Collaboration
Overview
“ Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.”
Collaboration played a significant role throughout our journey of iGEM competition, with every connection
serving as a source of inspiration and support.
At the CCiC conference, we actively engaged with other teams, shared our project, sought suggestions, and
improved our experiment design and Human Practices arrangement. We formed connections with fellow iGEM
teams and collaborated on projects, such as creating a comprehensive CRISPR brochure, which was very
helpful to the other iGEM teams, such as the Nanjing-NFLS high school iGEM team, and enhanced their
understanding of CRISPR. Additionally, we collaborated with three other teams of our university to
organize a joint iGEM lecture for freshmen, introducing them to the iGEM competition and showcasing our
projects.
Joining with NTHU-Taiwan, we introduced our team's mascot, Breddy, in "iGEM Map Program", which
emphasized the sense of connection and passion among iGEM teams worldwide. Effective communication and
collaboration were also established with BUCT-China and AFMU-China. With BUCT-China, we discussed Human
Practices and explored the potential for creating educational science videos, while AFMU-China provided
us valuable suggestions in troubleshooting the problems in our experiments.
Overall, we joined hands to create a cordial, warm and wonderful iGEM community!
10th CCiC
The 10th CCiC was held in a beautiful city, Haikou, in early July. The conference featured a wide array
of synthetic biology lectures, workshops and presentations.
Among numerous lectures, the one delivered by Professor Baojun Wang from Zhejiang University caught our
attention the most. He passionately shared his work in synthetic biology, specifically his research on
utilizing CRISPR technology to detect viral nucleic acid. The potential applications and implications of
his work were very impressive to us.
In the conference, we were honored to have a wonderful conversation with Professor Wang (Figure 1). We
discussed our enthusiasm for enhancing the sensitivity of the CRISPR system. His invaluable insights and
recommendations provided us with some excellent articles that were instrumental for us to overcome the
experimental challenges in our project.
Figure 1 Conversation with professor Baojun Wang
Additionally, attending the workshop led by Yuhan Bao and Alonso allowed us to delve into the fascinating
world of Human Practices. Yuhan Bao shared the origin story of iGEM Human Practices, which inspired us
to understand the true significance of Human Practices.
During the interactive discussion segment of the workshop, we shared the idea of our breast health dance,
which was highly valued by fellow iGEM teams (Figure 2). Yuhan was very delighted with our innovations,
and had high expectations of our Human Practices. He was glad to know elderly population actively
participated in our breast health dance, since elderly population was a high-risk group of breast
cancer. This experience reinforced our belief in the power of Human Practices and its potential to
create productive connections between lab projects and the wider world.
Figure 2 He Sun interacted with fellow iGEM teams
Following our presentation, we had a nice conversation with DUT-China, which was also in the diagnostic
track (Figure 3). We engaged in a discussion about amplification methods for molecular signals, and such
heated discussion quickly transformed into a firm friendship. We even decided to celebrate our
friendship by enjoying a delightful dinner together.
Click
here to see the Wiki from
DUT-China.
Figure 3 Our presentation (left) and group picture with DUT-China (right)
We also had the pleasure of networking with other teams, such as GXU-China, WHU-China, and Peking (Figure
4). It was a memorable experience to have interesting conversations with these teams. Attending this
conference was a unique and pleasant journey to us, and we really anticipate reunion with these teams at
the jamboree in Paris!
Figure 4 Happy time with other iGEM teams
Synthetic Biology Brochure
As a group of iGEM teams working with the CRISPR system, we organized an online workshop with
Tongji-Software, WHU-China, and several other teams (Figure 5). Our primary objective was to raise
awareness about the great potential of CRISPR in the field of synthetic biology. To achieve this, we
have collected a great deal of relevant information, and compiled a comprehensive brochure about the
principle, application and engineering of the CRISPR system (Figure 6). Our intention was to provide
valuable information and guidance science popularization specifically tailored for high school and
undergraduate students who were interested in CRISPR system.
We were glad to see the positive feedback of our brochure. The Nanjing-NFLS high school iGEM team
expressed their gratitude for the assistance they received from our brochure. Since then, we have
maintained regular communication with them and supported them in overcoming experimental challenges that
they encountered in their iGEM project.
