Collaboration

Collaboration and idea-sharing are integral aspects of the iGEM competition. Teams are encouraged to engage with one another, helping to advance their projects through mutual support. This could involve solving challenges or exploring alternative strategies for similar issues. iGEM provides a platform for individuals with shared interests to connect and build relationships globally.

Meet-Up with iGEM Straubing

For the first time, a second team is associated with the Technical University of Munich! iGEM Straubing is a new team working on an innovative cell-free system, check out their wiki for more details on this exciting project. We were looking forward to meet them and learn more about their project, that’s why we invited them to our panel discussion (see more here), and afterward, we were thrilled to have the chance to connect, exchange ideas, and share experiences. It was a great opportunity to share insights from our own experience with lab and team organization, sponsor outreach, and to exchange contacts. We’re excited about this collaboration and look forward to working closely with them in the future!

Meet-Up with the iGEM Tsinghua-M Team

This year, we are developing a molecular recording system on RNA, using a dCas13b enzyme fused with an ADAR deaminase domain. We discovered that the iGEM Tsinghua -M 2024 team is also utilizing ADAR in their system to deaminate RNA molecules. Naturally, we couldn’t miss the chance to exchange experiences and discuss our approaches to the projects. Even though both teams are using the ADAR system, we found that our methods for adapting it to our test organisms—mammalian cells and yeast—were quite different. We shared our experiences and initial results with our system, and the iGEM Tsinghua-M team provided exciting insights into their experimental setup, project design, and early findings. It was an incredibly productive meeting for mutual troubleshooting, idea exchange, and collaboration.

Sticker Design with iGEM McMaster Team

iGEM is not just a synthetic biology competition, but a platform for creativity and innovation. It’s always fascinating to see the unique projects teams come up with, but also to check out the designs, logos, and merch they create. So, when the McMaster iGEM team approached us with their fantastic idea to create an iGEM sticker book featuring designs from different projects, we were thrilled. We had a great time designing three stickers based on our project, and it was such a fun and creative way to share our work with the iGEM community! Check out our designs and the complete sticker book!