Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)

EPFL has always shown great support in building an interdisciplinary iGEM student team that will design and build genetic circuits with novel functionalities. Students learn to develop a project and carry it out to completion in a concrete manner. Their creativity and critical thinking are highly encouraged.

Laboratory of Biological Network Characterization (LBNC)

The LBNC conducts research at the interface of engineering and biology and are active in the areas of systems biology, synthetic biology and molecular diagnostics. They are driven by our desire to learn how to rationally design and engineer biological systems. The LBNC lab, head by professor Sebastian Maerkl mentored the iGEM EPFL 2018 team. Moreover, three PhD candidates from the lab served as advisors to the team.

EPFL - Discovery Learning Laboratories

The Discovery Learning Laboratories (DLL) are dedicated, thematic spaces for practical lab sessions that are open to all sections that would like to integrate them into their curriculum. They are especially adapted for teaching to large groups of students, generally at the undergraduate level. They have graciously provided us with our iGEM Laboratory Workspace and Equipment, as well as supplying technical assistance and consumables.

Collaborators

Nanolive

Nanolive is a swiss company that pioneered a high precision Tomographic Microscope to look instantly inside living cells in 3D. They helped the iGEM 2018 EPFL team to perform a microscopic investigation of the uptake of the vaccine by dendritic cells through providing the Nanolive microscope for free, and helping in the setup and acquisition of data.

PROTEOMICS CORE FACILITY (PCF)

The mission of the PCF, head by Dr. Marc Moniate is to provide the EPFL community at large with consulting, teaching, protein analysis services and quantitative method development on a collaborative basis. They provided the iGEM 2018 EPFL team with mass spectrometry services.

LABORATORY OF BIOMATERIALS FOR IMMUNOENGINEERING (LBI)

The LBI was establish by professor Li Tang to get a detailed understanding of the interactions between synthetic biomaterials and the immune system, and precisely control the immune response using engineered intelligent biomaterials in order to develop effective novel immunotherapies for cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. LBI helped us in performing experiments for the uptake and presentation of SIINFEKL by dendritic cells.