Overview

Covid-19 has greatly affected the communication of CPU_CHINA with other iGEM teams. Due to the different requirements of epidemic prevention in different cities and universities in China, our collaboration and communication with other teams this year is mainly carried out online.

At the beginning of the competition, in order to help teams of the same track or with similar technical lines to have a broad platform to communicate, CPU_CHINA, ZJUT-China, HiZJU-China, ZJUintl-China, and ZJU-China jointly held a large iGEM online communication event - iGEM MEETING UP. Also, in order to acknowledge the comments from various aspects and to better accept other sincere suggestions about our program, we were invited to participate in online meetings organized by other teams, including Nanjing iGEM Association（NIA）, China iGEM Online Meetup,2022 iGEM China CRISPR Meetup, and the 9th CCiC.

In addition, we have developed deeper cooperation with Tsinghua and BIT on the same track, and long-term cooperation with ZJUT-China, ZJUintl-China, ZJU-China, and NJTech_China, and we have formed a deep friendship with these 6 teams.

Team Collaboration

With NJTech_China

The collaboration between CPU_CHINA and NJTech_China started when CPU_CHINA determined the topic. To make the project better, we conducted an online meeting with NJTech_China and had an extensive discussion. During the discussion, we shared the developments and initial results of the project. After this meeting, CPU_CHINA realized that good science popularization should be interesting and diverse while being professional, our target groups should be broad, and the language should be as easy to understand as possible.

Figure 1. Online meeting wtih NJTech_China

In September, based on the Dual-use research workshop of the 9th CCiC, CPU_CHINA realized that the public did not know much about biosafety and biosecurity. So we invited NJTech_China to jointly produce a Wechat Push related to biosecurity, in which we introduced the double nature of synthetic biology technology, bringing hope to the world meanwhile with underlying risks, and explained the laws and regulations enacted by other countries to deal with the risks of synthetic biology. In the process, we focused on the Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic to make more people aware of the significance of biosecurity and the world's efforts to regulate the development of synthetic biology.

See the other side view of our collaboration, see this page.

Figure 2. The article relating synthetic biology laws

With ZJUT-China, ZJUintl-China and ZJU-China

CPU_CHINA, ZJUT-China（See the other side view of our collaboration, see this page, ZJUintl-China（See the other side view of our collaboration, see this page.）,HiZJU-China（See the other side view of our collaboration, see this page.） and ZJU-China（See the other side view of our collaboration, see this page.） jointly held a large-scale iGEM online communication event iGEM MEETING UP on 1/5/2022. There were 25 teams from 20 universities, two of them were composed of high school students and postgraduate students respectively, with a total of more than 200 iGEMers attending the meeting, and 7 industry experts were invited to the event to make precious suggestions. In this event, CPU_CHINA was responsible for making brochures, hosting online meetings, and supervising the progress of the whole event. Meanwhile, ZJUT-China and ZJUintl-China were in charge of initial planning, making posters, and producing WeChat Push, and ZJU-China took credit for collecting team information and making brochures. We worked together to make the event work well and we were glad that many teams got to know each other through iGEM MEETING UP and developed further cooperation.

Figure 3. One piture of the meeting handbook

Here is the whole participant handbook:

View the PDF at one click

After that, we conducted atlas about synthetic biology with these three teams, CPU_CHINA was responsible for the part of synthetic biology ideas; ZJUintl-China was responsible for the synthetic biology technology part; while ZJUT-China and ZJU-China were responsible for the synthetic biology application part. We made the atlantes public on the medium for free so that it could be read by more people.

Figure 4. The first page of atlas

In addition, CPU_CHINA participated in ICII organized by ZJU-China, jointly delivered online lectures, and filmed videos to introduce our team and school. Click here to learn more!

With BIT

This year, CPU_CHINA and BIT cooperated on project determination, technical route design and human practices.

During the project setting of BIT, we helped BIT to interview experts in our school. Through the interview, BIT learned that analgesic drugs and pharmacological mechanisms used in neuropathic and nociceptive diseases are quite different, which made a great influence onthe establishment of BIT's project.

