DNA extraction

This was our first activity as new iGEMers, our university decided to organize a multidisciplinary event for children between 4 and 12 years old. This event had many activities, such as painting, cooking workshops, germination, science, etc. We were very glad by having the science activity, of course we asked for having it. We were dressed as pirates in order to make funnier our scientific experiment.
Fistable, as kids were arriving to our fruit DNA extraction ship, in a nutshell we explained them, what a cell, a tissue, and an organism are. How humans are different thanks for the long long long molecule inside our cells, DNA. They were told that they would know how DNA seems.
After this brief explanation we proceeded to obtain DNA from bananas and strawberries. Kids were really excited to meet the molecule that living organisms share. When they obtained their precipitated DNA, the were asking lots of questions, such as if they could know their own DNA.
We did not forgot genetic engineering and synthetic biology, as they were able to watch with their own eyes DNA from fruits, we thaught them that DNA is like a big library, that contains too many books called genes, and that cells were able to study those books by reading them, so they could do what the have learned. We tell them that nowadays humans can erase the books content and change it for another. So if we decided to change the banana's book that teach its cells to be yellow and write that it would be blue, the cells would learn it and apply it. We tell them that this was called synthetic biology with genetic engineering.

Courses

Within the activites related to human practices, there are two intensive courses that we, in collaboration with iGEM team ollin synbio. The first of these courses covered the topics related to synthetic biology and was held at ITESM CEM. It consisted of 18 hours distributed in 3 different Saturdays (May 24th and 31st and June 7th). The goal of this course was to cover the following topics:

• Fundamentals of molecular biology and genetics
• Genetic Engineering
• Fundamentals of synthetic biology
• Biobricks
• Biological machines
• Synthetic biology and its applications
• Intellectual property
• Biosafety and bioethics

In order to broaden the perspective of the participants who mostly consisted of biotechnology engineering students ranging from 4th to 8th semester of their undergraduate program. We can gladly say that this objective was met and that the participants acquired knowledge that will help them decide the path their scientific lives will take. It was a great opportunity to introduce young people to the world of synthetic biology, biobricks, biological machines, biosafety and bioethics.
The 50 subscribed participants covered a fee of inscription of 750 mexican pesos, the money collected was divided between the two organizing teams, and it was used to develop their projects.
The second course that we organized covered the topics related to medical biotechnology, these topics are the following:

• Cell biology and genetics
• Genomics
• Transcriptomics
• Proteomics
• Pathogen identification, using molecular diagnosis
• Molecular diagnosis of heritable diseases
• Pharmacogenetics
• Pharmacogenomics
• Cell therapy using stem cells
• Tissue engineering
• Gene therapy
• Fundamentals of Immunology
• Recombinant vaccines
• Transfer factor
• Fabotherapy
• Bioethics

This course consisted of 32 effective hours, distributed in 5 Saturdays (June 21st and 28th and July 5th 12th and 26th) The 50 participants covered a fee of 900 pesos, this course was also held at ITESM CEM. In order to carry out the courses, team members contacted experts in each of the areas that we managed to cover. Being fortunate enough to have the participations of recognized researchers such as Ph.D Atlántida Raya Rivera; Ph.D Vianney Ortíz Navarrete; Master José Antonio Alonso Pavón; Ph.D Juan José Plata, among others. Many of them work at CINVESTAV, UNAM, ITESM, etc. The collaboration of these experts, helped participants, acquire knowledge regarding not only synthetic biology and medicine, but also, really important topics such as biosafety and bioethics, given by Master in bioethics José Antonio Alonso Pavón, because it is of critical importance that the scientists that are being prepared today have the bioethics basis in order to carry out a carrier that is based on the improvement and benefit of the human race.