Team:Exeter/Collaborations
Why did we collaborate?
Not only does the option of the InterLab study contribute to communication within the scientific community, but so does the collaboration aspect of iGEM. Here, we reached out to teams across the world, offering our help and advice, and also receiving some in return. We have conversed and gotten to know many other teams, both national and international, through not only e-mails, but Skype, Twitter, Facebook & more. It has been a pleasure getting to meet such amazing people all around the world. Many thanks to all who have helped us through our journey.
Newcastle University
Initial Contact: We were looking for a UK team to perform a perchlorate growth curve, and luckily Newcastle offered to do one! We got in contact via e-mails, and soon had sent the COSHH and protocol to follow.Cooperation: As Newcastle's iGEM project is focusing nitrogen fixing bacteria, they grew these in sodium perchlorate salts. The following bacteria were used: Herbaspirillum seropedicae, Azorhizobium caulinodans and Azospirillum brasilense. They were grown in different concentrations of sodium perchlorate, in a 96-well plate. They then gathered the data from this, and produced a growth curve shown here. This data helped us hugely with understanding how perchlorate affects the growth of different organisms, not just E. coli, and opened the idea that we could potentially take other bacteria to Mars.
Follow-Up: Since these results we have stayed in touch via e-mail. From one UK team to another, we'd like to thank Newcastle for being amazing and helping us with our project. We're very much looking forward to supporting their project and presentation in Boston! #TeamNewcastle
University College London
Initial Contact: After deciding to conceptualise a bioreactor we reached out to teams we met at the iGEM Oxford meet up who had engineering expertise. UCL as an institution has an outstanding reputation for bioreactor innovations and the UCL iGEM team agreed to offer assistance in teaching us bioreactor basics. Subsequently, later in the summer the UCL Team contacted us on social media to help fix a JavaScript site error. They had a problematic js file, which would load a json extension locally, but not when uploaded on their iGEM wiki, giving a MIME error in the console.Cooperation: The UCL team prepared a presentation on the essentials of bioreactor design to help teach us the basics and were key in reviewing many of our early bioreactor concepts, pointing out key flaws and providing insightful improvements to the designs.Regarding the JavaScript site error, fortunately our CompSci team member Phil had encountered this error before and was happy to share his expertise and troubleshoot their wiki. By using JavaScript within source tags, the problem was solved. Though this was not part of their project, it had a key role in their wiki set-up.
Follow-Up: Everything has been working great since! We wish the entire UCL team that best of luck at the Jamboree, and hope to support them in their presentation. #TeamUCL
University of Copenhagen and Techical University of Denmark
Initial Contact: As soon as we decided upon a project whose focus was on Mars we started to look for other teams interested in the synthetic biology opportunities offered by space. We discovered that both the teams from Technical University of Denmark and Copenhagen were looking at projects based on or relevant to Mars exploration. After several skype calls we determined that a review of ethical and legal issues surrounding going to Mars would be mutually beneficial and began researching.Cooperation: Throughout the competition we remained in close contact: sharing ideas, expertise and contacts in order to create a comprehensive review of; historical incentives of space missions, the arguments for and against colonization and the ethical implications of colonization and transport of biomaterial to Mars. Much of our contact centred around the need to closely examine our own reasons for wanting to do a space project and exploring the ethical issues surrounding space projects in general. Our review can be read here.
Follow-Up:This review has been mutually beneficial to all of the teams involved and offered a fresh perspective on both the benefits and issues surrounding our projects. It has been a pleasure working with such committed and insightful teams - best of luck for the Jamboree! #TeamCopenhagen
University of Virginia
Initial Contact: We got in contact with a lot of American teams over our project, but the team at the University of Virginia played a key role in the development of our perchlorate assay, and giving us an idea of what American based water companies test for in supplies.Cooperation: We sent Virginia our perchlorate assay and COSHH form, and they undertook test on tap water. They even did two! We then received back the results from their local water report, which showed us that perchlorate is currently not a compound that's tested for in water supplies. Alongside this, we received their assay results, helping determine the sensitivity of a perchlorate assay we developed. Here is a pdf of their results!
Follow-Up: The team at the University of Virginia have helped amazingly with the perchlorate assay aspect of our project, confirming its sensitivity, and we'd like to thank them hugely. Best of luck to them, and we look forward to supporting them at the Giant Jamboree. #TeamVirginia
University of Warwick
Initial Contact: The University of Warwick e-mailed us to get in touch over water sample collection. Some of our team met them at the UK meet-up in Oxford in July, to hand over the samples collected from all over Exeter.Cooperation: As the Warwick team are looking into water pollutants and the removal of them, specifically lead, legionella and oestrogen, they asked us for four water samples from different points around Exeter. Due to the size of Exeter's estuary, and the river Exe running through it, we were happy to help. This impacted on their project as they tested for oestrogen, and then used the sample to isolate bacteria that may have the ability to degrade oestrogen. This led to further understanding of how rare degradation circuits are, and showed an improvement on Tawiwan's 2017 circuit.
Follow-Up: Warwick followed up with how our water samples impacted on their project. We wish Warwick the best of luck in this countdown week, and look forward to supporting them at the Jamboree! #TeamWarwick