Turun Sanomat article

Once we had clearly outlined our project idea, the local newspaper Turun Sanomat was tipped off about the ABOA 2025 team and our project. On the 13th of May, one of our team members (Linnea Huuska) received a phone call from a journalist from Turun Sanomat, who expressed interest in writing an article about our project. With the article, we aimed to make our project more visible and to raise awareness of synthetic biology.

During the phone interview, Huuska introduced our team's project idea of a forensic science test for determining the age of bloodstains using synthetic biology. The discussion touched on how the idea originated, our inspiration, and the motivation to create a tool that does not involve profiling. Our team drew inspiration from a previous iGEM team that also focused on a forensic science topic, as it is a rare and fascinating field that is often underrepresented in synthetic biology. Bloodstain age determination specifically stood out as a much-needed solution and a promising goal that aligned with our team’s values.

The interview also covered details about the iGEM competition, particularly the Grand Jamboree in October, and gave us a great opportunity to thank the Department of Life Sciences for their support. There was also discussion about how this year's team is composed of, for example, the number of members and their fields of study. Our goal to carry out lab work over the summer to prove our project's concept was also mentioned.

The phone interview overall, was a superficial overview of the entire project. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to send our comments on the original draft. The final version of the article was published online on the 1st of June and in the printed version on the 2nd of June. In addition to our team’s story, the article included an interview from the former director of the Finnish National Criminal Police’s forensic laboratory, who provided an expert opinion on the potential of our proposed testing method. The former director considered our test idea both interesting and worthwhile and noted that such a test could be useful in forensic cases if it proves to be functional. They also stated that the test could be even more valuable if it were able to determine the age of bloodstains dating back at least a year.

Solubiologi magazine article

During the very first stretch of our iGEM journey, after reaching out, we were offered the chance to write an article in Finnish for the Solubiologi-lehti, an academic journal organized by Suomen Solubiologit ry, an organization for and by cellular biologists in Finland. We were asked to write an article concerning iGEM, our project, and our experiences so far. A follow-up for the article after the Grand Jamboree was also requested, to get a full-scale picture of the competition and all that iGEM entails, as well as our project results.

This article provided a great opportunity to highlight iGEM for people who are already familiar with the field, in some capacity. The journal is aimed at professionals in the field, including teachers and professors. By spreading the word of iGEM to such an audience, we hope to nurture a new generation of students interested in synthetic biology and possibly excited to someday participate in iGEM themselves. Additionally, writing the article allowed us to develop our skills in describing our project to an academic audience outside of our team and advisors, and possibly even forming connections with professionals interested in aiding with our project.

Entailed in the article was a personal account of hearing about and joining iGEM, information on iGEM as a whole, history of the ABOA teams, as well as a detailed description of the work our team had achieved at that point in the project. This included brainstorming, scientific background, fundraising, HP, and social media work, among other things. The goal was to achieve a well-balanced overview of the breadth and depth of an iGEM project.

Our end product was a well-rounded article that, to us, was an apt description of the spirit of iGEM and our team. We were thrilled with the chance to be able to write such a detailed article for a journal of this caliber. The experience we gained in writing official texts about our projects was invaluable. It included creating graphics, and going through many rounds of check-ups, from professional editors as well as our advisors and inside the team, to create a professional, high-quality text. This whole endeavour has given us many tools to work with, especially in communicating our project effectively to a broader audience. The article was published in the spring of 2025, in the 1/2025 edition of the Solubiologi magazine.

ABOA at study fairs: Study in Turku and TYY Opening Carnival

ABOA participated in two study fairs in the autumn: Study in Turku and TYY Opening Carnival. These events were aimed at fresh university and university of applied sciences students, helping them in finding interesting student organisations and activities to join.

Study in Turku fair took place on 29th August at Kupittaa campus, while TYY Opening Carnival took place on 2nd September at the University of Turku campus. At ABOA’s booth we introduced visitors to synthetic biology and iGEM, handed out stickers and candy, and displayed our project poster and information brochures. At TYY Opening Carnival we also had the opportunity to present ABOA in a short open mic session for a couple of minutes. Additionally, throughout these events, we conducted a survey about upper secondary school biology education and synthetic biology. You can read more about the survey here.



