ABOA 2025: Cultivating Curiosity Through Synthetic Biology Education

Last year’s team, the ABOA 2024, aimed to integrate biological applications into the national curriculum [1]. However, after interviewing teachers, they concluded that there isn’t enough space in the current curriculum to accommodate this. Instead, they focused on providing materials to support teachers in teaching synthetic biology.

Inspired by their efforts, we wanted to continue this journey. Our mission was to provide resources for young people interested in natural sciences and to inspire them to delve deeper into the world of synthetic biology. For our target group we chose students in secondary education, as their curriculum includes an introduction to synthetic biology. We hope that our efforts inspire them to explore the subject further and to perhaps even consider studying synthetic biology after graduation.

Listening Before Teaching

We started by asking a simple question: what do students really want to know? Even though synthetic biology is briefly mentioned in Finland’s upper secondary curriculum, Finnish-language resources are scarce. Before assuming what was missing, we visited upper secondary schools, spoke directly with students and gathered nearly 60 responses in our survey related to the topic. The feedback revealed both an interest in synthetic biology and a desire for physical learning materials about the topic.

Creating a SynBio Material Packet: A journey of Trial and Error

Inspired by the student input, we set out to create a material packet that would make synthetic biology feel exciting and accessible.

Our initial plan was to create a material packet for students that were interested in learning about synthetic biology beyond the curriculum. We drafted a package that would include the workflow of protein production in a laboratory setting.

To ensure our materials were truly useful, we consulted professionals in the field of upper secondary school education. We quickly understood that our scope was too broad, and the content was too advanced for upper secondary school students.

We had to take a step back and re-evaluate our process. To do so, we familiarized ourselves better with the Finnish curriculum and the coursebook used in the upper secondary school.

Based on the feedback and using the coursebook as a guideline we were able to construct a new material packet that would be helpful for students in their first steps of learning about synthetic biology. Once again we consulted professionals and were delighted that this time our material packet was a success.

In September 2025, our packet was implemented in a biology course at Otaniemi Upper Secondary School. The classroom feedback helped us refine it even further, and we’re proud to say the final version is ready to support synthetic biology education well beyond this year’s iGEM.

Sparking Curiosity Everywhere

Beyond the classroom, we wanted to make synthetic biology visible and exciting wherever people might encounter it.

• School presentations: Early in 2025, we visited upper secondary schools and introduced students to iGEM, real-world applications of synthetic biology, and the possibilities of studying related fields after graduating. The response was so positive that we’ve already been invited back for October 2025.


• Heureka Science Center: Together with the Aalto-Helsinki iGEM team, we hosted a “Vaccines and viruses” workshop during Children’s Medicine Day.


• Turku Main Library: Our “Murder in the Laboratory” event turned attendants into forensic investigators, teaching about real scientific tools like PCR to solve an imaginary crime. The event was designed for young adults and beyond and we were thrilled to see everyone from upper-secondary students to senior citizens taking part.


• Digital outreach: We created an interactive game on antibiotic resistance, launched a podcast exploring iGEM behind the scenes and created a vibrant Instagram series that breaks down our project’s complex ideas into inspiring posts.

Building Continuity

One of our guiding principles has been continuity. Just as we built on ABOA 2024’s foundation, we’ve formed lasting connections with educators and experts who are eager to collaborate with future Finnish iGEM teams. We hope our journey inspires others—both in Finland and beyond—to take synthetic biology education further, refine it, and keep the cycle of curiosity alive.

Material Packet

From our discussions with education professionals, we found that many upper-secondary students lose interest in synthetic biology because it seems abstract and difficult. With so many areas of biology to choose from: ecology, cell biology, and more, students often gravitate toward topics that feel clearer and more concrete.

Our goal was to create a teaching packet that feels relevant and connected, giving students a concrete sense of what synthetic biology can be and sparking curiosity beyond the classroom. We focused on superbugs and antibiotic resistance, concepts students likely already recognize, to make synthetic biology more approachable.

The packet follows a hands-on storyline: a mysterious hospital bacterium resists standard antibiotics. Through exercises such as PCR, electrophoresis, and antibiotic-plate testing, students identify the pathogen and propose treatments. In between the workflow, the packet includes complementary tasks that align with the Finnish biology curriculum, reinforcing course material while easing students into synthetic biology concepts.

