During the project the RESHAPE team has been in contact with other iGEM teams all over the world. We are grateful to be a part of a community with so many dedicated and skilled people within synthetic biology. Without all of you we would not have made it this far.
Here you can read about all the teams that helped SHAPE our project.
Big collaborations
FCB-UANL
FCB-UANL presented their project on the global iGEM slack channel, and our team reached out to them for a potential collaboration. They were working on making firefighting proteins to battle the destructive effects of wildfires on the biodiversity of forests in Mexico. They have been working on a drylab based project because of severe lockdown restrictions due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. We agreed on a two-way collaboration on Human Practices and Safety forms through virtual meetups. Our team identified stakeholders that work with firefighting foam from Denmark to their team, while in return, they identified stakeholders from Mexico that are interesting for our project. Moreover, our Human Practice team advised their team to collaborate with the Spanish and Portuguese iGEM teams as wildfires are an annual problem in Portugal, whereas it is not an issue in Denmark. Lastly, both teams exchanged ideas for Human Practices and safety aspects of their iGEM projects. Visit their Wiki through this link: FCB-UANL
Korea-HS
The Korea-HS team reached out to us through the Global iGEM Slack after seeing our project post. They have been working with designing and producing therapeutic antibodies that can work inside the cells. As we work with improving the manufacturing efficiency of proteins among other things, they thought that we could perhaps try to express their antibody in Aspergillus niger. This would have been a difficult endeavor as filamentous fungi do not glycosylate human proteins correctly most of the time, which we discussed at length with them.
Instead, we started a collaboration where we advised and mentored the Korea-HS team with various questions about iGEM and synthetic biology. Korea-HS had many interesting questions about how we were handling different parts of iGEM, including wiki writing, human practices and judging. Both teams agreed to having virtual meet-ups once a month, where different aspects of both of our projects were discussed. Moreover, we also provided feedback on draft sections for their wiki before the wiki freeze. Visit their Wiki through this link: Korea-HS
Small collaborations
UPCH Peru
UPCH Peru contacted us to ask if we wanted to participate in their collaboration about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Their goal was to highlight the importance of science, not only as a knowledge resource but as an important tool to solve a variety of challenges. They wanted to collect information from a wide range of iGEM 2020 teams to see how their projects contribute to reaching the SDGs. #NoScienceNoFuture
As the SDGs were already an important part of our Human Practices we were, of course, more than happy to contribute to their collaboration project. We sent them a summary of our project and how it can contribute to the SDGs. UPCH Peru has presented the information of the iGEM community contribution on their wiki found in this link: UPCH_Peru
Uppsala
In April, the iGEM Uppsala Association ft. iGEM Uppsala team 2020 contacted us to ask if we wanted to participate in their Corona Outreach Program Initiative (COPI) on Instagram. At that time the world was in the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and most teams experienced a lockdown situation in their respective countries. The aim of COPI was to show how the iGEM community stood strong and connected during these hard times through the spirit of synthetic biology. We were, of course, happy to participate in this great initiative. We wrote about our team and our situation during the lockdown. The iGEM Uppsala team 2020 featured us on their Instagram in June together with 13 other iGEM teams and iGEMers. See the full post here: Instagram postand the rest of the posts from COPI on the iGEM Uppsala team 2020 Instagram: Instagram Uppsala
Events
Danish iGEM Meetup
From the 24th to the 26th of July our team went to Odense to participate in a Danish iGEM meetup. The event was hosted by SDU-Denmark for the DTU and UCopenhagen teams. At the meetup, we presented and discussed each other's projects. We also had workshops in Wiki design and Public speaking where we got a lot of input on how to present our project. It also gave us input on how best to communicate our project to people who did not have a background working with fungi. Furthermore, we had a very nice and cozy weekend, it was great to have the opportunity to connect with the other Danish iGEM teams. Thank you very much to the SDU-Denmark team for hosting.
Nordic iGEM Conference 2020
This year’s Nordic iGEM Conference was hosted by the Linköping and Stockholm iGEM teams on the 19th of September. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the original planned conference in May was cancelled and was instead held virtually. Most of the Nordic iGEM teams participated in a great day of lectures and team presentations. It was a great opportunity to get some feedback on our project and hear about all the interesting projects the other teams had been working on.
Thank you to the Linköping and Stockholm iGEM teams for hosting the conference.
Events hindered by Covid-19 pandemic
BioBrick Tutorial 2020
As we have done for the past many years, we were planning to host the yearly BioBrick Tutorial in April. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the event in the middle of our planning as Denmark was in a lockdown situation because of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
We were sad to not be able to continue this iGEM tradition, which would have been the 8th of its kind. We look forward to taking up the tradition again and hosting the event next year.
