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Leids Universiteits Fonds
Crowdfunding for Leiden University
  1. A garden on Mars
€8.480 Raised in total
Goal
€8.600
Funded
98%
Status Closed
Status Closed
  • Info
  • Donors 83
  • News 5
  • Contact

A garden on Mars

Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter in the next few days. There we will give you live updates on our adventure in Boston!

The moment is (almost) there: the end of our crowdfunding campaign. Now, it's time to head for Boston, preparing for the grande finale of our project: the Giant Jamboree! Without your help our project wouldn't have been possible, so we would really like to thank you all for your support! Additionally, even some companies decided to sponsor our project, with an incredible result. Thanks to you all, our project has become a great success! We love you all to Mars and back!

 

We, a group of ambitious students from Leiden University, need your help to build a garden on Mars. Mars seems within reach. NASA, for example, hopes to set foot on Mars in the coming ten to fifteen years.  However, once on Mars, how will we survive on the planet? There is no food, and growing crops in the toxic Martian soil is not yet possible. Fortunately we are working on the solution.

 

Detoxification using bacteria

The plan in a nutshellWe will use bacteria to ‘clean’ the Martian soil.  Martian soil contains the toxic compound perchlorate that affects vital body functions such as growth. Plants grown in Martian soil will absorb this toxic compound, making it unsafe for people to eat these crops. We will develop a bacterium, the E.colinizer which is capable of converting the toxic compound into other non- toxic compounds, including oxygen. With the help of bacteria we will provide two essentials needed for life: food and oxygen.

Read more about perchlorate and our E.colinizer.

 

Help our mission on Mars!

The Random Positioning Machine in operationTo make our project a success, we need your help. Since this is a student-led and student-run project, we need to finance the project  ourselves. To bring our experiments to a successful end, we need to finance materials such as simulant Martian soil. Another example is the Random Positioning Machine (RPM) which is capable of simulating Martian gravity. We need the RPM to be able to investigate whether our E.colinizer functions on Mars. We are asking for your help to raise €8,600.- to finance the Martian soil and other lab equipment. 

 

Who are we?

We are thirteen motivated students studying at Leiden University. We have different scientific backgrounds, ranging from mathematics to biology. We will compete in the world’s largest synthetic biology competition, called the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, organized by MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a prestigious university in the USA. We have been working all summer on our project and in October we will present our findings in Boston competing for the ‘grand prize’.

The Leiden iGEM team

Garden on Mars

As a backer you will get a special place in our digital Backer's Garden. Pay our garden a visit at: http://2016.igem.org/Team:Leiden/backersgarden Our website is currently 'frozen' for judging, but as soon as it is editable again at the beginning of November, we will still plant your seeds!

 

More information:
Website: 2016.igem.org/Team:Leiden
Facebook: Facebook.com/iGEMLeiden
Twitter: @iGEM_Leiden
E-mail: igem@science.leidenuniv.nl

 

Fotostrip by Ype Driessen and iGEM Leiden

The world's first comic made entirely out of bacteria, designed for us by fotostrips.nl since bacteria are not only useful, but can also be a lot of fun!

 

Donors

26-10-2016 | 08:34 Lianne Decoz
25-10-2016 | 14:22 Centre for Human Drug Research
25-10-2016 | 14:21 Nature Microbiology
25-10-2016 | 14:21 DSM .
25-10-2016 | 14:21 Airbus Defence and Space
View all donors
€15 Build a garden on Mars with us! Thanks to your donation, we are one step closer to making this reality. We are forever grateful to you. Build a garden on Mars with us! Thanks to your donation, we are one step closer to making this reality. We are forever grateful to you. Donate now Recommended €25 Adopt a plant on Mars! Donate this amount and get your own radish in our digital Martian garden. Adopt a plant on Mars! Donate this amount and get your own radish in our digital Martian garden. Donate now €50 Get your own salad rocket in our digital Martian garden! Additionally, you will receive an exclusive postcard from the Leiden iGEM team. Get your own salad rocket in our digital Martian garden! Additionally, you will receive an exclusive postcard from the Leiden iGEM team. Donate now €100 Always dreamt of owning a tomato plant? Donate now and get your own cherry tomatoes in our digital Martian garden. We will also send you a beautiful 3D printed iGEM Leiden key ring, on top of the iGEM Leiden postcard! Always dreamt of owning a tomato plant? Donate now and get your own cherry tomatoes in our digital Martian garden. We will also send you a beautiful 3D printed iGEM Leiden key ring, on top of the iGEM Leiden postcard! Donate now €250 Become the proud owner of your own Martian potato plant, just like Mark Watney in 'The Martian'! We also throw in the one and only iGEM Leiden postcard and 3D printed key ring, which we will send to you. The guided tour at Airbus Defence & Space has be... Become the proud owner of your own Martian potato plant, just like Mark Watney in 'The Martian'! We also throw in the one and only iGEM Leiden postcard and 3D printed key ring, which we will send to you. The guided tour at Airbus Defence & Space has been given already, but do not feel sad about that - you will make us incredibly happy if you donate! Donate now €250 Become the proud owner of your own Martian potato plant, just like Mark Watney in 'The Martian'! We also throw in the one and only iGEM Leiden postcard and 3D printed key ring, which we will send to you. The guided tour at Airbus Defence & Space has be... Become the proud owner of your own Martian potato plant, just like Mark Watney in 'The Martian'! We also throw in the one and only iGEM Leiden postcard and 3D printed key ring, which we will send to you. The guided tour at Airbus Defence & Space has been given already, but do not feel sad about that - you will make us incredibly happy if you donate! Donate now
Contact information

Universiteit Leiden

w.j.persson@bb.leidenuniv.nl

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