Outreach Activities

Synthetic biology is converting into reality the most abstract concept and ideas in the human mind with each passing day. However, the mindset of general public is still skeptical towards this particular field and its exemplary achievements. We, through our outreach program aimed to remove this fear and doubts from the mind of the students and tried to invoke in them the enthralling world of synthetic biology and the perks of it. Our promotion therefore involved several public lectures at various schools aimed at introducing prospective scientists to this exciting field in general and our topic in particular.

School Lectures

Modelling: iGEM Tec Monterrey

Before going to actual in vitro studies, we wanted to check how our design of oscillatory circuit works in silico. We had already prepared a stochastic model of the circuit, but we wanted to verify it from experts. We had a discussion with iGEM Tec Monterrey to discuss about the project earlier in this iGEM Season and they helped us out with our modelling. They verified our program and equations for us, and suggested the concepts such as leakage transcription which we missed to take into account. Their help was very valuable in terms of refinement of modelling of our initial circuit design. Even though we were not able to gather the experimental data and decided to go about designing a different circuit (See Design Tab) altogether, conversations with iGEM Tec Monterrey were highly informative and educative for our modelling experience.

Healthy Recipe: iGEM HAFS

Team HAFS is working towards finding optimal solution to diabetes. As a collaboration activity, they expected to collect healthy recipes from all around the world. ICT-Mumbai participated in this activity. We shared the recipe of Beetroot Raita, which is very commonly prepared in Maharashtrian households. The main ingredient, Beetroot, has been found to have many health benefits such as lowering blood sugar, detoxification to name a few. This very easy to make, and very tasty at the same time, recipe was an excellent contribution to the healthy recipe initiative of iGEM team HAFS.

Human Practices: iGEM WashU

Team WashU is working towards engineering yeast to produce a wheat rust resistance protein. As a collaboration activity, they expected to collect responses from variety of wheat farmers across the world. We helped them with relevant data from India. During one of our IHP visits, our team interacted with wheat farmers and collected responses to the specific questions sent by the WashU team. Team also provided the contacts of some farmers in India as part of the collaboration activity, thus helping them to improve their network of farmers and gain information about specifics of damage caused by wheat rust and their preventive measures.