Team members

Experiments

Human practices

Public engagement and education

Interviews

Meet-up

Wiki

Graphic design

Fundrainsing

Communication

Reviewing of the language (French to/from English)

Charlotte Bellamy and Ursula Saade

Collaborators

Human practices

- Creation of an image representing our bioreactor concept: iGEM Newcastle

Newcastle worked on an initial visual of our photobioreactor.

- Conférence: “What will synthetic biology bring to the Future”: iGEM GO Paris Saclay , IGEM Bordeaux

We worked with iGEM Paris Saclay and iGEM Bordeaux to organize a conference at Sorbonne Université. We all searched for speakers and we have shared the tasks for the implementation of the conference and its diffusion on social media.

- Practical work at Maurice Genevoix high school: Léo Carillo and Léa Meneu (IGEM Montpellier)

Léo Carillo and Léa Meneu wrote the slides for the presentation during the practical work at High School. They gave their help to succeed this practical work

Experiments

Interlab: iGEM Pasteur

They answered our question during the interlab period. They also gave us advices to succeed the interlab.

Modelling

Modelling of our project: Raphael Guegan et Guillaume Garnier ( iGEM GO Paris Saclay )

We did not have mathematicians in our team. Raphael Guegan and Guillaume Garnier helped us to conceive the modelling part of our project. We brought them the data.

Graphic design

Video filming/editing: Sophia Richard

She accepted to make the film of our team. Without her help, we coud not sent a video team to iGEM.

Project attribution

General Support

Our special gratitude goes for to our amazing supervisors Marco Da Costa, Frédérique Péronnet and Pierre Crozet: their help was more than precious from all points of view! They followed us all along this bumpy ride, they supported us, they gave us confidence in ourselves even in the difficult times and cheered with us in the good ones. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for everything you gave us during this incredible year.

- Pr. Frédérique Peronnet: a specialist in epigenetic and developmental biology. She is a research director at IBPS, UMR7622, Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement Team "Contrôle épigénétique de l'homéostasie et de la plasticité du développement" and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Sorbonne Université.

- Dr. Marco Da Costa: a specialist in cellular biology and regeneration. He is an associate professor at Sorbonne Université and a researcher in the same team than Frédérique Peronnet

- Dr. Pierre Crozet: : a specialist in plant biology, specifically in the molecular mechanisms that allow plants to adapt to stress conditions and developing Algal Synthetic Biology. He is an associate professor at Sorbonne Université and researcher in Molecular and Cellular Biology of Eukaryotes Laboratory in the Team Systems and Synthetic Biology of microalgae.

They are our superheroes, without them the iGEM adventure would have not been possible. To learn more about our awesome instructors visit our team page

Project support and advice

- Sophie Louvet-Vallée: Head of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Master at Sorbonne Université. We really appreciate her unconditional support.

- Stéphanie Graff-Dubois:Head of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Master at Sorbonne Université (starting from September 2018)

Brainstorming

This experts helped us during our brainstorming session. They accepted to answer our questions about the feasibility of our previous projects. They also gave us valuable advice and other ideas of project.

Lyme disease project

- Fréderique Gay:He is involved in the project "Clima-Tique". He is a doctor of medicine, doctor of sciences in parasitology and ecology. During our interview with Mr. Gay, he proposed different projects related to malaria, the environment, early diagnosis of Alzheimer's with biomarkers. He advised us to contact specialists in research and development as well as in institutions. He also gave us the contact of professionals to help us in our project.

- Benoît Jaulhac:Bacteriologist at the Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital of Strasbourg (National Borrelia center). He explained to us that in the context of this disease, it is not possible to provide a diagnosis due to the fact that the bacteria is hidden in the tissues. It stays in the blood only for a short periode of time. There are too many open questions regarding this disease. In conclusion, the project of Lyme disease could hardly succeed.

Cicasqualane project

- Luc Teot: member in the medical team: "Plaies-cicatrisation, brûlés, chirurgie plastique et reconstruction CHU de Montpellier” and President of the “société française et francophone des plaies et cicatrisation” (SFFPC)

- Sylvie Meaume: Geriatrics - Wounds and healing at Rothschild Hospital and Vice-president of the “société française et francophone des plaies et cicatrisation” (SFFPC)

During our brainstorming period, we had several interesting projects. You can follow our brainstorming on the brainstorming page

Fundraising help and advice

- Simon Morin:iGEM UPMC 2017

- iGEM France:They made a slide about a proper strategy for fundrainsing.

Lab support

It is very complicated for iGEM team to find a laboratory to do all the experiments. Thanks to their help, we conducted our experiments this summer in their laboratories. They also lend us materials and gave us advices

- Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique (IPBC)
Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire des Eucaryotes UMR 8226 CNRS-SU

- Stéphane Lemaire: head of the laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology of Eukaryotes, Team “Systems and Synthetic Biology of Microalgae“ at the “Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique” (IPBC)
- Pierre Crozet: Pierre Crozet is also a researcher in this lab and one our team’s supervisors

Muséum d’histoire naturelle UMR 7245
MDCEM Molécules de défense et de communication dans les écosystèmes microbiens

- Dr Yanyan Li : Head of the lab at Museum, she is exploring the defense and communication molecules in microbial systems. Dr Li was kind enough to let us use her lab to complete our interlab work.

