Mini-Conference with LINKS_China and KEYSTONE
On May 28, we set off on our journey of collaboration. Since we shared a laboratory with LINKS_China 2022 and KEYSTONE 2022 (more information about our other elaborations is given below), a mini-conference was breezily held between the three teams. The aim of this mini-conference was to have a preliminary understanding of the feasibility and practicability of the aim of our project. During the mini-conference, we shared our idea and design with each other in the form of a 15-minute presentation. We gained helpful feedback with regard to our aim of the experimental designs, such as the use of magnetic beads. We were inspired by some new innovative points which could make our project more beneficial and meaningful. In return, we also provided suggestions and possible improvements to their projects which helped them make adjustments to their projects and clarify their aims.
Overall, the mini-conference allowed us to share our idea and obtain practical and in-depth feedback from other teams. Potential future collaboration was also discussed at the conference, and we found out that sharing plasmid with LINKS_China was a possible collaboration that could be carried on. Besides, the mini-conference was beneficial because it helped us get prepared for the later conference with iGEM teams from all over China.
Southern China Regional Meeting 2022
After the meeting in May with the two high school teams, we gained experience and had a clearer understanding of the direction our project led to. In June, our team was invited to participate in the Southern China Regional Meeting, becoming the first high school team invited. The Southern China Regional Meeting is an annual event for iGEM teams' communication, held by SZU_China since 2017. The purpose of the Southern China Conference is to unite iGEM teams from Southern China to come together and share the project's progress and solve the bottlenecks encountered in the current project development stage. In this setting, we gained valuable experience in successfully promoting our project. iGEMers from different teams discussed and brainstormed about project design, experiment development, modelling and hardware, human practice, etc.
During the meetup, we introduced our project FabRevivo to the iGEM teams at Southern China Conference and were surprised to find some similarities and connections with some teams present. We mainly focused on exploring the possibility of downstream products and problems we encountered, such as low ferritin magnetic force. In addition, experienced participants of iGEM also offered beneficial advice in HP's direction, helping us recognize the diverse ways we can conduct social interactions and human practices.
We obtained helpful feedback and conducted in-depth exchanges and communication with many undergraduate groups, especially SZU_CHINA and SYSU_CHINA (Shenzhen University and Sun Yat-Sen University). We exchanged ideas with other team members regarding modelling and found a potential for collaboration or partnership with SYSU_CHINA. SYSU_CHINA's project, "ACCESS", known as "Animalcule Co-Catalytic Engineering for Salidroside Synthesis", also requires glucose at the beginning stage of the pathway. We saw the possibility of supplying our glucose, the degraded end product of natural cellulose fiber. In return, they can help us with the directed evolution of our designed yeast.
iGEM Teams June Meetup and Cooperation with BJEA_China
Although our communication with SZU-CHINA and SYSU-CHINA did not develop into long-term partnerships, from our last meeting experience with other iGEMers, we realized how precious and helpful it is to reach out for advice, connections, and even collaborations. As a result, we decided to participate in the iGEM Teams June Meetup, where we saw the opportunity to communicate with teams inside and outside of the country. Again, we have received just as much, if not even more, useful feedback.
Most importantly, we got into contact with the high school team BJEA_China as we were immediately amazed by their project regarding the engineering of PETase to achieve higher efficiency. Seeing the similarities in our project as we both work towards a better solution to PET degradation, we decided to collaborate on an article to educate the public about the production, manufacture, and harm of PET. In the article, we also cast our spotlight on involving everyone in the solution to PET pollution, so we discussed approaches that everybody could take on a daily basis to eliminate PET pollution. For example, sorting garbage, buying products made of biodegradable materials and so forth. Furthermore, we also wanted to integrate our project's core idea into this article on education. Therefore, we revealed the dominating percentage of PET in clothes components and suggested that we can all contribute to eliminating pollution by buying less unnecessary apparel.
SynBio Exhibition at School with LINKS_China
Besides publishing an article online, we also held an elaborate exhibition near the gate of our school, Shenzhen College of International Education, with the help of LINKS_China. The content of the exhibition not only included Synthetic Biology, but also included the projects of the two teams and prior values of the projects.
GreatBay_SCIE gathered engaging information about the history of Synthetic Biology, the milestones of Synthetic Biology, and the most popular technologies in the field of Synthetic Biology, such as PCR and CRISPR-Cas9. This textual information was made into delicate posters along with numerous diagrams, making the information more easily understood by our peers and teachers from different departments. We also prepared a poster about our project, "FabRevivo", including the background and our experiment design, and another poster about the inspiration of our project ––fast-fashion pollution, where people were introduced to different approaches to recycling unwanted clothes and involved in the elimination of pollution. LINKS_China 2022 prepared a poster about their "UV PRISMA" project to share and educate people about different types of sunscreens. Many of our team members stayed at the exhibition after school, and there were many amazing discussions with other peers and teachers interested in our projects.
In the display area, where people are introduced to a range of laboratory apparatus, we prepared a petri dish with "SCIE x LINKS" written with K.marxianus, proudly letting all participants to the exhibition witness our harmonious collaboration with LINKS_China.
Besides displaying the posters at our school, with the support from LINKS_China, we successfully exhibited our work in a wide variety of schools, including but not limited to Basis international school Hangzhou and Shenzhen University Affiliated Middle School.
Cooperation and Sharing Plasmid with LINKS_China
This year, not only did we hold an exhibition with LINKS_China, but we also shared a laboratory with LINKS_China 2022. As our projects both involved culturing yeast, we communicated and discussed with each other about yeast transformation. LINKS_China 2022 gave us invaluable advice on yeast transformation as they started their yeast experiment prior to us. Later, when we started our experiment on yeast, we were suggested to use a recommended yeast tool kit. However, after the frustrating constant failure to construct the essential backbone of our wanted plasmid by ourselves, LINKS_China kindly and happily offered some of their stock of the shuttle plasmid 021, into which we integrated our own wanted coding sequence, marker, and origin of replication, of either Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Kluyveromyces marxianus. We obtained successful results of protein production using this plasmid from LINKS_China.