INTRODUCTION
We have never doubted that iGEM, over the course of the past 20 years of its journey, has long become something beyond a prestigious annual competition for the global synthetic biology community – it is more like a hub of connection, where all lines of communication intersect to construct a world map of cutting-edge research, and a cradle of creativity, where ideas collide to spark the seeds of innovation. After 4 years of absence from the stage due to COVID-19, our Oxford team of 2023 re-entered iGEM and has, more than ever, felt the interconnectivity of the global synthetic biology community, rebounding and superseding the pre-pandemic level. During the past months, we have communicated with many iGEM teams from all over the world and collaborated on 6 projects that align with our values and missions. Here on this map, we present an overview of all the iGEM teams we collaborated with:
Our Collaborations
What? Our team took part in and had a major contribution to the 2023 Biologix Project initiated by the KCL iGEM 2023 Team and collaborated between a number of collegiate-level iGEM teams in the UK this year. In the project, each collaborating team designed one lecture series (three sub-lectures) on a designated topic, wrote a part of the textbook, produced a short video about their iGEM project, and delivered the compiled educational package in person to the local sixth-form colleges.
Why? We noticed that, despite being one of the global centres of biotechnology innovation, the UK has much fewer iGEM teams. Especially on the high school level, there is only 1 high school team representing – whereas Hong Kong, for example, has 8 high school teams. This shows that iGEM and the field of synthetic biology lack publicity in sixth-form colleges in the UK. Thus, with a shared mission to improve the educational landscape in UK schools between the other collaborating teams, we want to merge our effort and achieve the following two aims through the Biologix project:
(1) To educate the local student community (16 to 19-year-olds) about synthetic biology and scientific research;
(2) To encourage sixth-form colleges to build their own iGEM teams.
Having gone through a difficult period of fundraising ourselves, we also particularly understand that supporting the financial requirement for iGEM participation is not easy at all for many schools. We, therefore, focused on sparking the interest in synthetic biology and scientific research in general from the local students, especially those from less privileged schools/regions, in the process of education material development and in-person delivery.
See our textbook contribution below!
See our presentation contribution below!
What? Our team reached out to the Sun Yat-Sen University iGEM 2023 Team and inquired about this online seminar hosted by their team. The online seminar was themed around the applications of AI in different fields of synthetic biology research, covering aspects including its potential and momentum, its associated ethical issues, and its legal implications, but featuring only teams from China thus lacking a bit in the geographical and political perspectives. The two teams of Oxford and Sun Yat-Sen had in-depth discussions across multiple weeks after their seminar, particularly focused on the idea of how socio-political factors can interplay with people’s values and ethics -- as well as governmental-level regulations by extension -- on AI uses, particularly in regards to its application in synthetic biology.
This collaboration allowed us to delve into a deeper-level debate on the ambiguous issues surrounding AI and synthetic biology and explore the complexities surrounding it. Together with the Sun Yat-Sen team, the conference content was organised into notes with the goal of communicating our ideas and insights – though far from being comprehensive -- to a broader audience in the future, including students, professors, and government agencies. We would like to stimulate the voice of the science society with specialised knowledge in the safety and pitfalls of AI and synthetic biology and together compile a white paper on the regulatory guidelines on applications of AI in synthetic biology to promote its standardized use within the field.
Why? Our team utilised multiple AI tools when designing our biosensors, so we judged it was beneficial for the team to get a better understanding of the different applications of AI for biotech and think about whether we are conducting our research responsibly. Like the collaborating team Sun Yat-Sen, we have noticed variable attitudes towards novel technologies across different geopolitical areas, both on the level of the government and the general population. Especially instigated by the article “The Global Race to Set the Rules for AI” published in the Financial Times, we are excited to hear the actual experience regarding working with AI in synthetic biology from the opposite side of the world.
What?With the University of Michigan iGEM 2023 Team, we joined the virtual Health Equity Symposium to present our perspective on healthcare inequality problems and emerging solutions, give a picture of where our respective projects fit into the landscape, and discuss our views on this ever-more-pressing issue to minimise, or at least reduce the expansion of, the healthcare equality gap. During the seminar, we brought up our view on how the focus should be directed towards developing technologies that are designed for limited resource settings, as the tools/treatments would require much more difficult properties to achieve, particularly in user-friendliness and accessibility, both can be described in a number of more specific terms. The other participating teams are: PathoGlow, OASYS, Metriotect, Tonji_China, William and Mary, GeneHackers, MSBT
Why? We believe that our project fits this theme because water contamination is a direct threat to human health, and we strongly argue that the prevention of unintendedly drinking contaminated water is a much more effective and cost-saving strategy than the treatment of infection caused by contaminating pathogens. As a group focusing on limited resource settings and designing the tool to fit their requirements, we also see how many more restraints to technologies are brought by this limited resource – thus understanding profoundly that this issue should be recognised by more people for better global health equity.
What?The MSP Vector brought by the MSP-Maastricht iGEM 2023 Team this year moved away from the peer-reviewed article journal (as in previous years) to an interactive web resource that intends to showcase how synthetic biology is changing many aspects of our lives and to highlight the relevance of synthetic biology as a whole. The web source is organised following the logic and categorisation of iGEM villages. As we were assigned to the Diagnostics track, we answered two questions that were most relevant to our project.
