iGEM Community

About

Strong scientific foundations, good experimental design, reproducibility, meaningful and understandable data are the cornerstones of any good iGEM project and the scientific community as a whole. Beyond Numbers will help you take your research and research skills to the next level.

Description

Beyond Numbers entails a series of workshops for iGEMers throughout the entire duration of their projects. These workshops covered topics such as data analysis, data visualization, experimental design and reproducibility.

The project will either provide you new skills and insights, or enhance and refine pre-existing skills. Therefore, these live sessions are intended for everyone interested in designing and conducting their own research; ranging from iGEMers, early career researchers, to people in industry.

Through this project our community community will be able to:

Refine the quality of the research conducted and presented by iGEM teams.
Increase reproducibility and standardization among iGEM teams.
Make watchers think about topics they need to consider when visualizing their data, and designing their own research.

Workshops

Workshop 1: Experimental Design 101 with Dr Traci Haddock, Director of Community at Asimov

For our first workshop, “Experimental Design 101”, we hosted former iGEM Director of Competition Dr Traci Haddock

She discussed the do’s and don'ts when designing your experiments, the importance and types of different controls, and how to ensure that you conduct reliable and reproducible research.

Workshop 2: Reproducibility & Standardization with Dr. Kristian Müller, Professor of Cellular & Molecular Biotechnology at Bielefeld University

For our second workshop, “Reproducibility & Standardization”, we hosted Dr. Kristian Müller, professor of cellular and molecular biotechnology at the University of Bielefeld in Germany. Reproducibility and standardization are the catalysts of the future of SynBio. Dr. Müller discussed the importance and philosophy of reproducibility and standardization, and identifying the right approaches to standardize your own research to ensure its reproducibility.

Workshop 3: Research Integrity with Dr. Michelle Garfinkel

For our third workshop, “Research Integrity”, we hosted Dr. Michelle Garfinkel the former head of the science policy programme at the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) ↗! She delved into responsible conduct of research, with a focus on practical approaches. The workshop included an overview of current thinking on research integrity with an emphasis on data visualization. In addition, she guided us through the ethical considerations that should be taken into account when presenting data.