Welcome at our interactive wikimap,
This game was designed to let you enjoy our progress during the iGEM competition 2015. By visiting the different chambers you will get a look at all our achievements and results. We hope you enjoy this quick trip around our wiki. You can navigate in this game by using the arrow keys.
ps can you find the garden?
The Team
This year, our team consists of 13 students who are dedicating their summer to work on the iGEM project. The numerous late night meetings organised from the beginning of the year 2015 were the perfect opportunity to create an optimal atmosphere to discuss the possible iGEM projects and to boost the team spirit. The team consist of students from 5 different faculties with different backgrounds, perspectives, nationalities and languages. The diversity of the team gives us strength and widens our horizons. We are all bounded by our enthusiasm for science and research and each of us possesses the courage to face big challenges. Additionally, we will be supported by previous iGEM’mers and employees from all levels of the KU Leuven University. The previous KU Leuven teams have set high standards to benchmark ourselves against. We will do our best to carry on this trend in the 2015 iGEM competition!
Our Advisors
We would like to extend our gratitude to our mentors, Katarzyna Malczewska(Kasia- as we fondly call her) and Prof. Johan Robben. From the very beginning Prof. Johan has always been ready to help solve complex issues, share his scientific expertise or direct us to the right person who can help us find the solutions. We could have never imagined someone who can be better than Kasia to be our supervisor. Be it a scientific question or a silly doubt, advice or administration, hot cup of coffee or handy tips, to the sea or to the store or a funny story, she is always ready for all our endeavours. We would fail in our duty if we forget to mention our advisors who have helped during various stages of our project, with special mentions to Oscar Torres, for helping with the gene knock outs, Veerle De Wever, for sharing all her past experiences and all the ex-iGEM’mers, for attending our pizza meetings and giving their valuable opinions.
Explore our Lab
We designed a circuit capable of forming patterns in a controlled way. Using a modified and temperature-sensitive lambda repressor (cI), we can trigger formation at desired points in time. This time-dependent controllability, together with the possibility to change many different parameters and output signals, leads to an enormous tunability in the creation of the patterns. Our mechanism will stimulate advancements in a variety of industrial processes like the creation of novel bio-materials. This fundamental project could also speed up medical research projects like tumor formation and tissue regeneration.
Future Applications
The knowledge transfer from pure scientific research to the commercial environment is a major challenge to tackle for both academics and industry. By analyzing the future potential of our project, we explore how our scientific contribution can be useful for companies in different industries. The focus lies mainly on the development of artificial bone implants, where the economic rationale for further investments is analyzed combined with a brief description of possible barriers for its future. Other applications for the biomaterial and medical industry as well as others are also described. On top of that we explain how a future collaboration with the TU Delft iGEM team could be beneficial for the both of us.
The Garden Secret
Welcome to our garden,
We spend some time collecting flowers in this garden.
Congratulations, you found the magical door.
Through this Door you can discover our secrets.
The Garden
Welcome to our garden,
We spend some time collecting flowers in this garden.
Can you figure out why?
Education
We introduced children in three primary schools (10 to 11 years old) to synthetic biology. We started the lessons by giving a brief introduction into biology and synthetic biology. We continued with asking the children to play a game built around the DNA codon table. The goal was to introduce the children to DNA translation and introducing mutations in a playful manner.
The game consists of two parts.
During the first part, the children were given the so called "Professor Robben" sequence. Using the DNA codon table, the children translated the DNA. Colored wooden blocks symbolizing the amino acids had to be arranged into the correct protein sequence. The blocks where made in the KU Leuven's fab-lab and painted by hand ourselves.
During the second stage of the game, the children continued by mutating the DNA sequence. The players could obtain a new sticker if the DNA mutations matched the protein sequence on the sticker table.
