Team:JMU Wuerzburg/human practices-establishing an igem team.php
The beginning of our project
During a regular seminar of virology, we discussed about different possibilities to engage into scientific research as soon as possible. Annabel and Nicole came up with the idea to participate in the iGEM competition. We were motivated by the outlook to conduct our own research project with all tasks and responsibilities but with close supervision by experienced researchers. Mostly we were eager to gain experience working in the lab.
After collecting more information about the competition online and from other participants, we decided to bring iGEM to Wuerzburg and founded the first team of our university. Together with two additional bachelor students we motivated Prof. Jochen Bodem to become our PI. He also provided us with lab space to get started with the lab work. By advertising our project among friends, we soon got more and more students, until we were a huge group of 50 participants.
After various brainstorming sessions we decided to start exploring new methods in the detection of infectious diseases. This led us to our project, designing a rapid diagnostic test to distinguish different types of Plasmodium, the pathogen which causes Malaria.
Organizing the team in different subgroups meant that every student could contribute to the topic they liked the most. Unfortunately, many students did not spend as much time and passion on our project as necessary, so our team shrank to the final number of eleven student members and three advisors. Our final team consists of an interdisciplinary synergy of bachelor students from biology, biomedicine, medicine and mathematics.
After collecting more information about the competition online and from other participants, we decided to bring iGEM to Wuerzburg and founded the first team of our university. Together with two additional bachelor students we motivated Prof. Jochen Bodem to become our PI. He also provided us with lab space to get started with the lab work. By advertising our project among friends, we soon got more and more students, until we were a huge group of 50 participants.
After various brainstorming sessions we decided to start exploring new methods in the detection of infectious diseases. This led us to our project, designing a rapid diagnostic test to distinguish different types of Plasmodium, the pathogen which causes Malaria.
Organizing the team in different subgroups meant that every student could contribute to the topic they liked the most. Unfortunately, many students did not spend as much time and passion on our project as necessary, so our team shrank to the final number of eleven student members and three advisors. Our final team consists of an interdisciplinary synergy of bachelor students from biology, biomedicine, medicine and mathematics.
German Meetup in Marburg
As a newly established team we were excited to get in contact with the other teams at the German meetup in Marburg. Especially, we exchanged some ideas about the different projects and talked about problems we had to face in the wet lab. This exchange of experience resulted in a huge benefit for our project in the following weeks.
We were introduced to team Marburg’s project for the first time. Later we established a collaboration with team Marburg by participating in their Vibrio natriegens InterLab Study. Moreover, we learned much more about the iGEM competition itself and got contacts to students more familiar to the iGEM competition who provided us with advice later on.
We were introduced to team Marburg’s project for the first time. Later we established a collaboration with team Marburg by participating in their Vibrio natriegens InterLab Study. Moreover, we learned much more about the iGEM competition itself and got contacts to students more familiar to the iGEM competition who provided us with advice later on.
European Meetup in Munich
In July we attended the European Meetup in Munich.
It was a great experience to get in touch with so many teams.
For the first time we presented our poster to a greater audience and
were excited by all the positive comments and helpful advice we received.
We are thankful for the opportunity to get an insight into the other amazing projects.
Not only did we get to hear stunning talks about synthetic biology in current science issues,
but we also received important information by attending many workshops.
In the end we left a bit wistfully, but we also took home so many amazing impressions.
