During 2022 iGEM season, we have collaborated with two teams respectively. They are team RS_United_China, and XHD_Wuhan_pro_China.

RS_United_China’s project is to find a more friendly and cost saving way to produce melatonin, in order to change the market and help people with sleep disorders. In September, we have held a virtual meeting, which lasts about an hour, mainly focused on education tools and joint video making. RS_United_China team has shared many useful tools about making posters and interactive powerpoints. They have introduced us software like powtoon and canva design. Since our team members are lack of experience and skill making these promotional stuff, we used to spent a lot of time on drawing our posters. With the help from the team, the efficiency of making posters and interactive presentations are largely increased. We also discussed planning to make a joint video to have a new way to introduce synthetic biology use in plants, the video is still under filming. We also shared experiences in fundraising and both used live stream program to attract more people to donate money. In general, the meeting was very constructive. We have learned new tools to increase our working efficiency and both benefits from collaborating with each other. We look forward to create more meaningful outcomes with RS_United_China team.

XHD-Wuhan-Pro-China aims to provide a new answer to the problem of zinc contamination with zinc sensors. The project is also concentrated on solving heavy metal problems. They are focused on detection while we focus on cure. In September, we have communicated a lot on technology as well as public promotions and social investigation. After communication and discussion and result from our surveys, we agreed that many people still need to be educated and know more about synthetic biology. As a result, we jointly developed a program on WeChat to attract and educate the general public with synthetic biology knowledge. Both of our teams have more than 150+ followers. We strongly believe that the collaboration can bring more understanding to the public about heavy metal problems and environmental protection.