Team:Virginia/HumanPractices

From 2014.igem.org

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<div><h2 align="center">A Three-Tiered Approach: Local to Global</h2>
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<div><h2 align="center">A Three-Tiered Approach: Local, Regional and Global Outreach</h2>
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<p>For the human practices portion of our project, we wanted to continue the work of previous University of Virginia teams, while also pursuing a project unique to our current group.  To sum it up, we wanted to do A LOT this year.  We decided to organize all of these projects into a multi-tiered system with the different tiers focusing on the local, regional and international communities.  Locally, we organized a Synthetic Biology Night at the University of Virginia, which was open to students from the University as well as locals interested in science and synthetic biology.  Regionally, we continued to partner with Renaissance High School in downtown Charlottesville and began a new partnership with a public school in Albemarle County.  We also met with Lynn Clements, the director of projects for the Rapidan Service Authority, to tour a regional wastewater treatment plant and discuss the need and feasibility of our project’s implementation in wastewater treatment systems.  Globally, we created a Synthetic Biology Awareness and Acceptance survey and asked iGEM teams to distribute it in their communities across the world.  </p></div>
+
<p>For the human practices portion of our project, we wanted to continue the work of previous University of Virginia teams, while also pursuing a project unique to our current group.  In other words, we wanted to do a lot this year.  We decided to organize all of these projects into a multi-tiered system where the different tiers focused on the local, regional and international communities.  Locally, we organized a Synthetic Biology Night at the University of Virginia, which was open to students from the University as well as locals interested in science and synthetic biology.  Regionally, we continued to partner with Renaissance High School in downtown Charlottesville and began a new partnership with a public school in Albemarle County.  We also met with Lynn Clements, the director of projects for the Rapidan Service Authority, to tour a regional wastewater treatment plant and discuss the need for and feasibility of our project’s implementation in wastewater treatment systems.  Globally, we created a Synthetic Biology Awareness and Acceptance survey and asked iGEM teams to distribute it in their communities across the world.  </p></div>
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     <td><h2>Local</h2>
     <td><h2>Local</h2>
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<p>Locally, we organized a Synthetic Biology Night at the University of Virginia, which was open to students from the University as well as locals interested in science and synthetic biology.</p></td>
+
<p>Locally, we organized a Synthetic Biology Night at the University of Virginia, which was open to students from the University as well as locals interested in science and synthetic biology.  Panelists from the University of Virginia community discussed the ethical implications of our growing field of synthetic biology, and student posters describing potential synthetic biology projects were displayed. </p></td>
   </tr>
   </tr>
   <tr>
   <tr>
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<p>Regionally, we continued to partner with Renaissance High School in downtown Charlottesville and began a new partnership with a public school in Albemarle County. We also met with Lynn Clements, the director of projects for the Rapidan Service Authority, to tour a regional wastewater treatment plant and discuss the need and feasibility of our project’s implementation in wastewater treatment systems.</p></td>
<p>Regionally, we continued to partner with Renaissance High School in downtown Charlottesville and began a new partnership with a public school in Albemarle County. We also met with Lynn Clements, the director of projects for the Rapidan Service Authority, to tour a regional wastewater treatment plant and discuss the need and feasibility of our project’s implementation in wastewater treatment systems.</p></td>
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     <td></td>
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     <td><img src ="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/9/94/VGEM_Renaissance_HS.jpg"></td>
    
    
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   </tr>
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     <td><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/2/2e/VGEM_SURVEY.JPG"></td>
     <td><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/2/2e/VGEM_SURVEY.JPG"></td>
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     <td><h2>Global</h2><p>Globally, we created a Synthetic Biology Awareness and Acceptance survey and asked iGEM teams to distribute it in their communities across the world.</p></td>
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     <td><h2>Global</h2><p>Globally, we created a Synthetic Biology Awareness and Acceptance survey and asked iGEM teams to distribute it in their communities across the world.  The results from this survey will help to shape policy and education on synthetic biology on a global scale.</p></td>
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   <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/2/29/VGEM_Slide08.jpg">
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   <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c4/VGEM_Slide09.jpg">
   <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c4/VGEM_Slide09.jpg">
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f9/VGEM_Last_Slider.jpg">
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<h2>Picture References</h2>
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<td>1. Image taken from http://mammalian-synbio.org/</td>
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<div><center><img src="http://su.rfac.es/wood/toothpick_rainbow_384x256.jpg"></center></div>
 