Why? During the course of our project, we studied the desired qualities of detection/diagnostic techniques under different circumstances and realised that certain qualities can be greatly enhanced in the most economical manner by incorporating the power of synthetic biology. Passionate about our project and its prospects, we want to share our understanding with the other groups and the general audience, promoting a more positive understanding of synthetic biology under specific contexts.
What?Our team contributed to the McGill iGEM 2023 Team’s educational illustrated lookbook, in which each participating team submit information about their favourite proteins or proteins used in their projects.
We submitted the information about sCageHA_267-1S, a de novo-designed switch protein caging an influenza A H1 hemagglutinin (HA) binder. This protein is the first testing protein biosensor made in the basic research work by Alfredo, et al, the open-sourced sequence of which we utilised in our project. This protein is designed to be modular with a single replaceable binding domain — allowing high adjustability and versatility in the protein-based biosensor design. In the presence of analyte molecules (in the case, HA), this protein switch is opened and turned on to its luminescence state under thermodynamics regulation.
Why? We believe that such an illustrated and styled book can engage the audience in a fun and accessible way, thus educating readers of all levels about the great diversity of proteins, the arguably most fundamental element in any synthetic biology work. A large portion of the general population may only have a very elementary understanding of a protein, but, through this lookbook, one can really realise how limitless the different interesting jobs proteins can do and appreciate the amazing fact that life evolves proteins for these functions. We thus strongly resonate with the vision of the McGill iGEM Team in compiling this book.
Additionally, after confirming with the McGill iGEM Team, we decided to submit this synthetic protein rather than naturally existing proteins, as we would like to draw attention to the advent of AI in synthetic biology. It allows and will continue to push an expansion of numbers and improved qualities of proteins for biotechnology applications — beyond the limits drawn by evolution. We believe that proteins born from AI-assisted de novo design should own their places in the book as well.
What?Our team responded to the Penn State iGEM 2023 Team’s call and join a fun activity in creating a collaborative puzzle that showcases the diversity of worldwide iGEM teams. We contributed an image that combines the Oxford iGEM logo and the beautiful, iconic scenery of Oxford town. The Penn State iGEM team assembled and collaged all the images and incorporated them into a collective puzzle.
Why?This fun art project is easy to engage with, so we believe would attract the most teams to collaborate on. We strongly agree with the Penn State iGEM team that this global puzzle could symbolise the strong bonds and diversity within the iGEM community.
The team participated in the iGEM TIES (Team Interaction Study) research survey. The Team Interaction Study research focuses on social interactions and work organization within teams, and thus seeks to to understand how iGEM and scientific teams of all types can organize their work to be more creative and successful. As a team, we chose to fill the survey individually, and all the nine team members managed to fill the survey.
What? Our team has made an effort to help the other iGEM teams with their information collection by filling out as many surveys as possible, including: MIT Team’s anonymous online survey regarding micro-pollutants found in personal care/daily use products and synthetic biology; UVA Team’s online survey on various methods of cellulitis treatment, side effects of antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance; Puiching Macau Team’s questionnaire on the impact of AI-generated on science communications; IISER TVM Team’s survey on the general awareness of and responses to mental health problems; Ocean University of China Team’s public survey on the reuse and repurposing of kitchen waste oil; MIT Team’s survey on the ethical concerns and legislative challenges the teams encountered; Nanjing University China Team’s survey on AI usage and attitude in the field of synthetic biology and in general; Arizona State University Team’s survey on PFAS and habits of drinking water; IISER Mohali Team’s survey on the public perception and understanding of COVID-19 detection and synthetic biology; University of Stuttgart Team’s online survey on biofilms and dental caries; Tsinghua University Team’s online survey on the general public’s awareness of antibody drugs for animals; Zhejiang University Team’s online survey on crop diseases, pesticides, and synthetic biology; Lund Team’s questionnaire on bees and genetically modified products from bees.
Why? Though technically not a collaborative action, we do believe that this small act is probably one of the best illustrations of iGEM’s concept in the global synthetic biology community. If one is to visualise each survey’s distribution network, one could probably be able to see a large, dense net across the world map. This is the charm of iGEM as an international competition: diversity in opinions and information sources and spontaneity in helping offered to anyone anywhere.
This year, we are extremely fortunate to have forged an extraordinary partnership with two high school teams – the HKGTC team from Hong Kong and the City of London team from London -- as we together embark on the journey of iGEM.
While both of our partnering teams represent the promising young minds of a high school setting, the essence of this unique alliance lies in the mutual learning and support that flourishes between us, and we are indeed astounded by our partners’ boundless curiosity and fresh perspectives, as they bring a unique sense of fearlessness and unbridled creativity to the table. Despite different focuses and methodologies applied, all three projects are built around the engineering of a biosensor system with optic signal output (chemiluminescence or fluorescence) – protein-based biosensor for the Oxford team, nucleic acid-based biosensor for the City of London team, and cell gene circuit-based biosensor for the HKGTC team. With such established common ground, our story with the two teams began. Over the course of our partnership with the two teams, we have established a deep connection through extensive collaborations on all levels of our projects, from web lab and dry lab to human practices and outreach/communication. This beautiful partnership transcends age and distance, making it a true celebration of the global community of synthetic biology.