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From 2013.igem.org

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Workshop

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During our time participating at iGEM we noticed two things:

1. In Mexico (at least in our experience), it is pretty difficult to create a multidisciplinary team because not many designers, programmers, electricians, or any undergraduate students that are not directly involved in science don’t know what can be done or how we can work together.
2. Even though we are forming as bioengineers, most of us lack of basic knowledge needed to do a synthetic biology project; this includes mathematical modeling experience and software knowledge.

With in mind, we decided to take our experience and teach others what we have learned about synthetic biology. Not only what iGEM is, or what synthetic biology is, but really give them the tools so they can develop knowledge of their own and create something big from this experience. We prepared a workshop entitled “An introduction to synthetic biology” which was a 4-hour mini course open to anyone interested from our university and from any school in Queretaro and the surrounding areas. The workshop covers a brief introduction to synthetic biology, iGEM, the Biobrick Foundation, the parts registry and biobricks. We implemented the techniques discussed in last international meeting SB6.0 like the Tarot Card Reader of superflux, and multidisciplinary real life examples like the work of Studiolab on synbio. It also includes assembly protocols and part design. We really wanted to provide them with tools for designing, constructing, analyzing and modeling their projects. That’s why every participant receives a zip file with programs like Genome Compiler, Clotho, Eugene, Gene Designer, JDesigner, among others. Of course we explain them how the softwares work and how to use them. The first edition of the workshop is scheduled for October 3rd, but we are planning to do at least one more edition by the end of the school period.