Kyunghwan Roh, Irene Choi, Minkyung Sung, Bridget Yun, Chaewon Kim, Seongwon Park, Clara Shin, Heeryoung Kim, Hannah Kim, Suyoung Lim, Seungah Chung, Soyoon Kim, Taehoon Lee, Gayun Kim, Seojun Hwang, Youngwook Sohn
Our team’s main supervisor this year was Professor Woorin Lee from Suwon University’s Department of Biological Science. He aided in developing our purpose of creating a synthetic data storage method using DNA. In addition, he supplied Suwon University’s laboratory in order for our team to successfully complete our experiment and provided necessary procedures, safety supervision, and technique support, such as using micropipettes and accurately measuring out samples.
The University of Suwon Natural Science Research Institute provided the experimental facilities and equipment necessary for the team’s wet lab expenses. Not only did this include base laboratory equipment such as beakers and flasks but also included expensive and necessary equipment such as a centrifuge and voltexter. All experiments were made possible due to generous support from the University of Suwon.
Our iGEM journey was led by Mr. Joshua Roh, our primary PI. Mr. Roh instigated the gathering of team Korea_HS and its organization into three parts -- Collaboration, Human Practices, and Wiki. Along with student advisors, he also advised the team on which special awards the team should aim to achieve. He provided necessary connections into the team’s primary instructor and student advisor and introduced the scope of iGEM, including the general mission, competition requirements, and important deadlines. Furthermore, he handled the administrative and logistical aspects including registration and fee waivers which were possible with financial support and a strong team agenda. He scrupulously aided the team’s overall functions by keeping the team up-to-date with upcoming Wiki freezes and deadlines. Mr. Roh was of great assistance in the successful completion of the competition.
2021 Korea_HS leader Matthew Lee served as this year’s Korea_HS primary student advisor. He was able to create a roadmap for the team, including important deadlines and general advice for all of our subteams, including Collaboration, Human Practices, and Wiki deadlines. Due to his preceding year as part of the Korea_HS team and the iGEM competition, he was able to provide important advice for creating a collaborative and fruitful year of iGEM.
Seongjun Yoon, Ph.D. is the founder of Fortuga Bio, a research-driven biotechnology company established in 2021 and a researcher at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University Institute for Molecular and Cellular Anatomy (Aachen, Germany) specialized in consequences of keratin mutations on intraepidermal and epidermis-matrix adhesion. He discussed with us the advantages and disadvantages of the DNA storage method, its impact on companies, and environmental effects of the storage method.
Yoseb Song, Ph.D. is a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Chemical Engineering with a Ph.D. in biological engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and a B.S. in biochemistry and cell biology from the University of California San Diego. He discussed with us on making DNA storage more accessible to coding other than binary and the ethics of DNA data storage.
Jaehan Park (박재한) is the director of Samsung C&T Trading Division, and is in charge of its IT infrastructure construction, which includes maintenance of PC, internet, network connection, security, external virus management, etc. He discussed with us on the accessibility of DNA storage and how to further implicate it on other uses.
Sungjun Lee is a member of SAP (software company) data storage department in South Korea. He discussed the possible limitations and limitations of DNA data storage. He also gave general advice on the general applications of our project.
Teagsang Yoo is an employee at SK biopharmaceutical in South Korea. During the discussion, he talked about how much it will take to make this project actually work. He also said that, with multiple DNA data storage centers, it will cost a lot of money, therefore there will be only a limited amount of DNA data storage centers.
Cherry Sung is a 15-year-old youth environmental activist from South Korea and is one of the 2021 International Young Eco Heroes. With us, she discussed climate change and how to combat it, both individually and communally, as well as the effect of DNA centers on the environment.
Sang-Yoon Lee is the head of the Energy Economy Adjustment Bureau, in South Korea. During the meeting with him, we discussed how much change in huma’s lifestyle can significantly influence, positively, on the rising climate change. Furthermore, he suggested that, to make our project work, we should have a larger scale DNA data storage center to make significant changes.
Haryeong, the founder of Plantris, an app that enables a population to easily plant trees and compensate for CO2 emissions. During our meeting, Haryeong gave us very important advice for a startup. Additionally, she explained the general idea of how business should work and how we should design our business.
Mr. Stew Pienaar is a Learning Support Teacher at the American International School of Johannesburg (ASIJ). With him, we discussed strong parts and flaws of current systems of support in schools for students with intellectual disabilities. Furthermore, he provided an insight into how stigma can further motivate students to continue pursuing the STEM field as well as how that stigma can still be strong enough to block students from pursuing their interests.
Team-Team Collaboration/Partnership: We earnestly thank NU Kazakhstan, KCIS iGEM, ASIJ Tokyo, GEMS Taiwan, Thailand RIS, CCU iGEM, and ICT Mumbai for their active collaboration with Team Korea_HS, in wet lab, dry lab, and human practices. Furthermore, we would particularly like to commend Empire Gene for maintaining a strong partnership with Korea_HS throughout the iGEM journey in all aspects.
Direct Collaboration Initiatives (Instagram Reels Project): We appreciate GEMS Taiwan, ASIJ Tokyo, and MetaThess, who participated in Korea_HS’s Instagram Reels Project.
Direct Collaboration Initiatives (iGEMers’ Badge Project): We are grateful to the many teams that participated in the iGEMers’ Badge Project: McGill iGEM, Thailand_RIS, iGEM PATRAS2022, Fisherly, MINGDAO, CCU_Taiwan, ASIJ Tokyo, Starchstem iGEM, iGEM IISER MOHALI, ICT Mumbai, iGEM Thessaloniki, UBC iGEM, iGEM IISER Pune, and Stony Brook iGEM.
Direct Collaboration Initiatives (International High School Network): We congratulate KCIS iGEM and Empire Gene for proudly participating in Korea_HS’s International High School Network.
Indirect Collaboration Initiatives: We acclaim CU Egypt, McGill, Queen’s, and Cornell’s University iGEM. iGEM Patras, GEMS Taiwan, Thailand RIS, KCIS iGEM, Taipei Wego, CCU iGEM, and Cambridge iGEM for allowing Team Korea_HS in their creative collaboration outreach. These opportunities allowed Team Korea_HS to develop a globally collaborative vision that molded the team’s identity- actively interacting with the iGEM community to better the world through common creative pursuits in synthetic biology.