Anaerobic microbial iron corrosion due to conductive pili

Iron is well-known for rusting, but this doesn't just happen on contact with oxygen and water. Some bacteria are also able to decompose iron anaerobically in a process referred to as electrobiocorrosion. The sediment-dwelling bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens uses electrically conductive protein threads for this purpose, as a team of researchers reports in the journal Angewandte Chemie. They produce magnetite from the iron, which promotes further corrosion in a positive feedback loop. Bacterial biofilms are the cause of microbial metal corrosion, a destroyer of metals which causes more costly damage than all other biofilm-related damage put together. Electrobiocorrosion is often caused by bacteria such as those found in river sediments, for example, the anaerobic genus Geobacter. Geobacter does not use atmospheric oxygen for respiration; instead, it draws energy from the transfer of electrons from iron, forming magnetite in the process. Thus far, the way in which Geobacter corrodes iron metal has been something of a mystery.

Read more.

Swarm Regards

Organisms living side by side produce a new form of life – a community. While ecosystems can be miles wide, this tiny swarm of bacteria is just establishing itself on a lab dish. Its two bacterial species, Bacillus subtilis (highlighted in red) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (green), behave very differently, growing and dividing on different time scales and moving at different speeds. Here researchers watch as they mingle but not completely, keeping themselves to themselves but sometimes cooperating – with B. subtilis seeming to improve how the P. aeruginosa swarms. Bacterial communities, including those that stubbornly colonise surfaces in hospitals, are a natural form of active matter – a complex balance of biological behaviours and physical properties that crop up when 'things' move together. But even considering these factors, the team believe there are hidden subtleties still to discover – including the ways bacteria to recognise their own species when moving through the crowd.

Written by John Ankers

Video from work by Gal Natan and colleagues

Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Scientific Reports, October 2022

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Biofilms, are they dangerous?

Bacteria are found in the environment in the form of planktonic bacteria, which means they are swimming freely in the environment, or they are found in the form of biofilms, which are defined as communities of bacteria that grow attached to a matrix of exopolysaccharides, which are resistant complex carbohydrates, resistant to antibiotics and that are found attached to a biological or non-biological surface, such as the skin or the base of a boat 🚤

Biofilms are one of the biggest causes of persistent infection, especially in hospitals thanks to internal devices. Biofilms are immobile microbial communities that colonize and grow on superficial medical implants such as sutures, catheters and dental implants as they produce an extracellular polymeric substance causing infections that can only be attacked by removing the devices and that can trigger mental illness in the patient due to trauma of the treatment.

Biofilms provide protection to microorganisms not only due to alterations in pH, osmolarity or few nutrients, but also block the access of antibiotics and cells of the immune system, which causes a serious infection due to resistance to different antibiotics and resistance in antibiotic treatment.

Approximately 80% of chronic and recurrent infections in the human body are due to a greater extent to biofilms, since these bacteria have shown 10 to 1000 times more resistance to antibiotics than bacteria in the planktonic state.

Blood and urinary tract infections can be caused by biofilms due to internal devices such as heart valve implants, catheters, contact lenses, joint replacements, intrauterine devices and other implants including body modifications such as piercings. These infections can only be treated by removing the device. Antibiotic resistance has become a serious global health problem thanks to its indiscriminate use without knowing that we are only feeding and developing super bacteria that at a given moment can no longer be eliminated by passing into the bloodstream and causing sepsis ( generalized infection).

It is important that we do not self-medicate as this could only bring more serious problems, always consult your doctor and respect the doses and times.

Resource

Dharma, D., Misba. L., & Khan, A.U. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-019-0533-3

