iGEM UPRM/RUM: Synthesizing a better world!

iGEM UPRM/RUM is the first iGEM interdisciplinary team in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. "Synthesizing a better world!" as our slogan and  our main focus is to pioneer and expand the knowledge and awareness of Synthetic Biology throughout the Island throughout activities such as hands-on workshops for high school students, teachers, and undergraduate students while interacting with the communities bringing Synthetic Biology to them. iGEM UPRM/RUM created the first Synthetic Biology Summer Camp in Puerto Rico, where high school students from across the Island participated, giving them the opportunity to construct and present original prototypes using SBOL and Biobricks. Additionally, the First Synthetic Biology Week in our University gave us the opportunity to expose this emerging science to students throughout activities such as Synthetic Biology Caribbean Talk 2019 that touched topics like SynBio knowledge, applications, and opportunities; and PROBETA for politicians to open a dialogue for future regulations on Synthetic Biology. We also began the initiative to carry out workshops on food safety, molecular biology, and microbiology to the disadvantaged community  called “La Vía” with the University Institute for Community Development. The team aspires to continue impacting the social, educational, and research sectors of Puerto Rico within Synthetic Biology via online workshops due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Giant Jamboree 2019, we were nominated for "Best Project in Open Track" and won the Silver Medal with our project "SynBio101: Road to Coli.ctrl". 

This year's project is aimed towards the detection and absorption of Mercury and degradation of polychlorinated biphenyls (BHPS) in the contaminated waters of the municipal island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, which has been affecting not only the civilians, but also, the flora and fauna for over 60 years because of military use such as experimental explosives. Our prototype will be able to reduce the concentrations of these contaminants in water. This would help by reducing health related issues and increasing the biodiversity that has been affected by the presence of these contaminants. Even though our focus is in Vieques, our prototype will help detect and absorb mercury and BHPS in surrounding waters due to airborne particles.

With the hard work of our team and the help of our advisors, we look forward to competing in this year's iGEM Giant Jamboree with our project. We thank Molecular Cloud and Genscript for awarding us this grant and for the additional help make our way to the competition. 



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