Hi everyone! It's been a while. We wanted to update y'all on the impact that your support for the 2023 UT iGEM Team has had by allowing us to attend the iGEM Paris Jamboree in person!

Image: UT Austin 2023 iGEM team members (from left to right) Krisha Chaudhari, Vibhav Iyengar, Brian Matibag, and Katherine Dullen at the 2023 iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris.

At the Jamboree, we've been able to network with other biology researchers from all over the globe and experience once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to engage with major players in the biotech and synthetic biology space. We're absolutely thrilled to be here, and we couldn't have made it without each and every one of you—whether you donated, shared, or otherwise supported our team members during the fundraising process back in spring, you got us here.

Additionally, we're excited to share with you not only these photos of our team members at the Jamboree (which wouldn't have been possible without your generous support) but also our team's iGEM presentation video and website describing our research project!

For those curious, our project involves engineering non-pathogenic bacteria to kill pathogenic bacteria on agricultural crops using small peptide molecules called microcins. Our goal is to provide a sustainable alternative to existing controls like chemical pesticides and to help prevent the huge economic losses associated with agricultural diseases. During the summer, we specifically did a lot of work trying to treat bacterially-caused rot in onions (did you know the onion is the stage vegetable of Texas?), and we made sure to represent the importance of onions to our project at the Jamboree with... an onion hat! 

You can see team member Vibhav Iyengar representing the importance of onions to our project and to Texas by wearing the onion hat at the Jamboree in the image below.

Image: UT Austin 2023 iGEM Team members (from left to right) Krisha Chaudhari, Brian Matibag, and Vibhav Iyengar. Vibhav is wearing an onion hat.

Once again, we'd like to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for allowing us to embrace this incredible scientific opportunity. We started here at UT, and now we're changing the world with our research!

Hook'em! \m/
- The UT Austin 2023 iGEM Team

Howdy everybody!

This is gonna be a bit of a long one; we've got a lot to say since this is our last update!

First off, as our fundraising page closes, we'd like to thank you all one last time for supporting the 2023 UT iGEM Team's Hornraiser over the past month! Each and every one of you has played a pivotal role in getting us to our final total of $12,550 raised, and we're truly so grateful for your support! Thanks to your continuous generosity over the past month, a few of our students will have the unique opportunity to represent UT Austin in Paris this November!

Second: As for donation rewards, those of you who donated $100 or more should be receiving an email soon detailing the specifics of your reward(s) depending on your donation tier. These emails will be sent to the email address you provided when making your donation. We're currently in the process of figuring out how to best send reward-related emails en masse to ensure that everyone in a particular tier gets the right email, so please be patient as we get these in order. We'd ideally like to get the rewards emails out sometime later today, and we'll definitely have them out by May 3.

Third, if you want to keep up with our research progress over the summer and learn more about the lab work we'll be doing at that point, follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

On a more personal note, we wanted to pull back the curtain a bit and let you know about the team members who've really gone above and beyond for this fundraiser. Katherine Dullen, Elizabeth Manriquez, and Alexa Morton have been instrumental in building the fundraiser page, drafting emails, and expanding our networks to help incredible people like you find our page! And if you've seen our Twitter or Instagram posts, those were all created by Vibhav Iyengar, Gayathree Gopi, and Gia Alaniz. Additionally, huge props to Krisha Chaudhari, who put together the stunning video featured at the very top of our fundraising page! We'd also like to thank our advisors, Dr. Barrick and Dr. Mishler, who have motivated us all to keep pushing forwards in our research, even when we feel like we've hit a wall.

And most importantly, THANK YOU! Thank you, our marvelous donors, for getting us here. None of the efforts of those mentioned above would have amounted to anything without your generous support and willingness to spread the word about our little team. We couldn't have dreamed that this many people would be willing to help us, let alone to the extent that y'all have supported the team. Y'all are all [i]gems in our eyes!

Have an amazing summer, and Hook'em!  \m/

- The UT iGEM Team

Hey everyone,

Today is the LAST DAY of our HornRaiser. With your help we have reached $12,095, which has completely blown us away and exceeded our expectations. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us throughout these 30 days!

With less than 24 hours left, we are so close to reaching our stretch goal of $12,250. Reaching this goal would allow us to send another team member to Paris to represent UT Austin. We are extremely close with only $155 to go.

