers we had designed and sent to them to create seven PCR products, six of which would be directly used to create the DNA origami.
Once we received the PCR products, we combined and annealed them to form DNA origami structures, which could then be viewed under an electron micrograph.