What we have done for future iGEM teams
Bisphenol, one of the most widely used industrial chemicals in the 21st century(1), is predicted to be utilized in 10 million tonnes by 2022(2) and has been the topic of 16,000 scientific studies, according to PubMed (1). However, no current iGEM teams are attempting to devise a detection instruction to this compound that threatens the health of billions of people worldwide. ICUnited has initiated attemps to tackle this massive problem by offering a novel method for BPA detection which features the use of biosensors, a device commonly ued to takle environmental problems in iGEM since 2006 (3).
We hope that our project will inspire future iGEM teams to create more efficient, effective, and convenient detection methods and even suitable substitues. It is believed that, with progressing research into BPA's health hazards, extensive detection methods invented, and possible subsitution found, the threat of BPA can utimately be eliminated.
Moreover, our team built an enzyme based electrochemical biosensor, which feature cell-surface display, a technology that express target proteins on cell membrane . The high specificity, stability, and cost-effectiveness it displayed can be used for future teams while constructing biosensors.
The enzyme we used is tyrosinase. "tyrosinase is an oxidase that oxidizes bisphenol A to catechol. After this, catechol can still be oxidized by bisphenol to o-quinone. O-quinone is an electrochemically active substance that generates electrical energy to detect BPA" (4). But this basic information alone does not reveal the true properties of this amazing chemical. But as our ICUnited team dug deeper, we found that. Tyrosinase can exhibit high reactivity and selectivity. When chemically attached to the electrodes, it becomes renewable with little loss. They are more effective and adaptable than any other substance. We think this finding will be A great tool for future teams to use in experiments related to BPA.
Further information about this can be seen in our project description --- link.
Advices
For wet teams (When conducting the experiment)
Culturing Escherichia coli
Growing E. coli strains is a time-consuming job. If one experimental operation fails, all previous operations need to be reperformed. In order to avoid such risks, our team divided the participants into two teams last afternoon and backed up all the E. coli used.
The two experiments conducted by the two teams last afternoon
ensured that the success of the experiment was not accidental. The multiple samples constructed provided more options for later application and gave us a better understanding of the necessary measures (such as aseptic procedures) for successful experiments. The best experimental results also give a higher probability of success for later extraction. The backup of E. coli provides a guarantee for failed experiments, greatly reducing the probability of re-completing all experiments and improving our efficiency.
For dry teams
Team work & management
iGEM is much more than conducting experiments, it involves teamwork within and outside teams. Team management is crucial for academic research and finishing projects that cannot be done by one alone, espeicially for our team which members have to collaborate online and a scale of merely 10 people.
As you know, iGEM is an interdisciplinary competition that applies to engineering, art, biology, chemistry, math, and many other subjects. Our team pays attention to "taking advantage of the strengths", and is good at discovering the shining points of the team members. After scientific and detailed division of the work, the team members are properly assigned to each team member according to their own strengths, so that everyone has a suitable job.
At the same time, our team focuses on teamwork and avoids working alone. After each team member has his or her own job, he or she will be assigned auxiliary jobs suitable for them. The auxiliary work is to help students in the main job to make breakthroughs and make progress together with the team, which greatly improves the efficiency and work quality of our team.
Team meetings
We also suggest to divide each day into two or three modules, just like our team. After the experiment and exploration in each module, we will have a special discussion. During the meeting, the team memberswill have a spark of ideas and discover the latest and most creative ideas, which will help our experimental project succeed. Our team is proficient in the exploration of the problem, in the face of numerous problems, in the us after a long discussion and thinking still cannot find the answer, we will be a further communication with professionals that would be a thought of the collision, the blend of knowledge. We will understand the problem by internalization Take the results, thoughts and experience to explore into the future. Moreover, each night at 10 p.m. sharp our team will hold a meeting with all of our team members to review this week's work and make plans for the upcoming week.
Achieving the best result
Although our team appointed captain, dry team captain and wet team captain, but it is a team which everyone's idea and work done is valued. Leaders often hold offline discussions and online meetings to democratically listen to the opinions of all team members. Just as Jean La Lowell once said, "democracy makes everyone the master of his own", never autocracy makes every student happy to express their own opinion, express the inside of their heart, become the master of his own, and also stimulates the potential creativity of all the team members. This fits well with iGEM's theme of "finding the best in everyone and finding the creative potential in everyone" and is one of the key factors in our success.
Useful software
As a team accustomed to internet collaboration, we have utilized a variety of applications and websites to assist us. We believe this will also be useful for future teams too.
Shimo document
https://shimo.im/recent
We have created online documents that allows editing anywhere and anytime, by anyone. This is especially useful for our team members have to work online from different places.
https://www.notion.so/
This website helps to synchronize everyone's work done and give suggestions.
Sojump
This software is for making online polls and results analysis.
Canva
Canvas gives us inspirations about posters and presentation powerpoint design
Future possibility
As a precedent for the instrumental use of tyrosinase for bisphenol testing, the team will present a realistic future scenario.
First of all, the topic of our team project is "Biosensor is an instrument that uses biological molecules (tyrosinase) to recognize specific chemical substances (bisphenol A). Electrochemistry converts the chemical properties of the analyte into an electrical signal and detects the concentration of the analyte by the strength of the signal." The main reason why we choose this topic is that in modern society, bisphenol A has become one of the most widely used industrial compounds in the world due to its colorless, transparent, durable, impact resistance and other excellent properties. It is often used in canned food, beverage packaging, milk bottles, water bottles, eyeglasses and other places closely related to people. So when people use water or food that has been exposed to BPA on A daily basis, the BPA that seeps into the food can enter the body. A small number doesn't make much difference to humans, but if the number increases, a number of potential risks will emerge, such as "decreased sperm count, decreased fertility, increased prostate growth...”.
The supposedly perfect detection system has not been implemented worldwide, and the portable, cheap, and efficient instrument needed to detect bisphenol A has not been created. The team takes the important mission of world food safety as its own mission, and is determined to promote the effective and simple bisphenol A detection instrument worldwide.
As COVID-19 is raging, coronavirus testing is closely related to our lives. We have all seen the efficiency and effectiveness of coronavirus testing devices. In the future, with our team's unremitting efforts, we believe that detection of bisphenol A content in food can be as efficient and accurate as detection of novel coronavirus!!
Please wait in the near future, in your bisphenol a detection device will be printed with ICUinted badge!
References list
1- https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%8C%E9%85%9AA/3588460
2- Abraham A, Chakraborty P (June 2020). "A review on sources and health impacts of bisphenol A". Reviews on Environmental Health. 35 (2): 201–210. doi:10.1515/reveh-2019-0034. PMID 31743105. S2CID 208186123.
3- https://2021.igem.org/Competition/Tracks/Environment
4- Project description