Trace Metals in Otamiri River Biofilms: Owerri, Nigeria Study

Abstract

This study utilized biofilms as model in ecotoxicology to estimate pollutant loading of a natural water body. Water samples were collected from six sampling locations sited between the upper and middle courses of the Otamiri River in the southeastern city of Owerri, Nigeria and fixed with conc. HNO3. Biofilms were grown in microcosms housing serially arranged sterile glass slides at the sampling locations, harvested after 1, 2 and 3 weeks, minced in sterile sample bottles with distilled water and fixed with conc. HNO3. Natural biofilms were also collected from submerged surfaces and fixed. Pb, Cu and Cd contents were determined in samples with atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The studentized t-test was used to compare trace metals levels in water column and biofilms, while single factor ANOVA was used to determine spatial homogeneity in mean variance. Mean Pb concentrations ranged from 1.5950-3.2900 (2.4303 ± 0.0835) mg/kg, Cu from 4.2934-7.5020 (5.6212 ± 0.1938) mg/kg and Cd from 0.0308-1.0559 (0.2082 ± 0.0005) mg/kg in the slide biofilms. However, they ranged from 0.0017-0.0267 (0.0150 ± 0.0003), 0.0333-0.6067 (0.2047 ± 0.0929) mg/L and totally undetected, respectively in water columns. Trace metals levels in slide and natural biofilms differed very markedly from those in water column (sig. t-values = 0.000, each), even as levels in slide and natural biofilms did not (sig. t-value = 0.747) at P<0.05. Pb and Cu concentrations increased from location 1 to 6 in both water columns and biofilms, even as there was homogeneity in spatial mean variances in slide [F(1.1458)<Fcrit(4.1300)] and natural biofilms concentrations [F(1.2812)<Fcrit(4.1300)] at P<0.05. Although mean Pb and Cu levels were below regulatory limits and Cd undetected in water columns, their average concentration exceedances were between 32 and 70 times higher in the biofilms. Results question the assignment of water potable based on regulatory standards alone.

Introduction

Biofilms are consortium of microorganisms which form on solid surfaces in aqueous or wet environments (Costerton et al. 1994). They could be found in surface and ground waters, in drinking water piping and wastewater treatment plants, and on other technical equipment such as in the medical field (Wanner and Bauchrowitz, 2006). Biofilms execute a niche and so, interact strongly with their environment; are greatly affected by, as well as in return, affect the physical and chemical conditions in their enmeshing habitats.

Biofilms prefer to live in sessile communities (Flemming and Wingender, 2001) and include bacteria, algae, amoebas, ciliates and fungi in a great variety of compositions. Sunlight favours the growth of photoautotrophic components of biofilms such as algae and cyanobacteria and they conduct photosynthesis and thus, build up their biomass from inorganic substances. By this function therefore, these autotrophs are primal species in the trophic chain. However, in the absence of sunlight, biofilms are formed mostly by heterotrophic bacteria, which degrade organic substances, with the less frequent chemoautotrophic bacteria which utilize inorganic substances (Wanner and Bauchrowitz, 2006). In streams, algae-dominant autotrophic biofilms are mostly found on the riverbed and bacterial-dominant heterotrophic biofilms are found in the pore systems under the river bed (Lock, 1993). As biomass producers and decomposers therefore, biofilms are important components in the trophic web.

In biofilms, microorganisms are embedded in a slimy matrix which consists of extracellular polymeric substances that are excreted by the organisms themselves. These polymeric substances contain mainly high-molecular polysaccharides, proteins, other carbohydrates (such as uronic acid), and small amounts of lipids and nucleic acids (Wanner and Bauchrowitz, 2006).

As microorganisms, biofilms have been particularly utilized as interesting models in ecotoxicology to estimate the pollutant loading of natural water bodies and the hazard potential of toxic substances. Their suitability for this purpose lies in the central role they play in ecosystem metabolism and interaction with toxic substances (Doering and Uehlinger, 2006), and on the other hand because, as immobile biological elements, they accumulate pollutants over a long period of time and may thus reveal chronic impacts (Wanner and Bauchrowitz, 2006). Examples of such pollutants are the trace metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Al, etc), which are recalcitrant in the environment.

Though they are important trace nutrients for water organisms, they can also be toxic at elevated enough concentrations. An exploratory determination of levels of some trace elements of the Otamiri River, one of the major river systems in Owerri, the capital of Imo State, southeastern Nigeria revealed concentrations that were below permissible limits by regulatory bodies, or even undetected by analytical instruments used. However, even low metal concentrations can have negative impacts on water organisms as well as local consumers, especially when considered on the merit of their bioaccumulative potentials over a length of time. Unfortunately, current researches in this area have been concentrated on the comparison of concentrations with these regulatory standards as criteria for assigning the river water potable. This current research therefore investigated the accumulation potentials of some heavy metals of environmental and public health importance (Cu, Pb and Cd) in consortium of resident biofilms of Otamiri River against background levels in water columns. The study approaches are as follows:  - Determination of the concentrations of the trace elements in slide and natural biofilms of the river - Comparison of the concentrations of the trace elements in biofilms with water column levels as well as regulatory standards, and - Determination of spatial variation in trace metals concentrations in biofilms.

