1.- Meetup

The three mexican teams met in July to present our projects, get feedback from each other and plan a collaboration. This was the start of a Science Experiment Manual collaboration; a handbook that aims to introduce elementary school kids to science. This meetup helped us realize our areas of improvement to get better prepared for the Giant Jamboree. This event helped us establish closer relationships with the other iGEM teams, which consequently led to more collaborations.

2.- Science Experiment Manual Collaboration

Focusing on the importance of spreading science to the general public, and most importantly to those in their early stages in life, we collaborated with the two other mexican iGEM teams; team TEC CEM, and team TEC Chihuahua. We created a fun science experiment manual for elementary school students in which we aim to get children involved with science by creating science. This manual is intended to be presented to the Mexican Ministry of Education. Each team collaborated with the proposal of 10 different experiments according to the national education plan, making a total of 30 experiments. We validated them in public and private schools in the cities of Chihuahua, Guadalajara and Mexico City where we got feedback from teachers and students. We aim to awaken the children’s curiosity and to bring them closer to scientific activities through the manual and in the long term, to increase the scientific development in Mexico and to make progress in our country.Focusing on the importance of spreading science to the general public, and most importantly to those in their early stages in life, we collaborated with the two other mexican iGEM teams; team TEC CEM, and team TEC Chihuahua. We created a fun science experiment manual for elementary school students in which we aim to get children involved with science by creating science. This manual is intended to be presented to the Mexican Ministry of Education. Each team collaborated with the proposal of 10 different experiments according to the national education plan, making a total of 30 experiments. We validated them in public and private schools in the cities of Chihuahua, Guadalajara and Mexico City where we got feedback from teachers and students. We aim to awaken the children’s curiosity and to bring them closer to scientific activities through the manual and in the long term, to increase the scientific development in Mexico and to make progress in our country.

The manual consists of 30 experiments divided into 3 segments, according to their educational level and average age range. Each of them consists of the name of the experiment, objective, theory of the phenomenon studied, material, procedure and questions. Each section aims to ensure the understanding of the experiment and its relationship to the topics seen in class. Each experiment has its fundamentals clearly explained for all ages to which the manual is directed.

iGEM Tec GDL validated three of the 30 experiments of the Science Manual in a Public School in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The Elementary School principal, Manuel Cañedo, mentioned that he feels fortunate and pleasurable of having us in their school to participate with their students in science activities. Manuel Cañedo welcomed us and introduced us to the 5th graders; we explained them the activities, and all the children responded, participated enthusiastically and payed attention at all time, then we made other experiments in 1st and 2nd grade, in which children responded in the same way.

Teachers and students were excited because this experiments took them out of the daily school routine, they could all participate, they all had fun, but most importantly they all learned science.

3.- Collaboration iGEM Latin America

Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panamá, México, Perú, Brasil and Chile are some of the Latin American countries who have participated in iGEM. Because we share a language and a geographic area, we considered it important, that as Latin countries we participated in a collaboration that allows in the short and long term to obtain benefits for the different teams.

We’ve worked in generating a document that contains the most relevant information of our projects, along with a section in which that reports the main problems we have had to get to iGEM. The idea is to disseminate this document widely through our networks in order to let know other countries not only how Synthetic Biology can bring great benefits to society, but also the great complications that we must go through to reach the Giant Jamboree to present our ideas and projects.

4.- Collaboration with iGEM Chihuahua

Unfortunately, we didn’t get our kit on time because of border control issues, and even worse, it seems to be damaged. Therefore, we weren’t able to carry out the InterLab and do the necessary transformations to meet the bronze criteria. However, the iGEM Tec-Chihuahua team collaborated with us by helping us with the transformations we needed: BBa_I744204 -plate 3, well 20F-, in E. Coli BL21B3, BBa_K137055 -plate 4 and also well 13I- was transformed in E. Coli BL21B3. The transformations were successful and they were shipped to Guadalajara so we could continue with our work.

3.- Collaboration with iGEM CEM

CDMX team designed and developed a new method for siRNA production in BioBrick BSLA, which encodes for the reporter gene of the Blue Chromoprotein, the sense strand of the siRNA, a loop, and the antisense strand of the siRNA.

As the protocol stayed E. coli HT115 was used in the presence of plasmid L440, which confers resistance to ampicillin and tetracycline. When transforming this BioBrick in pSB1C3, the bacteria is resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, and chloramphenicol. Due to the risk of using multiresistant bacteria in research and to optimize BSLA expression, they asked us to determine the influence of multiple antibiotic resistance in the expression of BSLA.

In order to achieve this, the received strain was cultivated in luria broth with 1) chloramphenicol, 2) chloramphenicol and ampicillin, 3) chloramphenicol and tetracycline, and 4) chloramphenicol, ampicillin, and tetracycline. A kinetic characterization of the strain was performed using nanodrop technology. Finally, the resulting biomass was then recovered and used to run an electrophoresis.