Partnership

We have established a partnership with CSU_CHINA since last year's competition. Given the wonderful cooperation experience last year, we agreed to do further communication and cooperation as our project progresses.

In the communication process, we exchange our insights for both projects and try to solve the design encountered in each other's projects. And we communicate some experimental optimization issues in the laboratory. Moreover, we collaborate to do publicity and education activities based on the common part of our project， and we acquired more feedback from communities.

In this way, we are lucky to establish a long-span and in-depth partnership with the CSU_CHINA team. (Click here to CSU_CHINA's Partnership page)

1. Online Meetup

On July 28, 2022, two teams agreed to further communicate at the online meetup. At the meetup, members of two teams gave each other in-depth presentations on projects and existing results and conceived the next steps in the direction of collaboration.

In terms of experiment, The NUDT_CHINA team points out the limitations of the CSU_CHINA team in the project design.

For CSU_CHINA, a design approach using the AIOD-CRISPR system can be considered in the absence of standard PAM alternatives. AIOD-CRISPR system binds two different sites by using a pair of Cas12a-crRNA complexes generated from two separate crRNA, close to the binding site of the primers in the target sequence. The AIOD-CRISPR system not only enables the detection of nucleic acids with few-copy sensitivity but also addresses the limitations of the PAM sequence-dependent design of crRNA and expands the scope of crRNA design.

NUDT_CHINA team indicates that this design also has limitations, it requires relatively complete target sequences, but there may be problems such as fragment breaks in Echinococcus cfDNA, and there is no attempt to detect multiple sequences in one system in this paper. These questions await the CSU_CHINA team to solve.

In terms of HP, we exchanged the work carried out by both sides in the early stage and developed a science education plan. On the following National Science Popularization Day, considering a large number of tasks, we intend to team up for this event together.

In terms of art, we decided to collaborate on the flyer and poster design. As for the video design to exchange ideas and technical details, which could make our work more effective.

In terms of the wiki, the two teams exchanged issues on the construction of the web framework and discussed in detail the problems that arose on both sides, which eventually solved the problem of pipeline failure on NUDT_CHINA's wiki.

2.offline meeting on September 4

Affected by the local epidemic, our early cooperation was mainly online,, It wasn't until the epidemic situation stabilized that we had the opportunity to communicate offline. On September 4th, we were invited to visit the laboratory of CSU_CHINA and hold an offline meeting. In this offline exchange, CSU_CHINA gave some meaningful suggestions on the optimization of experimental materials and signal detection.NUDT_CHINA provided CSU_CHINA with many constructive suggestions, such as academic presentation methods and contextual improvements. Also, the NUDT_CHINA team mentioned its experience with ethical and legal issues in previous years, which was a great help and reference for CSU_CHINA.

During the exchange process, we had a very in-depth discussion with CSU_CHINA about the projects and experimental contents of both sides. We formed a completed framework of partnership and planned the subsequent cooperation arrangements. 

In terms of experiment, CSU_CHINA mentioned that the results of our project regarding the sublocalization of the GR_LBD-EGFP fusion protein in cells were not clear enough, and suggested adding a set of higher-resolution microscopic imaging results.

In terms of art， we exchanged wiki design issues and provided many creative and interesting ideas for each other's wiki art design, which greatly beautified both teams' wikis.

In terms of the wiki, the CSU_CHINA parts upload failed and came to NUDT_CHINA for help. We found that the code contained JavaScript, which is not allowed for parts uploads. After correcting this, CSU_CHINA changed to using pure HTML to write the code and eventually solved the problem successfully.

2.2.Science Popularization Day

September 25 is the National Science Day Activities period. As agreed by our two teams, we collaborated with CSU_CHINA and participated in the science popularization activities. (Click here for details) CSU_CHINA was responsible for the promotion parts, while NUDT_CHINA was responsible for lecturing as well as the experimental parts.

The success of the science popularization activities is inseparable from the joint efforts of both parties. Both team members were closely involved and actively followed up in the planning, preparation, and implementation stages of the event. In addition, the cooperation in science and activities further improved the communication and cooperation between the two teams, and we express our sincere thanks and appreciation to the CSU_CHINA team.

1.The improvement and optimization of the CSU_CHINA team

Following CSU_CHINA's recommendations, we performed cell localization imaging of our GR_LBD-EGFP fusion protein with a laser confocal microscope. This does provide a significant improvement in the proof of our results.

2．The improvement and optimization of the NUDT_CHINA team

According to our suggestions, CSU_CHINA collated and analyzed the existing sequence information in their laboratory, and screened out multiple cfDNA sequences as detection targets, which improved the detection efficiency.

The achievement of the offline meetup on cooperation was organized as follows: