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2024

NOMINATION FOR THE BEST EDUCATION AWARD

In January 2024, we met for the first time and quickly began brainstorming ideas, joking about going for the space village. Nine months later, we had held multiple meetings with organizations like NASA, Solar Foods, and Enifer, been interviewed by various newspapers, and were preparing to present our case to the judges. A few weeks later, it was announced that, for the first time in ABOA's history, we had met the criteria for the gold medal!

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AstroVita project description: To make long space exploration missions possible, we cannot rely on continuous shipments from Earth, and life support systems need to be regenerative. Currently, oxygen and water are recovered and regenerated on the ISS, but long missions call for closing the carbon cycle as well. Growing plants for this purpose requires large amounts of resources in the space setting. At the same time, cellular agriculture is emerging as a promising new technology for producing food on Earth with low land use and resource requirements. Could we utilize this technology in space? This is the question we set out to solve. In our project, AstroVita, we mapped out potential opportunities and challenges in utilizing cellular agriculture in space, developed a synthetic biology solution to improve the vitamin content of microbial food, and modeled a microbial system for use in space.

Our project in short 

SCIENCE FOR EVERYONE – HUMAN PRACTICES

Live events!

The team promoted science by making it fun and accessible, collaborating with local student associations, Heureka, and Turku's Main Library. Combined we got over 300 attendees!

Making science fun and accesible

The team began the human practices segment of the project by creating an educational yet fun activity book for the whole family. Later, based on teacher recommendations, we developed a teaching package with five easy-to-do biology experiments.

Social media 

To reach a broad audience, our team used Instagram to explain synthetic biology in simple, accessible terms for those without a science background.

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Instagram: @igem.aboa

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VITAMIN PRODUCTION

The current problem with microbial food is the lack of nutrients.

Microbial food production takes up 83% less mass than plant-based food production systems, yet humans cannot survive on microbial food due to the lack of vitamins. We aimed to genetically engineer a microbe to produce some of the missing vitamins.

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LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM

The team developed a model for integrating bioproduction into a regenerative life support system.

In space, managing limited resources is crucial. A regenerative system enables the bioprocess to utilize COâ‚‚ from the crew.

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MEDIA COVERAGE

ABOA 2024 got interviewed in multiple news papers!

Articles about our team and project:

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Meet the team 2024

Photos by Valo- ja Videokuvaus Petteri Hakala Oy
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Sonja Orkola

B.Sc. Biochemistry

Jasmin Ponda

Team Leader

B.Sc. Biology

Tommi Riihinen

Team Leader

B.Sc.Tech Bioengineering

Anni Huhtala

M.Sc.Tech Bioengineering

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Stella von Plato

B.Sc.Tech Biotechnology

Ofelia Sarlund

B.Sc.Tech Biotechnology

Aarni Mäkelä

M.Sc.Tech Bioengineering

Saana Leikkola

B.Sc. Biology

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Sanni Uusitupa

B.Sc.Tech Biotechnology

Lauri Suominen

B.Sc.Tech Biomedical Engineering and Health Technology

Inkeri Mentula

B.Sc.Tech Biotechnology

Sallianna Öztürk

M.Sc. Biochemistry

Primary Investigator: Asst. Prof. Pauli Kallio, Ph.D., Molecular Plant Biology, Department of Life Technologies, Faculty of Technology, University of Turku (pataka@utu.fi)

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