Both fairs gave us a multitude of opportunities to tell people about our project, VeriFied, and the work behind it. Many students were intrigued, which sparked a lot of insightful conversations. The varied background of students from all types of fields allowed us to have conversations ranging from us being some people’s first contact with synthetic biology, to more in depth conversations about VeriFied and opportunities of the field.

Beyond our project, we aimed to excite people about the opportunities of synthetic biology and iGEM. We informed students about the upcoming recruitment for next year’s ABOA team and encouraged interested students to apply and contact us if they had any questions. To keep up with updates, we invited people to follow our Instagram page, which also gained us many new followers.

Overall participating in these fairs was a rewarding experience that allowed us to share our enthusiasm about our project, synthetic biology and iGEM to a wide and diverse student audience.

Social Media

With our social media platforms we had a specific objective in mind: to create content that inspires individuals to engage with iGEM and synthetic biology. To achieve this objective, we developed social media guidelines for our team to use, ensuring the consistency of our content and maintaining a cohesive visual image. We utilized five platforms: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and Bluesky. Each with a specific role in our outreach strategy.

Instagram proved to be our most active channel due to its user-friendly interface and widespread appeal among our target audience. Facebook replicated key posts for families, teachers and local groups that still follow pages on the platform. LinkedIn was a valuable resource for the scientific community and potential sponsors, as it allowed us to announce significant milestones and updates to our projects. TikTok provided an opportunity to showcase the lighter, behind-the-scenes aspect of the work related to an iGEM project, like laboratory life. We also experimented with Bluesky, but ultimately decided against further investment due to its limited user base. These channels enabled us to communicate with researchers, individuals interested in synthetic biology and students contemplating a career in the bio-related field.

On Instagram and Facebook, we documented our iGEM journey, including steady progress, team- and subteam introductions, the reveal of our project’s topic and photos from events and visits we organized. The essential stories were saved into highlights so that people could quickly see what we’ve been up to all year. We also made a special highlight for stories from the lab so that people interested in lab work could see what actually is done there. We conducted an educational post series consisting of five parts, during which we explained some essential parts of the biochemistry underlying our test. As we noticed that our followers were mainly other iGEM teams and based on the posts made by the previous ABOA teams, we decided to explain more complex phenomena because the previous ABOA teams had already covered more simple topics, like genes and enzymes. We also shared practical tips on creating a scientific poster, which we had created based on advice from our PI, Associate Professor Pauli Kallio. We also promoted our podcast episodes there to notify people about it.

Cover pictures of our educational posts.

We understood the importance of branding, and so we carefully planned our visuals. We selected a neutral base palette with accents tied to our topic: yellow like crime scene tape, red like blood and blue commonly associated with police in many countries. The graphics, icons and layouts were developed to align with our investigation theme, aiming to stimulate curiosity and ensure the project’s immediate recognition. The consistent look of the feed contributes to its cohesiveness and makes individual posts more memorable.

The feed of our Instagram (@igem.aboa).

Tiktok, on the other hand, had a different tone. We published engaging content, including laboratory scenes, day-in-the-life moments, and concise explanations that align with current trends. This approach aims to demonstrate the engaging and educational nature of science to a broader audience. LinkedIn instead maintained a formal tone, providing concise notifications regarding our project enabling scientists and partners to track significant progress. Bluesky remained an experiment. We created a profile, made a few posts and waited for conversations, and then left it when the engagement remained low.

Throughout the course of this project, we have made great effort to post at regular intervals without compromising the quality of our work. Our general guideline was to post at least once a week on Instagram and Facebook, with occasional deviations depending on the availability of relevant content. Tiktok, LinkedIn and Bluesky had intermittent updates.

The objective of our social media was to share our approach as an iGEM team, enhance visibility for sponsors and high school students exploring synthetic biology and provide education on the scientific principles underpinning our project. Analytics revealed that our following on Instagram had significant growth and our posts reached a larger audience than previously. We also reached a smaller growth in followers on LinkedIn, Facebook and Tiktok. Thus, we did achieve the objective of increasing our visibility.