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<center><h2>HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION</h2></center>
<center><h2>HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION</h2></center>
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<p>Last year, the 2013 VGEM team reached out to Renaissance School and offered to teach a class on synthetic biology and the iGEM experience. Renaissance accepted, and the VGEM team visited the school once a week for six weeks during the fall. This pilot class has now become a regularly offered course at Renaissance School, and students taught by the 2014 VGEM competed at the 2014 High School iGEM competition. The work of the 2013 team inspired this year’s team to continue and expand their collaborative efforts with schools in the community.</p>
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<p>Last year, the 2013 VGEM team reached out to Renaissance School and offered to teach a class on synthetic biology and the iGEM experience. Renaissance accepted, and the VGEM team visited the school once a week for six weeks during the fall. This pilot class has now become a regularly offered course at Renaissance School, and students taught by the 2014 VGEM competed at the 2014 High School iGEM competition. The work of the 2013 team inspired this year’s team to continue and expand their collaborative efforts with other schools in the community.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<center><h2>The Math, Engineering and Science Academy (MESA) at Albemarle High School<br>A New Partnership</h2></center>
<center><h2>The Math, Engineering and Science Academy (MESA) at Albemarle High School<br>A New Partnership</h2></center>
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<p>This year, we began the summer by reaching out to specialized science programs at public high schools in Albemarle County. We met with Jeff Prillaman, the director of the MESA program, to discuss teaching a synthetic biology crash course similar to our predecessors with his students. He accepted our offer, and we spent the summer preparing a three-day synthetic biology crash course to be presented to two groups of students in the program. Team members taught the synthetic biology course over the week of September 8th. The first class consisted of a general overview of basic molecular biology and an introduction to the field of synthetic biology; this curriculum was taught to both juniors (60) and seniors (40) in the MESA program. The second class was lab-themed; seniors completed a restriction enzyme digest worksheet, loaded, ran and visualized a gel and transformed and plated bacteria containing RFP plasmids. The third class was split into two mini-lectures on the modeling used in synthetic biology and a discussion of the ethics involved in synthetic biology research. The students were given pre and post-assessments for this crash course.</p>
+
<p>We began the summer by reaching out to specialized science programs at public high schools in Albemarle County. We met with Jeff Prillaman, the director of the MESA program, to discuss teaching a synthetic biology crash course similar to our predecessors with his students. He accepted our offer, and we spent the summer preparing a three-day synthetic biology crash course to be presented to students in the program. Team members taught the synthetic biology course over the week of September 8th. The first class consisted of a general overview of basic molecular biology and an introduction to the field of synthetic biology; this curriculum was taught to both juniors (60) and seniors (40) in the MESA program. The second class focused on BioBrick formation and lab work.  Seniors completed a restriction enzyme digest worksheet, loaded, ran and visualized a gel and transformed and plated bacteria containing plasmids with an RFP construct. The third class was split into two mini-lectures on the modeling used in synthetic biology and a discussion of the ethics involved in synthetic biology research. The students were given pre and post-assessments for this crash course.</p>
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    <td><img id="fig1" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/8/84/Figure_1.png"><br><center><i><b>Figure 1.</b> Average points obtained on each question was compared using data from 25 students on pre and post assessments.</i></center></td>
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    <td id="results" rowspan="3"><center><h2>THE RESULTS</h2></center>
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<tr>
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<td></td>
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<p>Figure 1 illustrates an overall improvement in student performance after the three-day course. From Figure 2, we can see that the topic that showed the most improvement was restriction enzymes with a 40% difference between pre and post assessments. Questions on gel electrophoresis also improved with a 33% difference on diagram identification and 32% difference on identification of the laboratory process.  Questions on transformation improved with a 25% difference between pre and post. The improvement on these three question topics corresponds to activities done with students on day two of the course, namely the gel electrophoresis and the transformation of a plasmid into E.coli. Questions that covered topics only reviewed in the lectures showed the least improvement, such as recombinant DNA (6.7% difference) and polymerase chain reaction (2.7% difference). To improve understanding of these topics in a future course, interactive activities will be designed for these topics.</p></td>
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  </tr>
