Education

Stay tuned for the Jamboree to learn more about what some of those questions were!

CARRM article

The University of Guelph's Canadian Association for Research in Regenerative Medicine (CARRM) branch released a magazine issue in April 2024. CARRM's Magazine features undergraduate student articles covering topics in regenerative medicine and more. The spring issue featured an article about synthetic biology written by Akara, the Director of (Business &) Collaboration, and sent out to the university's Biomedical students. This article "Shaping The Future: Addressing the Stigma and Promoting Engagement in Synthetic Biology" explores synthetic biology, an interdisciplinary field combining biology and engineering to modify biological systems for enhanced or novel functions. It discusses the field's potential to address global challenges, the role of the iGEM competition in advancing synthetic biology, and the ethical, societal, and regulatory challenges that need to be addressed for its responsible development and societal acceptance.

Wiki science accessible

The web design team designed the wiki to have technical science and non-science terms defined on each page (with the exception of pages which explain the science behind the project in technical terms). This addition is so that when readers see a technical word that they don't understand they can hover their cursor on top of the word and a definition (in layman's terms) will appear. It will help non-science students and people understand our project. Similarly, having non-science technical terms will help our wiki's viewers understand our explanations better.

Sci-Art on the Wiki

Although science and art are often seen as separate fields with no overlap, we believe that creativity is at the heart of both fields. Through our wiki, we embrace this and have artwork created by members of our team in the form of Sci-art that viewers can scroll through and learn about our project in engaging ways. By incorporating Sci-Art into our project, we're fostering creativity within our team but also enables us to explain complex synthetic biology concepts in visually compelling and accessible ways.

Take a look around our wiki and pay special attention to the drawings, diagrams, etc, and count how many Sci-Art pieces we have!

Can you guess where this drawing is from?

Fundraising for Science Accessibility

Giant Microbe Fundraiser

Last year, we had a successful Giant Microbe fundraiser and decided to run another fundraiser from March 4 - 15 this year. In this one fundraiser, we raised more than we did between the 2 fundraisers last year. We raised $649 from the generous contributions from University of Guelph staff and fellow students. Not only was this a great way to support our team, but it was educational and spread science knowledge! We also were able to spread awareness about our team and our research as other clubs on campus reposted our fundraiser on their Instagrams. Also, the Molecular and Cellular department sent out an email sharing our fundraiser to both their staff and students!

The funds raised from the Giant Microbes sending some members of our team to Paris for the Jamboree and get experience presenting at an international competition, giving students hands on experience in their field (ie. research, wet lab, finance, marketing, and web design), and contribute to our team's STEM outreach.

iGEM Used Book Sale

We held a used book sale as a fundraiser on March 21 and raised $310 thanks to the generous donations of our fellow students. The funds we raised will go towards our outreach initiatives and making them free, which will help with preventing the accessibility barrier in STEM that many face due to finances.

Giant Microbe sale pt 2 & other fundraisers

We planned a second Giant Microbe fundraiser for September 30th - October 11th to fundraise more money to support our team's research and educational outreach. The pickup for these orders will be after the Jamboree so we'll hopefully be able to share news of our success and how the competition went this year!

Other fundraisers are in the works so stay tuned for more news at the Jamboree!

Inclusivity

Women in STEM (International Women's day) post

On International Women's day, March 8, we made a post on Instagram. It was a shout out to our female team members with some photos from the past year and to raise awareness about women advancing synthetic biology. This post could inspire young girls and women to pursue careers and studies in STEM. We are very passionate about raising awareness about women in STEM and fostering a community for these women, as most of our exec team is female identifying, and diversity and inclusion in STEM drive innovation.

Women are underrepresented in STEM programs and the workforce¹². Despite several studies showing that women are outperforming their male counterparts, they are still viewed as less capable students¹³. This dichotomy between performance and perception is problematic and is partly attributed to gender bias (and stereotyping) by classmates^13,14. It impacts their interest, participation and continuation in STEM and is more strongly present in minorities such as black women^15-17. The racism and sexism that these minorities face impacts their academic success and forces them to rely on resilience, which can lead to "racial battle fatigue" and ultimately leaving STEM¹⁸.