Our Material Packet in English

Our Material Packet in Finnish

Professionals

Susan Tuulosniemi

The LUKEMA Network

After the meeting with Susan Tuulosniemi, a high school education coordinator, we were recommended to contact the Lukema network. The Lukema network is for high school teachers and principals who are interested in developing the education of mathematics and sciences. While arranging the meeting, we were glad to see that the experts showed interest and even added more contacts to the message thread. This helped us bring together a diverse group of experts, along with representatives from LUKEMA and personnel from Otaniemi High School, a high school specializing in mathematics and sciences. This high school also coordinates the development of mathematics and natural sciences, which is a national development task assigned by the Ministry of Education and Culture. In the meeting, there were the vice principal of Otaniemen lukio high school Kirsi Vakkilainen, who is also the leader of the Lukema network, Milla Unkuri, a mathematics and physics teacher, who also is a development task coordinator and Maija Flinkman, a biology education development teacher with well over 40 years of teaching experience.

Our first idea was ambitious: a comprehensive packet of materials for students interested in synthetic biology. The packet would have included STEM-style exercises to support STEM-learning. We entertained the idea of building the base for possibly combining future team efforts into a whole course, which could be taught by the teachers or done independently. We also considered that the education level could be a suitable starting for anyone making the course open to anyone interested. Our goal was to provide depth and flexibility; teachers could select modules to complete during project weeks (a week at the end of a study module to work on larger projects or can be used for university visitations, that is used in some high schools in Finland) or implement the entire course as an elective.

Maija Flinkman, who is an experienced teacher, told us plainly that our material packet was too broad, the difficulty level was too high, and it was not aligned with how high school teaching actually works. This opinion was sustained also by the other teachers, who have extensive experience in creating teaching material, and that attended the meeting. They urged us to create a carefully executed single component instead of “touching on everything a little”, to keep it close to compulsory courses, and to lower the barriers for teachers with tight schedules and limited access and resources to a laboratory space to start using it. A well-designed and thoroughly executed material packet is more likely to be adopted immediately by teachers. By linking our material packet to a course that most students studying biology attend to, our material packet becomes more impactful and it reaches a broader audience. In short, we were recommended to do less and do it better and try to make it more engaging.

They also emphasized what engages students: a clear storyline, visible real-world relevance, and practical tasks that fit into a single lesson. Multi-week projects lose the thread, but a compact sequence with a strong red thread maintains motivation and understanding.

We narrowed the material to a small, well-designed packet linked to a single real-world theme: antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in hospitals. The core concepts (DNA, PCR, electrophoresis and antibiotic resistance) naturally map onto a real-world problem. We trimmed the theory and focused on essential topics in the form of practical exercises that can be run in one lesson, split across two or done by students independently.

Our new approach is now closer to the compulsory content. Teachers asked us to align with required courses first. If that isn’t possible, align with existing national electives rather than inventing an additional local course. Our material pocket slots in as a review/summary add-on that reinforces the key topics in synthetic biology that are taught on a high school level. A problem, antibiotic resistance, that is a reality in hospitals, provides the through-line that teachers asked for. We are now making students think “Why?” and that keeps students engaged with the topics and deepens their understanding of the fundamental concepts.

We learned a lot through this meeting and consider it to be a turn point for our approach in creating a material packet. Now that we are creating something that teachers really need, we are helping them to motivate students to learn about synthetic biology. We learned that we should focus on quality over coverage. A smaller, polished packet helps teachers more than a sprawling curriculum. This point was emphasized to us: to pick a narrow slice and do it well. We also were reminded of the reality that time is the hard limit and schedules are tight. One-lesson units with optional extensions are far more usable than a week-long project. Another thing that was stressed to us is that linking the problem to a real-world problem can open doors for school visits and provide authentic context.

We have documented the material packet in our wiki and have saved the contacts of the experts, so that future teams can continue the work we have started. With Otaniemi high school, which has resources and motivation to continue developing the education of synthetic biology, we have established firm contact. This way ,future iGEM teams in Finland have an easier path to continue to influence and develop the education of synthetic biology in Finland. We have worked on the material packed further and have continued the collaboration with the Lukema network in the form of sending out our material packet for a biology student group for testing and feedback.