CPU_CHINA and BIT have their expertise in the use of parts and hardware respectively, so they both have much to learn from each other. We discussed the selection of Cas protein and the design of hardware. Inspired by BIT, CPU_CHINA decided to add hardware in the project to optimize our product and completed the design of the hardware with the help of BIT. CPU_CHINA helped BIT with problems that they encountered when using the CRISPR system and shared our experience in modifying Cas proteins.

Figure 5. Collaboration with BIT

In terms of human practices, CPU_CHINA and BIT participated in an online science popularization activity led by Tsinghua and FAFU teams. We prepared teaching plans together, and introduced basic knowledge and frontier applications of synthetic biology to high school students. In September, we worked together again to teach the basic knowledge of synthetic biology to new students at the Beijing Institute of Technology and encouraged them to join in the exploration of synthetic biology.

To fully exhibit the charm of synthetic biology and expand the impact of our project, the two teams jointly organized an online Synthetic Biology art exhibition. In this way, more people could feel the enjoyment of synthetic biology and get to know our project. Click here to learn more!

See the other side view of our collaboration, see this page.

With Tsinghua

At the end of April, we invited Tsinghua to attend the iGEM Meeting Up on 1st May. At that time, Tsinghua's two alternative projects were still in the pre-experimental stage, so they shared both their designs and received precious and constructive feedback from the judges and other teams, which also played a great role in their finalization.

On 20th July, we carried out an online meeting with Tsinghua, who have determined their project topic as using microfluidic chips to detect SP10 and EGFR proteins on the surface of sperms to estimate the concentration and viability of sperm. CPU_CHINA raised several questions regarding their project, such as the uncertainty of the direction of sperm swimming in the lane, the reasonability of the EGFR as the detection protein, etc. We suggested that the concentration of the subject's sperm could not be effectively deduced due to the uncertainty of distribution of the SP10 protein that Tsinghua uses as the basis for sperm quantification.Tsinghua thought our suggestions constructive and pointed out the project design they needed to optimize.

Figure 6. Collaboration with Tsinghua

In late July, CPU_CHINA participated in the synthetic biology public welfare course jointly organized by Tsinghua and FAFU to introduce the history of discovery, principles, and frontier applications of CRISPR-Cas technology to high school students, encouraging them to dive into the exploration of the field of synthetic biology. So far, the course has been played over 3000 times on Bilibili. Click here to learn more!

See the other side view of our collaboration, see this page.

Online Meeting

iGEM Meeting Up

Jointly organized by CPU_CHINA, ZJUT-China, HiZJU-China, ZJUintl-China, and ZJU-China, a large-scale online Meeting Up was held among over 200 iGEMers from 25 teams on 1st May, 2022. This Meeting Up was aimed at promoting future cooperation through deepening mutual understandings and developing common interests based on the similar track and technical routes.

Figure 7. Poster

In the early stage of event organization, with the joint effort of 5 teams from different schools, CPU_CHINA completed the charter of the event and established online chat groups for participants to find teams with shared aims.

Besides researchers in the Synthetic Biology field, 7 experts from different fields were also invited. Ms. Wu Fang, professor of Management from China Pharmaceutical University, Mr. Bao Yuhan, Human Practices Program Officer of iGEM, and Mr. Wang Yuqi, an investor in the pharmaceutical industry, were also invited to the meeting up. We hoped they can give comments and guidance from humanistic perspectives, such as the social significance of the project, to make this project-sharing part more varied.

To begin the event, Mr. Bao Yuhan, Human Practices Program Officer of iGEM, delivered an inspiring keynote address. What’s more, he also offered some helpful advice on how to do human practices well.

During the project-sharing session, each team had 10 minutes to briefly introduce their work before others made comments, all the teams shared and discussed enthusiastically. For further communication, special group meetings were also provided.

Figure 8. iGEM MEETING UP

Amid the nationwide outbreaks of Omicron, the event greatly promoted the exchange of ideas among iGEM teams meanwhile multi-level interactive communications were carried out among teams and experts. Participants gave plenty of constructive feedback, which laid a solid foundation for future iGEM project cooperation between iGEM teams across China.

