Partnership with Empire Gene

[Figure 1]

On July 17th, team Korea_HS held its first partnership meeting with team Empire Gene. The meeting began with each team’s collaboration team co-leaders introducing their projects and goals and planning direct collaboration initiatives. Both teams, consisting of high school students, were able to spend the remaining second half of the virtual meeting asking clarifying questions regarding their topics. Compared to Korea_HS’s first team-team collaboration with a university team, which demonstrated more of a mentor-mentee relationship, receiving support from team members of similar age and experience was convenient in a different aspect.

On July 26th, Korea_HS and Empire Gene held their second meeting, updating each other on different stages of our projects to seek difficulties or weaknesses that could be assisted by each other. Throughout the season, the two teams had a total of six formal meetings and continuous communication through Instagram direct messages. A majority of the meetings were focused on wet lab and public education and engagement. This was because the teams shared a common objective to use specific proteins to propose a solution to their topic of choice. Additionally, both teams aspired to expand the accessibility of iGEM and the use of synthetic biology to the general public.

[Figure 2]

Empire Gene offered to create a shared Youtube Channel with Korea_HS to promote and educate each other’s projects since both teams did their wet labs based on utilizing specific proteins. Korea_HS used the mitochondrial protein TFAM, while Empire Gene used therapeutic proteins. 6 videos were uploaded during the partnership period. 3 videos were made by Korea_HS: “PCR, How does it work?”, “DNA Data Storage,” and “What is DNA Storage”, and 3 videos were made by Empire Gene: “Midi Prep,” “Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR),” and “Lambert_GA 2022: How Padlocks Detect miRNAs Related to Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)”.

The main purpose of this Youtube Channel was to spread the knowledge and our goal to the outside community besides the iGEM teams. Since most of the iGEM teams were limited to sharing each other’s knowledge, making a video that could be seen publicly was one of the best ways that both Korea HS and Empire Gene could do together. The production of these educational videos was meaningful because after introducing our projects to other iGEM teams with only presentations, we were able to create a different form of learning resource.

Even though the videos were not seen by a significant amount of viewers, few viewers were still able to see and, hopefully, learned new and unique knowledge about both Korea HS and Empire Gene’s project.

[Figure 3]: (Korea_HS)

Figure 4}: (Korea_HS)

At the beginning of the two team’s partnership, Korea_HS’s HP team initiated a sticker poll survey in Apgujeong, South Korea, in order to gather the public’s opinion and knowledge about PCR and data storage. Coming from two different countries with people that are exposed to different information, Korea_HS members were curious about how the survey results would differ in the United States. Empire Gene, located in New York City, was able to provide us with survey results of the same questions and prompts gathered in front of the Empire State Building.

From this Outdoor Sticker Poll in New York City, Korea_HS was able to gain new data on how many people are already familiar or not familiar with PCR and DNA Data storage. By having this data, the data that Korea HAS had formerly was able to expand outside of South Korea. Not only Korea HS benefited from this Outdoor Sticker Poll in New York City, but Empire Gene also benefited. Empire Gene also wanted to do creative and interactive surveys in the public, but when they heard that Korea_HS did a sticker poll in South Korea, Empire Gene also thought that it would be perfect for their project. They created a similar formatted sticker poll asking about their project-related questions. Therefore, both teams, Korea_HS and Empire Gene both affected positively by gaining new data and new projects.

[Figure 5]

After Korea_HS’s wet-lab group 2 successfully finished their two sessions, the members and the professor realized that group 3 they were in need of a method to perform a quantitative analysis of unknown proteins. Thankfully, in the time between group 2 and group 3, we were able to meet with Empire Gene for the second time and get a piece of advice. In the midst of updating each other on their wet labs during the second partnership meeting (7/26), Empire Gene suggested they use Bradford assay to plug later obtained data into the equation from Beer’s Law to quantify the protein in the solution. Korea_HS was able to get this approved by their professor and safely finish their wet lab.

Empire Gene was also able to receive help from Korea_HS during their beginning of their web lab process. Empire Gene was not quite sure about their hypothesis and wanted to be very sure before the wet lab process. Empire Gene’s project hypothesis was: Fusion of HIRMAB to NT-3 will successfully cross BBB and promote neuron regeneration in vitro. Since Empire Gene wanted a second opinion about their hypothesis, we suggested that we can confirm the hypothesis with our professor. After the positive feedback from our professor, they were able to process with their wet lab within the time.

Not only we offered help with their hypothesis, we also recommended them to use the CHO-K1 cell. CHO-K1 cells have the ability to grow cells at a rapid pace. Since Empire Gene’s project was regenerations and CHO-K1 cells help to make larger cell groups, we suggested implementing this idea to their project. After our meeting, Empire Gene did more specific research about CHO-K1 cells and decided to implement these suggestions to their wet lab process.