Source : Trace metals accumulation in biofilms of the upper and middle reaches of Otamiri river in Owerri, Nigeria

Growing biofilms actively alter host environment, new study reveals

Dental plaque, gut bacteria and the slippery sheen on river rocks are all examples of biofilms, organized communities of microorganisms that colonize our bodies and the world around us. A new study led by Penn State researchers reveals exactly how growing biofilms shape their environments and fine-tune their internal architecture to fit their surroundings. The findings may have implications for a…

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Unlocking history with geology and genetics

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/unlocking-history-with-geology-and-genetics/

Unlocking history with geology and genetics

Fatima Husain grew up in the heart of the Midwest, surrounded by agriculture. “Every time you left your home, you saw fields of corn and soybeans. And it was really quite beautiful,” she says. During elementary school, she developed her own love of gardening and cultivated a small plot in her family’s backyard.

“Having the freedom to make a mess, experiment, and see things grow was very impactful,” says Husain, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) and a Hugh Hampton Young Fellow. This experimentation in the garden was the seed that blossomed into her fascination with science. “When you think about gardening and agriculture in Iowa,” she says, “you think about soil and its origins, which led me to geology and geochemistry and all these interdisciplinary fields that play a role in the Earth sciences.”

Husain has maintained that scientific curiosity throughout her academic career. As a graduate student in EAPS’ Program in Geology, Geochemistry, and Geobiology, she studies the fossil and genetic records of ancient and modern life forms to better understand the history of life on Earth. She says, “Twenty years ago, I was a stoked kid working with topsoil in Iowa. Now, I get to work with ancient dirt and sediments to better understand Earth and life’s past.” 

Sharing science

Though Husain loved her environmental science class in high school, when she enrolled at Brown University, she wasn’t sure which STEM major to pursue. Then, a guest lecture in her first-year biology course dispelled any uncertainty. “A professor walked on stage and introduced himself as a biogeochemist, and after that, everything just clicked,” she says. Within weeks of that fateful lecture, she had declared a major in geochemistry. “I’ve never looked back,” she says.

She then immersed herself in her Earth science classes, which applied the core science disciplines she studied to topics such as the oceans, weather and climate, and water quality. “I gained a sincere appreciation for the excellent teaching and writing that helped me access the world of the geosciences,” she says, “And that helped me realize the value in communicating science clearly.”

To hone her writing skills, Husain took nonfiction writing classes as her electives and joined one of the school newspapers. There, she took on the role of science writer and editor. As she neared graduation, she knew that she would eventually pursue geochemistry at the graduate level, but first she wanted to focus on journalism and writing. She reasoned that, if she could formally learn the fundamentals of science writing and reporting, then “I could more effectively share all the science I learned after that point,” she says. With the support of her undergraduate professors, she decided to apply to MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, one of the only such programs in the country.

The program refined Husain’s writing skills and paved the way for her to pursue science journalism opportunities across a variety of media, including print, video, podcasting, and radio. She worked as a writing intern for MIT News during this time, and has written a number of MIT News articles while at MIT. After graduating, she served as a Curiosity Correspondent for the MIT-Nord Anglia Education Collaboration based at the MIT Museum. In that role, she says, “I worked on communicating the amazing science happening here at MIT to K-12 students around the world via educational videos.” Since beginning her PhD studies, Husain has transitioned to a new role in the collaboration — hosting a monthly webinar series called MIT Abstracts, which connects MIT researchers and experts with an international audience of middle schoolers.

Along the way, Husain has also worked as a reporter and managing producer for a Rhode Island-based sustainability science radio show called Possibly. In 2019, she founded a podcast with her colleagues called BIOmarkers, which serves as an oral history project for the discipline of organic geochemistry.

Acquiring the “biggest tool set” possible

After completing her master’s thesis, Husain began to return to her roots in geochemistry. She says, “At some point, when I was interviewing other scientists and they described their experiments, I’d miss being in the lab myself. That feeling helped me realize the time was right to get back into research.” Husain chose to stay at MIT for her PhD. “I couldn’t resist the opportunity to continue working on challenging, interdisciplinary problems within such an exciting environment,” she says. “There really is no other place quite like it.”

She joined the lab group of Roger Summons, the Schlumberger Professor of Geobiology. For her first project as a research assistant, Husain helped then-postdoc Ainara Sistiaga reconstruct the environment of Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge 1.7 million years into the past, using molecule-scale fossils preserved in archeological sediments. Part of Africa’s Great Rift Valley, the site preserves evidence of ancient hominin tools and activities. The research team’s findings were later published in published in PNAS.