Another factor for the lack of women in STEM has been limited female role models¹⁴. Building a welcoming environment for women in STEM is critical and can help counter stereotypes about women not belonging in STEM (and that STEM is masculine) by providing strong role models, fostering inclusive mentorship programs, offering hands-on learning opportunities, and promoting a culture of respect and equity that values diverse perspectives and contribution^19-21.

International Women's day is an important day for recognizing the achievement of all women²². It should also be a time for raising awareness about current gender struggles and to make progress in gender equality²². This cannot be achieved without recognizing the struggle of women in STEM and celebrating their accomplishments.

Scroll for photo gallery:

Pride in STEM posts

As part of our efforts to promote visibility in STEM, we created a PRIDE month series focusing on LGBTQ+ researchers/professors at the University of Guelph. By posting this series, viewers of our Instagram page can immediately see that we are supportive of the community and will be creating a safe space for them.

Representation and diversity matter in STEM. Despite the significant contributions LGBTQ+ researchers make to science, their visibility remains low due to limited STEM professionals "being out" and open about their identity and the STEM culture often discourages visibility²³. This discouragement can take form in discrimination and the negative experiences that LGBTQ+ individuals face, which in turn impacts the retention of LGBTQ+ individuals in STEM²⁴.

The need for safe spaces is imperative and social media over the last decade has been key to this. Social media has increased the visibility of LGBTQ+ individuals including those in STEM²⁵. By bringing visibility to members of the LGBTQ+ community in STEM on our Instagram, we hope to create a safe and inclusive environment.

Our posts featured: Dr. Daniel Gillis, a tenured Associate Professor and Statistician in the School of Computer Science, Sammi Luk, a DVM student at Guelph, Dr. Matthew Demers, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Click through the image gallery to see our PRIDE month posts:

Women in STEM Presentation

We are excited to share a special project that highlights amazing women from around the world who are making incredible discoveries in science, technology, engineering, and math! Our presentation will introduce viewers (ages 8-11, or roughly in grade 3-5 which is when students are developing dreams for their future jobs and lives) to some of the most inspiring women working in fields like physics, math, medicine, environmental science, and space. By learning about their achievements, we hope to show everyone that anyone can make a difference in these exciting areas, no matter where they come from or what challenges they face. This project is especially important for encouraging young women to dream big and believe in their own potential, showing them that they too can achieve great things in STEM fields. Together, we can all be inspired to explore, question, and create in the world of science!

Open Houses

College Royal Open House

This year was College Royal's 100th year and our team's second year participating in College Royal. College Royal hosts over 20,000 visitors annually and is the largest student run open house in all of North America. This year College Royal was on March 16 and 17th. We had many visitors say that they visited our booth last year and were keen on returning since their kids had so much fun.

This event encourages youth to pursue STEM but also educates them about synthetic biology. It also has proven to be a great opportunity for dialogue as we've met many people in our local community. It also serves as a great way to influence young children to stay in STEM. In a study about women in (and leaving) STEM, it was found as early as 8th grade the trajectory into STEM (and away from STEM) is being formed²⁶. Another study has found that students lose interest in STEM by as early as 10 years old²⁷. This may be due to the limited opportunities to foster STEM at young ages and as such, participating in an event that is open to all ages groups, especially the families in Guelph with young children, we can have the most impact on these young children before that critical time point to encourage them to pursue their interest in STEM.

We focused on the arts in science as the theme of our College Royal booth this year. Our team believes that the arts is an under-discussed aspect of STEM as innovation is key to scientific discovery. We had mini petri plates that visitors could paint, and arts and crafts. We even made a cardboard rocket ship (a remnant of our past project idea which would have been in the space village) for kids to take pictures in and become interested in the application of engineering in synthetic biology.

We had information about synthetic biology, microbes and extremophiles, and synthetic biology in space written on the whiteboard and we had drawings of bacteria and bacteriophages too to educate the public! Team volunteers interacted with the kids by drawing bacteria and sharing some fun facts about Escherichia coli (E. coli) with the youth present! We also had the poster from Clubs days at our booth which explained iGEM, synthetic biology, our past projects and pictures from our presentation at the 2023 Jamboree.