Interlab
This year the KU Leuven iGEM team decided to share its enthusiasm with the other teams to participate in the Interlab Measurement Study. The aim of this study was to construct specific devices combining a promoter with GFP and subsequently measure and analyse the fluorescence. By carrying out this study we hope we could join the scientists around the world to contribute to the worldwide fluorescence database.
Wiki
This game wouldn't exists without our genius brain behind this wiki, so thanks Leen for getting the idea and effectuate this game.
Creating an iGEM wiki takes a lot of work from all our team: creating, writing, reading and checking to make sure everything is in the right place and no errors where made. Therefor this wiki is a good example of our teamwork during this iGEM project. I can only say that we used some fingerspitzengefühle in this wiki.
Survey
Can synthetic biology have a positive influence on the environment? Can DNA be patented? What kind of applications are socially acceptable? These are the kind of questions which often characterize a social debate. The social debate about synthetic biology is in a much further stage in the USA than in Europe [5] . On top of that, there are numerous important social organisations and public groups who didn’t formulate a clear opinion about synthetic biology [5] . This implicates that the current debate didn’t evolve in a particular direction which makes it even more interesting to carry out a survey on the current perception of synthetic biology. This survey was conducted among Belgian citizens, older than 18 (focus group) and led to 352 responses. For more information, please check out the outreach page.
The power of Models
The fascinating properties of pattern creating bacteria may be translated into the language of mathematics. In this subsection we are investigating the equations behind the behaviour of the genetically modified organisms created in the wetlab. We do so using a layered approach. Colony level modeling employs partial differential equations to describe large cell groups which are treated as a continuum. Internal level models describe the interactions that happen within single cells. Finally the hybrid model merges the two approaches into a final description of our pattern forming cells.
Find out our history and timeline
Creating an iGEM project requires hard work in many fields. Obviously research in literature, simulations executed by the modeling team and practical work in the wet lab are necessary. We also want to pass our knowledge to future generations and iGEM teams. Therefore we develop a wiki, communicate our project in the media and teach primary and highschool students more about our project and synthetic biology in general. Above all, we want to organize an ethical debate because by discussion, you get a deeper insight in different opinions. To realise all this in a structured manner, we need a cooperation between all team members and subteams. We want to keep you up to date by sharing our journal and timeline.
Outreach
Our work is worth little if our results are not accepted or wanted by the public. Therefore learning about the perception of synthetic biology is crucial. Additionally, to gain the trust of the public a sound ethical foundation as a base for our work is necessary. In our survey we learned, that most people only accept synthetic biology if they feel educated about the subject. Therefore we went to schools to teach students some synthetic biology fundamentals. Finally to boost the impact of our project we collaborated with other teams to make our and their projects better.
The Project
Patterns are fascinating, from the veins of a leaf to the spots on a zebra, from a single cell to a whole organism. Patterns are found everywhere in nature, but how these are formed is not entirely clear. We, the KU Leuven 2015 iGEM team, decided to work on the fundamental mechanisms behind pattern formation using bacterial cells. The way cells interact to generate a specific pattern has triggered our curiosity and added a new dimension to the way the patterns are looked upon. Our mission is to create different and astonishing biological patterns with engineered bacteria for a better understanding of nature with the prospect of applying the knowledge in industry.
Symposium
On September the 7th, 2015 we organized the KU Leuven iGEM 2015 Symposium on Synthetic Biology, Cell Systems and Ethics in Biochemistry. Hosted guests included 4 neighbouring iGEM teams, academic staff, students, sponsors, and iGEM supporters from 6 different European countries. During this full-day event, the participants had a chance to attend the lectures by home speakers as well as by invited international keynote speakers from both the academia and the industry. The iGEM teams presented their research, and probably the most awaited part - the debate on ethics in biochemistry with panel of well selected experts lead by an experienced professional moderator - took place in the afternoon. To fulfil all the needs, goodie-bags, drinks, lunch, and dinner were provided to our guests. The day finished with a sightseeing walk around Leuven centre. Participation was free of charge. We hosted almost a hundred guests and received a very positive feedback.