Education and Communication

Knowing that the exchange of education and knowledge around the project is valued by the iGEM judging criteria is a truly meaningful thing for our team. Nosocomial infection is a serious challenge facing the world at present, the background of its aggravation is closely related to multiple factors. The rise of drug-resistant bacteria, increased global mobility, aging populations, modern medical complexity, and equipment use all make infection control in healthcare facilities more difficult. The infection of P. aeruginosa , one of the most common bacteria in hospital infections, can be extremely resistant to conventional antibiotics and make it difficult to treat. Patients are often susceptible to these bacteria when their immune systems are compromised or after surgery. Such infections not only increase the burden of hospital infections but also make the patient recovery process more complicated and difficult. Therefore, the control and prevention of P. aeruginosa infection is essential to improve patient safety and reduce hospital infection rates. So, we urgently need to raise awareness, not just of the medical staff and patients in the hospital, but of the hundreds of thousands of people living in the community.

In addition to raising awareness of these issues, we hope to show how biology, and more specifically synthetic biology, can be applied to solve these problems, and that our work using mild phage therapy will continue to come into the public eye and be recognized by more hospital staff. By doing so, we seize the opportunity to promote this area of research as well as the iGEM competition.

In the past year, we have achieved results in various areas of education and communication. We not only promote our projects through push notifications and videos, but also actively collaborate with other iGEM teams, interview professionals in the pharmaceutical industry, and contribute to primary and secondary education. Our interactions with universities have also strengthened our presence in academia. We will continue our efforts to communicate scientific knowledge to a wider audience and contribute to a better future.

1. For diverse propaganda & education

1.1 Posts and video

First of all, we actively popularize the orientation content of our project for the public to help more people understand the scientific knowledge about hospital sense, P. aeruginosa , and phage. Through the above three aspects, we introduce our mild phage treatment method and the treatment mechanism for P. aeruginosa in the push of the introduction of the team project. To expose more communities to this new class of treatments for resistant microbes.

Of course, in addition to the push of our public account, we also produced and published our popular science videos on Bilibili, the largest video platform in China, including the introduction of synthetic biology, the attention and prevention of hospital sense, antibiotics and bacterial resistance, and phage therapy. Our purpose is not only to let medical staff and patients know about new therapies. It is also necessary to let more people understand and pay attention to the prevention of microbial infections.

In order to further expand the propaganda influence in China, we have taken a series of local propaganda measures. We have created dedicated official accounts and pages on major social media platforms, such as WeChat public account, YouTube, TikTok, etc. These platforms provide us with a wider audience and convey scientific knowledge through different forms of content (such as short videos, graphic push, live broadcasts, etc.), attracting more people's attention.

When we promote in the video and push categories, we adopt a number of strategies and approaches to ensure that our popular science content attracts the interest of a wider audience:

(1) Narrative Content: We are committed to bringing scientific knowledge to life and storytelling. We make it easier for viewers to relate to the content by telling real-life cases of hospital care, patient discharge experiences with phage treatment, and insights from medical experts.

(2) Images and animations: In order to better explain complex concepts, we use images and animations. This helps with visual learning, making it easier for viewers to understand how phage therapy works and the mechanisms of P. aeruginosa .

(3) Interactivity: We encourage the audience to participate in the interaction, such as leaving comments after the video push, asking questions, interspersing interactive plug-ins in each video, etc. This interactivity helps build closer communities, enabling our viewers to feel their voices are heard and to discuss relevant topics in depth.

(4) Regular updates: We regularly release new popular science content to keep the interest of the audience and update the progress of our experimental content and communication activities simultaneously. The continuous provision of new information helps to ensure that our audiences are kept up to date with the latest developments and research findings.

(5) Pay attention to feedback: We actively pay attention to audience feedback and suggestions to continuously improve our content and promotional strategy. This helps us better meet the needs and expectations of our audience.

Through these videos and push strategies, we strive to ensure that popular science knowledge is communicated in an engaging way so that more people understand the importance of phage therapy and P. aeruginosa infection, as well as how to prevent the problems of illness and bacterial resistance. Our goal is to provide accessible and interesting science education to the general public, promoting public interest in microbiology, synthetic biology, and medicine.

1.2 Game!

In order to let more people know about synthetic biology and our project, we have been trying to innovate in different ways, publicizing it in a form that everyone can accept, so that more people can be influenced and even join us. This time, our innovative way of using games can attract more people's attention and lower the threshold of science popularization.