UofG Open House

We participated in the University of Guelph's open house on March 24 to promote iGEM Guelph to prospective students in the Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) department. The MCB department asked for our help in showing and informing incoming students about student life at Guelph, especially about all the interesting ways to get involved through the department. We emphasized the research opportunity that iGEM provides for University of Guelph students and the opportunity for members within our club to present at an international research conference. Many of the visitors were interested in the fact that students from our team had the opportunity to present at an international research conference! Also, since there are no high school iGEM teams, all the visiting high school students had never heard of synthetic biology, so it was a great opportunity for them along with their parents to learn about the field and ask questions.

Future Gryphons Day

On May 15 the University of Guelph held another open house, however it was specifically for students that would be accepting their offer of study from the university - Future Gryphons day. Gryphons is what our students are called here at Guelph as our mascot is a gryphon! Here we played an important role in showing students the student life and research opportunities at Guelph. It also is a great time to educate the public (visiting students, their families and staff at the university) about iGEM and our past research projects.

Online Resources

HS lecture series

A high-school and entry-level university online lecture series was created for the purposes of enhanced student understanding of beginner Molecular biology topics, as well as the facilitation of learning for more involved topics. These topics are introductions to molecular and microbiology, synthetic biology, a dive into crispr cas9 and genetic engineering, the gut microbiome and its connected elements, a lecture for enhanced understanding of bioremediation, therapeutics and its connection with synthetic biology, and finally the careers available to those in the biological sciences. These lectures were made in an online PowerPoint format for accessibility and use by more people and those entering university and/or the field of synthetic biology and allows for the learning of these students to thus enter a dialogue and discussion of such topics with others and the online world. These lectures empower students to better understand the world of synthetic biology and its applications in industry and academia, so that more people entering university and the workforce understand synthetic biology and use it for further advancements in the field.

The Molecular and Microbiology lectures provide a baseline understanding for the core principles of Molecular biology in terms of cell biology, inheritance, replication, physiology, and biochemistry of the Prokaryotic cell. These lectures are vital to the understanding of the field of synthetic biology as it provides the building blocks on which the subsequent lectures are built on.

This lecture serves as a mini introduction to what synthetic biology is and how it differs from genetic engineering. Additionally, it provides two case studies of different applications of synthetic biology using recent events. This was to increase engagement with the content and make it more applicable to life as this is a more effective way to facilitate learning and retention.

In a slight deviation from synthetic biology as a whole, this lecture spreads awareness of the options those involved with synthetic biology can engage with and provides a starting point for various careers and builds interest into the world of careers in the biological sciences. It uses examples from both traditional and non-traditional career paths so that many careers and options are explored. As many biological science majors are unsure of what to do post-graduation, it is important to also give options for degree options and the jobs associated with each.

This and the genetic engineering lectures are extensions of each other and serve as the tutorial for the major techniques of synthetic biology. It is important to understand these techniques in an applicable sense as they are needed to perform experiments and research, but also theoretically in experiment design and understanding the work behind the scientific literature involved in the field of synthetic biology.

The therapeutics, bioremediation, and gut microbiome lectures are all case study applications of synthetic biology and are thus important to appreciating the importance of this field. The impetus behind the choice of these lecture topics was the need for varied uses of these techniques and study as it broadens the creativity that can be wielded to solve problems. Such problems are all very important and solutions are needed to remedy them, therefore, if synthetic biology can be used it is essential that these avenues are pursued and understood before work can be done. In this way, these lectures serve to be a launchpad for the exploration of students into this field and engages those interested to take part in useful research and contribution to the field.

Microbe Madness Card Game

Microbe Madness is a card game designed for anyone 13 years and up to play. It can be played in groups up to 6 and is an educational game where players can learn more about different types of bacteria and the conditions that they need to be maintained in during lab usage. In this game players become scientists and have to provide the best environment for their bacteria, however there are different environments, attack cards, impact cards, adaptation cards, and playable bacteria cards.

