In order to achieve the research goals of the team and improve the comprehensive ability of team members, we also actively participated in the collaboration with other teams. As we all know, cooperation is the cornerstone of success. This kind of collaboration is not only cooperation within the team, but also a kind of collaboration between us and other teams. Although teamwork and expert consultation have greatly expanded our research horizons, interacting and collaborating with other iGEM teams is also an important aspect of our self-improvement.
On August 16th, the E.H-Cheers team and MaiaPotion Team (Zhejiang_United) had an effective online meeting.First, the two teams introduced each other's main research topics, which is conducive to better understanding of the innovations and difficulties of each other's research. At the same time, we also reported our progress. Although the two sides have great differences in experimental techniques, we still reached a consensus that scientific research is not a product of separation from society, but should serve the development of society. Therefore, both teams attach great importance to interaction with society. We consulted the MaiaPotion team with many questions about the experimental process. The MaiaPotion team not only provided suggestions but also summarized their own experience during conducting some experimental procedures. On the issue of the street interview, MaiaPotion patiently provided us with their interview experience and selflessly informed them of the experience they had learned from their failure. For example, we should interview at least two people, and one of them should record to ensure that the interview results can be accurately recorded. In the question session, members from MaiaPotion also asked us professional questions about biosynthesis, showing their keen interest in our topic, and we answered them individually.
Online meetup with the 2022 iGEM team MaiaPotion (Zhejiang_United)
In general, we gained a wealth of suggestions and experience from MaiaPotion through this collaboration. The MaiaPotion team members were very interested in our educational activities and put forward specific suggestions. These suggestions also inspired us to arouse the interest of the audience through stories, animations, etc., and then attract everyone's attention to the field of synthetic biology, especially long-term and sustained attention. We look forward to having more cooperation with the MaiaPotion team in the future to obtain more guidance.
On August the 17th, we met with ProTeen-fessionals (YKPao), and we discussed friendly with each other on the topic of the progress we have made respectively. Their project aims to develop a new solution of self-detection for Helicobacter pylori in order for early therapy.
To be specific, our team has demonstrated multiple aspects of progress such as our merchandise products, surveys and questionnaire, WeChat Official account, and the experiment reports from our wet lab. Their experience with integrating experimentation in Integrated Human Practices is actually a good mix of scientific spirit and problem awareness.
Online meetup with the 2022 iGEM team ProTeen-fessionals (YKPao)
Both of us use social media as important channels for our education and communication, so we communicated this topic as well. To express our support, we not only followed the Bili Bili accounts and WeChat Official accounts of each other but also filled up surveys for each other. In this part, we mainly discussed each other regarding the educational articles. Per our plan, we suggested focusing on the education on biosynthesis or the biotechnology utilized in our experiments which is also consistent with the value of iGEM. Regarding the article style, ProTeen-fessionals shared their ideas for illustrating Helicobacter pylori by personification in their educational articles and suggested focusing on the readability to achieve more followers for a bigger impact. Through this brainstorming, we gained more inspiration for our education campaigns. In addition, we also shared our charity sale strategy that we focused on online sale channels while they decided to find a sale spot offline.
During this collaboration, the two teams have established a deep friendship, and we plan to carry out project linkage in the future. This is the first time we have had such in-depth communication and linkage with other teams.
On August 20th, Our team participated in the 2022 iGEM Beijing Meetups with many other iGEM teams, including the host ibowu-China who invited us, which is an interactive platform for multiple teams to participate and communicate equally. The meeting was hosted offline while we had a conflicting schedule so our team participated in the meeting online. Per the meeting agenda shown below, there were 8 iGEM teams and some of them were university teams.
The agenda of the 2022 iGEM Beijing Meetup (left) and the screen for our online presentation in that
meeting room (right)
Through this multi-party communication, we had a better understanding of the iGEM itself, including the connection between the high school competition and the college competition. At the same time, we also learned more about the theme of other teams. We felt that the meaning of iGEM is not only the competition but also to popularize science to the public who do not know biology and to try to make products which can change people's quality of life and improve people's life.
We were communicating our project online with those iGEM teams
The collaboration was undoubtedly profound and substantial. All of us introduced our specific experiences in topic selection, achievement promotion, and social research. From a college student's point of view, many groups from Beijing in this collaboration also suggested suggestions. Some of them have participated iGEM before so they provided us with much practical advice on the presentation and judging sessions. Compared with our predecessors, we are obviously limited by age. For example, our research topic is to improve the taste of Luzhou-flavor liquor, but most of our team members are minors, so they are not allowed to taste the samples as part of the investigation. At the same time, under the suggestion of other teams, we also began to think about what we could do more about this topic. Especially in the context of building an environment-friendly society, we also look forward to promoting our technological innovation in a more economical and environmentally friendly way. In the follow-up activities, we are also ready to carry out linkage on the subject, as well as the connection of public account articles.
On August 21st, E.H-Cheers had online communication with Bis-Vacc (Shanghai_HS) who was located in Shanghai, in which we shared our diverse topics. Their team aims to explore dual oral vaccines, and use the bifidobacteria expression system to obtain recombinant proteins expressed by the fusion of two antibodies, so as to achieve immunity from two viruses by eating a sugar pill, and protect the health of infants
Online meetup with the 2022 iGEM team Bis-Vacc (Shanghai_HS)
In this communication, we were no longer a novice team. As a more senior team, we took the initiative to provide our experience and suggestions to the BIS-VACC team. In regards to the street interviews, we highlighted that we must not be afraid to talk to the interviewees, and we must be brave to interview them because interviewers cannot determine which passers-by are the target interviewees unless we approach them. And in the preparation of BP, we also shared our experience in drafting and we strongly recommended they take more time to determine the product positioning before they jump into the drafting.
At the same time, the BIS-VACC team also gave us suggestions on peripheral sales. They carried out peripheral sales through product set sales. After their recommendations, we also improved the advertising strategies for our charity sale.
Even after this collaboration meetup, we still keep in touch. The BIS-VACC team participated in our subsequent online lecture on synthetic biology science popularization and showed much support. Our collaboration is still going on and we both look forward to furthering ineraction.