Events

Vappusumppu - a May day event for children at the University of Turku

Inspired by last year’s ABOA team [1], we decided to continue the tradition and participate in the May Day event for children, called Vappusumppu. It is annually organized by Synapsi, which is an association for biology and geography students. The event is mainly for children under the school age and it has a different theme every year and this year it was “The Kingdom of Buzzers”.
At the event, we organized an obstacle course for the children. While the children were busy with the obstacle course, we asked their parents to fill out a questionnaire about synthetic biology. Our goals for this year’s event were: to continue the tradition, to gain insight from parents regarding synthetic biology education and to inspire children’s interest in science.
The obstacle course embraced the playful theme of the event, so, the children were given playful headbands to dress up as buzzers. The short, safe challenges were part of a larger narrative: the ladybugs had gone missing from the Kingdom of the Buzzers and we needed help from the children to find them. The obstacles also included tiny moments of discovery. The obstacle course had six obstacles, each with a task and props crafted by us. The children were supervised by us the whole time and we helped the youngest children by reading the story to them out loud. Read more about the obstacle course in the box below.

Alongside the track, we ran a short questionnaire for parents (See the questions below). We followed the same privacy practices and risk assessment as during the TAI and TSYK visits. We had two goals for the survey: to see how interested parents are in synthetic biology and to learn about parents’ wishes and concerns regarding the teaching of synthetic biology. Unfortunately, there were only a handful of responses this time, too few to claim a representative sample. However, the responses are still useful as a first reference. All of the responders were interested in synthetic biology on some level and wanted their children to learn about synthetic biology based on scientific research.

In short, the day achieved our goals: it kept a tradition of the ABOA team alive, covered the costs of the materials used in organizing the event through a 3€ obstacle course fee, started to learn about the concerns and wishes parents have regarding the teaching of synthetic biology and judging by the triumphant shouts at the color lab, sparked curiosity about science among the youngest visitors .

Workshop in collaboration with Aalto-Helsinki team at Heureka Children's Medicine day event

We held a workshop at Heureka together in collaboration with the Aalto-Helsinki 2025 iGEM team at the Children's Medicine day event on 23rd of August 2025. Heureka is a Science Centre that offers exhibitions, activities, planetarium films, science programs, and events for visitors. Children’s Medicine day is an annual event held at Heureka. The goal of the event is to reduce children's fear of doctors and hospitals as well as raise awareness on medicine. Heureka has approximately 300 000 visitors each year and is a popular destination for families.

Our workshop, Mission Immunity, focused on familiarizing children with viruses and vaccinations. With the Aalto-Helsinki team, we planned five activities for the workshop. The workshop was aimed for children between the years of 5 and 10. In the first activity, visitors could make their own virus from craft materials such as various colors of modeling compounds. The goal of this activity was to showcase the variety of different viruses and their looks.

At the second table, visitors were made familiar with virus infections and how vaccines help reduce them. Visitors got to “infect” a patient with their self-made virus and see how a virus infection normally processes. After that they could “vaccinate” the patient and hear what the vaccine does in our bodies. In this activity, visitors were also told why coughing in your elbow and washing your hands after blowing your nose is important.

In the third activity, visitors were shown how small viruses really are and how we cannot detect them with our bare eyes. After that visitors were made familiar with a few common viruses such as norovirus and herpes simplex virus. In this activity, visitors were asked to sort and identify a number of different pictures of viruses. In the last activity, visitors could colour their own virus stickers or a colouring page of Tempus, the ABOA 2025 team’s mascot, in a laboratory.

The workshop got a lot of visitors and despite our age recommendation children of all ages had fun and got to participate. While the children were busy in the workshop, we chatted with their parents about our projects and iGEM in general. We also had a questionnaire that the parents could answer while waiting. The questionnaire's aim was to find out people's opinions about synthetic biology and learning materials.

Hosting this workshop with the Aalto-Helsinki team was a valuable experience. We got to work with children, hear what they thought of vaccines and viruses, and be a part of a bigger event with an important goal. Reducing fear and suspicion of vaccines is important as well as educating children with fun enjoyable activities. One of our goals was to make the learning interactive and we succeeded in that goal. The feedback we got from the children participating was positive. Parents also found this workshop to be educational and timely as the flu season is approaching many families again.

Upper left: The workshops colouring activity with different virus stickers to color. Upper right: Activity where visitors sorted and got familiar with common viruses. Lower left: Viruses crafted by visitors. Lower right: Our team and Aalto-Helsinki team members at the workshop.

A survey that guided our decision on specific topics to include in the material

At the beginning of the academic year, we attended the TYY Opening Carnival and the Study in Turku fairs. These events welcome both new and returning students, offering opportunities to connect with over a hundred organizations, university services, and local companies.

