Team:Utrecht/Collaborations
Collaboration with ETH Zurich
This year, the ETH Zurich iGEM team is developing an autonomous robot that is using biosensors as its control element to follow molecule gradients in the air and to detect their source. To speed up their biosensors, they are also aiming at exploiting and modifying the natural Tar-receptor-based chemotaxis system of E. coli.
During the European iGEM Meetup in July, we came to the conclusion that both of our teams are working on a chemotaxis-based biosensor. Although our projects are based on somewhat other methods and slightly different applications, we did struggle with the same problem at that time. We decided to stay in touch and update each other about solutions, which formed the base for our collaboration.
Since then we have decided to take our collaboration to a higher level, skyping every week and planning future possibilities for our collaboration.
For a start, we plan to exchange parts in order to validate them. Furthermore, we aim to integrate our customized chemotaxis pathway containing E. coli in the air-sampling robot of team Zürich. This way the robot might be able to measure concentrations more precisely and potentially has a wider range of substrates it will be able to bind. Also, team Zurich customizes and optimizes microfluidic chips. If one of these chips is also applicable for our project, this will be a great tool to make our project usable in a wider range of end products.
European meetup in Munich (20 – 22/7/18)
During the European iGEM meetup 2018 in Munich (20th - 22nd July 2018), we contributed to the organisation by organising a Teambuilding Workshop for approximately 40 students in total. This workshop was inspired by both Amy Edmonson’s TEDx talk: ‘How to turn a group of strangers into a team?’ and the story about the Thailand cave rescue. We discussed the ways people with different cultural and academic backgrounds who did not know each other before, had to work together in one team to achieve their mutual goals such as in the Thailand cave rescue. This truly reflects the collaboration within any iGEM team: all individual team members of the separate iGEM teams have one common goal: make the project succeed and win as much medals as possible at the Giant Jamboree,and teams consist of members with different cultural and academic backgrounds. In situations as the Thailand cave rescue especially good communication within a group of strangers is essential in order to complete the task.
After the theoretic part, the participant got the chance to experience how difficult it is to communicate in a group of strangers by completing the ‘blindfolded rope square task’. In teams of 10 people, they had to make a perfect square out of a 15 meter rope without knowing eachothers names within a 20 minute time limit. For this challenge each individual was blindfolded while holding the rope, which they were not allowed to let go of. Almost every team managed to make a perfect square in time.
After the task, we evaluated the problems and findings, which arose during the task. The main conclusion was that structure and good communication is very important, regulated by a leader who guides the whole group by making sure everyone understands the task, evaluates if the task has been performed correctly and channels all the input of the group. This conclusion is also applicable in their own iGEM teams.
Leiden BBQ (17/8/18)
This summer all Dutch teams were invited to meet and socialize at the Dutch Meet-Up and BBQ. Here they were given the opportunity to get more acquainted with the other teams on a more personal level. Teams also participated in a pub quiz to immerse ourselves in other team's respective projects. The meeting was hosted by iGEM Leiden.