Collaborations

Introduction

    Much more than a bell sound, much more than a candle light. During the last six months, XMU-China eagerly participated in different kinds of collaboration events, and benefited from collision of varied visions with various teams. Several conferences were attended, where the words and ideas come together and mix brilliantly. XMU-China also contributed to a collaboration journal with Stony_Brook and an educational comic book with several Chinese teams involved FAFU and OUC-China. Additionally, all of the cooperators facilitated conducting experiments for other teams, learning greatly from each other.

Collaboration with GXU-China

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Participants of the Discussion with GXU-China
    Shortly after finishing our project design, we were contacted by GXU-China to take part in an online discussion that was organized to allow a few knowledgeable teams to share the project prototype. This is the debut of our project design and other teams provided us with invaluable guidance, which enables us to fill in the gaps and complete the project as a whole. Find more details on their page: GXU-China.

Collaboration with JLU-China

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A brief conference with JLU-China
    The toxic protein BlrA and pBLind-EL222 system that we employed in 2021 were chosen by JLU-China. They came to us for assistance after having trouble in accessing the target gene. We provided JLU-China with the blrA pCC-1 plasmid, helped them to conduct experiments using the pBLind-EL222 system and also supplied essential information when doing the trials.

Collaboration with CUG-China

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The conference with CUG-China
    This year, we had close collaborations with CUG-China, a first-year team. We shared a ton of thoughts and experiences with them during the season and assisted each other in many ways. We engaged in any topic, anywhere and anytime, even if the majority of our conversations is online due to the huge physical distance. Tight interaction is maintained in modeling, video production, wiki, experiments, and other areas through meetings and daily communications, supporting each other and collaborating on improvements. Click here for additional information: Partnership.

Collaboration with FAFU

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After the Seminar with FAFU
    Knowing that XMU-China has taken part in the iGEM competition for years, two first-year teams from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) contacted us, hoping for a visit. XMU-China accepted the invitation and held an offline seminar at Xiamen University for the two teams, which makes the problems they met to be comprehensively known and the corresponding advice to be offered. For example, we found that they were confused about the differences between Human Practice and Education, so we explained the award criteria in detail to assist them in better meeting the requirements. Challenges from experiments were also involved in the discussion, in which case we gave them some useful experimental skills summarized from our previous experience. After the meeting, we also helped them contact Dr. Chenyun Guo, Associate Professor of Xiamen University, for an interview. You can find more details on their page: FAFU.

Further Collaboration with FAFU

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The Cartoon about AHPND and Synthetic Biology, XMU-China
    After the offline seminar, we were invited by FAFU to publish a comic book with other five teams, the aim of which is conveying basic concepts of synthetic biology to the public through well-designed cartoon characters and interesting conversations. And the book involves not only the projects of each team but also the scientific common knowledge. The accomplished work has been posted on Chinese social media freely for better distribution: Synthetic Biology Comic Book.

Collaboration with Stony_Brook

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Our Article on the Journal
    Team Stony_Brook wanted to compile a journal about what health or social issues different iGEM teams are addressing this year, and we gladly accept their invitation to write an article about AHPND, hoping to raise awareness among the public. For better dissemination, we accomplished both English and Chinese version of the illustrated article and sent to Team Stony_Brook for the layout and eventually publishing. We not only posted the Chinese version on the Official WeChat Account of our team, but also introduced the entire journal of team Stony_Brook, giving more people a channel to read and be aware of those issues. For more details, please visit: Stony_Brook.

Collaboration with iBowu-China

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Archives
    Invited by iBowu-China, we joined in the Living Earth Art Exhibition 2022. Since the theme of exhibition is “Biology and art”, we decided to create a drawing of endangered or extinct creatures. Moved by Hawaiian honeycreeper, which died out in 2003, we drew Archive. Archive aims at reminding people of the importance of protecting nature, appealing to everyone not to harm the earth for selfish gains.

ARS

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XMU-China Listening to NCKU_Tainan on ARS
    Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB) Regional Symposium (ARS) is a major activity of AFOB for academic exchange. It’s our honor to be invited by NCKU_Tainan to participate in the Synthetic Biology & Protein Engineering session of the ARS conference online this year. It is such a great magical garden that enables us to learn about excellent projects from teams all over Asia and communicate with them, which is also a precious opportunity for us to think over our own project with new perspectives. For example, the synthesis of selenocysteine (Sec) in vitro is complicated and the commercial Sec is expensive as known, but NCKU_Tainan implements the production of Sec beginning with serine using tRNAs in vitro, which really surprises us. Particularly, we were queried about whether our treatment framework would be effective for different kinds of shrimps, lifting us to seek for a more universal method to deal with the disease.

CCiC

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The 9th CCiC
    The Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC) is an annual meeting for teams from China, which provides a good chance to show one’s projects and communicate with other teams. So, CCiC is always be regard as an important source of inspiration and a platform to broaden the horizon of discipline. XMU-China joined the conference held online this year and partook in project sharing session and poster session. Our poster, involving the marrow of the project design, is much compatible and favorable for spectators. Therefore, we were awarded the Best Poster of 9th CCiC in the end. Glorious ideas enlightening us significantly came across continually during the whole period of attending lectures on different topics or interacting with experts in academia and industry.