Under the mentorship of her advisors, Gregory Fournier, an associate professor of geobiology, and Summons, Husain studies both the fossil record and the genetic records of organisms alive today to answer fundamental questions about life’s evolution on Earth. “The farther back into Earth’s history we go, the fewer complete records we have,” Husain says, “To answer the questions that arise, I hope to employ the biggest tool set I can.”

Currently, Husain investigates the biomarkers of microbes living in Antarctic biofilms, which she hopes will provide hints about the types of places where the ancestors of complex life sheltered during global glaciation events through Earth’s Cryogenian period, which stretched between 720 to 635 million years ago. To do this, Husain applies techniques from chemistry, such as chromatography and mass spectrometry, to isolate and study microbial lipids, the precursors of molecular fossils preserved in the geologic record.

Husain also uses “molecular clocks,” tools which employ the genetic sequences of living organisms to estimate when in evolutionary time different species diverged, to better understand how long ago aerobic respiration arose on Earth. Using the growing databases of publicly available gene sequences, Husain says it’s possible to track the histories of metabolisms that arose billions of years ago in Earth’s past. Much of her research can also be applied to astrobiology, the study of potential life elsewhere in the universe.

As a PhD student, Husain has also had the opportunity to serve as teaching assistant for 12.885 (Science, Politics, and Environmental Policy) for two semesters. In that role, she says, “My goal is to help students improve their writing skills so that they are equipped to successfully communicate about important issues in science and policy in the future.”

Looking ahead, Husain hopes to continue applying both her science and communication skills to challenging problems related to Earth and the environment. Along the way, she knows that she wants to share the opportunities that she had with others. “Whichever form it takes,” she says, “I hope to play a role in cultivating the same types of supportive environments which have led me here.”  

Biofilms play a large role in protecting certain pathogens from the effects of the host immune system and antibiotics

Using quorum sensing (QS) communication, bacteria can coordinate their social behavior and influence host cell activities

Microorganisms can grow quietly while evading immune surveillance until they are numerous enough to sprout forth and cause an obvious infection.

We will be going over how biofilms can be a part of long-term digestive health concerns at our Creating Healthy Digestive group program this June.

Click the link below to know more

Biofilms, are they dangerous?

Bacteria are found in the environment in the form of planktonic bacteria, which means they are swimming freely in the environment, or they are found in the form of biofilms, which are defined as communities of bacteria that grow attached to a matrix of exopolysaccharides, which are resistant complex carbohydrates, resistant to antibiotics and that are found attached to a biological or non-biological surface, such as the skin or the base of a boat 🚤

Biofilms are one of the biggest causes of persistent infection, especially in hospitals thanks to internal devices. Biofilms are immobile microbial communities that colonize and grow on superficial medical implants such as sutures, catheters and dental implants as they produce an extracellular polymeric substance causing infections that can only be attacked by removing the devices and that can trigger mental illness in the patient due to trauma of the treatment.

Biofilms provide protection to microorganisms not only due to alterations in pH, osmolarity or few nutrients, but also block the access of antibiotics and cells of the immune system, which causes a serious infection due to resistance to different antibiotics and resistance in antibiotic treatment.

Approximately 80% of chronic and recurrent infections in the human body are due to a greater extent to biofilms, since these bacteria have shown 10 to 1000 times more resistance to antibiotics than bacteria in the planktonic state.

Blood and urinary tract infections can be caused by biofilms due to internal devices such as heart valve implants, catheters, contact lenses, joint replacements, intrauterine devices and other implants including body modifications such as piercings. These infections can only be treated by removing the device. Antibiotic resistance has become a serious global health problem thanks to its indiscriminate use without knowing that we are only feeding and developing super bacteria that at a given moment can no longer be eliminated by passing into the bloodstream and causing sepsis ( generalized infection).

It is important that we do not self-medicate as this could only bring more serious problems, always consult your doctor and respect the doses and times.

Resource

Dharma, D., Misba. L., & Khan, A.U. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-019-0533-3

Prominent players in the biofilms treatment market include Smith & Nephew (UK), MiMedx Group Inc. (US), ConvaTec Group plc (UK), Coloplast A/S (Denmark), Mölnlycke Healthcare AB (Sweden), Organogenesis Holdings Inc. (US), Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation (US), B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany), PAUL HARTMANN AG (Germany), Medline Industries Inc. (US), Acelity (US), Misonix (US), Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. (US)

How to prevent biofilms in space

Microbial or fungal biofilms on spacecraft can clog hoses and filters, or make astronauts sick. Space Station tests show that a surface treatment can help.

