The Dutch Biotechnology Conference (22nd May 2018)

This year our iGEM team was fortunate enough to be invited to the Dutch biotechnology conference. On the 22nd of May two members of our iGEM team woke up at the crack of dawn to travel to Ede and attend the conference. The conference opened with a welcome speech, poster presenters could pitch their idea. Most of the pitches were from PhD students, but the Dutch iGEM teams also pitched their idea. Here we also gave a short pitch of our idea. After the introduction we got the opportunity to walk around the congress. We walked by the many company stands and posters, looking for inspiration and collaboration opportunities.This was also a nice moment to talk to the other iGEM teams about how their iGEM was going. The projects were explained and helpful feedback was exchanged. During the day many interesting topics were presented by Phds but also by biotech professionals. In between the talks we presented our poster to people and answered questions. Here we also received lots of useful feedback and pointers from various people who had worked on similar projects. After a long, but fruitful day we returned home with a notebook full of new ideas and many new contacts who were happy to help us with any future problems.

Microbiology at Shoppingmall Paddepoel (28th July 2018)

On the 28th of July we went to mall Paddepoel. Here we showed the bacteria on the hands of children after they washed them, and explained what bacteria are. To older people, we explained the possibilities of genetic modification and asked them what they thought of it. A lot of people were very eager to talk to us about it, and we had a lot of insights about how non-academia think about GMOs. We’ve added a few quotes by people who would rather be anonymous.

1. I’m most certainly in favor of GMOs! It can be used for the good way, for example to make tomatoes more juicy! People already have a very big influence on the world, such as global warming and plants that go extinct. I think we have two options. We can make this big leap with genetic modification or otherwise we can not survive on this earth.
2. I’m myself working to make the world a better place as well. We are with Yworks, which helps pregnant girls in Sri Lanka to build up their future by learning them to read and to write. We try to do this as local as possible, so we go there and we help them on the spot. It may be good for you as well to try to make your project more local. This way you won’t have a big company buying your idea and making a lot of money, but see for a way so that small farmers can use it. We can get each other on Facebook and share each others posts! Together is always better than alone!
3. I would like the natural potatoes the best, but as long as there is still hunger, we need to be looking at alternatives.
4. I think the question is where it stops. Adjusting some bacteria is fine, and I think changing your sex should be possible as well. But I’m scared that it will be like a ‘create-your-own-baby’ shop. This way rich people can pay a lot and will have very nice babies, but poor people can pay less and will therefore have babies with lower IQ, lower attractiveness and less social skills. I think this will improve the inequality among society, which is really a bad thing.

Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen (25th and 26th August 2018)

Every year this festival is organized in one of the parks in Groningen. Over 100.000 people visit this mostly free festival. While this festival focuses mainly on arts there are also initiatives to bring science closer to the people. Our own university has a special department specifically for this goal. In collaboration with them we also brought our idea to the people. Sciencelinx has created their own building blocks from bioplastic to make the idea of DNA more accessible. These building blocks were used by children to make various structures. At the festival we spent two days talking to people about bioplastic and explaining how we would make our own plastic.

On the 26th of september Bram and Owen gave a lecture the problems with plastic and how we try to tackle this problem. People were very enthusiastic about our lecture and stayed after the lecture to talk more about the problems with plastic. A lot of interest was also expressed into the specific workings of synthetic biology. The Noorderzon Festival was a nice opportunity to hear how people think about our project. Furthermore, we made people aware of the plastic problems in the world and our idea to combat these problems.

GBB Congress (13th September 2018)

On the 13th of September we went to the yearly congress of GBB, one of our sponsors. We were invited to show our poster and give a presentation about our project. Next to this, we were able to enjoy other great presentations and see other posters. Also during the social, we spoke to a lot of people who had interesting ideas about our project. One of them was ordering enzymes to see if we can degrade cellulose. Next to this we had good feedback on the presentation. Best of all, we won the price for best poster.

iGEM BBQ (5th September 2018)

To raise awareness for our project’s cause and to gain additional funds, we organized a BBQ. A few weeks before the planned date, the 5th of September, invitations were sent out to friends and colleagues. Posters and flyers were also put up around campus. On the morning of the day, team members not busy in the lab started setting up the pavilions and running other chores. Meat was picked up from butcher “de Groene Weg” who offered 4 kilos of sustainably produced meat for free. Beer was fetched from the “Baxbier” brewery, who also gave us their beer free of charge as part of their support for the iGEM team. True to their environmentally friendly theme, the iGEM team bought biodegradable cutlery. After a tiresome afternoon setting up tents and gathering all the necessary equipment and food on the lawn between the Bernoullibourg and Linnaeussborg buildings, the team was ready to accommodate their guests.

There was a turn-out of about 100 people who stayed from 3 in the afternoon until almost 11 at night. During the BBQ, the members mingled with their guests to talk about their project and its implications. To help with this, the project poster was displayed. It was also a chance for the members’ families and friends to find out exactly what they had been up to during the summer. In addition to payment for entry, the iGEM team also organized an auction with items kindly donated by their sponsors. These included: A visit to the Strip Museum, the Groningen Museum, the Northern Ship museum, tickets a concert by the Cool Quest at the Simplon, a painting by one of the iGEMers, a workshop on public speaking by the USVA, a Beer tasting and guided tour of the Baxbier Brewery and finally a private Kite Surfing lesson with one of the team’s associates from EV Biotech. The BBQ proved a great success as 1200 euros were raised for the project and as the good reputation of the iGEM competition at the University of Groningen was perpetuated.

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