Communication





Overview

In China, synthetic biology is not yet a widely popularized field, and many students have never had the chance to learn more about this subject since it is not included in the curriculum for public schools. Hence, our team wish to popularize synthetic biology to students. When discussing how to achieve this goal, we concluded that designing and putting up an easy-to-replicate exhibition in several schools is the best method since our team members come from over 20 schools, including both public schools and international schools.

Ultimately, our exhibition was successfully exhibited in 7 schools-SCIE, BIPH, BIHZ, BISZ, Yucai High School, High School affiliated to Shenzhen Normal University, Guangdong Country Garden School- to teachers and students ranging from elementary schools to high schools.

During our preparation, GreatBay-SCIE and KEYSTONE reached out to us, expressing their interest in co-preparing and hosting this exhibition. Hence, our team partnered with GreatBay-SCIE and KEYSTONE to design an easy-to-replicate exhibition that contain three main parts: posters about all three teams' projects, 2 posters and 1 leaflet about synthetic biology, as well as interactive parts such as playing our original synthetic biology card game “Crazy Messy Yeast”, using micropipette, looking at YPD and LB, looking at and smelling commercial Kluyveromyces marxianus, and touching the “leather” (BC membrane produced by kombucha overlaid with spidroin produced by Links 2021 team). To pique the interest of younger audience, our arts team also design yeast key chains and stickers that are sent to Links’ members in charge of the exhibition in each of the 7 schools.

iGEM members from various schools can easily organize exhibitions or lectures in their schools by following our exhibition plan and printing the provided materials here.

To see our exhibition plan, click







Our Original Card Game-Crazy Messy Yeast Engineering

LINKS-China designed an original game for the exhibition. The game is short and is extremely easy to learn. Not only is it enjoyed by students from all grade levels, it also serves important educational functions: when playing, players will learn and become familiar with how to engineer a yeast cell, and gain a deeper understanding of technical terms such as promoter, terminator, CDS, plasmid vector, and homologous arms .

To see our game-Crazy Messy Yeast Engineering-and its rules, click




Learn synthetic biology through this game

Synthetic biology is an engineering discipline based on genetic engineering and it contains plenty of engineering principles. Since 2000, Synthetic biology includes the basic idea of electronic engineering, which is the Genetic Circuits. The logic is that we separate DNA into parts that have simple functions and then construct these parts in a specific order. For instance, one simple circuit in yeast contains a promotor, a coding sequence, and a terminator and we stabilize their combination by putting them on a vector.

A physical copy of Crazy Messy Yeast Engineering

1. Introduction of basic parts：

Promotor: One may interpret it as the switch for circuits, for its main function is to start the transcription of genes, making DNA into RNA.

Inducible promoter：Normal promotor remains turned on when used, while inducible promotor only allows genes to function in specific circumstances. When the inducer is available in the environment, the promotor will be activated or reduced to an extremely low level.

Coding sequqnce：Just like the electric applications, RNA will be translated into the corresponding protein after being transcripted by the coding sequence. For example, one single fluorescent gene will not glow, like one single bulb will not shine. However, the coding sequence can make microorganisms glow when successfully constructed in a complete circuit.

Optomized coding sequence：Genes require protein to functionalize, so we can change the corresponding amino acid sequence to enhance genes’ functions. To be noticed, sometimes these changes don’t bring beneficial outcomes.

Terminator：It needs to be paired with the promotor to play a role for it can stop the transcription of genes. Utilizing more terminators can stop the transcription more thoroughly.

Plasmid Vector：DNA needs to be put in cells, so we need a vector. The plasmid is a small and annular DNA and can replicate stably in cells. As a result, it can be used as a carrier.

Homologous arms：To stabilize DNA in cells, we can integrate DNA into a genome to have lasting existence. Homologous arms are two sequences that are similar to a genome, which can be used as a disguise to integrate foreign DNA into an organism’s genome.

2. Genetic engineering

Take yeast modification as an example: we can amplify a specific DNA by "polymerase chain reaction (PCR)", and add a 50bp overlap sequence to both ends of DNA through a PCR tool: a primer. The "transformation" experiment allows foreign DNA to enter yeast microbes by creating gaps in their surfaces either physically (such as electroporation) or chemically (such as lithium acetate). There are a large number of recombinant enzymes in yeast, so if there is an overlap sequence between DNA, they can be recombined to obtain a complete genetic circuit. It is important to note that not all yeasts can successfully assemble DNA, so we need to use some "Test" methods, such as colony PCR and DNA sequencing, to determine whether the DNA has been successfully assembled. Once the DNA is successfully assembled, we need to undergo fermentation and culture experiments to see if it is functioning as intended. Once the functional test was found and the predicted genetic engineering was completed, we start the next round of modification.



