Overview
Collaborating with other iGEM teams was a meaningful journey where we exchanged thoughts and mentored each other throughout the troubleshooting process. We enjoyed discussing with teams that apply similar parts as ours, from which both teams can gain benefit and improve their construct design. Establishing multidisciplinary collaboration with different iGEM teams through meetup events is also a valuable opportunity for us to share, communicate and learn to think from a novel perspective.
Collab with Team WEGO_Taipei
This year, we had a lot of close collaboration with the Wego_Taipei team, our partnership partner. Not only did we hold several on-line meetings to share our projects and ideas, but we also had several in-person meetings which benefited both the teams.
Our collaboration with the Wego_Taipei team could be divided into three parts, engineering designs (wet lab), device design (dry lab), and Human Practices. During the wet lab collaboration, we discussed the role of degradation tags in the project, and proposed a common design for the plasmid construct test. We also provided the Wego_Taipei team with restriction enzymes and the E. coli Nissle 1917 strain. In human practices, we recorded a podcast program introducing our project together. For the dry lab, we had a discussion about how to limit the range of activities of E. coli by designing a filter device. The collaboration events were much more than just collaboration, for they gave us an access to think beyond our own project and look further into the different side of synthetic biology.
Please visit the Partnership page to get more information about the partnership between our team and the Wego_Taipei team!
Meetup (collaboration) with HKUST (August 10th, 2022)
Our team held a virtual meetup with Team HKUST after we were intrigued by their project design during the
Asian Regional Symposium. Both projects showed common ground regarding the use of fluorescent indicators*
and degradation tags. Throughout the meeting, both teams had in-depth discussion about the usage of
degradation tags in our respective circuits. Team HKUST consulted us on our method for determining
phase-dependent promoters, while we received advice on using TEV protease and its cutting site to perform
inducible degradation of reporter signals. Our device leader, Andy, shared on how bacterial status is
monitored by our hardware device, as well as tips to enhance the contrast between colony color and background
signal. Both teams benefited greatly from the meetup. Take a look at the document below for more details
regarding our collaboration!
* The target goal of our project is to develop fluorescent growth status indicators that could assist in monitoring bacterial growth, while team HKUST aims to apply fluorescent indicators for the detection of bioamine poisoning in seafood.
NTHU iGEM map (August 29th, 2022)
Our team along with 30 other iGEM teams worldwide participated in the “iGEM MAP-Navigation of Synthetic Biology” collaboration project held by team NTHU_Taiwan. Throughout this project, we were invited to join in an open community where iGEMers could tightly connect with one another. This creative online platform helps shorten the distance and establish close bonding between iGEM teams. Moreover, getting acquainted with other teams broadens our vision to understand diverse synbio projects worldwide. From a spiritual aspect, the iGEM Map encourages us to strive forward because we know we are not alone!
Asian Federation of Biotechnology Regional Symposium (26th June 2022)
Our team presented our project to all participants during the “Synthetic Biology & Protein Engineering” session at the 13th Asian Federation of Biotechnology Regional Symposium (ARS 2022), which was organized by team NCKU_Tainan. In our presentation, we encouraged all teams to think about the future trends of synthetic biology by mentioning the importance of “automation” and “precision” in our project application. Throughout the event, we also actively communicated with other iGEM teams by answering questions and providing feedback to one another.
Taiwan Synbio Alliance (22-23th August, 2022)
On August 22 and 23, 2022, we attended the Taiwan synbio alliance held at National Cheng Kung University. There, we got to introduce our project to other iGEM teams from Taiwan and appreciated what they did for their projects. We received some valuable feedback and advice from other teams to improve on our project. During the poster section, we had a deeper discussion among all the projects presented that two days. It was a great opportunity to observe and learn from others as well as to practice our skills for the Grand Jamboree. All in all, attending this alliance was a helpful and memorable experience for all of us. Take a look at our poster to get more understanding about our project!
