Partnership

With Nanjing-NFLS: Providing Guidance

Although collaboration and partnership are not one of the judging criteria for iGEM this year, our team still values finding partners and hopes to progress together with the iGEM community. We have chosen Nanjing-NFLS as our partner. The partnership between our team and Nanjing-China involved collaboration in several areas:

1. Project Communication: We shared our project ideas and discussed the design, goals, and implementation of our projects.

2. Wet Lab Collaboration: We worked together on various aspects of the wet lab and offered detailed suggestions for their experimental operation. We also collaborated on troubleshooting issues and provided solutions for Nanjing-NFLS.

3. Modeling Support: We provided Nanjing-NFLS with guidance and feedback on using the TargetScan software for target gene searching.

4. Part Submission:Our instructor provided valuable assistance in the part submission process, including base and amino sequencing, part searching, and registration.

5. Resource Acquisition:We exchanged information on obtaining reagents through sponsorships, helping them acquire specialized equipment for our experiments.

6. WIKI Collaboration: Our team members collaborated on creating our WIKI. We shared problems encountered and provided solutions to each other.
   Overall, the partnership with Nanjing-China was mutually beneficial, as we supported each other in various aspects of our projects and shared expertise to enhance our outcomes.

Collaboration

With NJU-China: Multi-faceted Cooperation

Nanjing-China and NJU-China both come from Nanjing University. In iGEM, we are partners fighting side by side on campus; in our academic and daily lives, we are familiar classmates and friends. During this year's competition, we have conducted multi-faceted cooperation with NJU-China. In the early stages of the project, we discussed topic selection and provided suggestions for each other's direction. During the survey collection process, we exchanged questionnaires and provided suggestions for issues that concerned each other. At the NIA conference, we communicated the progress of our projects with other teams from Nanjing. At the CCiC, we traveled together, conveying the voice of Nanjing University. During the progress of the project, we often have detailed discussions on the details of wet experiments and human practice, helping each other to improve the project. Thanks to NJU-China, we have been learning and making progress in our cooperation.

With HainanU-China: HP Activities and Wet Lab Design

During the CCiC, we had in-depth discussions with the host team, Hainan-China. We shared our interpretations of the new iGEM rules for this year and discussed future plans for our respective teams.They showed great interest in our project design, and we shared with each other the specific process of Wet Lab design. In addition, we discuss the cycle of human practice.

We are willing to collaborate with GXU-China. This year, GXU-China used E. coli to express curcumin. There are many similarities between our two teams in theme selection and overall design. We asked GXU-China about the properties of curcumin, the difficulty of preparation, and biosafety concerns. We plan to use curcumin as our yellow dye. They also expressed a strong interest in the indigo we use. At the end of the meeting, we exchanged the team's cultural and creative products as a souvenir.

During the CCiC, we reached a cooperation intention with Fudan. After that, we discussed software optimization through online meetings.They designed a new system and suggested that we consider trying it in our experiments. Through communication, we have generated new ideas for software design and optimization.

We discussed the construction of the expression system with HBUT-China.This year, HBUT-China used E. coli to produce lycopene. Therefore, both teams needed to construct microbial expression systems to produce dyes, and we had many similarities in our approaches. We discussed how to improve the expression level of dyes and plan to use lycopene as our red dye.

We discussed bacterial cellulose with XMU-China.XMU-China is one of the few teams studying bacterial cellulose this year. We had detailed discussions about the physical and chemical properties of bacterial cellulose, as well as the difficulties and considerations in its application. This discussion was very helpful for us to improve the production of bacterial cellulose by Acetobacter xylinum. The discussion helps us to address the shortcomings of bacterial cellulose, such as inadequate toughness and non-uniform thickness, to make it more suitable for everyday use.

In order to make our education efforts more professional and meaningful, we have actively reached out to WHU-China to collaborate with us in our education activities.We explained the initial intention and background of our topic and emphasized the importance of reducing pollution in the fashion industry. Our collaboration partner, WHU-China, also conducted informative and engaging science popularization activities. They presented their project to the students in the form of science popularization videos, which deeply captivated the students. In the end, we two teams encouraged high school students who love biology to consider pursuing it as a major in college. For those interested in synthetic biology, we encouraged them to explore their ideas and utilize various biological techniques to solve real-world problems and contribute to the betterment of human life.

This event is an online meeting initiated by CSU-CHINA from Central South University.Our team hopes to promote our project to the teams from Central South University through this event and also hopes to receive feedback on our activities. The main focus of this exchange meeting was on experimental content and HP. We received their suggestions on these two aspects and their opinions on the arrangement of future activities. At the same time, we also provided some suggestions for their projects. Additionally, we discussed the new rules for this year's iGEM with them.

During our exchange at CCiC, we learned that Tsinghua-NFL shares our commitment to making a positive impact on sustainable development, so we attended the SDG Online Summit organized by Tsinghua-NFL, where each team presented their projects and contributions towards achieving the SDGs. Our team, Rainboweaver, focuses on combating pollution in the fashion industry through synthetic biology. The SDG Online Summit provided a valuable platform for us to share our projects and initiatives towards achieving the SDGs. We are grateful for the opportunity to engage with other teams and stakeholders and for the feedback and insights we have received. We will continue to work towards creating a sustainable future for the fashion industry through collaboration, innovation, and education.

As two teams based in Nanjing, we have always maintained good contact with NNU-China. The "Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development" online conference was initiated and hosted by the iGEM team from Nanjing Normal University, with a total of 8 iGEM teams participating. During the conference, our team members shared our contributions to sustainable development and actively listened to valuable insights from other teams, engaging in discussions and exchanges. We are grateful to Nanjing Normal University for providing us with such a platform, allowing us to communicate with other teams and stakeholders, receive feedback, and continuously improve our ideas. We hope that through this conference, we can contribute together with all the teams to the goal of sustainable development.

CCiC is the largest iGEM team communication event in China. We are delighted to be in Hainan this year to share and communicate with iGEM teams from all over China. We presented our project and received valuable advice from many outstanding peers. We listened to the presentations of other teams and gained great inspiration in various aspects such as experiments, HP, and creative design. At the same time, we are very grateful to the teachers who gave lectures during the conference. We now have a clearer direction on how to excel in iGEM.

Nanjing IGEM Association (NIA) is an iGEM team exchange meeting in the Nanjing area organized by NJU-China. A total of nine teams met at Nanjing University Xianlin campus to participate in the conference this year. The conference invited Mr. Bao Yuhan to give a remote speech and Mr. Xu Yilong to give a remote comment. As one of the participating teams, Nanjing-China shares and exchanges ideas with other teams.

As one of the regions in China with abundant higher education resources, the Yangtze River Delta region has gathered a large number of higher education institutions. As an iGEM community, the Yangtze River Delta Alliance is committed to eliminating team barriers and promoting team communication. We have conducted friendly exchanges with multiple teams within the Yangtze River Delta Alliance, engaging in detailed discussions on experiments, human practices, and various other aspects.