Team:NWU-CHINA-A/Collaborations
1. Provide participation guidance: NWU-CHINA-B team took part in the competition for the first year. During this competition, our team provides a full range of competition guidance and coordination assistance.
①In terms of NWU-CHINA-Building, We discussed how to better manage the team and shared the management model of our team with NWU-CHINA-B. As for assigning tasks, let everyone know what they are responsible for and improve work efficiency. We suggested that their team member should report their progress on time. In that way, they can know the progress of each member at the first time; Group chat discussion is convenient for everyone to communicate better. During the construction of their project, we taught them how to do the brainstorm and how to try their best to perfect their project.
②In terms of project communication, we held an online Shaanxi iGEM meetup to introduce our project with NWU-CHINA-B, XJTU-China, SZPT-CHINA and HZAU-China. During that meeting, we put forward opinions and suggestions on all teams’ project. We also invited teachers to guide us. This exchange meeting is very meaningful for the next improvement of our projects. In addition, we also held an online meetup with NWU-CHINA-B. In this meetup, we invited two CCiC volunteers named Cheng Li and Zhuolin Liu to discuss the both projects and the existing problems in detail. In that meetup, we understood that the NWU-CHINA-B team project is to improve the water solubility and anti-inflammatory properties of kaempferol through glycosylation. Kaempferol and its glycosylation products have anti-inflammatory and promote wound healing effects. This can be combined with our team’s new anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory bandage, thus we reached a cooperation.
③In the aspect of modeling, we started relevant exchanges with NWU-CHINA-B and XJTU-China. First, each team introduced the model part of each team separately. In addition, we also instructed the modeling team members of NWU-CHINA-B on how to integrate modeling part with experiments and projects.
④In terms of HP, we discussed with NWU-CHINA-B on how to design the questionnaire, and shared the questionnaire with NWU-CHINA-B, provided them with ideas for designing questionnaires, shared with them our team’s HP experience.
⑤In other aspects, because NWU-CHINA-B is participating in iGEM for the first time, in some competition-related aspects, we also helped them as much as possible. For example, we instructed NWU-CHINA-B on how to apply for reimbursement about the registry fee, how to apply for the use of experimental equipment on campus, how to buy experimental supplies, how to synthesize genes, and so on.
By sharing our experience and providing help to NWU-CHINA-B, they became much more professional and skillful.
2. Experimental guidance: Our team leader and advisors trained their experiment skills, which includes the use of laboratory equipment and laboratory safety. And we provided them with some materials and instruments needed for their experimental process such as ampicillin, β-mercaptoethanol, shaker, primers, etc.
https://2020.igem.org/Team:XJTU-China/CollaborationsXJTU-China and NWU-CHINA-A have conducted communication activities. The two teams have been partners in iGEM for many years. This year we continued to cooperate deeply. We also had extensive exchanges and cooperation in experimental methods, website construction and submission. In terms of experimental methods, we exchanged opinions on cultivating strains, and summarizing the experience and reasons of their failure. As a result, we improved the success rate of following experiments. In terms of webpage, XJTU-China used GitHub and other methods to compile wikis, and established perfect webpage wikis, which inspired us greatly. Therefore, under the cooperation of the two groups, we successfully established our own website wikis.
Mathematical Modeling cooperation. Our team members had collaborated with XJTU-China team on Mathematical Modeling. The members in charge of the modeling part helped each other find related literature parameter data on growth expression equation, and communicated with modeling approach and experience.
Shaanxi iGEM Meetup: NWU-CHINA-A XJTU and NWU-CHINA-B talked about the general content of the project and the modeling direction.At the same time discussed and solved the problems in the modeling of each other. XJTU modeling members suggest that cell expression product simulation processes in the NWU-CHINA-A team modeling suggest that probability distributions can be used instead of the assumption that all cells are equalized, making simulations more realistic and credible, and that the Monod equation can be referenced in the expression model. NWU-CHINA-A suggests that the parameters of the suicide switch start mechanism cannot be found in the XJTU team modeling: the corresponding parameters can be fitted first, and then the appropriate starter construction system can be selected from the part library, so that the experimental simulation can optimize the experimental design of the project.
https://2020.igem.org/Team:UESTC-Software/CollaborationsIn CCiC, we learned about each other's projects because the NWU-CHINA-A team's project is related to antimicrobial peptides, while the UESTC-software team's project was an analysis of the protein domain, we are very interested in their project. The UESTC-Software team accepted and agreed to the NWU-CHINA-A team's request for cooperation. And in a later online meeting, they shew their 3D-printed protein domain model and shared their project progress. After that, they asked us to help test the designed game. In a meetup, we are proposed to design a map of the protein domain for UESTC-Software. As a return, they designed a badge diagram for the NWU-CHINA-A team with project features. During the upcoming month of wiki freeze, we both communicated with each other. At the end of iGEM, the project collaboration between the two teams will continue, and we believe that with the help of Software, the antimicrobial peptide experiments of the NWU-CHINA-A team will be more successful, and the UESTC-Software team will have a broader field of protein domain analysis.
https://2020.igem.org/Team:JNFLS/CollaborationsWe mentored a high school team JNFLS to do overlapping PCR：In the last competition season, our team and Jinan Foreign Language School team established a friendship, and we often keep in touch. This summer, they had trouble in doing overlapping PCR. Being college students, we have more theory and experience than high school students. Based on our knowledge and experience, we mentored them overcoming the technical difficulty. Finally, they completed successfully the overlapping PCR.
https://2020.igem.org/Team:Beijing_4ELEVEN/CollaborationsBoth Beijing_4ELEVEN and our team hope to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance by using antimicrobial peptides, and both of our project involve materials that can stick to the surface of the skin. We saw great potential for cooperation. We communicated about the experiment, they found that bacterial mucin may be of great significance to our project, so they suggested us to look for Greatbay_SCIE2019 project. Then we checked the literature of bacterial mucin and supplemented our project.
https://2020.igem.org/Team:SZPT-CHINA/Collaborations
Both of our teams have used antibacterial peptides, and there is overlap in the selection of antibacterial peptides. We have done a lot of communication about this. We communicated with each other about the progress of the experiment. In terms of protein purification, we encountered the problem that the protein could not be purified and the concentration of the purified protein was too low, so they recommended us to use the ultrafiltration centrifuge tube for protein purification and concentration. Then we took their advice and we made great progress in our experiment. Our two schools also jointly organized lectures to promote synthetic biology and antimicrobial peptides.
