Help iGEM NOUS cure osteoarthritis!

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iGEM NOUS  is the first Greek interdisciplinary team with students from all over Greece. Its target is to participate and succeed in the international competition iGEM 2021, that started from the MIT university, and this year will take place in Paris in November. The 11 team members come from 8 different faculties in 4 different towns. You can find out more about them below:

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Michalis Sarris 2nd year student Medicine, UOA	Nefeli Zikou 2nd year student Physics, AUTH	Christos Mantis 3rd year student Molecular Biology & Genetics, DUTH
Jordi Kontis 3rd year student Molecular Biology & Genetics, DUTH	Giannis Thymianidis 2nd year student Molecular Biology & Genetics, DUTH	Melina Zikou 3rd year student Computer Science, AUTH
Daniel Kotsi 3rd year student Molecular Biology & Genetics, DUTH	Alkimini Zania 4th year student Biology, UOA	Eva Maleskou 4th year student Computer Science & Biomedical Informatics, UTH
Paulos Chatzoudis 3rd year student Animation & Interactive media, Akto		Anastasia Tzima 3rd year student Economics, AUTH

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What is iGEM?

iGem or International Genetically Engineered Machine is a non-profit organization, that focuses on advancing synthetic biology and education. It also encourages the creation of an open and collaborative community. As described in their website (https://igem.org/Main_Page), the main program of this organization is the iGEM Competition, an annual, world-wide synthetic biology event open to undergraduate university students, as well as high school and graduate students, giving them the opportunity to push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling everyday global issues.

The iGEM organization began in January 2003 as an independent study course by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and gave students the opportunity to develop biological applications. The competition began in 2004 with 5 participating teams. In 2005 there were 13 teams, and eventually last year 353 teams challenged each other in the competition.

More information about the iGEM Competition can be found here: https://2021.igem.org/Main_Page.

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Our goal:

Our team’s ambition is to offer to hundreds of people suffering from osteoarthritis, the chance to walk again without any restrictions or pain. Osteoarthritis is the most common muoskeletical disease around the world, leading in many cases to severe paralysis. However, it yet lacks any efficient treatment.

By combining our knowledge which emerges from different scientific backgrounds and by using Synthetic Biology as our common guide, we plan on researching and creating a thoroughly documented and painless treatment for osteoarthritis, in which no surgery is needed with unlimited potential.

Until now, the iGEM NOUS team has already started its computational simulations and is fully prepared to get in the labs to set off its experimental work. At the same time, many events and activities, which focus on promoting science and especially synthetic biology, are being organized.

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What do we need?

With a project of this size come great expenses. For an experimental research, developed from scratch, besides a lot of effort, a substantial financial support is crucial, in order for basic expenses to be covered. These expenses include the team’s registration in the competition, the laboratory consumables, the team’s travel expenses to Paris, and also the necessary equipment for the events focused on spreading our idea and results.

Your subvention is critical in order for us to achieve our dream! None of our goals can be achieved, if the requested amount of 6.000$ is not collected, to allow our team’s registration in the competition in time and to proceed to the later phases of our project!

If you found our idea promising and you believe in our ambitions , you can help us make one step towards our goals by contributing to our efforts and donating a meaningful amount!

You can get to know us better and stay updated for the progress of our work by following us on our social media found below:

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iGEMNous

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVN2NQ_uRJVXhXU_F...

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=/p/...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IgemNous?s=09

Website: https://igemnous.med.duth.gr/

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