Cooperation

Over the past year, we have established good relationships with a number of different teams from different regions. We visited each other's cities, exchanged ideas, shared experiences, and established a good friendship

The 7th South China Regional Meeting: 2023.5.21

The "South China Regional Meeting" is an iGEM community initiated by the SZU-China team from Shenzhen University, featuring participation from various schools across the South China region. Guided by the principle that "learning in isolation results in a narrow perspective, the South China Regional Meeting serves as a platform for teams in the South China region to engage in interactive presentations, foster collaborative exchanges, and draw inspiration from one another. It provides an excellent opportunity for teams to connect, engage in meaningful discussions, and enhance their mutual learning experiences through improved understanding and effective communication.

This year, the South China Regional Meeting marked its seventh edition and took place on May 21, 2023, at Shenzhen University's Lihu Campus. Differing from previous years, this year's meeting adopted the theme of "Villagarnival (villages-carnival)." It organized participating teams into four villages - "Therapeutics," "Diagnostics," "Agriculture," and "Manufacturing." This kind of arrangement fostered an atmosphere of collaboration within each village and encouraged mutual learning among villages.

Our team, "SUSTech-CHINA," presented a project focused on "Construction of protective probiotics for precise prevention and control of drug-resistant biofilm" and we participated in the "Therapeutics" category.

During the meeting, we displayed informative promotional pamphlets we had crafted, postcards featuring our team mascot, and keychains adorned with our project mascot at our booth. Our unique theme drew the interest of other teams, leading to communication and exchanges. The beautifully designed merchandise received accolades from fellow teams.

Furthermore, next to our booth, we had put up posters and a roll-up banner showcasing our project introduction.

Students from our experimental team, including Xia Junfei and others, were actively engaged in explaining our project's concept, design, and progress to fellow team members and teachers who approached for discussions and communications.

During the team presentation, our team's experimental group member, Xiao Xiong, gave a thorough demonstration of biofilm and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He showcased the two pivotal proteins at the core of our experiments, HMGB1 and PslG, and introduced the two pathways we designed, the Secretory Pathway and the Lysis Pathway.

Through this South China Regional Meeting, our team has established solid communication foundations with many other teams, providing a basis for future cooperation and exchanges. For instance, we engaged in deep discussions with HP (Human Practice) members from the SCAU-China team and the BNUZH-China team. We shared our respective perspectives on Human Practice and presented the HP activities our teams have already conducted or plan to carry out. This cordial exchange has set the stage for our joint science outreach efforts with BNUZH on September 3rd. Additionally, our experimental team had extensive interactions with other teams present at the event.

UM-Macau Team: Interuniversity Conversations with the University of Macau

UM-Macau team sent an email to our team's Primary PI, Professor YANG Liang. In the email, they mentioned that with the gradual reopening of mainland China after the pandemic, communication between Guangdong Province and Hong Kong-Macau have become increasingly convenient. Therefore, based on the idea of "a hundred flowers bloom together and a hundred thoughts contend," they expressed their desire to build upon the preliminary online communication we've had and proceed with offline visits and exchanges between the teams.

Email From UM-Macau Team
Dear prof.YANG Liang,

Hello! Thank you for reading our emails during your busy schedule.

We are the UM-Macau 2023 team from the University of Macau. The end of the pandemic and the liberalisation of prevention and control are believed to bring new opportunities and challenges to all of our iGEM teams in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong that we could not have imagined in the past three years. In the face of this long-awaited change, the iGEM team of the University of Macau would like to work with your team SUSTech-China and SUSTech-MED to take advantage of the full liberalization of customs clearance in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong as well as the convenient and fast transportation between us, to carry out more diversified exchanges based on mutual learning and sharing of some resources, and to realize the joint efforts and innovations at the level of human practice. We will also try to work together in the area of wet lab to help each other achieve satisfactory results and outstanding social impact in this year's iGEM competition.

For this year, as the topic of our project is Solving celiac disease through intestinal microbiota delivery, colonisation and molecularly mediated release of gluten final break enzymes. We understand that maybe we have great differences in topic selection and content, but we still believe that the exchange and cooperation of different topics can better play the effect of "a hundred flowers bloom together and a hundred thoughts contend”.