This game is inspired by games like Pokemon (each card has science facts for players to use), and UNO (each player must play a card that is compatible with the previously played card). However unlike the game Pokemon, there is no power scale, but next year this will be an aspect that we will try to incorporate in the game as it will allow for over 200 playing cards and players can collect different cards and become invested in the game. It can also be digitized into a video game next year so students from all across the world can play against each other. Another possible improvement for following years is combining the digitalization and power scale so that there is DLC (downloadable content) that is extra on top of the existing cards created this year. We've also come up with a board game aspect (similar to Catan or Risk, where players must provide their bacteria with an environment which will be a part of the board with their bacteria) that could be implemented for a special edition of the game.

See below for the rules of the Microbe Madness game and a sneak peak of our cards to play at home:

An iGEMer's guide on "How to" science edition

The "How To" guide for science and STEM students is a comprehensive resource with essential skills and knowledge for students to excel in their academic and professional journeys. The guide provides valuable insights, practical tips and essential resources for topics such as "how to get involved in research", "how to write a resume" and more!

By sharing practical knowledge and resources, students will be empowered to navigate problems from high school to the workforce and achieve success in the competitive world of science and technology. This is imperative as approximately 30% of undergraduate and college students in America, and first generation students in Canada in college are 43.4% of the student population^28,29. Furthermore, in 2018 over 50% of Canadian graduates from postsecondary programs had debt which amounted to around $23,000 at the time of graduation, although several students are known to have more debt³⁰. This amount may be a barrier for a student that comes from a financial hardship background and may prevent them from pursuing postsecondary and graduate education, hence why we created the "iGEMers how to guide" to help these students who may not be able to afford the extra financial costs that their peers may be able to afford (ie. CV consulting) to set them up for success in their educational pursuits.

This guide has been attached below and will be uploaded to a blog. Stay tuned to learn more about this blog at the Jamboree!

Collaboration with other iGEM Teams

cGEM Ottawa trip

From August 9th to 11th, 2024, seven of our iGEM Guelph members traveled to Ottawa to participate in cGEM on August 10th, hosted by the University of Ottawa. We and ten other schools networked, attended talks and panels by subject matter experts in synthetic biology, and delivered 15-minute project pitches for their internal competition. This competition provided a valuable opportunity to practice and receive feedback in preparation for our upcoming Jamboree presentation.

The presenting iGEMers were Luca Taylor (Co-Prez), Nikoo Mansourian (Director of Research), Hiên Ly (Wet-Lab Project Lead), Kimia Mehrafshan (Wet-Lab Project Lead), Erica Firouzbehi (Collaboration and Wet Lab Project Lead), and support members included Smruti Sharma (Wet Lab General Member) and Abbey Hanks (Director of Web Design). Also joining our accommodations was Akshay, a general member from iGEM Waterloo, whom we had the pleasure of getting to know.

Our Guelph cGEM group consisted of general members, project leads, and executives from all departments of our team—a medley of positions that had the opportunity to connect into a tighter-knit community. The frantic trip Ottawa-bound kicked off the team's bonding, as we got stuck in a highway standstill, lost in Toronto's busy Union Station, and ran for the last remaining seconds before departure. From there, the weekend was full of playing cards, bustling conversation, engaging in the conference, and sightseeing.

The experience of building networks based on undergraduate research and development is a trait perfectly embodied by the iGEM organization. The cGEM trip provided members outside of exec to experience the key takeaways of the Jamboree on home soil, connecting with a community in pursuit of advancing knowledge and solutions with synthetic biology.

BLOOM Biohackathon

The BLOOM BioHackathon was a conservation focused collaboration between NYUAD, iGEM Guelph, iGEM GU Frankfurt, and iGEM UVU-Utah. This collaboration was proposed by NYUAD and was a 2 day event (August 15-16) over Zoom with pitches from participants, project presentations from iGEM teams, keynote speaker presentations, and synbio based workshops.

IGEM Guelph was responsible for emailing participants the event details for the BioHackathon, organizing a keynote speaker for “Navigating Biosafety in Environmental Synthetic Biology” and presenting about our project “Ash Guard”, which was headed by Luca (Co-Prez). The keynote speaker was Yorgo El Moubayed from iGEM HQ and was 45 minutes in length. Yorgo is a Project Coordinator and a member of the Safety & Security Committee through iGEM is experienced in Biosecurity with a past fellowship through the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs.

The presentation covered techniques used by iGEM to assess the safety of projects (presented by Yorgo) and can be viewed below:

The presentation on our project was presented by Luca (Co-Prez) and Nikoo (Director of Research).

