January
8th January: We finalized our team members as well as crews for every group. And we had our first plenary meeting face-to-face.
February
27th February: In a team meeting with our PI and advisors, we had a brainstorm and finalized the MFC as our project idea.
March
1st March: We studied the criterion of the previous iGEM competition and shared ideas with each other.
24th Marth: The group responsible for the experiment and modeling performed a literature search for the principle of MFC and relevant experiment operation and models of Shewanella.
April
5th April: The team registration on the official website of iGEM.
11th April: We did some research to help design and build biobricks for AgBP2. And we cultured the E.coli and Shewanella oneidensis in the media of LB for the following experiment.
12th April: We referred to related research to establish a growth model of Shewanella under the condition of silver ions.
15th - 17th April: Attempted to get recon of the plasmid containing the sequence of AgBP2 by PCR and MultiS One Step Cloning Kit.
19th - 21st April: The second attempt to get recon of the plasmid containing the sequence of AgBP2.
23rd - 26th April: Conducted the transformation experiment of AgBP2 for the third time and screened to get the recon E. coli.
29th April: Had a meeting to discuss the progress of the experiment in the last three weeks.
May
2nd May: The team co-organized the online iGEM Meeting up with teams XJTLU-CHINA, ZJU-China, ZJUT China, and CPU_CHINA. We had the desire to build a partnership with team XJTLU-CHINA.
5th - 7th May: Separated the plasmid containing the sequence of AgBP2 from the recons and sequenced the plasmids. Cultured the Shewanella for the following electrotransformation.
8th May: Attempted to get Shewanella recon containing the AgBP2 fragment by electrotransformation. Screened the recons.
12th May: The group responsible for the experiment performed a literature search and shared ideas about the construction of MFC.
13th May: Repeated the eletrotransformation experiment of Shewanella.
17th - 21st May: Carried out the eletrotransformation experiment of Shewanella for the third time. However, we still failed to get the recon containing Atox1 by LB with Kanamycin. We decided to redesign our experiment.
18th May: The group responsible for the experiment met Professor Zhang Jianrong and consulted the details and information of the electrochemical workstation.
22nd May: We had a team meeting to summarize the work in the past few months. The group responsible for the experiment made a presentation about the principle as well as the progress of the transformation of E.coli and Shewanella.
June
1st June: Exchanged ideas with team XJTLU-CHINA, who were carrying out a similar project about Ag+ at that time. They taught us to adjust the voltage intensity continuously in each repeat of eletrotransformation.
2nd June: Our instructor encouraged us to try another silver-binding protein, Atox1(204bp), which is a larger silver-binding protein than AgBP2(36bp).
6th - 8th June: Designed and built biobricks for Atox1. And cultured the E.coli and Shewanella oneidensis in the media of LB for the following experiment.
13th - 15th June: Attempted to get recon of the plasmid containing the sequence of Atox1 by PCR and MultiS One Step Cloning Kit.
16th - 18th June: Repeated the transformation experiment of Atox1.
20th - 23rd June: Screened and got the E.coli recon containing the Atox1 fragment. Scaled up the culture of recon.
27th June: 30th June: Separated the plasmids containing a sequence of Atox1 from the recons and sequenced the plasmids. Cultured the Shewanella for the following electrotransformation.
July
11th July: Had a team meeting to summarize the HP and modeling progress. We also discussed the details of our project direction.
13th July: Collaboration meeting with team XJTLU. Talked about project direction and possible collaboration.
14th - 16th July: Attempted to get Shewanella recon containing the Atox1 fragment by electrotransformation. Screened the recons.
18th - 20th July: Repeated the eletrotransformation experiment to transform the Atox1 into the Shewanella, during which we adjusted the voltage intensity continuously in each repeat.
22nd - 24th July: Improved and repeated the eletrotransformation experiment of Shewanella for the third time. Screened and got the recon containing Atox1 by LB with Kanamycin.
27th July: We attended the online Fresh Freshwater Bioremediation Alliance Meetup and made a presentation for our project.
30th July: Prepared the anode materials and devices for the three-electrode cell experiment. Cultured the Shewanella with Atox1 as the experimental group and wild Shewanella as a control group.
August
5th August: Started the three-electrode cell experiment and recorded the output current.
19th August: We attended the Conference of China iGEMer Community(CCiC) and made a presentation for our project.
20th August: Had a discussion to finalize the pattern of our team uniform.
26th August： We visited the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, and interviewed Dr. Cong. 31st August: We had a meeting to summarize the progress of HP, MFC construction, modeling, and wiki writing with our PI and Advisor.
September
2nd September: Collaboration meeting with team XJTLU-CHINA to discuss and share possible measures of Biosafety in our project when it is applied in the real world.
24th September： We gave an online lecture about Synthetic biology and the future of humans to the students in Shuangbai No.1 middle school.
25th September: We referred to related research to establish a simulation model of microbial fuel cells under lactic acid condition
October
7nd October: We add new documentation to an existing Part, pCusC mKate2 (BBa_K1980007), and expand its applications in silver ions indicator through paper reading and our experiment results.We detected the fluorescence of transfermed E. coli at different concentrations of silver ions.