UniSYN Labs

UniSYN, as a wet lab training club with a hands-on approach to lab education, aims to provide students with the basic skills and experience necessary for entry-level lab research. Featuring hands-on skill development workshops, an optional intensive stream for accelerated lab skills education, guest speakers/teachers/mentors, opportunities to network with people from labs and organizations all over Hamilton, and wet lab-oriented hackathons where students exercise their newfound skills creatively, UniSYN Labs will serve as the stepping stone to future opportunities in research, synthetic biology, and entrepreneurship. UniSYN Labs is highly inclusive, with a primarily education-based focus. However, since demand is extremely high, regular members attending accelerated workshop bundles will be recruited by application to ensure commitment and responsibility - although the number we accept will be quite high - while more casual members are more than welcome to attend stand-alone workshops, events and conferences, as well as to participate in the hackathons and case competitions we'll host. Members will be taught by mentors experienced in laboratory protocols and gain valuable connections to the biotechnology industry, as we are planning to collaborate with and/or be sponsored by entrepreneurship and biotech organizations such as IDT and McMaster Innovation Factory. After reaching a certain level of expertise in lab techniques, students may elect to design their own experiment, closely supervised by mentors, or to take their project proposals in the direction of startups and project courses. Through this initiative, we hope to kickstart a passion in laboratory research and biotechnology in students from all levels and disciplines at McMaster. Not only do we wish to instil lab skills in students, we also hope to provide them with opportunities for further advancement and growth. UniSYN hopefully will be just the beginning for our members in their journey into science.