Partnership

Background

    At first, SMS encountered the problem of inadequate survey results and was struggling to gather information about patients' and sufferers’ status quo. By chance, we learned that HS_China was also stuck in the dilemma in an iGEMer group. SMS-Shenzhen and HS-China, therefore, exchanged survey results, complementing the information that wasn’t researched. This interaction firmed our resolution of conducting the project since by gathering our information, it turned out to be that there was a large scale of people surrounding suffering from lactose intolerant, which confirmed the necessity of our project. For the wish of pushing people out of lactose intolerance, both SMS and HS_China used different approaches to resolve the group’s daily difficulties.

Fig. 1 |Two teams students talked about collaboration plan

Shared iHP Interviews with stakeholders

     When we designed and improved our project parts, we wanted to fully understand the public requirements. This means that we need to find stakeholders to acquaint with existing products, market prices, and consumers’ needs through interviews with industry professionals.

     After analyzing and defining the stakeholders related to our project, we found that our team's resources were very limited and cannot guarantee the improvement of the project. At this time, HS_China introduced the Guangming Dairy Company to us. Interviews with Guangming Dairy Company supplemented our knowledge about existing low-lactose and lactose-free products.

Fig. 2 |Two teams students talked about collaboration plan

Collaborated Educational Animations

     For our team, it was a challenge to produce educational animations for promoting our project to the public, for no team members were skilful in drawing or painting. A team member of SMS_Shenzhen Luhan Gao was experienced in how to create animations and taught us. We continued to communicate and cooperate with them. Finally, we together made a series of educational short animations to popularize scientific knowledge of lactose intolerance and promote both teams' projects.

    At last, SMS_Shenzhen contributed four episodes to this serial educational video. The first video talked about the symptoms, etiology, and treatment of lactose intolerance. We hoped that more people can understand the symptoms of lactose intolerance and learn to relieve the condition through this video. The second video explained the manifestation, use, role, and impact of β-galactosidase as well as the definition of synthetic biology, and its difference from genetic modification. This episode is more academic, and we aimed to let everyone know more about biology through this video. The third and the fifth videos were introductions to SMS_Shenzhen's and HS_China's projects, respectively. The videos included the origin of our ideas, project goals, general experimental planning, and HP activities. We hoped more people can pay attention to and understand our projects. The fourth video suggested suitable foods and drinks for lactose-intolerant patients. By understanding the food plan and prevention measures to avoid deterioration of the disease in advance, lactose intolerant patients gained more health knowledge for a better life.

Fig. 3 |Two teams students talked about HP plan

Communicated Experiment Plan

     HS_China and SMS_Shenzhen used two different approaches to benefiting people with lactose intolerance, but when designing the experiment, we helped each other debug experiment plans and find protocols. This saved the time of both teams and promoted both teams' progression.

Assisted SMS_Shenzhen in Wiki Construction

While constructing the wiki, a team member of HS_China assisted SMS_Shenzhen in adjusting the size of the pictures in the parts database.Hope that we could keep a friendly partnership in the next year's iGEM competition!

Fig. 4 |HS_China helps SMS_Shenzhen with parts delivery