You can also view information about our interaction with Nanjing-NFLS and Tongji-Software by visiting
View from
Nanjing-NFLS
View
from Tongji-Software
Figure 5 Online CRISPR workshop on July 27, 2023
Figure 6 Synthetic biology brochure of CRISPR
Joint iGEM Lecture
CJUH-JLU-China, Jilin-China, JLU-China, and JLU-NBBMS collaborated to host a joint iGEM lecture for
freshmen on September 24, 2023 (Figure 7).
The evening began with an inspiring opening, followed by a brief introduction of 4 iGEM teams. While our
team focused on introducing the iGEM competition, other teams explored a variety of topics, including
the potential of synthetic biology, microbial therapy, and the application of computer science in iGEM
projects.
After that, each team also presented their own projects to help the freshmen understand iGEM better.
Finally, we concluded by answering questions about our project, the iGEM competition, and synthetic
biology. The audiences were excited about our talk and kept on asking us questions even after the
lecture.
Our lecture enlightened freshmen about synthetic biology and iGEM. It helped to recruit young and
energetic generation into iGEM community for the upcoming year.
Click here to see this event from Wiki of other teams.
JLU-China
JLU-NBBMS
Jilin-China
Figure 7 Pictures of Joint iGEM Lecture
iGEM Map
We joined the "iGEM Map Program" organized by NTHU-Taiwan. Their aim was to gather descriptions and
logos/characters of iGEM teams from different countries/regions and mark them on a map. By clicking on
the iGEM logos/characters, users could access the content of corresponding teams. We could feel a sense
of closeness through our shared passion for synthetic biology by remarkable "iGEM Map Program", despite
the physical distance between iGEM teams.
During an online meeting on August 4th, 2023 (Figure 8), our team shared our mascot, Breddy.
During an online meeting on August 4th, 2023 (Figure 8), our team shared our mascot, Breddy.
Figure 8 Online meeting for iGEM map program
Click
here to see the iGEM Map.
Team Communication
With BUCT-China
First Meeting
On May 19th, 2023, we held an online meeting to delve deeper into each team's plans. During the meeting
(Figure 9), we mainly touched upon our arrangements of Human Practices. They appreciated the innovation
of our project and proposed the idea of collaboratively creating educational science videos online, as
well as conducting face-to-face synthetic biology lectures at schools. BUCT-China team had already
assigned clear responsibilities to each team member, which reminds us of the need for a clear
arrangement of work. Lastly, when discussing the ultimate goal of Human Practices, we both agreed that
it should benefit the entire world, not limited to a certain group of people.
Figure 9 First online meeting with BUCT-China
Second Meeting
After the first meeting, we have maintained close contact through WeChat, and exchanged ideas and
updates.
Given that both teams focused on nucleic acid detection, we scheduled a second meeting on September 6th,
2023 (Figure 10), to explore potential collaborations. During the meeting, Jiong Huang, the leader of
the BUCT-China team, proposed an interesting idea of combining our CRISPR/Cas13a system with their
polymerase-enabled molecular computing. This collaboration aimed to enhance the reliability and accuracy
of the detection system, leveraging the strengths of both teams' expertise.
BUCT-China
Figure 10 Second meeting with BUCT-China
With AFMU-China
On July 26, 2023, we had an online meeting with AFMU-China via Tencent Meeting to troubleshoot our
experiments (Figure 11).
Initially, our plan was to utilize a qPCR machine to measure the change in fluorescence intensity, which
would help us determine the enzymatic activity of LwaCas13a. However, we realized that our qPCR
machine's heated lid could not be turned off, resulting in the lid being maintained at a temperature of
105 degrees Celsius. This high temperature would denature Cas13a enzyme, and inhibited the reaction
catalyzed by Cas13a enzyme. Fortunately, AFMU-China suggested that we could use a microplate reader for
our experiment, instead of qPCR machine. We were grateful to AFMU-China for their wonderful suggestion,
which helped us solve this problem.
In addition to our online meetings, we also maintained active communication and updated each other on our
progress through WeChat.
Click
here to see our collaboration with AFMU-China from their Wiki.
Figure 11 Online meeting with AFMU-China
