Team:Washington/Collaborations
Our collaborations this year were quite diverse, from engaging with our satellite campus to connecting with a team from Japan to being active locally in helping to found the first completely high school based iGEM team in Washington State!
iTesla-SoundBio
In the past, our team received numerous emails from high school students interested in joining our team. However, this rarely worked out, due to liability at our university, logistical issues, and our team’s limited space and resources. As our team has grown in the last few years, it became even harder to take on high school students, and as the only team in Washington State, we began looking for other ways for high school students to participate in iGEM.
Thus, last year, we set out a plan to start a high school team in partnership with multiple schools in our area. We worked with high school students Roya Amini-Naieni (Bellevue International School) and Anna Vasyura (Tesla STEM HS) to recruit members from five East Side high schools.
That’s when SoundBio stepped in. SoundBio Lab is a DIY Bio lab near the University of Washington that allows citizen scientists to develop their own personal projects, and also engages with students of all ages through community outreach programs. Despite a long commute, the high school team migrated their work to the SoundBio lab space and SoundBio researchers stepped up to participate as instructors.
Members from Team Washington provided training materials for lab safety based on safety certification programs from the University of Washington Environmental Health and Safety Department. We helped plan initial meetings at Tesla High School, Microsoft Headquarters, and SoundBio Lab, developing a plan with the iTesla-SoundBio leadership team and brainstorming project ideas. Members of our team led lab training at the SoundBio lab at the start of the season, and gave guidance in brainstorming sessions and project selection. Throughout the season, we have been available for advice and troubleshooting. Finally, we have coached the team as they prepare their wiki, presentation, and poster for the Jamboree.
This collaboration has given us an appreciation for the vast amount of work that goes into starting a new team, and we are very proud of the high school students who took on this challenge. We are excited to have a new partnership with the SoundBio lab as well, and are looking forward to seeing this team grow and develop in the coming years.
LASA High School
We have also reached out to help another high school team, team Austin_UTexas_LASA, a high school team from the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas. Their team is working on a L-DOPA production, sensing, and control system using a two-plasmid regulation system. One plasmid, a “production” plasmid, produces L-DOPA in vivo. Another plasmid, a “detection” plasmid, detects L-DOPA and uses a Venus gene as a reporter system. In addition, they are also planning to integrate a control system in which the Venus reporter will regulate the production plasmid. They hope to use this system as a new exciting way to elucidate the mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease.
We had a videoconference session to give advice on their project design, offered advice and critique on their wiki, and our presenter and leadership team has given feedback on their presentation.
We are amazed at the amount of effort this new team has put in! We wish them the best of luck at the Jamboree and hope to develop more collaborations with them in future years!
Gifu University
One of our outreach members, Lahari, went to Japan to work in an internship. While she was there, she connected with Team Gifu, an up and coming excellent team from Gifu University. Developing on a previous iGEM project, Team Gifu is creating a LAM (Lactic acid-mediated) communication system utilizing the GAR+ prion. GAR, or glucose associated repression controls the usage of glucose of yeast. Using this technology, they have tried to make a biosensor to sense a phenomenon called “hiochi” in Japanese sake.
Ryo from Team Gifu communicated with Lahari about our respective projects. They offered some advice on some wetlab issues we encountered, and some alternatives to our violacein expression mechanism. We hope that we can help each other by sharing suggestions on our presentations!
Team Cadets2Vets
Team Cadets2Vets is a community lab based at the University of Washington - Tacoma, our satellite campus! They have created a diverse community lab team composed of members from high schools in the Seattle Puget Sound area, students and faculty from University of Washington - Tacoma, Tacoma Community College, and the United States Military Academy in West Point.
In a videoconference session with their team, our team shared our project and its possible uses and applications. We learned that the Cadets2Vets team is working closely with the US Military. Aligned with US Military interests, the team has created an inexpensive, portable means of arsenic detection. Their hardware system uses components and concepts similar to our Chromastat’s color-sensing hardware, and we exchanged ideas and possible avenues of development based on our experience. The Cadets2Vets team shared insight about possible ways to develop our biobricks and wetlab work.
