Introduction
Collaborations is always fun, especially when you get to do them with fellow iGEM’ers and the different organizations that support our and other iGEM teams’ journey. So hold on tight, while you learn about our exciting collaborations!
DTU Biobrick Workshop
At the start of the project, we had the pleasure of participating in the DTU Biobrick Workshop hosted by the DTU iGEM team from Lyngby, Denmark. Together with four other Nordic iGEM teams—Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and BKEA—we enjoyed three days filled with networking, lectures on new cloning techniques, and workshops for wet lab, dry lab, wiki development, and human practices. Last but not least, there was plenty of fun! As the first meetup of the year, the DTU team ensured we had a great start, and we left with new friends from our neighboring teams and a wealth of encouragement to kick off our project.
iGEM McMaster Stickerbook
As a fun collaboration, the McMaster iGEM team invited us to design our own sticker that represented our project for a collective sticker book featuring stickers from other iGEM teams. This was such a fun opportunity for us to engage in a different kind of activity and we are so excited to see the final result of the stickerbook right here.
Nordic iGEM Conference
In July, we participated in the annual Nordic iGEM Conference alongside all the other iGEM teams from the Nordic and Baltic countries. This year, the Aboa team hosted the three-day conference, which was packed with various activities. We had a poster session and a presentation that provided us with the opportunity to receive feedback on our own poster and presentation techniques, as well as gain inspiration and insights into the projects of other teams. Additionally, we had plenty of chances to network with the other teams, both during the activities and at the final dinner party. All in all, we left the NiC feeling inspired and with new friends.
Endometriose Fællesskabet
We had the privilege to be able to work together with Endometriose Fællesskabet in Denmark. The intention of this collaboration was to connect with patients and professionals who have insights into endometriosis, which would serve as the foundation for our understanding of how to approach the community regarding alternative treatments. They offered to post our message on their social media platforms, resulting in numerous valuable connections that greatly benefitted us.
Pharma Danmark Article
We had the incredible honor of having Pharmadanmark, a Danish union for life science students, as a donor for our project. In addition to their generous donation of 10,000 DKK, which enabled us to purchase two different cell lines, they offered to write an article about us in their magazine, Pharma. This opportunity allowed us to spread greater awareness of the disease, endometriosis, by reaching a wider audience and expanding people's knowledge of iGEM and synthetic biology.
Translation:
Students from SDU in the WORLDS BIGGEST COMPETITION in synthetic biology
The iGEM competition is a worldwide synthetic biology competition, and among the participants this year is a team of 10 students from various scientific faculties at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). They are trying to create a treatment for the disease Endometriosis.
Over 400 teams from more than 60 different countries are participating this year in the iGEM competition, which started in February and until the end of October, when all the teams meet for a jamboree in Paris and present their project. 10 SDU students are involved and in full swing in the laboratory.
“The iGEM competition is a very unique opportunity for us as students, where we get the chance to have control over a research project that we have chosen ourselves. Through the project, we hope to be able to end up with a real product that can help solve a current problem. As part of the work, we also want to be able to challenge ourselves beyond the boundaries of our studies and to develop competencies for project work across disciplines,” says Kathrine Dømler Rasmussen, biomedical student at SDU.
The SDU team has chosen Endometriosis as the subject of their project. Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition where tissue of the same type as the lining of the uterus (Endometrium) also sits outside the uterus.
“Endometriosis as a disease can be very overlooked on an individual level. Many women can sense that something is wrong, but unfortunately many symptoms have become very normalized and are often brushed off as 'just a bad period',” she says.
Treatment instead of diagnosis
The project started with a hope for better method of diagnosis, but the conversation turned to therapeutics when the students discovered that several previous iGEM teams had tried projects with diagnosis. Therefore, the focus of the project became the treatment of Endometriosis.
“The current treatment methods are hormone treatment and laparoscopy - a binocular operation that is used both for diagnostics, but also for the removal of tissue. We felt that there were many shortcomings in the current treatment methods, because they are invasive and the many problems that can arise with hormone treatment. For these reasons, the team has chosen to work on a minimally invasive treatment for Endometriosis that does not just treat the symptoms,” explains Kathrine Dømler Rasmussen.
Self-produced a plasmid
It is not known exactly how Endometriosis occurs, but several studies show that the Endometrium-like cells express more of a specific estrogen receptor than what is expressed in
the 'normal' endometrial cells. The SDU team intends to use this to target the cells that are abnormal and grow outside the uterus.
“Our product is a plasmid that we have designed ourselves. The plasmid consists of two parts; a part that is activated by the estrogen receptor ER-β, and which leads to apoptosis, i.e. cell death. The other part is activated by the receptor ER-α and leads to an inactivation of apoptosis,” says Kathrine Dømler Rasmussen.
The team plans to test the plasmid on human Endometrium-like cells and on human Endometrium cells. They do this by transforming the plasmid into the cells via heat shock transformation, and subsequently examining the survival of the cells via fluorescence microscopy.
Interview with affected women
The project also contains a Human Practices part. Here the students reach out to women affected by Endometriosis and interview them.
“Among other things, we have had a collaboration with the organization Endometriosis Association, where we were allowed to share an Instagram post where we were looking for women who suffer from the disease and who were open to being interviewed. We have received quite a lot of inquiries, and we’ll now start the process of interviewing several of them,” says Kathrine Dømler Rasmussen.
In addition, the team has contacted several politicians to get their input on whether enough research is being done on Endometriosis, as well as why the disease is not taught more about in the education system.
“Our goal is also to contact various doctors and researchers in the field to get their opinion on what they think about our project's potential as a potential treatment,” she concludes.
Pharmadanmark, together with Novo Nordisk and Ampliqon, among others, has supported the participation; the funds go to purchase the 'sick' and 'healthy' endometrial cells involved in Endometriosis, and to cover the travel costs to the jamboree in Paris.
End of article
Ampliqon
Another one of our incredibly generous sponsors, Ampliqon, invited us to visit their facility right here in Odense—our own city! During our visit, we learned about the company’s background, enzyme production, and enjoyed a full tour of their facility. We also had the opportunity to present our project to several employees, receiving constructive feedback that we were able to incorporate into our project for further improvement. Overall, we are very grateful that a smaller company like Ampliqon is willing to dedicate their time to hosting, educating, and listening to us - we had a lot of fun! We were equally excited to share this experience with the Lund 2024 iGEM team.
USP-EEL Brazil 2024
The team from USP-EEL Brazil requested our collaboration on research regarding women in STEMM, which would be included in their Human Practices. We saw this as a wonderful opportunity to support our fellow iGEMers and promote awareness of women in STEMM, especially since our team is predominantly female. We provided answers to their questions regarding the number of women on our team and how many of those women held leadership roles. You can learn more about their research on their wiki here!
