On March 12, from 3:00 PM until 8:30 PM, the Montrose Biobuilders team was at the MIT Ragon Institute sharing their findings on an effective way of healing second degree burn wounds: Patch Perfect. Through months of research, they found and refined the idea of Patch Perfect, a patch that would go onto your skin in order to organize the wound healing process. Through their months of research, they were all working for the same goal: to present their lightning talk at the Biobuilders Conference – and get published in the Biotreks journal! The conference was packed with teams from all over the United States and even all over the world with teams joining both in person and over Zoom. There were teams from Thailand and China as well as other parts of the United States like Georgia, who took the trip to fly to Boston for the assembly. At the conference, there were a wide range of projects, from those including minimal experimental results, to ones with all the data done and written up in their presentation. Due to the influx in people, not every group was able to present their lighting talk. To be able to present their lighting talk before the final assembly, each team that was interested had to submit an abstract to the Biobuilders team, which would then be reviewed and communicated with the teams whether they could qualify for the lightning talk or not. The lightning talk is a one minute presentation on the basic idea of your topic, only covering the basic question, like how you found the idea, what your project does, background, and the difference from your project to existing ideas. The time following the lightning talks is the poster sessions, which gives the teams time to answer questions about their project as well as connect with the different people and mentors. This year’s poster session was split into three parts, which ensured that everyone had the opportunity to present their poster while also going around, connecting with people, and asking questions about their posters and topics. The night ended with delicious pie before the last poster session and the feeling of accomplishment at another successful year with the Montrose Buildbuilders Team.