You can read more about our activities and how we represented ABOA Turku ry at these fairs here. As part of the educational section of our work, we conducted a survey focusing on upper secondary school biology education and synthetic biology. To create a scientifically valid and informative survey, we followed iGEM’s survey guidelines and advice from iGEM’s blog the same way we did during the TAI and TSYK visits. We kept the survey short, less than 5 minutes, and designed objective questions to gather honest responses. The survey was anonymous and we also identified potential risks related to our survey and developed ways to minimize them. Our goal was to engage with students who had studied biology in high school and to better understand which concepts in biotechnology and synthetic biology they found easy or difficult to learn.

Although the number of responses was limited, the answers were valuable and meaningful. They helped us identify specific topics that required clearer explanations and guided our decisions on what to include in our educational material package. One of the main difficulties highlighted by students was understanding the key applications of biotechnology. Our initial plan included many biotechnology laboratory methods, with explanations of why researchers carry out these analyses and collect specific data. However, after meeting with experts from Otaniemi’s high school and LUKEMA, we were advised to simplify the material, as the applications of biotechnology are complex and require extensive background knowledge.

In the survey, we also asked students what kind of learning materials they would prefer. The most popular answer was video content, which did not surprise us, as we had received the same feedback during our visits to TAI and TSYK. Although producing videos had been on our to-do list, the tight project schedule prevented us from developing them this year. We recommend future iGEM teams prioritize video production early in their projects, as creating high-quality videos requires time and planning.

The second most popular suggestion was practical tasks that allow students to apply what they learn. Since most of our team members had recently completed high school biology courses, we remembered the structure of the education and the areas where support was most needed. With that in mind and based on the student’s feedback, we designed our material in the way we wished it had been during our own studies: interactive, engaging, full of illustrations, practical exercises, and with less text. We were pleased that the survey results confirmed our ideas and helped us improve the structure of our material.

“Murder in the Laboratory” Outreach Event

On September 10th, our team hosted an interactive “Murder in the Laboratory” evening at the Turku City Library. Designed for young adults and beyond, the event attracted everyone from upper-secondary students to senior citizens. The sheer amount of people interested in the event positively surprised us as at times there was even a line to the event!
Participants became forensic detectives, visiting a series of booths to gather evidence and eliminate suspects in an imaginary laboratory murder mystery. The booths highlighted real laboratory and forensic techniques, giving attendees a behind-the-scenes look at how science, especially synthetic biology, can help solve crimes.

List of possible suspects.

There were two significant reasons why we wanted to hold an event at the Turku City Library:

• Broad reach: it allowed us to engage people who might not otherwise encounter iGEM or synthetic biology. The library also promoted the event through its own social channels, on-site displays and in a local newspaper, helping us reach an even wider audience.
• Ongoing collaboration: we built on contacts established by last year’s ABOA 2024 team, continuing a tradition of impactful education outreach.

The event’s atmosphere.

Guests trying to figure out the chain of events.

The Murder in the Laboratory event challenged us to think creatively about science communication. By mixing storytelling with hands-on experiments, we created an engaging learning experience that introduced synthetic biology to a diverse audience and proved that outreach can be as entertaining as it is educational!

Visits

Univeristy Course Presentation

"28.3.2025 Tampere, Bioteknologia nyt ja tulevaisuudessa: Synthetic biology guest lecture, researcher Suvi Santala - Venni (ABOA2025) Aarni and Tommi (ABOA2024)"

Continuing in the footsteps of ABOA 2024, we organized a university course presentation in collaboration with members of the 2024 team on March 28th. In 2024, Tampere University students participated in the iGEM ABOA team for the first time, intending to educate new students about the competition and inspire them to participate in the project. This was a huge success as one member of our team was directly inspired by the presentation and ended up joining the team. In the same vein, our goal this year was to elucidate further on what kind of possibilities iGEM offers. To do this, we had members from two different ABOA teams share their experiences of the competition. We were thus able to elaborate more on the latter parts of the iGEM journey, such as the final product of the project and the Grand Jamboree event, compared to last year, when this presentation took place during the first steps of the 10-month-long journey.

During the presentation, we discussed synthetic biology as a whole and its connection to our field of study, biotechnology and biomedical engineering. We then went on to discuss ABOA 2024, their project, and what their iGEM journey entailed. The fresh-faced students seemed especially interested in the Grand Jamboree and asked plenty of questions about presenting the project to a panel of judges and what fruit the project carried. Afterwards, we moved on to discuss this year’s ABOA team and what our project included. At this point, we didn’t have many concrete examples of our work, but the audience was certainly enthusiastic to hear of the opportunities we had already seized thanks to the project. They were also eager to know more about the composition of our team and how much of an educational background was necessary to partake in iGEM.