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    <td><img id="fig1" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/8/84/Figure_1.png"><br><center><i><b>Figure 2.</b> Percentage difference between pre and post assessment scores on each question of the assessment.</i><center></td>
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  </tr>
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<div><center><img src="http://su.rfac.es/wood/toothpick_rainbow_384x256.jpg"></center><br></div>
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<td>Resources From "Synthetic Biology Crash Course"</td>
<div id="bluelinks">
<div id="bluelinks">
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<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/0/0c/VGEM_Day_One_PPT.ppt">Day One: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology</a></li>
<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/0/0c/VGEM_Day_One_PPT.ppt">Day One: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology</a></li>
<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/fc/VGEM_Day_Two_PPT.ppt">Day Two: A Day in the Life of an iGEMer</a></li>
<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/fc/VGEM_Day_Two_PPT.ppt">Day Two: A Day in the Life of an iGEMer</a></li>
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<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Day Two: Lab Protocols</li>
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<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href ="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/d/db/VGEM_Day_Two_Protocols_%281%29.pdf">Day Two: Lab Protocols</li>
<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f3/VGEM_Day_Three_Part_One_PPT.ppt">Day Three (Part One): Modeling in Synthetic Biology</a></li>
<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f3/VGEM_Day_Three_Part_One_PPT.ppt">Day Three (Part One): Modeling in Synthetic Biology</a></li>
<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f9/VGEM_Day_Three_Part_Two.ppt">Day Three (Part Two): The Ethics of Synthetic Biology</a></li>
<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f9/VGEM_Day_Three_Part_Two.ppt">Day Three (Part Two): The Ethics of Synthetic Biology</a></li>
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   <ol>
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     <li value = "1">Larger solids as well as sand and grit are filtered out of the water using grated filters.  However, these filters can only remove particles that are ½” or 12.7 mm in diameter.  Microplastics are defined as plastic particles that are 5 mm in diameter or less and are clearly not being removed from the water supply using these filtration methods.</li>
+
     <li value = "1">Larger solids as well as sand and grit are filtered out of the water using grated filters.  However, these filters can only remove particles that are ½” or 12.7 mm in diameter.  Microplastics are defined as plastic particles that are 5 mm in diameter or less and are clearly not being removed from the water supply using these filtration methods.  We felt that directly after this filtration step would be the best place to implement our biofilter.</li>
     <li>The water then goes to an oxidation ditch, where natural gut bacteria remove the remaining organic matter from the water.</li>
     <li>The water then goes to an oxidation ditch, where natural gut bacteria remove the remaining organic matter from the water.</li>
     <li>After the oxidation ditch, the water moves to the clarifier, which allows remaining solids to settle out of the water and be removed as sludge.</li>
     <li>After the oxidation ditch, the water moves to the clarifier, which allows remaining solids to settle out of the water and be removed as sludge.</li>
-
     <li>The water finally moves through a UV disinfection chamber to remove any bacteria from the previous treatment steps.</li>
+
     <li>The water finally moves through a UV disinfection chamber to remove any bacteria from the previous treatment steps.  We were particularly interested in this final step of treatment as it meant that any bacteria we added upstream of this step would be removed by the UV disinfection.  Therefore, we felt that our biofilter design would not pose any additional safety threat to the water treatment plant.</li>
     <li>The water is then directly released into the Rapidan River, located about 5 miles away from the plant.</li>  
     <li>The water is then directly released into the Rapidan River, located about 5 miles away from the plant.</li>  
   </ol></p>
   </ol></p>
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<center><h2>Synthetic Biology Global Awareness and Acceptance Survey Map</h2></center>
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<center><h2>Synthetic Biology Acceptance and Awareness Global Survey</h2></center>
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<p>As part of our global human practices initiative, we created a survey to gauge knowledge of and sentiment towards synthetic biology.  We sent it out to every iGEM team, asking them to collect at least 20 responses from the public in exchange for a webbadge.  Fifty-five teams participated, and twenty-one collected 20 results or more.</p>
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<center><img id="pic" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f5/VGEM_SurveyMap.JPG"></center>
<center><img id="pic" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f5/VGEM_SurveyMap.JPG"></center>
<center><h3>Over 40 iGEM teams around the globe are taking part in our survey collection!<br>Want to participate and earn a web-badge for your wiki? Contact us at virginia.igem@gmail.com.</h3></center>
<center><h3>Over 40 iGEM teams around the globe are taking part in our survey collection!<br>Want to participate and earn a web-badge for your wiki? Contact us at virginia.igem@gmail.com.</h3></center>

