Team:Lethbridge/Engagement
Knowledge Dissemination
Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute Annual General Meeting
Our team participated in the poster session at the Annual General Meeting for the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI) based at the University of Lethbridge. ARRTI was established in 2011 and is the first RNA research focused center in Alberta, Canada. The institute promotes RNA research, teaching and training in collaboration with government institutes in Lethbridge and beyond. During the poster session, we were able to get initial feedback from members of the science community outside of iGEM including professors, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students. They highlighted areas of our project that might cause potential problems and provided suggestions for improvements. The poster session gave us an opportunity to practice public speaking and present our work.
aGEM Competition
Our team attended the Alberta genetically engineered machine (aGEM) competition hosted by the Alberta Innovates MindFuel and GeekStarter programs. We competed against other iGEM teams from Alberta, including the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. The competition provided us with feedback about our project from experienced iGEM judges, as well as an opportunity to practice our presentation skills. We were acknowledged for our biosecurity work and awarded Best Stewardship, in addition to receiving a $4000 travel award. The competition allowed us to see the great work done by other teams and provided important feedback about our project before attending the Jamboree.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry 11th Annual Chinook Symposium Chinook
This year the team had the chance to be a part of the 11th annual Chinook Symposium that is hosted by the University of lethbridge’s Chemistry/Biochemistry Department. We had the chance to present our project during this judging competition and make our Univeristy aware of this years project. Participants of this symposium include research students in undergraduate and graduate levels. We had great responses our fellow students that were observing and participating in the event. As well, we had the chance to discuss our project with faculty members. We received amazing feedback from both groups and enjoyed discussing possible future applications of the Nextvivo system and our specific project design. This event was a great chance to practise our public speaking and presenting our project in detail to fellow scientists.
Outreach
5th Annual Brick-by-Brick Charity Dinner and Silent Auction
Brick-by-Brick has been hosted by the Lethbridge iGEM team since 2010 to raise awareness for local charities. Our most recent event raised $2800 for the Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge; a non-profit charitable organization that acts as a bridge between community donors and those in need. Brick-by-Brick provides the team with an opportunity to give back to the community while also sharing our work with the public.
University of Lethbridge Shine On Summer Festival
The opportunity to engage the public on both the high school and collegiate iGEM projects at the shine on festival was wonderful. Not only did the public seem interested in our work but also the support from the community was high. We had a great time interacting with people of all ages, teaching them about synthetic biology and the basics of our projects. The people we talked to seemed to accept our projects well considering the issues concerning genetic engineering. We took this as an opportunity to also address this problem, especially since next vivo tries to tackle this problem in both federal regulations and an education setting. The event also gave us the chance to network with Amino Biolabs who agreed to help us with our event, whereby giving out demonstrations of their own machines.
Gairdner Award Winner, Dr. Lewis Kay
We had the wonderful opportunity to share our history as an iGEM team with one of this year’s Gairdner Award recipients, Dr. Lewis Kay (professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Chemistry, University of Toronto; senior scientist, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto). The Canada Gairdner Awards acknowledge the best scientific minds and are internationally respected. Dr. Kay was recognized by the foundation for his profound work in modern NMR spectroscopy. Members of our team discussed with Dr. Kay projects from the past ten years, including the focus of this year’s team.
