Team:TU-Eindhoven/Outreach

Outreach

iGEM does not only include the synthetic biology project itself, also the promotion of synthetic biology is an important part of the competition. Since we think that synthetic biology is an unknown field of science to the general public, we made the SyntheticFacts fact-check webpage. Furthermore we did several other things for outreach. Here these activities are placed.

Kennislink

Kennislink wanted to start to publish more about synthetic biology. So we got contacted by a journalist and were asked to help them writing the article by answering questions about iGEM and to explain what our project is about. Also we mentioned here that we had a fact-check webpage, what it includes and what the intention was of setting up such a webpage. Link article (she will send it us next week)

Cursor

Since our research is quite innovative, we contacted the magazine that brings the news of everything that is related to Eindhoven University of Technology. We had an interview to get understood what iGEM is, what our project is about, what the possibilities are with our new application and last but not least, what our SyntheticFacts (fact-check) webpage includes. Here is the link of the publication: http://www.cursor.tue.nl/nieuwsartikel/artikel/bacterie-zoekt-tumor/

iGEM Netherlands

The iGEM teams within the Netherlands have put their heads together to benefit from each other’s work under the banner of “iGEM Netherlands”. The goals of the organization include hosting an iGEM primer event for the new iGEM teams by the supervisors and past iGEMers, meet-ups to amalgamate new ideas and of course exchanging thoughts and bricks. This medium intends to improve the research quality, exchange past working experiences, preaching the iGEM mantras to the beginners, feedback on the human practices and safety measures, to equip the teams with an arsenal to tackle the obstacles during the iGEM competition. The preparatory course organized by iGEM Netherlands were in sequential order starting with the general introduction of iGEM and how it played a significant role in promoting synthetic biology. Advanced cloning strategies were introduced and were explained in details. Workshops were organized to help other iGEM team members to become familiar with the computational analysis, modelling (matlab), oscillation circuit and toggle switches simulation. Aside from these educational activities, another important aspect in iGEM is to get to know each other, forming a network between team members to help each other out during and outside of iGEM, e.g.; a gathering had been organized for all Dutch iGEM teams for presenting their work, exchanging feedbacks and close it with a nice BBQ. iGEM Netherlands is the first of its kind where a collaborative effort has been established on a national scale within the context of iGEM. This has been very beneficial in propelling our projects towards success with the knowledge that we have gained during the preparatory courses and activities that have been organized. This type of collaboration would be beneficial to other iGEM teams as well, should they choose to do so.