Revision as of 21:10, 17 October 2014

Human Practices

hi

A Three-Tiered Approach: Local, Regional and Global Outreach

For the human practices portion of our project, we wanted to continue the work of previous University of Virginia teams, while also pursuing a project unique to our current group. In other words, we wanted to do a lot this year. We decided to organize all of these projects into a multi-tiered system where the different tiers focused on the local, regional and international communities. Locally, we organized a Synthetic Biology Night at the University of Virginia, which was open to students from the University as well as locals interested in science and synthetic biology. Regionally, we continued to partner with Renaissance High School in downtown Charlottesville and began a new partnership with a public school in Albemarle County. We also met with Lynn Clements, the director of projects for the Rapidan Service Authority, to tour a regional wastewater treatment plant and discuss the need for and feasibility of our project’s implementation in wastewater treatment systems. Globally, we created a Synthetic Biology Awareness and Acceptance survey and asked iGEM teams to distribute it in their communities across the world.

Local

Locally, we organized a Synthetic Biology Night at the University of Virginia, which was open to students from the University as well as locals interested in science and synthetic biology. Panelists from the University of Virginia community discussed the ethical implications of our growing field of synthetic biology, and student posters describing potential synthetic biology projects were displayed.

Regional

Regionally, we continued to partner with Renaissance High School in downtown Charlottesville and began a new partnership with a public school in Albemarle County. We also met with Lynn Clements, the director of projects for the Rapidan Service Authority, to tour a regional wastewater treatment plant and discuss the need and feasibility of our project’s implementation in wastewater treatment systems.

Global

Globally, we created a Synthetic Biology Awareness and Acceptance survey and asked iGEM teams to distribute it in their communities across the world. The results from this survey will help to shape policy and education on synthetic biology on a global scale.

Engaging the Public: A Collaborative Discussion

In order to engage the local Charlottesville community and to extend our teaching out of the classroom and towards the general public, we hosted a Synthetic Biology Night on September 24th at OpenGrounds. The OpenGrounds Corner Studio aims to connect institution with community, and this environment contributed to our collaboration which targeted both students from the University of Virginia as well as locals interested in science and synthetic biology.


Picture References

1. Image taken from http://mammalian-synbio.org/

HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION

Last year, the 2013 VGEM team reached out to Renaissance School and offered to teach a class on synthetic biology and the iGEM experience. Renaissance accepted, and the VGEM team visited the school once a week for six weeks during the fall. This pilot class has now become a regularly offered course at Renaissance School, and students taught by the 2014 VGEM competed at the 2014 High School iGEM competition. The work of the 2013 team inspired this year’s team to continue and expand their collaborative efforts with other schools in the community.

The Math, Engineering and Science Academy (MESA) at Albemarle High School
A New Partnership

We began the summer by reaching out to specialized science programs at public high schools in Albemarle County. We met with Jeff Prillaman, the director of the MESA program, to discuss teaching a synthetic biology crash course similar to our predecessors with his students. He accepted our offer, and we spent the summer preparing a three-day synthetic biology crash course to be presented to students in the program. Team members taught the synthetic biology course over the week of September 8th. The first class consisted of a general overview of basic molecular biology and an introduction to the field of synthetic biology; this curriculum was taught to both juniors (60) and seniors (40) in the MESA program. The second class focused on BioBrick formation and lab work. Seniors completed a restriction enzyme digest worksheet, loaded, ran and visualized a gel and transformed and plated bacteria containing plasmids with an RFP construct. The third class was split into two mini-lectures on the modeling used in synthetic biology and a discussion of the ethics involved in synthetic biology research. The students were given pre and post-assessments for this crash course.