McMaster iGEM Stickers

McMaster iGEM reached out to our team over Instagram about a fun collaboration where iGEM teams would send in a digital sticker that represents their project along with a blurb explaining the project. We thought this would be a great way to connect with other iGEM teams and also share information about our 2024 project and as such, we sent in a copy of our Project logo. Our logo and blurb can be seen below:

“Hello from iGEM Guelph! Our 2024 project is a biopesticide for the Emerald Ash Borer! Since its arrival in 2002, the highly invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has ravaged Canada’s Ash trees with more than 99% of the infested Ash trees dying within 8-10 years, severely impacting ecological diversity and widespread habitat loss. It is expected that to replace these trees it would cost Canada over $1.4 billion dollars, so unfortunately, the current solutions are not enough to contain the EAB and are timely and expensive. They also cannot stop an active infestation, resulting in widespread Ash tree removal to prevent further infestation and which results in habitat loss. To combat this, we created Ash Guard, a novel bioinsecticide with Cry8Da, a highly specific cytotoxic protein produced by Bacillus thuringiensis, toxic to the EAB and its other invasive relatives like the Japanese beetle, which will hopefully become a more sustainable option to chemical pesticides. With the theme of sustainability in mind, our engineering team has been working on a 3D printing and recycling project. This project was created to offset the waste generation from the use of plastic consumables (ie. pipette tips) in synthetic biology labs by recycling used polypropylene into 3D printer filament that will be used to 3D print lab accessories. These 3D printed parts will be uploaded to a library so that researchers with little previous 3D printing experience can download the associated files and improve the functionality and accessibility of common lab equipment to streamline lab work. Stay tuned to learn more about our projects at the Jamboree! Cheers, The iGEM Guelph 2024 team”

Other In-Person Outreach

Orientation week event

This year was the third time iGEM Guelph had participated in Orientation week. Orientation week is a week of fun activities for first and incoming students to partake in events hosted by the university, clubs and various student governments and get involved in the university community.

Our event was on the first day of classes of the fall semester, September 5, from 2:00-4:00 pm outside of the Summerlee Science Complex - a research and learning complex on campus for STEM students, and due to this location we had many science students walk by and want to join our activity. This year, we hosted an Amino Acid Friendship Bracelet making event, where new/incoming students could drop in and make bracelets. Each table (group of students) was provided with keys for the Amino acid abbreviations and the Nucleic Acid to Amino Acid chart that they could use to figure out what Amino acid corresponded to their name from the list of 20 amino acids. Many participants made keychains or bracelets with start and stop codons or matching bracelets with their friends that had start codons. Several participants also made bracelets with the amino acid three-letter abbreviation that corresponded to their names or the first letter of their name.

It was a very successful o-week event and we will definitely be looking into hosting another similar event - whether in or outside of o-week as it was very casual and our exec spoke with new students about tips for their upcoming science classes. Our exec and volunteers also spoke to participants about our team, current and past projects, and what synthetic biology was. We had many participants follow our Instagram and those that did had an interest in joining our 2025 team.

Photos from the event can be viewed below:

Educational school visits

We are planning outreach for local elementary and high schools in September/October. We hope with this outreach we can inspire the next generation to pursue STEM. We hope to present about iGEM Guelph, synthetic biology and have students participate in science experiments.

Studies have shown that there is a STEM “pipeline” in which youth in middle school have already decided whether or not they like and have an interest in STEM³¹. In this pipeline, constructs such as race, gender, economical status also factor into whether these students pursue STEM in high school, post-secondary and into the workforce³¹. Due to these reasons we plan to conduct outreach in youth to help them gain interest in STEM in that critical time before the “pipeline” is formed and they’re discouraged and lose interest in STEM.

Stay tuned for more updates at the Jamboree!

