1. Best Education

    
    We have been committed to reaching different groups and sowing the seeds of synthetic biology as much as we can, in an attempt to let the knowledge and spirits of life sciences take root in as many communities as possible.
    We taught students who participated in the Elite Program and came to the College of Life sciences of Wuhan University about molecular biology and synthetic biology. We held education meetings for 2021 students and the freshmen of College of Life sciences. We communicated with DO & GO, a mental health care organization for teenage patients with depression for promoting our ideas about a new beneficial therapy. At the same time, many popular science lectures have been organized by us themed on mental health for students or the general public.
    Last but not least, we continued to write articles and notifications regularly on the platform of the WeChat official account to deepen the public's understanding of depression and synthetic biology.
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2. Best Hardware

    
    This year, we have successfully built and tested two hardware models, one for wet lab convenience and the other for exploration of drug delivery system for real-world practice.
     To synchronizeengineered bacteria for period characterization of oscillator in wet lab, we have used 3D printing technology to make a portable dual-port filter. Meanwhile to explore required drug delivery system for real-world practice, we have built a simple enteral drug simulation equipment, which successfully performed the peristalsis of the intestine and mimicked the flow of fluid to assess drug delivery system.
     Here for the hardware, we have accomplished the systematical work to turn it from design into reality. For Portable Dual-Port Filter, we have tested the feasibility of the filter by measuring the strain density before and after the filtration. For Enteral Drug Simulation Equitment, to explore the capsule’s specific parameters resulting in the degradation of drugs in the intestine, we completed part of the gut simulation, and then used it to characterize property of drugs.
     Such two hardwares are supposed to work and facilitate the procedure of Wet Lab Group, and at the same time, to offer an alternative drug delivery method for real world.
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3. Best Inclusivity

    
    We sought for extending the concern for depression to more people. In addition to our targeted Education, we connected with professional advisors and created our own ways in lnclusivity. To make our project more professional, we visited professor Yi Yu and professor Fei Gan from Wuhan University. Due to these communications, we have got some important inspirations, which were of great help to the improvement of our project. In addition, questionnaires and a small game were also useful methods to let more and more people know about depression and our project in a way the public can easily comprehend. Product transformation was also what we focused on, as it strongly contributed to more acceptance among our targeted customers, depression patients. The patent protection ensured our product to be better accustomed to the future therapy market..
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4. Best Integrated Human Practices

    During this competition session, we have done lots of work to spread our idea and design to the world and gain meaningful and creative feedback to improve our project simultaneously.
    What we most valued was the meeting with DO&GO, an organization mainly composed of depression patients. Their feeling and opinions about existing depression treatments or drugs are precious guidance for our project improvement. Their true feelings and complaints about existing treatment targeting depression made us determine the final product form and define the positioning of our product.
    Interactions with enterprises, Bluepha and MGI, inspired us strongly in terms of product promotion and business plan. After listening to their advice, we made an effort to figure out the scale and features of the probiotic market when compiling our business plan for ease of increasing our competitiveness.
    The communications with professors made a great contribution to building mathematical models and hardware, choosing a suitable chassis and exploring the new potential of our engineered bacteria.
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5. Best Measurement

    This year, we have done many quantitative measurements to evaluate our work, make our experiment more credible, characterize our parts and verify the feasibility of our design.
     Based on the principle that proteins can reduce copper ions to Cu1+, which can combine with BCA to form a purple-colored reaction product, we used a microplate reader to detect the concentration of proteins in the loading sample in Western Blot.
    In addition, to characterize the enzymatic activity of our SAMe synthetase, we use enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to measure SAMe concentration at different time.
     In the safety switch module, a microplate reader was used to detect green fluorescence, whose intensity reflected the function or expressive level of Temp(BBa_K4144082) and Chem(BBa_K4144081). And in order to verify the lysis function of PBSX holin, we quantified OD600nm of bacteria concentration at each time point.
     Meanwhile, to reduce leakage of regulator BBa_K143057, the improvement of the RBS was also conducted based on quantitative data of fluorescent intensity of reporter GFP.
    In addition, to test the hardware Portable Dual Port Filter, we used a spectrophotometer to measure OD600 of the bacterial solution in both treatment and control groups, so as to assess the feasibility of the device.
    These quantitative data made us clear about the improvement direction to refine our project and enabled us to master the usage of the reported devices, systems, and protocols.
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6. Best Model

    
    Our models are closely linked to the wet experiments and give guidance to the wet experiments. Cooperated with wet lab members, our model members design a valid and appropriate biological pathway and get insight of designed elements, such as the oscillator. Our first model initially simulates our biological pathway and the simulation results are in line with design expectations. This provides sufficient confidence for the wetlab group to progress with their experiments. Our second model uses differential equations to simulate the change and fluctuation of drug concentration in the blood. By discussing single-dosing and multiple-dosing situations, our model is close to real-life scenarios. Finally, combining the trend of concentration changes with a given minimum concentration can provide suggestions for the wet experimental group and help them flexibly adjust their experimental conditions.
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7. Best Safety and Security

    
    Aiming to design a novel therapy for depression and expecting to develop the further commercial application, we consider safety a crucial point and comply strictly with the command of security throughout our work.
    For design, the bacteria and molecule we chose for production were all safe for human body. We also designed killing switches for prevention of leakage of the engineered bacteria.
    Our materials for experiments were from previous iGEM teams, bio-tech companies, and our PIs. We used those carefully in compliance with relevant regulations.
    In addition, each of us has undergone regular laboratory safety training from our college and teachers and has a special reminder of safety from our team.
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8. Best Supporting Entrepreneurship

    
    In the process of our project, we have comprehensively considered many basic questions about the future commercialization of the project. We analyzed the market from different aspects, considering the form and value of our product.
    Lastly, we finished our business plan for the future organization and development of our project, which is very convenient for us to communicate with partners and relevant institutions.
    At the same time, we also have exchanged ideas with multiple prominent enterprises such as Bluepha and BGI to expand our project's impact and facilitate business cooperation with them for ease of promoting our project in the future.
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9. Best Sustainable Development Impact

    
    We have explored four SDGs in our work on developing a novel depression therapy to help people suffering from this disease: SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 8: Decent work and Economic growth and SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.
    For SDG 3, through research and interviews, we found shortcomings in the existing depression treatment. Our project focuses on a novel depression treatment, minimizing side effects. We also carried out a lot of depression science popularization activities to help everyone understand and deal with depression.
    For SDG 4, we have designed different education activities aimed at people of all ages, including senior school students, university students and the general public. Online science popularization and offline practical operation were held, covering from the prevention and treatment of depression to synthetic biology and iGEM.
    For SDG 8, we have written a complete business plan and won recognition from the school's employment guidance center, Bluepha and MGI.
    For SDG 9, we established a league of gut microbiota and built an online platform. On this platform, you can not only see the introduction, design and contact information of each team, but also discuss the new findings related to gut microbiota on the discussion board, which contributes to creating an inclusive and sustainable community for popular science activities.
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