Team:Nanjing NFLS/Collaborations
We were really thrilled to learn that Team BJ101HS shared our passion in promoting synthetic biology and arousing awareness in this field. Despite the Covid-19, we still managed to talk to each other and shared ideas via a virtual meetup of 20 students. We first introduced our projects to each other: we shared our project on Microbial Fuel Cell while they talked about their Artificial Breast Milk Project. After exchanging some thoughts and ideas on projects, we moved on to talk about our experience in Human Practices. We soon found out in amazement that the two teams carried out HP events in two different ways: while our outreach events mainly focused on intriguing interest among the younger generations and arousing public awareness in synthetic biology, Team BJ101HS was dedicated to teaching professional synthetic biology knowledge and cultivating future experts in this field. We denifitely learned a lot from each other and acquired new perspectives to organize HP activities. We will learn from Team BJ101HS and try to organize more academic and intellectual events in near future. Initiated by iGEMers from Team KEYSTONE, the project of developing a level-breaking synthetic biology educational game, The Adventure of Bob Lelogy, immediately captured our attention. Collaborating with seven iGEM teams, we aimed to develop an interesting mobile game introducing basic synthetic biology knowledge to pupils and junior highs. The game consists of eight themes: Central Dogma, Genetic Circuit, PCR, CRISPR, Biobrick, Gibson, Golden Gate, and Directed Evolution. We were responsible for designing the plot and character of Theme PCR and we tried our best to make our game fun enough with funny characters, easy enough to comprehend for juniors but also instructive enough with certain levels of logical reasoning. It’s great fun working within a large community with people sharing the same mission and passion as we do. Though the massive amount work makes it difficult us to finish the game design this year, we really cherish the opportunity to work together and learn from each other. Even Covid-19 could not stop our enthusiasm as we had fun attending the online Beijing International iGEMer Collaboration Seminar on the very first day of August. 11 teams from Beijing and Nanjing respectively presented their projects and exchanged ideas with each other. Experts at the meeting also heartily helped us improve our presentation skills, understand the competition rules and refine our projects. We were lucky to learned from team Tsinghua and got the inspiration to apply light switch in our project to ensure safety. Meetups are undoubtedly the best place to get inspired, make friends and have fun. In August 21st, we participated in Nanjing Regional meetup at GenScript Biotech Corporation with teams from Beijing, Sichuan, Jiangsu, etc. We were lucky to visit the showroom and labs of the corporation to learn more about the mission, responsibility and accomplishments of this famous synthetic biology company. After presenting our project for iGEM 2020 season: MFCs Improved in Different Aspects Safely, we exchanged ideas with the experienced judges as well as iGEMers from various parts of China. We acquire lots of valuable advice and inspirations to improve our project, broaden our knowledge in synthetic biology by learning from each other and make friends with iGEMers across China. Our partner team, Team NFLS, is the second iGEM team in Nanjing Foreign Language School. We were really excited to welcome new members in iGEM community and the close collaborations among us naturally grows into partnership. This year, we both focused on Microbial Fuel Cells designs, though in different ways. We aimed to improve the electricity output of MFC by overexperssing certain genes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa while they were interested in reducing the harmful effect on environment when utilizing lignocellulosic biomass. At school, we had regular meetups with each other and held iGEM club activities together. Outside school, we organized Human Practices events together and enjoyed the companionship. We not only got inspirations to improve our projects from each other, but also gained compassion, friendship and support from each other whenever we faced difficulties. We are really lucky to have our partner team by our side.
- Virtual meetup and Scientific Communication with Team BJ101HS
- Synthetic biology mobile game design
- Beijing International iGEMer Collaboration Seminar
- Nanjing Regional Meetup
- Partnership with Team NFLS