After exposure in space aboard the International Space Station, a new kind of surface treatment significantly reduced the growth of biofilms, scientists report. Biofilms are mats of microbial or fungal growth that can clog hoses or filters in water processing systems, or potentially cause illness in people. In the experiment, researchers investigated a variety of surfaces treated in different ways and exposed to a bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is an opportunistic pathogen than can cause infections in humans, especially in hospitals. The surfaces were incubated for three days aboard the space station, starting in 2019. The results show that textured surfaces impregnated with a lubricant were highly successful at preventing biofilm growth during their long exposure in space. The findings are described in a paper in the journal Nature Microgravity, by Samantha McBride PhD ’20 and Kripa Varanasi of MIT, Pamela Flores and Luis Zea at the University of Colorado, and Jonathan Galakza at NASA Ames Research Center.

Read more.

Looking for Weaknesses

No-one wants to be eaten, and here two types of bacteria, Vibrio cholerae (highlighted in red) and Escherichia coli (yellow) do their best to avoid a predator. A third bacteria called Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (blue) stalks the perimeter of these bacterial colonies or biofilms, picking off stray E.coli. Researchers watching these tiny sieges spot that V. cholerae are usually able to defend themselves by arranging defensive ‘walls’, but adding em>E.coli. to the mix disrupts these defences. This mixed biofilm give E.coli. sanctuary – they’re more likely to survive attack – but leave V. cholerae more vulnerable – a heroic sacrifice to protect the weak perhaps? The success of these sprawling communities (each around one billion times smaller than a medieval city) also depends on where they grow. As these microbes are potentially hazardous to human health, scientists use clues in these predator-prey studies to spot weaknesses in biofilms in hospitals and public places.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Benjamin R. Wucher and colleagues

Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA

Image copyright held by the original authors

Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), February 2023

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A gold medal for QBlock

The last few weeks passed by in a blink of an eye. We had the wiki freeze in which all our final data and contributions of our project are stored now. You can find our wiki page here: https://2022.igem.wiki/aalto-helsinki/index.html. 

But in addition to writing constantly for several days and uploading everything to the wiki page, we were also preparing for our final presentation at the Grand Jamboree. We prepared the presentation and were fortunate enough to present it to not only our PIs and advisors, but also to the previous Aalto-Helsinki teams, which provided us with helpful feedback to improve our presentation. We were e.g. advised to keep the storyline, omit additional information and focus to convince the judges of our project. With all this fantastic help, we were able to assemble a presentation that we could be proud of. However, while working on the presentation we also worked on the design and content of our poster, which would be displayed on a screen in our booth during the Grand Jamboree. The poster was designed to be interactive and you could retrieve information based on the steps you wanted to refer to (picture below). 

We spent nearly a week in Paris and attended the Grand Jamboree, where we got to know many different iGEM teams. The Grand Jamboree was only a week ago, but already seems like a haze. Our team was attending it for three days with a full programme in which we attended workshops, networking events, presentations of other teams, booths of other teams and presented our own projects to people visiting our booth. The atmosphere at the expo was very welcoming and friendly! During both the expo pitching and judging session we were able to show the impact of our project and the work we have performed in the last 9 months to realise our project. Our work convinced the judges and we were awarded with a gold medal for our work, which was the goal that we set in the beginning of our iGEM project! Receiving this award was surreal, since it somehow determined the end of this wonderful and stressful project, but also relieving, because we achieved what we set out. 

In general, the Grand Jamboree was a fantastic event, because we were surrounded by innovation and it was shown again what broad field synthetic biology is by the diversity of projects from 356 different teams around the world. We were able to learn a lot from this competition and also think about both local and global problems differently as we were shown new ways of solving them. It was especially wonderful to see the University of Copenhagen team win the iGEM competition in the overgrad division, which had a lot of support from our PI Markus Linder. 

So, is iGEM over for us now? At least the Grand Jamboree has passed, but iGEM has not fully finished for us. We are going to present at one of the events of this year’s Slush and besides that we will assemble a new team of pioneers in iGEM to continue the Aalto-Helsinki team. Even though the Aalto-Helsinki show must go on, we will stay friends for iGEM brought us together and our Aalto-Helsinki team turned us into friends. 

Thank you for reading our blog this far and accompanying us, the Aalto-Helsinki 2022 team on our iGEM journey. We encourage you to be part of the Aalto-Helsinki 2023 team and can’t wait to have the Aalto-Helsinki team continue the journey!

