iGEM projects greatly require teamwork. Though working together, we may acquire different ideas, learn from other teams, and improve our project. Our team works better together and solves challenges when we work on collaborative projects. This result in more creativity, effective procedures, greater achievements, and better communications. The participating teams and us can accomplish our objectives by learning from others. Having said that, we have created and carried out three collaboration initiatives, which are detailed below:

  • Collaboration Event 1: Chat With Us! Online Survey
  • Collaboration Event 2: Meeting with team HongKong-PuiChing
  • Collaboration Event 3: Better Health Meet-Up

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Collaboration Event 1 Collaboration Event 2 Collaboration Event 3

Chat With Us! Online Survey

Photo 1. We invited other teams to complete our survey via social media.

While we were focusing on our experiments and other outreach activities, we noticed that the use of AI chatbots had become extremely common among students, especially for written academic assignments. We wanted to know if this also happened in the world of iGEM. Therefore, we created a collaboration event named “Chat With Us!”

The collaboration project aimed to investigate how iGEM teams have used AI chatbots in their written work, such as captions on social media platforms, outreach writings on Wiki pages, and more through Google Forms. The questionnaire included a variety of questions involving the overall experience and the obstacles teams encountered when using AI chatbots. We also welcomed teams to share their twist or any insights related to it.

In the event, we have received a total of 10 submissions from teams all over the world. The submissions came from various places from Hong Kong to Oxford, Barcelona and Chennai. From the survey submissions, it was shown that while 70% of the participating teams have utilised AI chatbots in their iGEM projects for written work to be put on Wiki pages, captions and quests, almost all of them had encountered different challenges and limitations of AI chatbots like misunderstanding requests and providing responses that are either too vague or too faulty. Nonetheless, the majority of the teams believed that the use of AI chatbots and similar artificial intelligence technologies had increased their efficiency and brought convenience.

Photo 2, 3, 4 & 5. A highlight of the results from the Chat With Us! survey.

We hope that this collaboration will provide valuable insights into how AI chatbots can be used to enhance the effectiveness of written communication in iGEM projects. We would also like to give thanks to teams ASU, CSMU-Taiwan, HongKong-PuiChing, Oxford, REC-CHENNAI, UB-Barcelona, and UM-Macau (in alphabetical order) for joining this event!

Meeting with team HongKong-PuiChing

As the only high school team in Macau, it is a rare opportunity to connect with other youth involved in synthetic biology in our area, and even rarer that we are both working to solve issues in the same sector. Therefore, we were excited to hear that team HongKong-Puiching from our sister school in Hong Kong is participating in iGEM this year and welcomed them to our school.

Photo 6. A group photo of our teammates with team HongKong-PuiChing

Both our teams are working on health-related issues. From their presentation, we learned that their team is targeting liver fibrosis, in which liver injury causes hepatic stellate cells to turn from a quiescent to an activated state. To return aHSCs to a quiescent state, they are using endocytosis-supporting liposomes to deliver the drug GATA4 to aHSCs.

Photo 7. We and team HongKong-PuiChing took turns presenting our works and learning about the other project.

After both teams’ presentations, we sat down to exchange thoughts about our experience as high school iGEMers. We concluded that it is crucial to make scientific equipment and laboratories accessible to young people, so they have the means to make a change in their communities and beyond.

Photo 8. A group discussion about iGEM and other topics.

Better Health Meet-up

In order to further our mission and engage with the broader scientific community, we hosted an idea exchange meet-up, with the theme of “Better Health”.

After a brief icebreaking, the participating teams shared their projects, asked questions and exchanged ideas, providing valuable feedback. This event presented a unique opportunity to foster collaboration, learn from one another, and collectively push the boundaries of scientific innovation.

We wholeheartedly appreciate teams NavarraBG and NU-Kazakhstan for their role and contributions, which would play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our project and the iGEM community at large.

Photo 9 & 10. Our meetup poster and group photo.

Other Collaborative Events We Participated in:

  • Event 1: SynbioOUTLOUD Podcast of team Lambert-GA
  • Event 2: iGEM Map Programme of team NTHU-Taiwan
  • Event 3: Science Magazine of team Barcelona-UB
  • Event 4: Introspect of team IISER-Tirupati-India
  • Event 5: Grand Highschool Meet-Up of Team NavarraBG

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Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 Event 4 Event 5

SynbioOUTLOUD Podcast of team Lambert-GA

On the 9th of April, we joined team Lambert_GA’s podcast, SynbioOUTLOUD. We were honored to have been given the platform to share our experience in iGEM, as students and scientists. We hope that our sharing can lead to more open communication between fellow teams, enhancing the flow of information across communities.

Photo 11. Lambert_GA invited us to feature on their podcast in April.

iGEM Map Programme of team NTHU-Taiwan

This is our second year participating in the iGEM Map Programme organized by team NTHU-Taiwan, and the experience was just as rewarding. We hope our submission could help with NTHU_Taiwan’s data collection.

Photo 12 & 13. We participated in NTHU's iGEM Map Programme in July.

Science Magazine of team Barcelona-UB

Aside from remembering our iGEM journey in words, team Barcelona-UB encouraged us to use photos to document our work, which allowed us to visualize it from a different perspective.

Photo 14 & 15. We submitted our photo to Barcelona-UB in August.

Introspect of team IISER-Tirupati-India

Often, the adversities that a team encounters in research are overlooked. We were enlightened by the initiative of team IISER-Tirupati-India, who shed light on the many difficulties that research involves, and the innovative minds that overcame such obstacles.

Photo 16, 17 & 18. We had the opportunity to share our insights to IISER-Tirupati-India in September.

Grand Highschool Meet-up of Team NavarraBG

On the 16th of September, we joined the Grand Highschool Meet-up hosted by team NavarraBG. We listened to SaintJoseph High School and NavarraBG's projects. Meanwhile, we presented our project and the latest advancement of our experiment. Overall, we strengthened our bond by knowing more details and asking each other questions. We also look forward to meet the two teams at the Jamboree.