All in all, the presentation was a success, and we had many new students engaged and showing clear interest in synthetic biology as a whole, or perhaps even participating in iGEM in the coming years. We believe that we were able to make the competition more approachable, especially for younger students, as they seemed apprehensive about the amount of expertise needed, but seemed more relaxed as we answered their questions and shared our own experiences. We believe we were able to educate them and garner interest in the competition, possibly securing some members for the 2026 ABOA team.

A slide from the presentation.

Visiting secondary education

In the beginning of our education journey, we wanted to engage with our target group: upper secondary school students. We hoped to find out which aspects of synthetic biology resonate with them the most and at the same time to spark curiosity about synthetic biology among young students!

We visited two secondary education institutions:

• The Chemical Laboratory Technology Sector of Turun ammatti-instituutti (TAI), a vocational institute
• Turun Suomalaisen Yhteiskoulun Lukio (TSYK), a general upper secondary school specializing in natural sciences and maritime.

We prepared a presentation that included general information about synthetic biology, an introduction to iGEM, our iGEM project VeriFied, and information on studying synthetic biology in Finland.

We tailored our presentations according to the students’ existing knowledge levels. At TAI, we presented to students who had not yet studied microbiology, while at TSYK we presented to students who were just beginning their synthetic biology course. Our goal was to give a brief overview of topics they would encounter soon, hoping to encourage them to delve deeper into synthetic biology.

To create a relaxed and interactive atmosphere, we began each presentation by building a mind map together with the students on what they already knew and thought about synthetic biology. This allowed us to see what kind of preconceptions the students had about the topic. We also included a short quiz game during the presentation, which both helped the students review the material and allowed us to assess how well we had explained the concepts.

Synthetic biology mindmap.

At the end of each presentation, we held an open discussion. Students and teachers at both schools were curious about our iGEM project and asked many questions about studying synthetic biology. Before concluding, we asked the students to complete a short survey designed to collect feedback on both our presentation and their interest in learning more about synthetic biology.

We received a lot of useful feedback. According to the survey results, our presentation was successful in inspiring students! Teachers also provided positive feedback, noting that the presentation served as an excellent introduction to the topic. Through our discussions with teachers, we learned that teaching synthetic biology can be challenging for those without personal experience in the field. We learned that, for example, teachers may not know if a method taught in the course textbook is still relevant today. One teacher suggested that to help with this issue, we could include practical examples of synthetic biology applications in our educational materials.

A group photo after a successful presentation at TAI.

Creating our survey

To create a scientifically valid and informative survey, we followed iGEM’s survey guidelines [2] and advice from iGEM’s blog [3]. We kept the survey short, around 5 minutes, and designed objective questions to gather honest responses. We included a disclaimer at the beginning to ensure that participants understood the purpose of the survey and that it is anonymous. We also identified potential risks related to our survey and developed ways to minimize them.

Risk	Solution
Being able to identify a respondent.	We do not process any personal data. The survey is anonymous.
Biased questions.	We used iGEM’s guide to ensure that our questions are as objective as possible.
Our intentions for making the survey being unclear to the respondents.	We put a comprehensive disclaimer in the beginning of our survey explaining what the survey is for and how the answers will be processed.
Our presentation before the survey influencing responses.	We need to take this into consideration when drawing conclusions about the feedback.

We had a lot of consideration whether to conduct the survey at the beginning or end of the visit. We were concerned that having it after the presentation might unintentionally influence the students’ answers. However, since most of the students were new to synthetic biology, we decided it would be better to conduct the survey at the end. Having it beforehand might have resulted in answers based on limited or inaccurate information. We believe that the answers we get after the presentation will be more aligned with the perspectives students will have after being introduced to synthetic biology in school. Nevertheless, we remain aware of this potential limitation in our data.

Assessing the feedback

Our visits combined, we were thrilled to receive nearly 60 responses to our survey. While the sample covered only students in Turku, the insights helped us recognize key themes and interests that we wanted to integrate to our educational materials. It became clear that tailoring our content to the students’ existing knowledge and interests would be crucial for making a real impact.

Overall the visits were a success and we have already been invited back to TSYK for October 2025. On top of our presentation, we are planning to share our new educational material there and hope to receive feedback on it!

An excited team after our presentation at TSYK.

