The credits for accomplishment of this project goes to the dedication, commitment and enthusiasm shown by a large number of people and parties from multiple disciplines. It gives us immense pleasure and gratification to acknowledge their support and assistance towards the execution of the project.
The IIT Delhi iGEM team whole-heartedly collaborated with Berlin team. Berlin team was working on the affordable, practical and effective diagnostic of the widespread third world parasitic disease -Tapeworm Infection. Since India is one of the countries where millions of people are infected by this parasite, IIT Delhi directed Berlin team to a suitable site. It was a hospital in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh where many cases of tapeworm were reported. After the successful extraction and lysis of the Tapeworm eggs, Berlin team obtained RNA molecules of the T. Solium species of the Tapeworm. IIT Delhi further assisted them by providing our own lab as -20 and -80 degrees centigrade refrigerators and other required lab apparatus were not available in the above-mentioned hospital. Sequencing of the RNA was also done and all the samples were shipped to them.
This was not only constricted to iGEM collaboration as we further plan to adopt this technology for affordable diagnostic of tapeworm infection which is otherwise done using fecal inspection using a microscope. This would help in timely detection of infection and thus would save lives of many people. Following this, Berlin team provided us the protease stains without Degradation Tags required by us to generate oscillations in the form of a square. Here is the link to the iGEM Berlin Team.
https://2017.igem.org/Team:Berlin_diagnostX/Collaborations