3. Chance cards：

During modification, we might encounter random situations. Some occur within organisms’ bodies, originating from the complexity of biological systems.

Promoter Loss：In DNA resemblance, the promotor is randomly lost, so the gene cannot be expressed.

Terminator Loss：In DNA resemblance, the terminator is randomly lost. This phenomenon takes place more often because of the complexity of the terminator sequence.

Random Mutation：Microorganisms may mutate their coding sequence randomly, causing them to lose their livability.

NHEJ（Non-homogeneous end joint）：In DNA resemblance, Homologous arms don’t always succeed. The reason is that there might be another way for DNA to repair—NHEJ, causing resemblance to fail.

Some errors are human-related, and in the real lab, you can improve your skills to avoid them:

Failure optimization: Not all optimizations are successful in modifying coding DNA. Some modifications that are too ideal may cause the organism to die, produce an inclusion protein (an ineffective protein), or simply render the expressed protein ineffective.

Antibiotic defect: Antibiotic was used as a screening marker for plasmid DNA statically present in the cell in microbial manipulation. Antibiotics can cause harm to the organism, but plasmid generally carries resistance DNA, to eliminate antibiotic damage. If antibiotic storage fails, the plasmid DNA will be seen by the organism as unnecessary DNA and discard it.

UV Irradiation: Laboratories routinely use ultraviolet light for sterilization. If the UV light hits your Parts, it will randomly mutate the DNA and render it non-functional.

There are also some good practices to help you experiment:

Aseptic Operation: good aseptic operation, can make your microbial experiment will not contaminated by bacteria. Of course, beware of someone deliberately contaminating your experiment! (oops!)

Inducer: The inducer increases the expression of the inducible promoter. Watch out for someone who "accidentally" spills your inducer!



4. How to play this game？

we presented a video about the whole process of the game.




5. Feedbacks：

Student A：As someone who has some prior knowledge of biology (but not synthetic biology), the overall experience of this card game is great. It’s easy to play, not time consuming, and get us familiar with commonly used syn bio terminologies. One advice I will give is that in order to let players have a deeper understanding in genetic engineering, maybe it’s be better to briefly explain the function of each parts and the reasons behind those accidents.

Student B：As a student who just finished honors bio, I found this activity quite helpful. The “chances” cards actually introduced me a lot about how different factors could eventually harm/aid experimental results. Additionally, in order to win this game, we have to understand the structure of a basic sequence: vector, promoter, coding sequence, and terminator. By playing this game for several rounds, I found myself more familiar with different factors and structures of a DNA sequence!






Our Exhibitions

Our exhibition was exhibited in 7 schools including both public schools and international schools: SCIE, BIPH, BIHZ, BISZ, Yucai High School, High School affiliated to Shenzhen Normal University, Guangdong Country Garden School. Our audience includes teachers and students ranging from elementary schools to high schools.

As written in our plan (see Links Plan above), at the start of our exhibition, we pique the interest of our audience by tying synthetic biology to everyday life: we ask our audience to think about how leather and biodegradable plastic are produced. Then, we showed them the promotion videos and posters of Links, SCIE, and KEYSTONE to demonstrate what synthetic biology can do and how it can be used to solve major problems, such as environmental ones. Following that, we introduce our original game to the audience and teach them how to play. Then, the audience can play in groups and are free to ask us any questions that arises while playing. In schools with limited space, we modify our exhibition into a short presentation and games.
Below are the pictures of our exhibitions in the seven schools mentioned above.

We prepared BC membranes made by kombucha, to allow everyone to experience the charm of synthetic biology through touch.

We prepared Kluyveromyces marxianus, a type of scent-producing yeast, to allow everyone to experience the products of synthetic biology through smell.


BIPH


SCIE


High school Affiliated to Shenzhen Normal University


Yucai High School


Guangdong Country Garden School



At the end of the exhibition, we recommend Links’ WeChat official account to our audience so that they can learn more about Links’ project.

How we engineer yeasts to let them produce MAAs.







