Protocols.io & ProtoCat

     Our relationship with protocols.io has grown into a very rewarding partnership over the course of this last year. In the 2016 season we took the first steps to build a relationship with the company, having several meetings with their head of outreach, and out of those meetings came the idea for a project that we have been developing since the summer. This iGEM season we have created a conversion tool that easily imports protocols between protocols.io and ProtoCat. The tool takes protocol of their format and converts it to that of format, and vice versa. Our organizations share the goal of improving protocol reproducibility, and the creation of this tool breaks through the biggest technical barrier that our common goal faces. Easy transfer of protocol across repositories will make it even easier for scientists to share their protocol and improve their experiments. This relationship not only helps ProtoCat and Michigan Software grow, providing a valuable opportunity for our team members to interact with industry professionals, but also removes the possibility of tensions arising in the future between our two organizations.