Would you consider making a gift before our time is up? And if you've already made a gift, would you continue spreading the word about our fundraiser? With your help, we’re certain we can reach our goal by tomorrow!

Thank you for your support and Hook'em!

- The UT iGEM Team

Hey y'all!

As of writing, we're currently at $11,485 raised! There are still 3 days left to help send the UT iGEM Team to the Paris Jamboree, and we are so grateful for what our donors and ambassadors have helped us accomplish thus far, getting us to %114 of our goal!

Our stretch goal is $12,250 as an additional $2,250 would allow us to send one more student to the Jamboree, and we'd love to be able to meet this goal before our page closes on Friday! We're currently just $765 shy of meeting this goal thanks to the continued support of our incredible community!

Would you consider making a gift before our time is up? And if you've already made a gift, would you continue spreading the word about our fundraiser? We have until 9:00 a.m. April 21 (that's this Friday) to reach our stretch goal, and we'd really appreciate anything you can do to help us meet this goal!

Thank you for your support and Hook'em!

- The UT iGEM Team

Hi again y'all!

First and foremost, we're excited to announce that over this past weekend, we met our goal of $10,000! We want to sincerely thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for all of your support, be it through donations or sharing about the fundraiser with those you know. Huge huge thank you to everyone who has donated even a dollar to this project, as we wouldn't be at this point without your support to get us here!

Now that we've met our fundraiser goal, you're welcome to continue sharing our page and spreading the word on social media as we try to meet our stretch goal of $12,250 before the fundraiser closes on April 21! This extra $2,250 would allow us to send one more student to present at the Jamboree this November. Please keep sharing our page to anyone you think would like to support the team!

Use this link to share the page: https://hornraiser.utexas.edu/iGEM23

Hook'em!

- The UT iGEM Team

Hey everyone!

Thanks to your help, both through donations and spreading the word, we have reached 84% of our goal with $8472 raised! Once again, this would not be possible without the support of our amazing donors and ambassadors. With 17 days left in the fundraising campaign we'd like to know:

Can you help us reach 95% by next Monday?

You can help us reach this new goal by sharing our page personally with anyone you think would be willing to donate! Also, definitely post about the campaign on social media and follow our Instagram @utaustinigem and/or our Twitter @UT_iGEM!

If you'd like to make another gift at any point, click the link below!

https://hornraiser.utexas.edu/project/36369/donate

We're beyond grateful to the family, friends, and those in our community who have donated. Thank you to our wonderful ambassadors as well for spreading the word! As we continue towards our goal, we will keep y'all updated on our progress and what iGEM is up to!

Hook'em!

-UT iGEM Team

Hey y'all!

We wouldn't usually send another update so soon after the last but... wow!

With your help, we've met our goal of 50% raised by this Friday and then some. As of writing, we're at 69% of our goal with $6901 raised! None of this would have been remotely possible without the support of each and every one of our incredible donors, and we just want to say thank you so so SO much! Now that we've met that goal, we want to know:

Can you help us reach 75% raised by next Wednesday?

You can help us reach this new goal by sharing our page personally with anyone you think would be willing to donate! Also, definitely post about the campaign on social media and follow our Instagram @utaustinigem and/or our Twitter @UT_iGEM!

If you'd like to make another gift at any point, click the link below!

https://hornraiser.utexas.edu/project/36369/donate

Y'all are seriously making our days with your continued support, whether financial or social, and we really appreciate every single donation that has come our way regardless of amount. Massive shoutouts to our big donors (you know who you are)! We'll be contacting y'all via email about your donation tier rewards by April 21, the day that our fundraiser page closes.

Hook'em!

- The UT iGEM Team

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for sharing and contributing to the UT iGEM Team’s fundraiser over the past week! We really appreciate your support, whether monetary or otherwise! In just six days, y'all have helped us raise $4636 to help us send 3-4 of our team members to the Paris Jamboree!

We only need 15 more gifts of $25 to reach 50% of our goal ($5000), and we're aiming to reach 50% by this Friday, March 31. Will you help us get there by spreading the word about our project to others? Feel free to share our project page: hornraiser.utexas.edu/iGEM23

✨ Want to Make a Gift? ✨
https://hornraiser.utexas.edu/project/36369/donate
Again, thank you all so SO much for your continued support!

Hook'em!

- The UT iGEM Team