We decided to engage with three iGEM teams as partners because we either shared mutual objectives related to our respective projects or have deep communication in a certain area.

In collaboration with CAFA_China, we have deep collaboration on bioart. Due to the similar part design, our communication with HUST-China was focused on the wet lab, while FAFU was like our buddy who worked side by side. We exchanged a lot of experience in iGEM, and we helped each other in the design of wet lab and hardware.

CAFA _China is the first iGEM team with artistic background in China. Organized by the School of Experimental Art of Central Academy of Fine Arts and supported by Bluepha, the team was officially registered in April 2022 and will participate in the iGEM competition since 2022. The team members come from the School of Experimental Art, School of Design, School of Humanities, and School of Modelling of Central Academy of Fine Arts, and their research interests include biological art, technological art, light art, and methodological narrative and performance, etc.

What does CAFA_China brings to Tsinghua?

CAFA _China, an iGEM team with a strong artistic background, brought us a lot of thinking about bio-art. And we worked together on the Science Pop-up Book and TAP Synbio-art Workshops.

When we were first thinking about how to promote synthetic biology to young children, we thought of picture books. After discussion with CAFA _China, they broadened our vision and we decided together to make a pop-up book that would be more eye-catching and better reflect the novelty of synthetic biology. In the process of making the pop-up book, CAFA _China introduced us the Bloom model to help us iterate on the text. After collaboration on the production of the pop-up book, CAFA _China showed us the process of making a work of art and gave our members an understanding of the art field.

We, CAFA_China, and Peking, launched TAP Synbio-art Workshop, which invited biological artists and researchers in the field of synthetic biology to participate in discussions related to bioart. Prior to this, our team's understanding of bioart was weak. Through the sharing brought by the guests invited by CAFA_China, we first had some understanding of the presentation form of bio-art and the excellent cases in the field of bio-art. Then, when developing the curation plan, CAFA_China provided a demonstration of how to turn our scientific projects into art. They also helped us a lot in refining the curation proposal, helping us to generate new ideas and weighing the feasibility of various options.

Science is not a closed-door activity. Through our collaboration with CAFA_China, we gained a better understanding of how to promote synthetic biology to the public.

What does Tsinghua brings to CAFA_China?

Tsinghua is a very experienced and practical team with strong strength and background in the field of synthetic biology. CAFA_China participated in iGEM competition for the first time, and received a lot of help from Tsinghua. The first cooperation was the production of the science pop-up book. CAFA_China was responsible for the visual and creative design of the pop-up book as Tsinghua provided accurate and professional knowledge for CAFA_China, which was an important support for us to complete the science pop-up book.

Because of the smooth cooperation of the first time, we continued to promote the TAP Synbio Art workshop. we planned to develop an exhibition for the synthetic biology project and worked together on the offline exhibition. During the workshop, we invited artists, curators and scholars in the field of bio-art to communicate with each other. The communication with Tsinghua University in this process also enriched the perspective of the bio-art field. At the same time, many professional views and opinions put forward by Tsinghua are very worth learning. Because our team lacked experience in the field of synthetic biology, Tsinghua has provided a lot of help for us to understand and learn more about synthetic biology. At the same time, in the implementation and practice of the exhibition, Tsinghua was also very creative and put forward a lot of interesting ideas and plans. We were very happy to work with such a team that was willing and committed to building a bridge between science and art, and produced many attractive ideas and results.

HUST-China is an iGEM team from the College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. HUST-China was orgnized in 2012 by students who excelled in biomedical engineering, biological information, biotechnology, and other disciplines. They are accountable for various tasks according to their professional qualifications, and have completed a number of outstanding projects so far.

This year, HUST-China became aware of the issues with rare earth mining. Based on the Project they accomplished in 2017, HUST-China designed a brand-new kit to solve the problems which can purify the environment by collecting these precious resource.

What deos HUST_China brings to Tsinghua?

Tsinghua:

Our relationship with HUST stems from the two-component system we both chose to use, Pmr, which is highly versatile and scalable and can be applied to a variety of protein detection scenarios. After learning about each other's project designs, we quickly contacted HUST and conducted our first online meeting to introduce our projects. We also consulted HUST some questions related to the timing of induction and expression of the Pmr system, which helped us to troubleshoot some possible problems during the experiment.

As we encountered the problem of poor system stability in the construction of the Pmr two-component system, we exchanged the experiments designed in the strength validation of the two-component system, and asked HUST to obtain the map of their plasmid constructs and compared them with our plasmid constructs to find if there was a problem in the design of the primary sequence of the receptor.

Around September, we completed multiple induction experiments with both our Pmr and nisin systems. To verify the stability of the system, we asked HUST to complete two nisin induction experiments for us to investigate whether the nisin system could maintain its effectiveness even under different contexts. After we sent the relevant plasmids and reagents to HUST, they quickly completed the experiments for us and obtained similar results as we did in our own lab.Read more about the exchange-experiment result. We benefited greatly from this mutual assistance in wet experiments.