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Viime viikot ovat kiitäneet ohi silmänräpäyksessä. Tämän vuoden iGEM-projektien wiki-sivut jäädytettiin hetki sitten, joten käykää ihmeessä tutustumassa meidän wikiimme osoitteessa https://2022.igem.wiki/aalto-helsinki/index.html.

Samalla kun ahkeroimme wiki-sivun parissa, valmistauduimme myös esittämään työmme Grand Jamboree-loppukonferenssissa. Ennen Pariisiin lähtöä saimme kuitenkin mahdollisuuden esittää lopullisen esityksemme niin meitä auttaneille PI:lle ja advisoreille kuin myös Aalto-Helsinki -alumneille, mikä auttoi meitä hiomaan vielä viimeiset yksityiskohdat paikalleen. Saamiemme vinkkien perusteella päädyimme keskittymään esityksen tarinallisuuteen sekä siihen, että projektimme vakuuttaa tuomarit haluamallamme tavalla. Lopulta käsissämme oli esitys, josta pystyimme todella olemaan ylpeitä. Esityksemme viimeistelyn lisäksi työn alla oli myös konferenssiständillä esille laitettava, interaktiivinen posteri (kuvassa).

Vietimme lähes viikon Pariisissa Grand Jamboree -konferenssimatkalla, jonka aikana tapasimme lukemattoman määrän muita iGEM-tiimejä. Vaikka Grand Jamboreesta on ehtinyt vierähtää vasta viikko, koko matka tuntuu jo hieman utuiselta. Tiimimme osallistui konferenssiin kaikkina kolmena päivänä, jotka sisälsivät mm. erilaisia työpajoja, verkoistoitumista, muiden tiimien esitysten seuraamista sekä heidän ständeillään vierailua ja yleistä ajatusten vaihtoa. Tunnelma konferenssihallissa oli todella lämminhenkinen ja vastaanottavainen! Sekä ständillä tekemämme pitchauksen sekä tuomarointisession aikana pystyimme näyttämään kaiken sen, mitä olemme valmistelleet nämä viimeiset 9 kuukautta. Kaikesta päätelle projektimme vakuutti tuomarit, sillä saimme lopulta mitaleista kirkkaimman! Olimme asettaneet kultamitalin tavoitteeksemme jo projektin alussa, joten oli huikeaa saavuttaa se, minkä eteen olemme tehneet kovasti töitä.

Kokonaisuudessaan Grand Jamboree oli upea tapahtuma, sillä pääsimme sukeltamaan hetkeksi innovaatioiden maailmaan ja näimme jälleen, kuinka laaja-alaisesti synteettistä biologiaa voi soveltaa. Tämän vuoden iGEM-tiimien osallistujamäärä oli 356, mikä takasi suuren kirjon erilaisia projekteja. Tämä kilpailu oli ainutkertainen kokemus, joka opetti meille kaikille paljon. Lisäksi oli hienoa päästä todistamaan kilpailun sisäisiä menestystarinoita, kuten overgrad-sarjan voittajaa, University of Copenhagen-tiimiä, jonka projektissa PI:mme Markus Linder on toiminut suurena apuna.

Onko iGEM siis osaltamme nyt ohi? Grand Jamboreesta puhuttaessa kyllä, mutta muuten meillä on vielä hieman iGEM-aiheista tekemistä edessä. Tulemme esimerkiksi esiintymään muutaman viikon päästä pidettävässä Slushissa, jonka lisäksi tehtävänämme on rekrytä ensi vuoden Aalto-Helsinki -tiimi. Vaikka Aalto-Helsinki jatkaa ensi vuonna uudella kokoonpanolla, meidän tiimimme tulee jatkamaan matkaa ystävinä myös iGEMin jälkeen.

Koko Aalto-Helsinki 2022 tiimimme haluaa kiittää teitä kaikkia matkaamme seuranneita. Ehkä sinusta voisi tulla osa ensi vuoden tiimiä? Maltamme tuskin odottaa, että pääsemme todistamaan Aalto-Helsinki -tiimin matkan jatkumista!

Is electricity a new tool that can destabilize biofilms without creating antibiotic resistance?

Is electricity a new tool that can destabilize biofilms without creating antibiotic resistance?

Scientists find that electrical shocks can change the types of cells in bacterial communities, offering a new approach to precisely control bacteria Clusters of microscopic bacteria exist all around us. These invisible communities, known as biofilms, are found in habitats ranging from our skin surface to sewer pipes and play integral roles in environments spanning healthcare to…

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