Tips from Our Members

Regarding preparations

Theresa: “Publicizing is important for attracting audience. For example, I put posters publicizing our exhibition on elevators, dorms, hallways, and some classrooms.”
Andrew: “We didn’t advertise this exhibition well enough in our school, and we had to change the time and location last minute due to a sudden change of school schedule. As a result, many students and teachers who wanted to come were unable to do so due to tests, student council elections, meetings, and other events.”
Marsha: “I would recommend choosing a location where a lot of people will pass by. For example, we chose to hold the exhibition in the lobby, where all students have to pass through to get picked up by their parents. As a result, many students-ranging from elementary school students to high schoolers-stopped by and listened to our exhibition. I also put our team’s merchandise on the stage and the merchandise really effectively caught the attention of many students.”
Jiaxing He: “When introducing synthetic biology-a field completely foreign to a lot of people-to your audience, you can effectively catch their attention and make synthetic biology seem less daunting by tying synthetic biology with daily life: things people often see but don’t understand.”
Sophie: “It’s better to settle down on two available time slots with your teachers so that if something unexpected disrupt your original schedule you will still have a back-up plan .”

Exhibition Highlights
Jiaxing He: “Our school’s students were very interested in the BC membrane; touching the membrane left a deep impression on them.”
Andrew: “Using the game to incite their interest was very successful! Our audience was fascinated with the game.”
Theresa: “Using our promotion video as the introduction made the atmosphere very cheerful and made it easy to transition into other activities.

Feedback
“The game was really very fun, and I also learned a lot about synthetic biology through it.”
“PCR is really impressive, it can turn a DNA molecule into a different one within four minutes!”
“A lot of people say they want to protect marine life, but they don't know how they can do so. Thus we can infer that if biological sunscreen which is harmless to the marine ecosystem exists, many people will be very willing to buy and try it.”
“I really learned a lot. Previously, I thought synthetic biology was something very far away from us, but now I know a lot of things are made possible by synthetic biology.”

As September’s exhibitions draw to an close, we successfully introduced synthetic biology to diverse groups of students and teachers from 7 different schools and piqued their interest in this field. The positively feedbacks from our audience give us confidence in our easily-replicable exhibition. Thus, we have documented all the materials used in our exhibition in details in the exhibition kit. We hope that by recording our process and sharing all of our materials, we can provide materials and inspirations for future iGEMers who want to put up exhibitions as well..

Merchandise designed by Links
From the feedback, we discovered that our merchandise was very popular. Here are the some images of them: Merchandise designed by SCIE






Exhibition kit

To see the posters about the projects of Links, SCIE, and KEYSTONE, click the corresponding buttons. You can click the button one more time to close the PDF.











To see the 2 posters and 1 leaflet made by SCIE about synthetic biology, click the corresponding buttons. You can click the button one more time to close the PDF.











To see the script for the short lectures written by KEYSTONE and more detailed overviews of Links’ and KEYSTONE’s projects, click the corresponding buttons. You can click the button one more time to close the PDF.















Public education

Through the analysis of the correlation between gender and sunscreen-usage in starting survey at the beginning of this project, we concluded that males are generally less aware of the importance of sunscreen usage, and consequently a larger percentage of male had been sunburned compared to that of females.

Therefore, to raise the awareness of the male population in terms of the significance of UV radiation protection, our team decided to educate the fathers of our team members on the damages UV radiation may lead to, downsides of physical and chemical sunscreens currently in the market, the benefits our biological sunscreens, as well as how we genetically engineer yeast to produce MAAs.

Above is a picture of this mini-lecture.

From most of the listeners’ feedback, the main reason they did not want to apply sunscreen is that it’s too troublesome having to squeeze out the sticky sunscreen from a bottle and apply it evenly on the face. They also suggested that changing the sunscreen to spray and creating a lighter feeling on the skin will increase their willingness in usage, both of which our MAA-based sunscreen excelled at and will work to further improve. We are confident that, with more knowledge on the detrimental effects UVR directs to, males are all willing to be costumers of sunscreen products.






WeChat Official Account

On the educational side, we also run a dedicated public website - LINKS Club - to present information about our project to the public in light-hearted, simple, and clear language. The goal is to allow our educational target audience to learn about the sunscreen products we are making with UV PRISMA and the experimental methods used to produce them in a way they can easily understand. The publication of the public page is in the form of, but not limited to, articles and videos, and the content includes the idea that sun protection is important in everyday life and that both men and women, young and old, should pay attention to the need to use sun protection products and the dangers of not using them. Through the spread of media, more people have started to pay attention to sun protection successfully.

Figure1 main page of the public website

Figure2&3 readings of some articles