Institut de Biologie de Paris-Seine (IPBS)
- Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement - UMR7622 Sorbonne Université

- Marco Da costa and Frédérique Peronnet

Technical support

- Delphine Cuminal: :She helped us to order lab equipment.
Institut de biologie de Paris-Seine (IPBS) Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement - UMR7622 Sorbonne Université

Project advisor support

- Simon Morin: He helped us with our Human practices. He taught us synthetic bioloy and he gave advice about our experiments. He also conducted some experiments to helps us before the deadlines.

- Nadia Tadjine:She helped us to conceive our Human practices strategy. She proof readed our human practices text and gave wise advices.

Human practices support

We want to thank all interview-partners who invested their time in sharing their knowledge with us, inspiring us in many different ways and pathed new ways in various aspect of our project. Without your advice, input and experience, our project would not be the same!

- Hubert Bonnefond: Doctor in oceanography and co-founder of the Inalve start-up. He has worked for 5 years on research projects in the selection of ultra-productive microalgae strain and extraction processes.

- Stéphane Lemaire: head of the laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology of Eukaryotes, Team “Systems and Synthetic Biology of Microalgae“ at the “Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique” (IPBC)

- Anne Sophie Lepeuple: Research Group Manager: Biotechnology & Agronomy at Veolia Environnement R&I

- Claudine Franche: Research Director at the Research Institute for Development (IRD)

- Jonathan Trent: Jonathan D. Trent, Ph.D is the founder and director of the OMEGA Global Initiative (OGI). He is also currently an adjunct professor at UC Santa Cruz and a civil servant scientist at NASA Ames Research Center

- Teodolinda Fabrizi: Teodolinda Fabrizi is a PhD student in international law at the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas

- Alexei Grinbaum: researcher at the laboratory of philosophy of science (LARSIM) at CEA-Saclay, he is a specialist in quantum information

- Aliaa EL Dairouty: PhD student in public international law at Paris Saclay. Her thesis subject is about the apprehension by French and European law about the notion of scientific uncertainty. She provided us access to laws about synthetic biology in France and in Europe

iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, or intellectual property rights.

Sponsors

Thanks and acknowledgements for all other people involved in helping make a successful iGEM team. Our sincerest thanks to everyone who helped to fund our project. Without their support nothing of what we have achieved would have been possible.

- - Master of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Sorbonne Université): The Master department was among the first entities to support our project. Many of our team members are currently enrolled in this Master’s Program. They were very helpful to our team throughout the iGEM competition.

- - Solidarity fund for the development of student initiatives (Sorbonne Université): it is one of our major contributors and provides us with precious advices and contacts to better communicate our project among students.

- - Education and Research Unit for Life Sciences (Sorbonne Université): This year our project Suga[R]evolution was selected for the BQR (Bonus Quality Research) Price offered by the UFR927. We are very proud of this distinction

- - Office for Science & Technology of the Embassy of France in the United States

- - Culture ActionS commission of the Crous: We are proud to match their criteria and look forward to have a positive impact as the Culture ActionS is enabling us to promote synthetic biology and SugaRevolution in our Campus.

- - City of Aubervilliers and Goussainville: Aubervilliers and Goussainville give a great importance to its youth and provide them with many structures and devices for their fulfilment.

- - Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) and New England Biolabs (NEB): They were kind enough to offer us reductions for materials we ordered, and even free samples.

- Crowdfunders: Thank you for believing in our project and helping us bring it to reality!

Improve a previous project

As we were making bibliographic researches for our project, we found out that a previous team had a similar project in 2017. It was the D.I.V.E.R.T. project conceived by the BOKU-Vienne team. You can find below a short presentation of their project quoted from their wiki (https://2017.igem.org/Team:BOKU-Vienna)

iGEM Boku-Vienna

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iGEM Boku-Vienne

D.I.V.E.R.T. Directed In Vivo Evolution via Reverse Transcription

Abtract

In vivo continuous directed evolution offers significant advantages over classic in vitro methods as it drastically reduces the amount of time and actual lab work required. Most current approaches, however, are based on globally accelerated mutagenesis inevitably leading to unwanted off-target mutations. D.I.V.E.R.T. represents the concept of a new continuous in vivo evolution strategy that allows full spatial control of mutagenesis by building systems that resemble the retrotransposon life cycle: The gene of interest’s mRNA is reverse transcribed in an error prone way and reintegrated into the genome at the respective locus replacing the original gene for several cycles. To demonstrate the generalizability of the process we plan on carrying out our proof of concept experiment in yeast and E. coli. By the end of August we are still in the cloning stage. Additionally, we are working on a single plasmid system for CRISPR-enhanced chromosomal integration in E. coli.

https://2017.igem.org/Team:BOKU-Vienna

Team training and project start

- Does your institution teach an iGEM or synthetic biology course?

Synthetic biology course called “UE 4V140: Biologie synthétique et ingénierie des génomes” in the Master’s degree Cellular and Molecular Biology is available at our University Sorbonne Université. One can found more details about this course in this official document (French version) "Biologie synthétique et ingénierie des génomes"

- When did you start this course?

Only 32 students can follow this course during the second semester. One of our team members, Aurélie Bouin, followed this course in February 2018.

- Are the syllabus and course materials freely available online?

No the syllabus and the course material are not freely available online.

- When did you start your brainstorming?

We started brainstorming on November.

- When did you start in the lab?

We started the lab work in mid-June

- When did you start working on your project?

We started working on our project in March 2018 .