The biotechnological revolution
Our world is changing. And we have something to do with it. Technology has always been part
of human history, and we have been rising the bar until levels that were hard to imagine before.
Since we got the control of fire we have passed by lithic technology, metals, steam,
combustion engines and, more recently, the use of silicon in electronics. Every step we took
has been a game-changer, blowing our minds and stepping up to the next stage. We won’t
stop now. Today, our revolution takes place in the biotechnological field.
All the revolutions bring joys and defiances, so this one does. The development and use of
technologies have brought along important issues that cannot be ignored, inequality, pollution,
scarcity of resources… but it also provides the means to fix them. We have the tools to
understand our environment, to engage with it and cohabitate in harmony. We can make the
world a better place to live.
Technology where is needed
Among the challenges that must be faced, the fight against potentially deadly diseases seems
a crucial point to address. Health-wise, powerful biological detection methods have been
developed inside laboratories of all over the world. Nowadays, we have reached fairly good
levels of diseases detection, but, although these technologies are solid and have huge
potential, they still remain far away from the scope of some areas of our planet. Unfortunately,
these areas are often the most affected by epidemics and infectious illnesses, preventable
with an early detection system.
Just like it happened with the arrival of personal computers, the biotechnological revolution
has to deal now with the challenge of being accessible to everyone. There is no point in
developing technologies that cannot reach the places where they are more needed, rural and
low-resources areas in which the infectious diseases cut off a huge quantity of lives annually.
Indeed, we have succeeded eradicating diseases as cholera or dysentery in high-
infrastructure countries, but the lack of means as electricity, logistics or technical skills and
supplies has limited the curb of these sickness in all the globe.
Our goals
Our team addresses directly the challenge of applying a series of innovative technologies to
the development of a practical, affordable and easy-to-use platform for the detection of water-
related diseases in developing areas. We have the final goal of reducing drastically the number
of deaths caused by these epidemics in the low-income areas of our planet.
We are aware of the dimensions of our quest. That is why we have got together a
transdisciplinary team of researchers, students, and experts in several diverse fields, joining
forces under the name of AEGIS. AEGIS stands for Aptamer Evolution for Global In situ
Sense. This name represents the key technology in our group, the aptamers, a huge-potential
molecules that are shaking up the area of biosensing. We will dig deeper into this in forward
chapters, explaining thoroughly our specific technological goals and our working methodology.
In addition to our main focus on creating an easy and accurate biological detection
methodology, this kind of technology is useful to optimize the sensing platforms in developing
countries, saving money, time and the need of highly specialized human resources. Everyone
will be able to use these kits.
The iGEM competition
This project is being developed under the coverage of the International Genetically Engineered
Machine competition (iGEM). The iGEM is a Synthetic Biology contest implemented by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004 with the objective of promoting the research
and creation of synthetic biology projects, always keeping an eye on the future. The iGEM
teams are formed by pioneers and visionaries, students coming from multidisciplinary
backgrounds (from Sciences (Biology, Chemistry), Engineering (Hardware and Software
engineering) and so on to Design, Social Sciences or Humanities). Our team is also supported
by instructors of the four main universities of our regions and held by an increasing number of
sponsors that make possible the actual existence of our project.
Regarding to the iGEM philosophy, students are not only working on the technological part of
the project, but they are building every single detail from zero to reality. This involves tasks
that go from designing the project, methodologies and case studies to finding the funding that
will allow us to carry on with it. Not only material supplies are needed, a realistic approach to
the problematic of cholera needs an in situ preliminary (and, ideally, subsequent) research,
analysing the real needs of the target communities of the project and testing the prototypes in
a real environment. The covering of these expenses is fundamental for the success of our
program, that is why we encourage everyone that shares our passion for changing the world
to help us to make this happen. In case of being interested, the “How to support us” chapter
describes the different manners to do it.
Make it happen
We believe in what we do. Technology has always been the Humanity’s way to interact with
our planet, so it is essential to implement good, fair and sustainable initiatives. We invite you
to build the future with us, because this has to be made altogether. Come on, let’s keep
changing the world!
