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Team:TU Darmstadt/Human Practice
From 2012.igem.org
Contents |
Human Practices
1. Junior
9th September 2012 Lab course with students from Highschool
To make not only the iGEM competition, but also the Synthetic Biology well known in the public awareness, the Darmstadt iGEM team decided to host a student internship. At the beginning of Sempetmber came about 20 students of the Ludwig-George School to the Biology campus of the TU Darmstadt. In this laboratory course students were able to transpose their theoretical knowledge of molecular biology techniques into practice. Their task was to analyze as a molecular detectives an unknown meat sample on their species. For this purpose, the students were allowed to purify mitochondrial DNA and perform PCR on this DNA. After a restriction digest and separation of the resulting fragments with agarosegel-electrophoresis the students werde able to define the species of their samples. During the breaks, the iGEM team used the opportunity to present their project to the students and to discuss the importance of synthetic biology. The students were very receptive to the topic and immediately recognized that such issues in school playing no role and should be discussed morde often. It was not only a new experince for the students, but also for the iGEM team to discuss ethic issues of Synthetic Biology and how the society could learn more about the opportunites which ar given by that.
We really enjoyed the day with the iGem Team. We learned a lot of new things, but we also repeat[ed] what we already knew. It helped a lot that we could do the experiments on our own, because in biology it is very difficult to understand experiments if you don´t see them in front of you. If we had questions, we could ask them and the team explained the answers very well. They also explained us the idea of the bacterium which is able to recycle plastic and the whole group liked the idea. Altogether it was a very interesting and informative day and it should be possible for every class to take part in something like this.— Selina Lerch and Anna-Lousia Stroh
The day with the iGem team realy helped me to understand the topics which we talked about in class theoretically. Because to see it and do it myself put it into a state of reality that made much more sence than a thing that you just talk about. It was very nice and interesting to do experimentations in a real laboratory and to imagine being a biologist who wants to find out which sort of meat he/she has. And generally to know that something like this is possible is fascinating. I would like to do something like this again and I would suggest to do it to my friends.— Venezia Renner
2. Senior
9th - 11th May 2012 4th Anaual Meeting of Senior Experts of Chemistry (GDCh)
After the project of the iGEM team of TU Darmstadt stood firm and the beginning of labwork came up, the team had the opportunity to present their project to the older population. The Society for German Chemists (GDCh) organizes every year a meeting of senior experts in chemistry. At this congress, the team could occur with three posters and convince the elderly from their project "Next Generation Recycling". The project met with great interest, and there were long discussions about costs and feasibility of it. It was not unusual that present chemists themselves were involved in the production of plastics or on the other hand developed new chemical-based recycling processes on it. Many did not know the way of seeing things with the view of biology yet and were surprised what opportunities this offered. The iGEM team quickly realized that it is not easy to convince a chemist from biology. It was easy to explain the degradation of the polymer with its chemical structure, but it is more difficult to explain genetics and even more the BioBrick system. Nonetheless was the presentation a huge success and they were able to convince the older population of the idea. It was not only convinceing the people for the project, but also the discussion about the new topic of Synthtic Biology, which is a contrary topic in germany. It was important for the team to achieve not only one group of population in germany but as many as possible. For the team it is necessary to inform the population about new scientific technologies in a true and open way. Chemists, who are still working and dealing with the recycling of waste, came to the team and wanted to know if the project could be extended to other substances. It turns out that the method of bioremidation is not used in its maximum manner and there are a lot more tasks outside to deal with. So the project of the iGEM team of darmstadt is a hint into to the future and could soon find its application.
3. Economy
18th - 22nd June 2012 Exhibition of our project at the ACHEMA
he Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) had invited the Hessian iGEM teams to the ACHEMA in Frankfurt. ACHEMA is the largest exhibition on Chemical Engineering, Environmental Protection and Biotechnology, and offered the iGEM teams interested Audience during the presentation of their projects. At the booth of the BMBF, the teams of Darmstadt, Frankfurt und Marburg were able to present their projekts. The Darmstadt team could not only inspire the audience with posters, but also with a presentation as well as many flyers for their project. Laymen, scientists and companies could be convinced by the project "Next Generation Recycling" of the Technical University of Darmstadt. The contact to the other iGEM teams from Hessia was of course promoted and it was possible to replace the content and progress of the projects. Our project offers in the area of environmental protection, many approaches, so it was not surprising that the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) was interested in our project. Members of the DBU stayed a long time for intensive discussions at our booth. To conclued the ACHEMA offered us an exciting platform on which we could perform a "reality check" of our project. The interestng discussions with members of economy and sceince showed us the deep meaning of our project and point out that the iGEM Team of Darsmatdt is on a good path.
28th June 2012 3rd Anual Meeting of Strategic Process Biotechnology 2020+
4. Science
23rd - 25th July 2012 CAS Conference - Synthetic Biology
The Center for Advanced Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich organised a conference for Synthetic Biology on the campus Martinsried. On this occasion not only top researchers from around the world were invited, but also the German, British and Dutch iGEM teams. The iGEM team from the Technical University of Darmstadt was able to present their project "Next Generation Recycling" to scientific audience. Furthermore, it was a reunion of the german iGEM teams which met on the 3rd Annaul Meeting of Strategic Process Biotechnology 2020+ in Belrin. At the congress the teams could discuss their projects and also the chalenges they were faced during the lab work. The presentations provided insights in the latest research in Synthetic Biology and its application. At the end Jay Keasling, a famous representatives of the Synthetic Biology, talked about his urgent research projects. The CAS Conference gives the iGEM Teams the occasion to learn about the other teams outside of the iGEM Jamboree. Special thanks for the LMU Munich iGEM Team for their great organisation of the evening with al the other teams.
5. General Public
3rd July 2012 Interactive Panel Discussion
25th August 2012 "Umweltbörse Darmstadt"
At the 3rd Anual Meeting of Strategic Process Biotechnology 2020+ the eleven German iGEM teams agreed to a common event throughout Germany on Synthetic Biology . This took place on 25th August in the respective cities. The TU Darmstadt iGEM Team was particularly lucky, because at this time the environmental agency of the city of Darmstadt organized an environmental event at the Ludwigs Platz in the heart of Darmstadt. This meant that the iGEM team got the oppurtunity to bring their projekt people from small to large in more detail. This was a great to bring the Synthetic Biology more closer to the general public. The project is about a positive response pushed and inspired even more so at the will of the young scientists.
