iGEM Teams that Pursuit Equality
study
In the fight for gender equality we are not the only ones. In the iGEM Competition there are and have been many iGEM teams with female leaders, members or projects that revolve around women, that support and raise awareness for women. Let’s see some of their work.
iGEM IISER-Tirupati_India - OviCloak : A novel contraceptive for uterus owners
A contraceptive is more than a product, it’s a tool for empowerment of its users by upholding their right to plan a family and enable safer choices, that’s why Team IISER-Tirupati_India created a contraceptive. After realizing the negative effects of current contraceptives on women, they decided that they needed to come up with a better alternative, one that is non-hormonal, reversible and one that specifically acts on the gamete and not on the body of the user. OviCloak aims to modify the commensal bacteria of the fallopian tubes to produce an ovum specific contraceptive molecule in a regulated manner. The bacteria will also be engineered with kill switches for reversibility of the contraception and biosafety.
iGEM2021 Paris-Saclay- EndoSeek
Team 2021 Paris-Saclay’s project, EndoSeek, aimed to develop a new diagnostic tool to detect recently identified miRNAs that can be found in circulating blood at different concentrations in endometriosis-affected females compared to healthy individuals. The diagnostic kit is based on the nucleases Cas13a and Cas14a1 and the production of a fluorescent signal that could be measured with a smartphone. Endometriosis is a painful and poorly known pathology caused by proliferating uterine-lining cells outside of the uterus. It affects approximately 10% of women worldwide and can take up to 8 years to be diagnosed. The team’s project aims at significantly reducing the time for an accurate diagnosis. They also brought a significant discussion on how the Covid pandemic affected the lives of endometriosis patients during the lockdown and the decreased access to medical care.
The Rosalind Chronicles -iGEM2021 collaboration by Teams Patras, Thessaloniki, ULaval and Concordia_Montrealwith AfteriGEM WiSTEM
iGEM Concordia, ULaval, Thessaloniki, Patras, and After iGEM WiSTEM collaborated together in order to produce the Women in STEM - Diversity and Inclusion Workshop and the Rosalind Chronicles. This was a very unique and worldwide collaboration in which all iGEM teams were asked to submit a female scientist, past or present, that they admired. The result is the Rosalind Chronicles Padlet, highlighting the hard work of many women in science, check it out!
Team British_Columbia (UBC iGEM)
UBC iGEM strives for equality and diversity in their various community initiatives in order to empower the next generation of innovators and young leaders. This summer, the team organized a Q&A event on social media where young females in high school were encouraged to submit their questions about pursuing an education or career as a woman in STEM. Female-identifying team members addressed these questions and provided essential advice and feedback on these challenges by sharing their personal stories on Instagram. The team also hosted a career workshop for female high school students in their local community in Vancouver, Canada. This virtual workshop introduced students to the concepts in synthetic biology and aimed to present an interactive experience to create a positive environment for young females interested in pursuing a STEM education or career. The workshop presenters addressed issues such as gender-based prejudice existing in biotechnology-related fields and discussed the various concrete ways in which girls can get involved in STEM education and science projects in high school and university.
iGEM2020 Calgary- Oviita
As a leading global cause of preventable blindness and mortality, vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a serious health problem, particularly in developing regions and that mainly affects pregnant women and children. iGEM 2020 Calgary’s project, Oviita, aims to equip these vulnerable regions with a sustainable and community-based solution to VAD. The proposed solution uses a food-safe strain of Yarrowia lipolytica modified to produce beta-carotene, a Vitamin A precursor.Through the course of their project, team Calgary has targeted several SDG’s with special emphasis on SDG 5, which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. In order to attain this goal, Team Calgary proposed to teach local women’s groups how to manufacture a nutritious probiotic yogurt, which they can sell for a profit from small grassroots kitchens in order to both make a living for themselves and nourish their communities. Oviita could thus serve both as a nutritious supplement and a supplementary source of independent income and thus help empower local women.
iGEM 2020 Rochester - UteRus
Team 2020 Rochester’s project, UteRus, sought to create a novel, noninvasive diagnostic for endometriosis using menstrual effluent. Endometriosis is a chronic disease that causes aberrant endometrial-like tissue growth outside of the uterine cavity. It affects more than 200 million women worldwide and can lead to severe symptoms impacting reproductive health. The team also created a menstrual cup best suited for the collection of menstrual effluent and the comfort of endometriosis patients, and designed inexpensive laboratory equipment for clinics without easy laboratory access. Together, they were able to create a simple diagnostic for endometriosis that can be employed in a variety of clinical settings and used to resolve the gap of knowledge and raise awareness for female reproductive healthcare.
iGEM2020 UNI_Lausanne 2020 - Gender Awareness
Women face different inequalities in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In Switzerland, several initiatives have been established by the universities and the government in order to reduce them as much as possible. Unfortunately, gender equality is still far from being achieved, and much remains to be done. For their Human Practices, Team UNI-Laussane tackled the issue of gender inequality in science by producing an awareness video in the form of interviews that aims to highlight gender inequalities in the scientific field. Similar questions were asked to women and men and their answers were analyzed. Moreover, since participants came from different academic backgrounds, an analysis of inequalities was made as the academic levels increased. Finally, the team met Marie Pasquier, project manager at the Equal Opportunities Office (BEC) of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), to discuss the solutions that are currently being implemented.