Collaboration lies at the heart of the iGEM spirit, and this year, our team embraced it fully. Throughout our journey, we connected with teams across different countries, disciplines, and project themes to exchange knowledge, troubleshoot challenges, and co-create meaningful outputs. Each collaboration—whether an experimental exchange, modeling consultation, human practices initiative, educational activity, or technical contribution—helped broaden our perspectives and strengthen our work.

Our partnerships were not limited to one-off interactions. Many evolved into long-term dialogues that shaped our design choices, informed our safety and ethics frameworks, and improved the accessibility and inclusivity of our project. By working closely with other iGEM teams, we shared protocols, modeling insights, wet-lab guidance, hardware ideas, and human practices strategies, fostering a network of mutual support that elevated all our projects.

This page showcases the collaborations that made a substantial impact on our project. For each team, we highlight the motivation behind the interaction, what we contributed, what we received, and how the collaboration influenced our final design. Together, these exchanges reflect our commitment to building a global synthetic biology community founded on openness, teamwork, and shared scientific growth.

Our team joined forces with Cleaningans, a volunteer group dedicated to restoring neglected areas of Thessaloniki through organized clean-up efforts. Together, we took part in a large-scale environmental action that brought together dozens of citizens, all united by a common goal: a cleaner and more sustainable city.

Through our collaboration, we collected and removed nearly 20,000 liters of waste, highlighting the impact that community-driven initiatives can have when science meets civic responsibility.

Beyond the cleanup itself, the day was filled with inspiring conversations, shared purpose, and a strong sense of community effort. We are grateful to the Cleaningans team for their energy, vision, and the meaningful work they do across the city.

This experience reminded us that creating change often starts at the local level — and that even small actions, when done collectively, can lead to significant results.

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iGEM Thessaloniki has teamed up with Orme Running Club, a local community consisting of running enthusiasts, who aim at promoting physical activity and exercise as a means of achieving health and well-being. Although physical exercise has always been the cornerstone of Orme's goals and actions, the above mentioned collaboration had a lot more to promote than that. Adopting healthy habits and highlighting the connection between physical activity and acquiring balanced physical and mental health was a primary objective.

The run itself was just the starting point. Strong bonding between the two teams accompanied by motivating discussions, exchange of ideas and experiences were just a few of the benefits of the day.

We express our gratitude to the Orme Team for their consistency, their true enthusiasm and their continuous efforts to promote a healthier lifestyle for everybody.

In retrospect, the whole experience made us realise that the ancient Greek quote "a healthy mind in a healthy body" is not hard to achieve. All you need is small baby steps towards this direction, such as a run together with a welcoming and inclusive team. This way long-term beneficial results will be brought about in everyone's life.

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For World Blood Donor Day, iGEM Thessaloniki partnered up with LifePulse, a team from Aristotle University that has created an app that alerts suitable blood donors whenever there is an urgent need in a nearby hospital, with the goal that no lives are lost due to lack of blood.

In Greek hospitals there is almost always a shortage of available blood units, due to the sheer demand for blood and the relatively low percentage of frequent blood donors. Donated blood is crucial for the survival of many patients who either require regular transfusions due to their condition or who have suffered intense blood loss, so it’s imperative that all who are able to, donate blood to help save others.

That is why we joined forces with LifePulse by creating a video calling others to donate blood and explaining the process and donor criteria, hoping to use our social media platform to inspire our peers to become lifelong blood donors and help save as many lives as possible. At the same time, members of our team rolled up their own sleeves and donated blood at AHEPA Hospital, actively contributing to the cause while encouraging more people to follow their lead.

Our educational video garnered thousands of views across social media platforms, reaching a huge number of people, and hopefully making an impact towards a change of mindset in Greek society: one where blood donation is normalized and blood scarcity is a problem we can surpass if we all act together. A mindset that our team certainly gained after our collaboration with LifePulse.

To celebrate Science Appreciation Day, iGEM Thessaloniki organized a collaboration with iGEM teams from around the world, including iGEM Patras, IISERK, Athens, Thrace, Mainz, DTU, Heidelberg, Thessaly, Patras Medicine, and Ioannina.

We invited each team to answer the question: “What does science mean to you?” and share their response by writing it on a piece of cardboard.

The submissions reflected a wide range of perspectives and values, highlighting how science connects people from different backgrounds and regions. We compiled these responses into a short video to showcase the global impact of science and the shared vision within the iGEM community.

This collaboration aimed to promote science communication, celebrate scientific thinking, and strengthen connections across teams — reminding us of the common purpose that brings us together.