Troubleshoot a project
At the beginning of the project, we encountered difficulties in the selection of antimicrobial peptides. There are nearly 3000 kinds of antibacterial peptides, besides there are also existed some artificially modified antibacterial peptides. Thus, it’s quite difficult for us to select appropriate antimicrobial peptides among such a wide range.
Ms. Han suggested that we should consider what kind of bacteria we want to kill first, whether it’s broad-spectrum or narrow-spectrum. After that, the next thing we need to pay attention to is that we should select peptides with strong antibacterial activity. And if we are going to use these peptides on the surface of a wound, we also need to make sure that the antimicrobial peptide is not harmful to normal cells. And the last point, whether this antibacterial peptide can be expressed by synthetic biology and whether it is easy to express should have been verified by experiments before. According to these suggestions, we consulted the literature and selected six eligible antibacterial peptides.
We intend to make a breakthrough in the selection of antibacterial peptides that we hope to synthesize an artificially designed antibacterial peptide which has not been expressed by synthetic biology before.
The 4th Southern China Regional Online Meeting
In 2020 June , our team was fortunate to participated in the 4th Southern China Regional Online Meeting held by the Shenzhen University iGEM team. Ambassador Zhang Nan of After iGEM explained us about how social practice activities under the epidemic should be carried out to explore the meaning and direction of our project. In the meantime , several experts also expressed their views and suggestions on the development of this year’s iGEM project. After that , each school team carried out the project presentation. Then the teachers , experts and the students present on the meetup commented and asked questions about these projects. We also actively participated in the free discussion part after the meeting and exchanged academic ideas with other teams. Ambassador Zhang Nan emphasized that when communicating with all sectors of society , it is very important to continuously reflect on one’s own projects, to have a sense of responsibility to the society , and to tolerate and think about different perspectives. These suggestions provide new ideas for our Human Practice.
Eastern China iGEM Meetup
Video Record 1 Video Record 2Eastern China iGEM Meetup was co-sponsored by the Jilin_China and the Jiangnan_China, the meetup was attended by a large number of teams. Many teachers also attended the meeting, including iGEM Asian Ambassador Jiabao Li.
During the exchange meeting, a question raised by a team attracted our attention: Will the technology you developed in your project be abused? This question has inspired us that we could and we should develop our project into high-end medical products, instead of low-tech and low-level manufacturing. For example, from band-aid to medical dressing and then to the carrier of drugs for treating cancer. Anyway, if this technology is widely used, it will do more good than harm.
The 7th Conference of China iGEMer Meetup
The theme of this conference is “from LAB to FAB”, from Laboratory to Fabrication, which means turn science and technology achievements into effective productivity so that synthetic biology can truly participate in life and change the world. This five-day conference includes opening ceremonies, academic lectures, team presentations, poster presentations, workshop, team discussions, closing ceremonies, and so on.
Before the conference, we made clear division and actively prepared the relevant materials for the meeting. During the conference, through discussions with teachers and other teams, we realized advantages of other teams and shortcomings of our projects.
In the future, we will further strengthen cooperation and exchanges, and at the same time promote public education and experiments to make our project better. Furthermore, all the participating teams formed a large group for communication and solving various problems. We also met our future partners in this meeting, UESTC-Software and Beijing_4ELEVEN.
Friend Team Meetup
Our Team was invited to participate Friend Team Meetup sponsored by SZPT-CHINA. In this meetup，we met more teams who would like to do antibacterial peptide productions and we communicated the problem about antibacterial peptide selection and design of experiment. Many teams gave us advices，one of them caused our attention.The team suggested that we should be more cautious on the wound production. If we purify peptide with a nickel column alone, the purity is not up to the medical standard. We thought this is an important issue, and if we want to get our product into the market, we will explore higher standard purification methods.
- CPU_CHINA:https://2020.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA/Collaborations
- HZAU-China:https://2020.igem.org/Team:HZAU-China/Collaborations
- BIT-China:https://2020.igem.org/Team:BIT-China/Collaborations
- Fudan:https://2020.igem.org/Team:Fudan/Collaborations
- SZPT-CHINA:https://2020.igem.org/Team:SZPT-CHINA/Collaborations
- NWU-CHINA-B:https://2020.igem.org/Team:NWU-CHINA-B/Collaborations
Host a virtual meetup
Shaanxi iGEM Meetup
The first Shaanxi iGEM Meetup was hosted by our team online and we invited all the teams who participated in the iGEM competition in Shaanxi to attend the meetup. During the meetup, we exchanged views, learned from each other in the project presentation and discussion sessions, helped each other, shared experiences and methods, put forward many feasible proposals, and reached follow-up cooperation.
After reading our model, the XJTU-China team thought that the picture from the model simulation could be added below to make the modeling clearer. And we also asked the XJTU for modeling reference. After a series of exchanges, we have benefited a lot. And we keep in touch throughout the whole preparing period.