What is IGEM?
Every year, a group of colleges from across the world participate in the acclaimed International Genetically Engineered Machines (IGEM) Competition held by the Masachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The competition begins when MIT ships parts of DNA to the student teams across the world. These DNA parts are then meant to be used by the teams as building blocks to build organisms. These student teams are then invited to MIT later in the year to present their experiments to their peers and to the scientist community.
In the summer of 2011, 12 undergraduate students - from the second year at Srishti - supervised by Dr Mukund Thattai from the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Yashas Shetty – an artist in residence with NCBS decided to participate in it.
Initial explorations
SEARCHING FOR THE UBIQUITOUS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED MACHINE.
With this project we wanted to answer 3 questions:
With this project we wanted to answer 3 questions:
1) What would be the different future scenarios in which BioBricks exist?
2) Are there ALTERNATE ways in which Biobricks can be used?
3) Is it possible to involve a large COMMUNITY in a synthetic Biology project?
In order to answer these questions, we mapped out spaces where humans, or their lack thereof, affected the environment. We sought to quantitatively measure such impacts.
In order to answer these questions, we mapped out spaces where humans, or their lack thereof, affected the environment. We sought to quantitatively measure such impacts.
To expand this project, we invited people from India and elsewhere to mail in soil samples from their communities. Also we conducted workshops for 10-18 year olds as educational outreach.
Jugaad Lab
Collecting our own DNA samples using detergent and brine solution.
Jugaad is an Indian term which basically means a solution to a problem, usually characterized by simplicity, frugality and ingenuity.This largely involves an alternative use of materials. For example
(a) building a centrifuge using an electric blender
(b) converting a webcam to a microscpe
(c) constructing an incubator out of a thermocol box and decorative lights
(a) building a centrifuge using an electric blender
(b) converting a webcam to a microscpe
(c) constructing an incubator out of a thermocol box and decorative lights
The building of Web cam microscopes
Constructing a working stand for the microscope, along with backlight and a space to place the slides.
Incubator built out of a thermocol box, some sun board, and regulated LED lights.
Working sterile hood.
Soil Sampling
All our soil samples were extracted using custom-built soil-samplers made from iron curtain pipes.
Soil sampling in Coorg
We began our project with field trips, where we collected soil samples.
We visited the rain forests of Coorg (situated in the Western Ghats) in south India which is listed amongst the top ten bio-diversity hotspots in the world. By collaborating with organic farmers we collected hundreds of soil samples across diverse landscapes which reflected diverse land use patterns. For eg: Some farmers extensively used pesticides, and on the other hand some completely eliminated its use.
Balloon Mapping
Balloon mapping: The process
Composite stitched map of a soil sampling site.
(Malya Aditi International School)
We created composite maps of the soil sampling sites using photographs from aerial photography using Helium-filled balloons. The apparatus was built using a plastic bottle, string, a digital camera and of course, balloons and Helium.
Handbook
Initial iterations
"What colour should I choose?"
Final PDF of the Handbook
A large part of our project involved sharing our recent learning’s in schools and rural areas. As an aid to this, particularly for the children, we designed handbooks detailing all our work.
Outreach
Outreach for Balloon Mapping with Malya Aditi Students in Bangalore.
What is Balloon Mapping and soil sampling?
Test run for soil sampling
BIO LAB - The Dome
Our workspace was converted into a community BIO lab in the interest of the inquisitive. Anyone interested is welcome. This particular project has been worked on for over a year, by two separate ArtScienceBangalore teams. We hoped that this would become be a space where farmers, children, scientists and artists can work and learn from each other.
Toolkits
To aid the work on our theory, we built our very own toolkits to sample soil. Our toolkit comprised of a bag, eppendorf tube holders, Soil samplers made of treated aluminium pipes, with similar functions as an auger, microscopes, documentation devices.
They were designed to be our portable lab.
HKUST and MIT
The space to exhibit our Poster
The first round of the competition was at HKUST in Hong Kong, where we qualified to go for the finals in MIT, Boston. We won the Best Human Practices Award both in HKUST and MIT.
