In a bid to obtain more samples to view under our microscope, we contacted a series of European iGEM teams to try to get things that they were working on. Unfortunately, many teams were using the same organisms as we were or had restrictions on what they could send to us. Fortunately, the Aachen team was using an organism on which we were not working. They were kind enough to provide us with samples of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and their transformed strains for us to use. We used the S. cerevisiae (which were of a distinctly different size than the other organisms we had observed) to help us understand the versatility of our technique with respect to finding the size and shape of organisms in a sample. An exemplary hologram showing these organisms can be seen on the Human Practices Silver page.

The ULV iGEM team reached out to us as we were both working on transforming the same organism, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We video conferenced each other, and exchanged ideas and offered guidance on how they should proceed forward with their transformations. After the meeting, we provided them with a copy of our transformation protocol, along with tips and tricks that we found helpful when conducting our own transformations.

When we met team Darmstadt at the Delft European iGEM meetup, they were greatly interested in our microscope. The discussions generated some interesting ideas that we used during the design and construction of our microscope. In exchange for information and guidance concerning the software and hardware that goes into digital inline holographic microscopy, they sent us a laser. We used this as a back-up during our hardware design and testing phases.

In April, we were contacted by the first ever Lund iGEM team. They were inquiring about mentorship. We provided guidance as to what to expect from an iGEM project, such as timelines, workload and mentorship on their local level.