Team:UNIFI/Delft

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Delft

This year for the first time the University of Florence has taken part in the iGEM competition. The team UniFi, made of thirteen students, proposed an interesting project of science art during the Symposium held in Delft on the 7th and 8th of July. The European iGEM meetup was organized to bring all the european iGEM teams together, have fun, and learn even more about synthetic biology. It was a new experience for the six italian students that represented the team and they couldn’t have missed the opportunity of visiting Delft’s important university center: the Technische Universiteit Delft, one of the most advanced in Europe. Alice, Gabriele, Lorenzo, Martina, Sophie and Valentina spent three days in Delft, a little and really nice town, not so far from Amsterdam. They travelled by plane and were soon greeted by the owner of the hostel, a very nice lady who suggested them some places to visit and where to eat. In the same hostel stayed two other iGEM team from Germany. Italian students recognised them since they were talking about the protein synthesis and aminoacids; their topics sound really unsual, aren’t they?! So they introduced theirselves and started discussing about their projects. Time passed fast by walking around the town: they had lunch in the central market in the biggest square called Stadhuis van Delft and they tasted typical holland fried fish and pancakes, the Pannenkoeken. In the same evening they went for a walk in the calm streets of Delft; as they said, the amtosphere was pleasant and relaxing and colorful lights brightened up the way.

On the second day, at 10 a.m. the symposium started, so the italian students got up early to reach the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The only thing they needed along was the team project poster and a lot of curiosity! TU Delft is detached from the city center and it seems to be a town apart where universitary students live. During the symposium three interesting speakers talked about Synthetic Biology and how they implement this in their field. The first speaker was Dr. Cees Dekker, a TU Delft distinguished professor who gave a presentation entitled “From measuring on single molecules to building a cell from molecular components”, where he showed examples of his journey from single-molecule biophysics to his group’s recent ambition to build a cell from molecular components; his own efforts focus on establishing an in vitro system to realize synthetic cell division. Then Dr. Denis Murphy, Professor of Plant Technology and Head of Biology Research and Head of Genomics & Computational Biology Research Group at the University of South Wales gave a talk on “Using bioinformatics & big data analysis in genetic technologies for medicine & agriculture”, surveying the growth of mega-data and the challenges it brings along, how reliable knowledge and wisdom can be created during research and some of his group’s work on the use of systems biology in cancer research. And last but not least, Dr. Dirk Stemering, Professor at the University of Twente and Researcher at Rathenau Institute, spoke about the involvement of Rathenau Institute with iGEM and the stakeholder dialogue workshop they organized on antibiotic resistance as a societal challenge and the role of synthetic biology in this discussion.

The topics were really interesting and current so that lots of students at the end of the symposium asked questions. Between the second and the third lecture all the students together had packed lunch, offered by TU Delft, and Italian students seized the opportunity to know the other teams. They were fascinated by the other European students and the passion for science they shared. In the afternoon, after Dr. Stemerding’s lecture, all the teams started a poster presentation session, to find out what everyone was up to and to get discussions going. About thirty teams participated, with very innovative projects. Everyone was surprised and at the same time curious of UniFI project: a mix of science and art which fit well the spirit of Italy. In the end of the day, they had a nice barbeque organized by TU Delft students in the sport center of the university. But fun wasn’t over yet, since after the barbeque they all went to a pub for a typical dutch beer with the rest of the students. On Saturday 8th all teams were invited to join in some fun activities in Delft, but the italian team wasn’t able to take part in any of them, for they had to catch the return flight. According to the students, it was an important experience they couldn’t have passed up because it gave them the opportunity to meet new people, especially the other team members and to learn something more about science and everything concerning the laboratory world. A wonderful chance for Italian students, always grateful to TU Delft for such a beautiful experience!

Team Unifi

unifi.igem@gmail.com