The following are some of the ways in which our team can discuss and put into practice the cooperation based on our needs:
1. Preliminary online communication to understand in advance the details of the other team's project and their respective needs to be met at the collaborative level.
2. offline visits and exchanges between the teams, taking advantage of convenient transport links.
3. planning and carrying out community-oriented activities (e.g. secondary school publicity, community outreach, workshops, etc.) to maximize the creativity.

On July 16th, at the SUSTech School of LIFE SCIENCES, several students from the UM-Macau, along with some of our team members, including Li Zhenglin and Zheng Haotian, engaged in discussions about their respective projects.

UM-Macau's project is titled "Solving celiac disease through intestinal microbiota delivery, colonization, and molecularly mediated release of gluten final break enzymes."

Through our communication and exchange, we learned from each other and forged strong friendships. This interaction may have laid the foundation for future collaborations within the Gut Alliance.

Following the exchange meeting, our team leader, Li Zhenglin, guided the UM-Macau on a visit to the picturesque campus of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). During the visit, they were provided with an introduction to the history of School of LIFE SCIENCES and had the opportunity to tour notable areas, including the Lynn Library, the university's name stone, and the Student Activity Center.

2023 iGEM Intercollegiate Synthetic Biology Science Conference

The 2023 iGEM Intercollegiate Synthetic Biology Science Conference is an event initiated by BNUZH-China in collaboration with nine other teams, including SUSTech-CHINA, SCAU-China, SZU-China, USTC, SYSU-SLS-CHINA, SYSU-Software, SUSTech-Shenzhen, SUSTech-MED, and SUSTech-OCE. It is a conference with the aim of promoting synthetic biology and the iGEM competition.

During this conference, each university presented their respective project and addressed questions from fellow students in attendance, both on-site and online. Additionally, apart from project presentations, some teams also provided insights into iGEM competition-related matters, offering clarification and guidance to students interested in iGEM.

Our team presented our project online.

Gut Alliance-2023

The Gut Alliance, initiated by Northwestern University NWU-CHINA-A, is a collaborative effort involving SUSTech-CHINA, LZU-China, CPU-CHINA, BOKU-Vienna, and UM-Macau. Given the synergies in our teams and numerous opportunities for cooperation in similar domains, we have come together to form the Gut Alliance with the hope of sparking brighter innovations through our collective efforts.

Logo Design

The logo of the Gut Alliance was designed by Shui Yuxuan, a member of the SUSTech-CHINA team. Several initial drafts were created, and the final version was chosen through a vote by members of all participating teams.

Designed by Zhan Yuxin from SUSTech-CHINA.

Questionnaire

In order to understand individual habits and lifestyles related to gut health, to enhance public awareness of gut health, and to provide recommendations for the government in formulating health promotion measures, we have designed a Gut Health Survey.

The questionnaire is available in both Chinese and English versions. The content of it was jointly designed by teams within the Gut Alliance and was distributed by team members through offline, WeChat moments, or other online channels.

The poster containing the QR code for the questionnaire was designed by Zhan Yuxin from SUSTech-CHINA.

The questionnaire is comprehensive in its content and covers various aspects, allowing us to collect information from diverse aspects. We collected a total of 632 valid responses for the Chinese version and 73 valid responses for the English version. The specific questionnaire content and statistical results are as follows:

iG20

As is well-known, there is an organization in the world with influence second only to the United Nations, known as the Group of Twenty (G20). Drawing inspiration from the example of G20 uniting 20 countries to lead the world economy, the LZU-CHINA within the Gut Alliance initiated the iG20 event.

The "iG20" event primarily involved collaborative efforts of multiple teams from various universities and regions in China. Each team captured real-life scenes at their respective schools and local landmarks. After post-production editing, two approximately 30-minute long and impressive videos of the 2023 iG20 event would be created. Such videos are more likely to gain greater viewership and engagement on social media, leading to a greater societal impact. Through grand-scale production and collaboration involving multiple schools, regions, and ethnicities, this event has the potential to make a massive contribution to public awareness of synthetic biology.

Finally, the videos we created have received widespread attention. Here are the specific video contents.