We use the life of bacteria as the underlying logic of the game, giving the most important parameters of bacterial life: vitality, virulence, infectivity, and drug resistance. Let the game participants freely choose their parameters to obtain different bacterial life trajectories. At the same time, we set up many random events in the game, such as infected people washing their hands, and different parameters corresponding to different results, so as to increase the fun and complexity of the game. There is scientific knowledge we want to convey under different events, such as the important means to prevent P. aeruginosa is to maintain personal hygiene at all times and wear a good mask and timely protection.

Once the game was launched, it gained a lot of people's love and was widely spread around us, which made it easier for more people to get our science content and let more people understand synthetic biology.

1.3 Education brochure

In order to better promote our project and the philosophy behind it to everyone, we have created an educational brochure. Whenever we hold an event, we will give this booklet as a gift to the audience to achieve the purpose of publicity. Our brochure contains an introduction to the iGEM competition, our team, PI, topics, and application progress. Many friends like this brochure.

2. Communication and cooperation with other teams

Our team hopes to inspire and learn from each other in our communication. So we talked extensively with other teams

We have carried out many online and offline communication activities with other iGEM teams. Through many exchanges, on the one hand, we have introduced our project to expand its influence, and on the other hand, we have learned valuable lessons and experiences from other teams, so as to achieve the effect of promoting mutual learning, learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and making common progress. The following is the exchange meeting we participated in and the exchange experience with other teams:

2.1 The 7th South China Regional Meeting

On May 21st, we went to Shenda Lihu Campus to participate in the South China Exchange Meeting hosted by the iGEM team of Shenzhen University and had a friendly exchange with the iGEM team from sister schools in South China. Among the dozen teams, there are not only teams from the same university as us but also several teams from other regions. In addition, there are high school and foreign language school teams. After the official opening of the meeting, we came to the eight-minute session where each team introduced their project in detail. Listening to other teams, we broadened our horizons and learned methods that we could apply to the preparation of iGEM to help us design experiments more creatively and plan HP work more efficiently and impactably in the future. Next, they answered questions from other students in the form of booths, which deepened the communication between different teams. This exchange will let the team members fully understand the charm of synthetic biology and a wide range of application prospects!

2.2iGEM Greater Bay Area Industry-Academia-Research Forum (1st iGEM Greater Bay Area Industry-Academia-Research Forum)

On August 19, we, together with several iGEM teams from universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as well as several professors and related enterprises, gathered at the Zhuhai campus of Beijing Normal University to participate in the first iGEM Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Synthetic Biology Industry-University-Research Forum. During this period, we listened to the introduction of many heads of pharmaceutical companies and learned about cutting-edge technologies such as stem cell therapy and liquid biopsy of cancer. Next, we communicated with a number of iGEM teams from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. In the in-depth conversations, we learned about many interesting projects and the rigorous experimental ideas behind them, and we learned how to do a good job in HP and the cooperation demands of biomedicine-related enterprises. On August 20, the second day of the exchange, we visited Tomson Bihealth, a well-known health products company, visited the production line of drugs, and conducted health tests, including glycosylation end product detection, bone density detection, and human substance concentration detection. Later, we came to Zhuhai University Institute of Science and Technology and saw the new foam cement developed by the UM team. By hand-weighing the new cement block and the traditional cement block of the same volume, we found that the new cement is significantly lighter than the traditional cement. The application of this cement greatly reduces the construction cost, and the load-bearing capacity is not inferior to traditional cement. From this example, we can fully feel the tremendous energy of industry-university-research cooperation. In this forum, our team has learned a lot, not only broadening our horizons but also inspiring new ideas for our follow-up competition, I believe that we will go further and further in the road of synthetic biology!

Our team arranges monthly exchanges with iGEM teams from other universities through online and offline means

2.3Up to now, there are a total of iGEM teams from Tsinghua University (THU), Lanzhou University (LZU), and Wuhan University (WHU-Antiphage). Not only to understand the research direction of other teams but also to state the research field of our team, in order to expand our influence. During this time, other teams gave us a lot of advice and help. For example, we reached a common concept of cooperation with the iGEM team of Lanzhou University, we helped them distribute questionnaires, and they gave us some hospital perception data of their affiliated hospitals. Our two teams also exchanged ideas about the work of HP, the clinical departments, and clinical directions so that the two sides could communicate with each other and improve the forms and programs of publicity. We learned a lot in lively discussions with several other teams. After that, we will better improve this work and let more people understand the charm of synthetic biology.

3. For education to public

3.1 Education for primary & secondary school

In the past year, we have not only made remarkable achievements in the field of science popularization but also deepened into primary schools, bringing valuable knowledge and inspiration to students. In order to integrate scientific knowledge into the education system, we actively seek cooperation with schools and educational institutions. We have established long-term partnerships with a number of primary and secondary schools to provide students with resources and support for science education. We have introduced synthetic biology to primary and secondary school students and preached about our topics, helping them understand the content more clearly and easily through games and lectures.