It is worth mentioning that during our pre-experimental stage, we had conducted a project on laccase. We found out that HUST had used laccase components in previous projects, so we contacted HUST and asked them to send us the components at that time, which allowed us to conduct the experiments quickly. Although this project did not turn out to be our final project, we are still very grateful to HUST for their generosity, and perhaps this was the beginning of the relationship between our two teams.

What does Tsinghua brings to HUST_China?

HUST-China:

We have communicated with many teams this year. During the communication with Tsinghua, we found that we all have chosen Pmr two-component system as a part of iGEM project this year, and have made similar modifications, namely peptide replacement of membrane protein pmrB. The GolS operon in our project is also similar to nisin, another expression pathway of Tsinghua. Therefore, we immediately set up an online meeting and had many discussions.

In the communicationa, we found that the problem of low expression efficiency of pmrC promoter encountered by Tsinghua when constructing pmr two-component system was exactly similar to what we encountered. So, we had discussions right away.

After we had obtained some experimental basis, we exchanged plasmids with Tsinghua and asked them to verify whether the GolS system could successfully and persistently anchor the target protein to the membrane, and achieved good results.

In terms of dry lab, we have noticed that Tsinghua's wiki optimization in past years is very excellent, and we have consulted them for their experience.

In the end, the members of the two teams drew together to record our partnership.

In May 2022, we met FAFU in the iGEM community in China and we met online in June to learn about the starting point and future direction of the project. After a thorough discussion of the experiments, modelling and Human Practices, we formalised our partnership. How to detect the spread of pathogens has been a challenge for mankind since ancient times. Water is necessary for everyone's survival, at the same time everyone also produces a lot of domestic wastewater every day. Many known pathogens can remain active in domestic wastewater for a long period of time. FAFU took COVID-19 as an example and developed a device to detect the virus by placing it near the sewer pipe.

What does FAFU bring to Tsinghua?

Tsinghua:

In July, Tsinghua invited FAFU to join us for the Online Charity Classroom and asked them to be one of the organizers. Throughout the five weeks of the Online Charity Classroom, FAFU was responsible for the promotion of the lecture, and worked with Tsinghua to complete the statistics of the event. Thanks to FAFU's dedication, we were able to get solid support for this nationwide online event.

FAFU's wetlab members were very experienced and imaginative, who provided us with many suggestions. One of the proteins used in the design of the reporting system for our project, CFP, was inspired by FAFU. This greatly enhanced the effectiveness of our reporting system. Before that, we originally chose the fluorescent proteins mCherry and EGFP, which not only have high requirements for excitation light and are difficult to obtain suitable light sources in life, but the colors of these two proteins also easily interfere with each other and are not friendly to color-impaired groups. In contrast, the CFP they recommended can be clearly observed under UV light only, and almost no color under daylight, making the other color protein easy to observe with colorimetric, and more suitable for our design.

We were also grateful to have such a partner to walk alongside during iGEM. When we were creating the promotion video, due to the lack of experience, we had discussion with the experienced FAFU team members and invited FAFU's leader, Sibo Jiao, to participate in the script reading session of our promotion video, and he also provided us with suggestions on the details like parameters of post-processing and dubbing, which greatly accelerated the process of our pv shooting. (And we found that we both admire Wong Kar-Wai's style!)

Thanks to the FAFU students for their close communication with us, we also met up for a trip together after iGEM and look forward to meeting them!

What does Tsinghua bring to FAFU?

FAFU:

As for experiments, although we were working on completely different projects, we were both involved in the direction of testing. At the very beginning, FAFU was still considering what system to use for the purpose of testing. After talking with Tsinghua, we accepted Tsinghua's proposal to use a two-component system for both teams. At the end, Tsinghua provided us with strains that had been transferred the two-component system. Our two teams formally collaborated on the experimental aspects of the two-component system.

In terms of modelling, there was a discussion on how to link the inputs and outputs of the two-component system, as well as a brief introduction to the project and some comments on the modelling part of the other team.

Afterwards, we also wanted to carry out 3D modelling of the proteins of PmrB and PmrA to further understand the mechanism of the two-component system and to improve its detection capability.

Science communication does not go down well with the general public. After learning that Tsinghua would host an art exhibition, FAFU also wanted to combine science and art. Therefore, after conducting sufficient research, FAFU would run the exhibition in three ways: through paintings, cartoons and music.

In July, Tsinghua invited FAFU to co-organise the Online Charity Classroom on synthetic biology and invited ten outstanding iGEM teams such as BIT and JLU-China. This was a very meaningful science communication activity. Benefiting from the convenience of the internet, hundreds of students from 27 provinces in China participated in the course. In addition, there were three students from Singapore and Australia. FAFU was responsible for the facilitation of the science communication and worked with Tsinghua to create the questionnaires and complete the post-course statistics.

Tsinghua provided FAFU with a great way to educate the community, and in the following period, FAFU also used the internet to spread knowledge of biology and the history of synthetic biology to the community.
It was a pleasur to spend time with the enthusiastic Tsinghua members, and they brought us joy every day. We were scheduled to meet offline over the winter holidays. We hope they will have a great year!