Team:University College London/Achievements

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Achievements

Rathenau Debate Proposal

This October, the Rathenau Instituut (in collaboration with the African-European iGEM organization committee) will stage the Meeting of Young Minds Debate 2012, in which young people representing the worlds of science, the public and policy making will come together to debate around the topic of synthetic biology and society. Our proposal (‘A synthetic biology future, a synthetic biology crisis’) is one of two themes selected for debate. Over the last month we have written a position paper which outlines the major issues surrounding deliberate release of modified organisms into the environment, and considers a ‘disaster scenario’ that takes place in some possible future where  synthetic biology technologies are commonplace.  By opening up debate around these issues we hope to address some of the concerns raised by opponents of synthetic biology technology.

German Modelling Collaborations

LMU Munich: Modelling Workshop
LMU Munich invited us to the CAS Conference on Symthetic Biology at their beautiful campus outside of Munich city centre. We met up with the team after the conference had ended and spent a morning going through their project and looking at areas where modelling would be most helpful to their project. Together we came up with some great ideas and both teams will be looking into these further over the coming weeks.

TU Darmstadt: Ocean Model
We chatted with their modeller Henrick about how we could improve our ocean model, as he is working on similar models related to fluid motion and dynamics. He proposed a couple of different approaches and suggested some software, YASARA, that would be helpful to us.

Plastic Republic Speed Debate

In August, we hosted an evening of speed debating to deliberate the question “Should synthetic organisms be released in the ocean to combat plastic pollution?”. We targeted the interest in our project to achieve a bottom-up collection of ideas to feed back into our work.The turn-out was very successful, with attendees ranging from all different backgrounds including Bloomberg, London Futurists group, London Hackspace and the Guardian.


Fundraising Campaign

In July we ran a crowdfundraising campaign on Sponsume. We successfully raised more than our target of £1,500! == Medal Requirements == '''Bronze:'''

Team registration
Complete Judging form
Team Wiki
Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree
At least one new submitted and well-characterized standard BioBrick Part or Device. A new application of and outstanding documentation (quantitative data showing the Part’s/ Device’s function) of a previously existing BioBrick part in the “Experience” section of that BioBrick’s Registry entry also counts.
'''Silver:''' In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements...
Demonstrate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected
Characterize the operation of at least one new BioBrick Part or Device and enter this information in the “Main Page” section of that Part’s/Device’s Registry entry.
'''Gold:''' In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, any one or more of the following:
Improve the function of an existing BioBrick Part or Device (created by another team or your own institution in a previous year) and enter this information in the Registry (in the “Experience” section of that BioBrick’s Registry entry), and don't forget to create a new registry page for the improved part.
Help another iGEM team by, for example, characterizing a part, debugging a construct, or modeling or simulating their system.
Outline and detail a new approach to an issue of Human Practice in synthetic biology as it relates to your project, such as safety, security, ethics, or ownership, sharing, and innovation.
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