- CCiC
- SouthernMeeting
- Nanjing-China & NFLS_Nanjing
- LZU-CHINA
To propose our project and the idea of green manufacturing, SCUT-China attended this year's Conference of China
iGEMer Community (CCiC).
CCiC, the largest iGEMer meeting held in China, provides a jamboree for the local iGEMer community where all
participants are engaged to make communication. This year, CCiC came off in Shanghai University of Technology,
meanwhile setting up two branch venues for both online and offline. Considering the COVID-19 epidemic,
SCUT-China chose to attend the online meeting.
Figure 1. Our project description in CCiC guiding book (left)
and our certificate of participation (right)
Titled “Life Meets Everything”, the 2022 CCiC launched a variety of activities, with more than1200 attendants, 85 iGEM teams and other professionals being present. During the meeting, SCUT-China briefly introduced the project design, and was appreciated by judges and other participants. Besides, we also received precious feedbacks on our presentation, for instance, to update the experimental data to current slide. For the dry lab, one of the judges pointed out that we should more concentrate on the modelling outcome, instead of the mathematical principle. All these suggestions would be carefully considered to renew our presentation. Further, we participated in the panel session, and discussed freely on topics like safety rules, cell manufacturing, etc. The meeting was eventually rounded off, and we gained a lot from this experience.
The Southern China Regional Meeting is an annual iGEMer meeting held by Shenzhen University, with several universities in southern China usually participated, including Sun Yat-sen University, South China University of Technology, and University, etc. This year, invited by SZU-China from Shenzhen University, on June 3, SCUT-China attended the 6th Southern China Regional Meeting. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, our team chose to attend the conference online. This year, more than 12 teams in southern China introduced their projects through wonderful and concise presentation on site or online.
Figure 1. The opening of 6th Southern China Regional Meeting
We were involved in such a heated discussion. During the presentation, several participants raised their questions, which mostly concerned about the efficacy of patchoulol alcohol and the function of co-expression system. The feedback was corresponded with what we received before, leading us to refine our project and the implementation scheme. Through the discussion, we learned a lot about the advantages of other teams in terms of innovation, feasibility and rigor, which would eventually fed back to our project.
Collaborations with Nanjing-China & NFLS_Nanjing
Because of the global outbreak of COVID-19, the style of communication has been changed a lot. Invited by NFLS_Nanjing, we attend an online meeting with Nanjing-China & NFLS_Nanjing. In the meeting, 3 teams shared design and result of their projects, human practices with each other. And we also had a free talk about what changes synthetic biology can bring to humanity. To our great honor, Prof. Wei from School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University also attended, who led the gold medal in 2015,2016 and 2018, including the best project in 2016. Another expert is the founder of Zenobiotech, a company which focus on producing high-value natural chemicals using synthetic biology and fermentation technologies.
Both the experts and other teams provided us with valuable suggestions about our project. Prof. Wei suggested that we may further apply our functional dyes to various materials, including cotton and terylene. Besides, they advised our dyes to also be used in the coloring of larger fiber-made object like clothes and handkerchiefs. As for other teams, they gave us the inspiration of expanding the applications in actual scenarios. For examples, the Guangzhou international garment supply chain expo could be a good opportunity to seek for more potential applications. Functional dyes are not only suitable for clothes, but also may be used in other daily supplies or collections.
We carefully consider those advice and share with them our opinion on their project. In this short but fruitful conversation exchanging ideas, we all learned a lot in better applying synthetic biology in real life.
Thanks to NFLS_Nanjing & Nanjing-China for providing us such meaningful meeting for us!
Collaboration with LZU-CHINA
After our functional silk was made, we proposed to apply the product to some bio-artwork for both promotion and education. Considering the audience and locational factor, our team SCUT-China together with team LZU-CHINA contacted with Tianhe Kangyuan Therapy Station and successfully held a voluntary event, meanwhile achieving a collaboration in both teams' human practice.
The Tianhe Kangyuan Therapy Station locates in Tianhe, Guangzhou, providing work therapy assistance for the disabled people. The Therapy Station offers daily courses, including liberal education and manual training, to help participants who are mentally ill or retarded to adapt to the current environment and get through the difficulties. With the guidance of the workers there, we have made full preparation and presented a training course with our hand-made silk sample.
Figure 1. The manual material
Before framing, we invited participants to draw and write freely in the margins. All of these participants wrote down their wishes for health in their life long journey, which really meant a lot to us.
Figure2. participants are guided to create the artworks
The voluntary work received positive feedback from the students and workers there. Besides, we were also suggested to improve the coloring of silk, as some of our products might be a bit faded. All these suggestions will be carefully considered to improve our project. Plus, we also saved an artwork as an example during the tutoring, come and check it!
Figure 3. Volunteers from SCUT-China and LZU-CHINA
Figure 4. participants holding their work (left) and our self-made artwork (right)
Specially mentioning: due to the privacy policy, all the photos of the participants were blotted out. Besides, all of our voluntary work followed the local policy and related safety rules.
Also special thanks to: Tianhe Kangyuan; LZU-CHINA
Click here to see their website!