As the major supervisor and coordinator of the event, CPU_CHINA was in charge of the meeting progress and checked the work quality of other teams, which enabled us to learn a lot from the unexpected accidents encountered in the process. For example, During the sharing session, the enthusiastic discussions among teams and experts caused the overtime of the activity. We took effective measures to set up parallel sessions at the same time so that the rest of the agenda could proceed smoothly, ensuring a successful conclusion of the event.

In addition, as supervisors, timely communication with all participating teams is crucial. For the detailed arrangement of the activity, each team has its own consideration, therefore we need to coordinate different opinions and figure out the guiding idea of the activity, so as to improve work efficiency and avoid discord between teams.

During this event, CPU_CHINA worked closely with other teams, and established profound friendship with other participants. For instance, we got to know Zjuintl-China, who has similar project design ideas with us. We held an in-depth discussion right after the meeting, which also laid for our follow-up cooperation. Meanwhile, we maintained close touch with Tsinghua, who also chose diagnostics track this year.

Figure 9. One picture of team manual

Here is the whole team maual:

View the PDF at one click

Nanjing iGEM Association（NIA）

CPU_CHINA actively communicated with iGEM teams in Nanjing and participated in the Nanjing iGEM Association(NIA) held by NIA on 4/6/2022. 6 teams including NJU-China, NJMU-China, and NJTech_China participated in this meeting. We introduced our project and actively interacted with other teams in the Q&A session, and shared our experience. CPU_CHINA gained a lot from this meeting and the biggest one is realizing that we haven’t thoroughly thought of the cost of the final product. Developing a high-accuracy and affordable equipment for cancer screening is the original intention of CPU_CHINA.

Figure 10. Nanjing iGEM Association

China iGEM Online Meetup

To figure out the exact deficiency of our project, CPU_CHINA participated in the China iGEM Online Meetup held by four schools including Guangxi University, Jiangnan University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Jilin University from 16/7/2022 to 17/7/2022 and 27 teams presented their projects. To be noticed, iGEM official staff was invited to the live stream and answered questions for the teams. Through this Meetup, CPU_CHINA deepened our understanding on iGEM spirit, learned more about iGEM projects, and seized the opportunity to collaborate with iGEM teams that are interested in our project.

Figure 11. 2022 iGEM China Online Meetup

ICII

"Into China, Into iGEM" (ICII) was held by NAU-China this year and CPU_CHINA was invited. During the event, CPU_CHINA delivered an online lecture and shot a short video to introduce the famous attractions of China Pharmaceutical University such as the library and Mirror Lake, and briefly explained the team structure and this year's project— Cancer Stalker.

For more details, click here to learn more!

2022 iGEM China CRISPR Meetup

CPU_CHINA uses CRISPR, a gene editing technology, in our project, and this technology is also applied by many other iGEM teams in China. So UESTC-BioTech and HainanU-China jointly held the online 2022 iGEM China CRISPR Meetup on 14th August to share experimental experience and discuss further applications of this technology and CPU_CHINA was one of its guests. In this meeting, we shared the current progress of the program in terms of wet labs, modeling, hardware, and HP. During the Q&A session, other teams consulted us about our project and their questions were very valuable to us, which reminded us to verify whether other components besides glucose would interfere with our assay result in the future experiment.

Figure 12. 2022 iGEM China CRISPR Meetup

The 9th CCiC

The Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC) is the largest annual meeting where Chinese iGEM teams gather around. It provides a platform for teams to present their programs and communicate with each other. We attended the conference from 18th August to 22nd August via Tencent Meeting.

The conference delivered 6 lectures in the field of synthetic biology, in which the keynote speakers introduced various biotechnologies and shared related scientific advances, deepening our understanding and enlarging our horizons. On 20th August, we presented our program and the judges gave us precious advice on our design and affirmed our work in HP. After the presentation, we discussed what we could get from the HP work of the project based on the judges' suggestions.

Figure 13. The 9th CCiC

In the online poster session, CPU_CHINA briefly talked about the design concept of the poster and won the honor of "Best Poster". In addition, some members attended the evening workshops, both of which were of great benefit to us. Thanks to the Dual-use research workshop, we found our lack in biosafety and biosecurity, so we decided to collaborate with NJTech_China to publish scientific articles about biosecurity on WeChat Official Account so that more people could understand biosecurity, displaying the remarkable efforts made by other countries to regulate the development of synthetic biology.