There is a Chinese saying goes: Learning alone without friends is gnorant, which means that if someone don't exchange ideas with others, he will lack of holistic understanding, and his cognition will inevitably be defective. This is also true for our iGEM team. iGEM provides us cxwith a good platform, where we can communicate, discuss projects, and imagine the future of synthetic biology with iGEMers all over the world. Below is our team's cooperation record:
Korean-HS
Similar to our idea, Korea HS iGEM team from Korea also tried to treat cancer by targeting KRas, so our projects are highly relevant. On July 19, we had our first online discussion. We reported our project progress and social practice ideas, and exchanged each other's experience on how to carry out iGEM in response to the epidemic. On September 26, we had our second online meeting. As they try to target KRas, we suggested that they learn about the latest KRAS targeting drug AMG510 for inspiration, and suggest that they try to target different states of KRAS (i.e. KRAS GTP and KAS GDP) or different KRAS mutant proteins to obtain the best therapeutic effect. And for their HP work, we kindly remind them to pay attention to IRB and other ethical issues.
Nanjing Technology University
The project of Nanjing University of technology has unique insights and knowledge on promoter and its regulation. In our online communication, they suggested that we change the original CMV promoter in Tet-On system into albumin promoter to ensure specificity, so as to better express our plasmid in liver, and ultimately improve the controllability and safety of our project. click here for more details
Shanghai University of Science and Technology
Shanghai University of science and technology maintains good friendship and interaction with our school; this iGEM competition is no exception. In this competition, we assist each other significantly.
Because they need a final integrated device to verify their experiments, but they don't have 3D printer and corresponding technology. We helped them optimize the design of 3D models, using our own 3D printers to help them print the final product and mail it to them. In addition, because their project involves the use of CRIPR/Cas12a to detect genes, a neural network is needed to determine whether proteins can bind to aptamers. Due to the limitation of their modeling ability, we help them complete the neural network modeling.
In addition, due to some difficulties in the construction of tetracycline promoter efficiency model in our project, Shanghai University of science and technology contributed the reaction equilibrium constants of rtTA / tTS and Tet in the process of regulating tetracycline promoter expression by rtTA and tTS, which helped our modeling progress smoothly. click here for more details.
CCiC online conference
This year's CCiC conference was held online. CCiC is a platform for China iGEM team to share experience and receive suggestions from judges and all China iGEMers. In this online salon, we shared and displayed our project and poster design, and we were honored to receive the Best Poster Award. Huang Wenqi, Ambassador of CCiC, asked some questions about our project about exosome remote delivery, which inspired us to modify the targeting and delivery system of exosomes.
iGEM meetup in East China
East China Meetup held by Jiangnan University is an online meeting concluding iGEM teams form East China. Various iGEM teams will introduce their projects one after another. Also, scholars and previous iGEM judges will be invited to the conference to give either a speech or some suggestions. Among them, Hassnain is helpful to our HP design, and let us focus on the public without biological background. Zhu Zetian suggested that we should be careful in setting up blank control, negative control, positive control and homotype control, which also optimized our experimental design to a certain extent.
Zhejiang University
Zhejiang University and Nanjing University have a long-lasting friendship, and in this year iGEM competition, we maintain our partnership. Due to some restrictions, they were unable to visit and communicate with Jikai Gene Biology Co., Ltd. in Shanghai. Therefore, we integrated some of their interview questions and asked the R&D personnel of Jikai Gene on their behalf. At the same time, we also optimized their problems, such as the advantages and disadvantages of scFv as tumor targeting compared with antibody, and whether there is any difference between the drug delivery target and the contrast agent target in their project. In addition, when we carried out our science communication, they suggested that we should make a question board. The public can paste their opinion (agreement or disagreement) on the question board, so as to count the public's views on gene therapy.
