Hello,
I’m an undergraduate on the 2014 MIT iGEM Team and I’m reaching out to you about supporting our research. iGEM—International Genetically Engineered Machines—is the world’s premier student synthetic biology event, where we’ll be competing with over 253 teams from Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the US to win gold. The iGEM Jamboree is the largest annual gathering of synthetic biologists and an opportunity for your company to build visibility in the new field of Synthetic Biology by sponsoring the MIT iGEM team.
This year our team is building a circuit to detect and treat Alzheimer’s Disease. We have three subgroups working on different detection modules: one group is working with the membrane receptor LilrB2 that specifically recognizes b-Amyloid; another group is working with B-cell receptors; and yet another is designing a circuit that can classify the specific miRNA profile of an Alzheimer’s neuronal cell. Our treatment group is using a two-part approach to mitigate Alzheimer’s—both up-regulating expression of the BACE2 gene with an inducible promoter, and down-regulating BACE1 with a unique miRNA. Ultimately we aim to integrate our treatment module with one of the detection modules into a unified circuit that will actuate treatment upon sensing the presence of Alzheimer’s.
As you might imagine, executing a project as ambitious as ours requires both immense passion and an immense budget. Our $120,500 budget includes costs for laboratory supplies, genes, primers, student stipends, and iGEM registration fees. Although part of this cost is covered by grants and academic departments within MIT, much of our budget relies on the kindness of corporate sponsors. That’s why I’m inviting you to support our research this summer with a gift of $1,000. If this seems unreasonable, we have also happily accepted gifts-in-kind from sponsors in previous years (i.e. synthesized genes, oligos, assay kits, or other relevant materials your company might be able to provide). Any generosity you can offer in this matter would be hugely appreciated by everyone on our team.
I have attached an official letter from MIT Professor Ron Weiss requesting sponsorship and a booklet we have put together describing the advantages of becoming a sponsor, our previous sponsors, our past gold medal successes, a more detailed project description, and the success of our alumni, the majority whom go on to work for companies such as yours.
If there is an alternative contact person in your company who oversees sponsorship matters, please let me know so I can talk to them directly about this opportunity to support our consistently successful MIT team.
Thank you for your time and we look forward to connecting with you!
Best,
James Anderson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘15
Department of Biology