The following is our publicity experience in the field of volunteer teaching in primary schools:

With the joint efforts of our team members, we decided to bring the concepts of synthetic biology and microbial therapy into primary education. We believe that by introducing students to the concepts of science and innovation, we can stimulate their interest in the future and foster their creativity.

First, we contacted a local primary school and received support from the school. We have developed a series of lively and interesting lesson plans, including the basics of microbes, the fundamentals of synthetic biology, and an introduction to phage therapy. These courses include not only classroom instruction but also laboratory visits and interactive activities to ensure that students can fully understand and experience the joys of science.

In the classroom, we use lively teaching methods such as experimental demonstrations, scientific minigames, and interactive questions and answers. These methods not only arouse students' interest in the course content but also enhance their engagement. We also encourage students to ask questions and stimulate their spirit of inquiry.

Lab visits are an important part of the course. We took the students on a tour of our laboratory to demonstrate the specific applications and experimental processes of synthetic biology. Students developed a keen interest in laboratory equipment and operations, and some even expressed a desire to become scientists in the future.

In addition to classroom instruction and lab visits, we also had an interactive Q&A session with the students. The students actively asked questions and showed a strong curiosity about science and technology. We encourage them to think about future scientific developments and innovative applications.

During the volunteer teaching period, we not only pass on knowledge but also establish deep friendships with the students. We shared our research experiences and dreams, encouraging students to pursue their dreams and believe they can change the world.

Through this volunteer teaching activity in primary school, we not only spread scientific knowledge but also stimulated the interest and potential of students. We hope that these young minds will become scientists, engineers, and innovators in the future, contributing to the progress and development of society. We also want to continue to support primary education to open the doors of science to more students and let them see the infinite possibilities of knowledge.

This year, we not only made some achievements in the field of science popularization but also left a profound mark in the field of volunteer teaching in primary schools. This experience brought home to us the importance of education and the responsibility each of us has to contribute to the growth and future prosperity of the next generation. We will continue our efforts to spread science and knowledge to more people and work tirelessly to build a better future. During the summer vacation, we also hope to let more students come into contact with our team through an online volunteer teaching cloud, actively publicize synthetic biology and subject content, and continue to expand our influence.

3.2 Education for university students

For college students, we jointly organize large-scale charity sales with public welfare organizations on campus to expand the publicity of topics on campus. During the charity sale, we actively promoted knowledge related to synthetic biology and bacteria, and in the process of carrying out public welfare, the audience participating in the activity had a fuller understanding of the application and value of synthetic biology in life. At the same time, iGEM was brought into everyone's vision and won unanimous recognition and approval from many students. The promotion method of the booth is sand painting, and people can have a more intuitive understanding of the invisible microorganisms by hand-drawing the microbial images. At the same time, our team members customized postcards and canvas bags printed with iGEM and the team logo for distribution. More and more partners became interested in synthetic biology and iGEM and were willing to further understand the mystery of synthetic biology with us. During the charity sale, we also communicated with students from the BASIS China team, and the two teams will learn from each other and promote each other in the future, and jointly explore the beauty and possibility of synthetic biology.

In addition, we also cooperated with three other iGEM teams in the university to invite students and professors in the field of microbiology and synthetic biology to attend the seminar and get valuable suggestions by holding symposiums and forwarding posters. After the meeting, our teams exchanged with each other and deepened new insights on the follow-up experiment.

3.3 Popular science exhibition

Our team attaches great importance to the cultivation of synthetic biology concepts for children from an early age, so we came to Guangdong Science Center to spread the knowledge of synthetic biology to children.

We use posters and boards to educate kids about synthetic biology and the basics of our program, such as what bacteria, viruses, and phages are. To people's surprise, the children were very interested in the knowledge of life science. Many of them gathered around us to listen to our explanation. They listened carefully and actively asked us questions, and we answered them patiently.

Our activity lasted from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., serving nearly a thousand children. Although this is a small amount in the total number of children, we have planted a small seed of synthetic biology in the hearts of these 1,000 children, and they will grow and continue to contribute to synthetic biology.

3.5 Online science popularization conference

In order to exchange and share the knowledge of synthetic biology with more people, we held an online science-sharing meeting with BNUZH-China and other teams.

We shared our knowledge about synthetic biology and our project with other teams and viewers online. The online audience is over 100 people, and in addition to the different teams, there are many friends who are interested in synthetic biology, and we introduce them, and accept their suggestions and inquiries. Synthetic biology and the related knowledge of the academy are expanded in a larger scope.