Figure 1. Average points obtained on each question was compared using data from 25 students on pre and post assessments.

THE RESULTS

Figure 1 illustrates an overall improvement in student performance after the three-day course. From Figure 2, we can see that the topic that showed the most improvement was restriction enzymes with a 40% difference between pre and post assessments. Questions on gel electrophoresis also improved with a 33% difference on diagram identification and 32% difference on identification of the laboratory process. Questions on transformation improved with a 25% difference between pre and post. The improvement on these three question topics corresponds to activities done with students on day two of the course, namely the gel electrophoresis and the transformation of a plasmid into E.coli. Questions that covered topics only reviewed in the lectures showed the least improvement, such as recombinant DNA (6.7% difference) and polymerase chain reaction (2.7% difference). To improve understanding of these topics in a future course, interactive activities will be designed for these topics.


Figure 2. Percentage difference between pre and post assessment scores on each question of the assessment.

Renaissance School
Advising a New Team

On October 8, 2014, we visited Renaissance School to give them feedback on their 2014 iGEM project and advise on their new project for the 2015 High School iGEM competition. We also presented students with awards from the What Can Synthetic Biology Do For You? competition.

Resources From "Synthetic Biology Crash Course"

From Lab Bench to Implementation: Exploring the Viability of Our Biofilter

To see if our bacterial biofilter would be a viable solution to the issue of environmental microplastics, we met with Lynn Clements, the director of projects for the Rapidan Service Authority, at the Ruckersville wastewater treatment plant.

The Ruckersville Wastewater Treatment Plant

The water coming into the plant goes through five stages of treatment before it is released into the environment.

  1. Larger solids as well as sand and grit are filtered out of the water using grated filters. However, these filters can only remove particles that are ½” or 12.7 mm in diameter. Microplastics are defined as plastic particles that are 5 mm in diameter or less and are clearly not being removed from the water supply using these filtration methods. We felt that directly after this filtration step would be the best place to implement our biofilter.
  2. The water then goes to an oxidation ditch, where natural gut bacteria remove the remaining organic matter from the water.
  3. After the oxidation ditch, the water moves to the clarifier, which allows remaining solids to settle out of the water and be removed as sludge.
  4. The water finally moves through a UV disinfection chamber to remove any bacteria from the previous treatment steps. We were particularly interested in this final step of treatment as it meant that any bacteria we added upstream of this step would be removed by the UV disinfection. Therefore, we felt that our biofilter design would not pose any additional safety threat to the water treatment plant.
  5. The water is then directly released into the Rapidan River, located about 5 miles away from the plant.

Making a Better Biofilter

After touring the plant and talking with Mr. Clements, we felt that our biofilter was a viable solution to the microplastics problem. We also now knew where best to implement the filter and had gathered parameters for a model-based assessment of our bacteria’s nylon degrading abilities in the plant.

Synthetic Biology Global Awareness and Acceptance Survey Map

Over 40 iGEM teams around the globe are taking part in our survey collection!
Want to participate and earn a web-badge for your wiki? Contact us at virginia.igem@gmail.com.

Collaborations with iGEM Teams Worldwide

This year, we not only created and distributed a survey for our human practices project, but we also participated in several surveys sent to us by other iGEM teams. The following is a list of teams whose surveys we completed.

Ben-Gurion University Israel
Linkoping University
Valencia Biocampus
Virtus Parva Mexico
ETH-Zurich
Warwick
Brasil SP

The First Annual Virginia iGEM Meet-Up

On Friday June 27th, we hosted our first meet-up for iGEM teams in the surrounding area. Members of the Rutgers, Duke and Georgia Tech teams came out to the meet up. We began with short presentations by each team of their projects for the summer. Teams then split into specialized discussion groups; these groups discussed topics such as the iGEM lab experience, human practices and community outreach, and finance. We ended the main portion of the event with a discussion of team collaboration. Some team members then joined us for dinner on the Corner and a night on the Downtown Mall.