Definitions

• Auditory impairments: Partial or total inability to hear that may be genetic or acquired during life.
• Attention economics: A theory in which human attention is viewed as a commodity and it emphasizes the need to capture and retain consumer attention.
• Accessibility barrier: Any obstacle or limitation preventing people, especially those with disabilities, from fully using or accessing a product, service, space (building, etc) or information.
• Bioagriculture: The integration of biological principles into agricultural practices to promote sustainable farming and the use of green technologies including but not limited to biotechnology.
• Bioconservation: The initiative to conserve biological diversity and the environment while implementing sustainability goals in society.
• Bioremediation: The process that uses living organisms which may be found in the natural environment or genetically engineered to breakdown/remove contaminants such as pollutants and toxins in the environment.
• Biosafety: The protocols and measures in place to prevent the accidental release of biological agents (human and animal pathogens, toxins and plant pests)
• Business model canvas: A tool used to construct a company's business model, that focuses on components like value propositions, customer segments, channels, revenue streams and cost structures.
• Click through rates: The quotient of search views by search impressions.
• Cognitive disorders: Any disorder which impairs the cognitive (learning, memory, problem solving, perception) ability of an individual.
• Content gap: Content in demand that is identified by TikTok and deemed to be missing or underperforming on their platform.
• CRISPR Cas-9: A gene-editing technology based on bacteria defense against bacteriophages that enables scientists to precisely cut and modify DNA sequences in organisms.
• Cry8Da: A cytotoxic protein from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) with insecticidal properties specific to Emerald Ash Borer beetles and closely related invasive pests like the Japanese beetle.
• Downloadable content (DLC): Additional content (typically in video games) that can be downloaded separately from the main game to enhance or expand the game.
• E. coli DH5a: A strain of Eschericia coli that is a "fan favorite" in many labs as it has a small genome that makes it easy to see the effects of mutations, has a fast growth rate, easy to take care of and it is well studied.
• Emerald Ash Borer: A non-native invasive species (Agrilus planipennis) that infests ash trees and causes widespread destruction.
• Genetic Engineering: It is the manipulation of an organism's DNA either by removing, adding or changing genes to achieve a desired outcome such as disease resistance.
• Gut microbiome: The microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi) that reside in the digestive system of humans which are imperative to digestion, immune function and human health.
• Human Practices: The consideration of the ethical, social, environmental and political impact of a project, and to see how society impacts the project. Through Human Practices, a project's ethics and benefits for society and the world at large is examined.
• Layman's terms: Refers to simplistic language, free of technical jargon, that is easy to understand to the common person and non-experts in the field.
• Ligate: When two pieces of DNA are pieced together using the enzyme ligase in molecular biology. It is most commonly used in cloning experiments.
• Microbiology: The study of microscopic organisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi).
• Molecular Biology: The study of the molecular basis of biological activity within and between cells.
• mScarlet: A red fluorescent protein used as a marker/tag in research. Bacterial colonies with plasmids that contain the mScarlet gene will appear pink/red and this is used to determine if the ligation was successful and in theory the bacteria should produce the desired protein that the mScarlet tag is attached to.
• Orientation week (o-week): A week of events catered to incoming students at the University of Guelph run by student clubs and departments across campus to help them become familiar with the campus, meet their fellow students/students with similar interests and be welcomed into the Guelph (Gryphon) community.
• Power scale: A system or ranking in which the strength of different cards is determined. Certain cards have higher value, influence or impact in the gameplay as the power scale influences player strategies.
• PRIDE: The celebration and affirmation of LGBTQ+ identities and celebrate inclusion, equality and human rights which have not been historically granted to the community. This celebration is often in the month of June.
• Sci-art: The blend of science and art to illustrate/depict scientific topics to make them accessible or understood by a broader audience.
• Search engine visibility: The portion of views a post receives because of its search ranking.
• Search Impressions: The number of times a post appears on the search results page and search feed.
• Search query: Terms and phrases entered into a search engine by users to seek their intended information.
• Search rankings: Position of posts within the search results page.
• Search views: The number of views accrued via the search results page and search feed.
• Stakeholder: A person, group, or organization that has an interest in the outcome of a project, business or decision, or may be impacted by it.
• Streak plating: A microbiological technique used to isolate individual colonies from bacterial mixed samples by spreading a mixed sample across agar in a specific pattern.
• Synthetic biology: An interdisciplinary field where biology, engineering, and ethics intersect. Within this field new biological parts, devices and systems are built.
• Therapeutics: Medicine or treatments used to cure, prevent or treat diseases and medical conditions.