Media and Games

Social Media Posts

We made a five-part social media series that introduces selected topics from synthetic biology and forensic science that are essential in our project. Our goal was to provide clear and accurate explanations that are accessible to motivated readers and useful to students.

We covered the following topics:

• "Forensic laboratories"
• "Plasmids"
• "Nanobodies"
• "Chemiluminescence"
• "Enzyme Fragment Complementation Assay"

* “Chemiluminescence” was the term originally used by us when referring to the light signal our test produces, but we revised it to “bioluminescence” to better reflect the focus of the content on luciferase-based systems.

This series began with the intention of covering broad, introductory topics (forensic laboratories and plasmids). However, after reviewing our Instagram analytics, we found that most of our followers are iGEMers other people in the biosciences (including many students). In response, we shifted toward covering more specialized methods with which one would not necessarily be familiar unless they had worked with them directly. At the same time, we wrote the posts to be approachable for interested high school students looking to expand their knowledge.

We also noted that Instagram already has educational content about the basics of synthetic biology. Our series was later on designed to address a different need: providing explanations of niche techniques in a practical context.

The series was created in collaboration with two subteams: the lab team and the visual and social media team. This collaboration ensured that lab members could review the accuracy of the posts and those who were not part of the lab team could more easily keep the language understandable avoiding unnecessary jargon.

We decided to write the texts in the posts in English to reach the largest possible audience. Considering the font used in the pictures is not the clearest we opted to add the same texts into the caption of the posts. In addition, based on the feedback we received from our school visits, where some of the students expressed a need for educational material in Finnish. That’s why we added translations in Finnish to the captions to motivate local high school students. We also shared the posts on Facebook, as to reach a different audience than on Instagram.

The educational posts offer interested readers an easy way to learn more about synthetic biology. By meeting our audience on social media platforms and focusing on methods they might not encounter in basic courses, we aim to inform and spark the curiosity of newcomers who discover the posts.

ABOA Archives Podcast

We decided to launch a 5-episode podcast series on Spotify as a part of our education work. In our podcast ABOA Archives, we wanted to focus on iGEM’s role as a synthetic biology learning experience for students. Thus, we invited two different iGEM teams, an experienced iGEM PI and an iGEM alumnus as guests to our podcast. We also wanted to promote other synthetic biology learning experiences such as studies in the fields of bioscience.

While making the podcast, we also learned a lot ourselves. We discovered varying iGEM projects and different ways iGEM teams can function. We got to share our own experiences, both lows and highs, with each other, and gain insight on the diverse human experience. We were able to give voices to the people shaping the world of synthetic biology in their own unique ways.

You can listen to our podcast here!

Plasmid Archives: an educational game about antibiotic resistance

Screenshot of gameplay.

Before we had even come up with an idea for our iGEM project, we knew that we wanted to make an educational game related to synthetic biology. Games are both effective and fun learning tools. However, they are not utilized effectively enough in education even though the nature of games is vast and the possibilities endless.

Antibiotic resistance was chosen as a topic for our game. Unfortunately, antibiotic resistance is ever-growing in relevance, and thus we thought it would be an important issue to bring awareness to. On top of being a threat for health care globally, antibiotic resistance is also intentionally used for selection in synthetic biology research.

In Plasmid Archives, the player takes on the role of Eddie E. coli, a blue bacillus with distinctly fashionable mustache and bowtie. The goal of the player is to help Eddie collect as many antibiotic resistance plasmids as possible to increase the chances of surviving the periodically occurring antibiotic attacks.

Eddie E. coli.

The antibiotic is chosen at random. If Eddie has obtained the correct resistance plasmid for the drawn antibiotic, he survives the round and his population of fellow E. coli grows 25-75 %. If Eddie is unlucky and does not have the correct plasmid, he loses one life and the E. coli population shrinks 25-75 %.

Antibiotic attack.

If Eddie manages to obtain all the antibiotic resistance plasmids, he turns to a super bug and wins the game. The player can also win the game by helping Eddie make the E. coli population the biggest of the 5 other bacteria populations in the game. The player loses the game if Eddie loses all 3 lives due to being attacked by antibiotics he does not have resistance for.

Different end screens.

The menu offers the player also the option of reading more about antibiotics. On top of that, the player can choose to play a short quiz that tests the player’s knowledge on antibiotics.

Information about antibiotics.

Quiz about topics related to antibiotics and antibiotic resistance.

You can download our game Plasmid Archives here and experience it yourself!