Team:iBowu-China/Collaborations
Collaborations
2nd Annual Asia District Meet-up:
On the 15th of August, 2020, our team hosted the 2nd Annual China (Virtual) Meetup. We invited nine iGEM teams from the Asian-Pacific region to participate: RDFZ-China, Peking_iGEM, Links-China, NCKU_Tainan, Great Bay_SZ, SEHS-China, SDSZ-China, KEYSTONE, and hku_iGEM.
We started with ice-breaking activities; teams got to know each other through the self-introduction section and the syn-bio and alphabet train games. As a result, teams became more willing to interact. The time that followed was for the mock jamboree presentations and project discussions. Teams talked about their project and progress, answered questions from other teams, and received feedback, comments, and suggestions from the audience. As the host, our team recorded all of the presentations and sent them to participating teams immediately after the meetup, considering that they may want to review their performances and make improvements.
Approaching the end of the meetup, Jeff Hu - iGEM Ambassador of Asia and Africa and Chair of the After iGEM High school committee - made a short speech on iGEM's expectations regarding our videos and answered any questions teams had on the rules and requirements of the competition.
After the meetup, we established a WeChat group chat for teams to communicate. Henceforth, teams have been posting collaboration requests, activity promotions, and important announcements in the group chat, maintaining active cooperation.
Teams have benefited from this meetup in two ways. Firstly, the presentations and project discussions allowed teams to receive feedback and learn from them. Secondly, the meetup and the group chat provided a platform for communication, facilitating the establishment of a social network and the potential for long-term collaborations.
To be specific, our team requested to participate in a charity fair hosted by KEYSTONE. This partnership was made possible mainly by the meetup, which informed us of KEYSTONE's plan to fundraise for charity and constructed a channel through which both teams could contact each other.
Collaboration with Team King College London:
Being active on the iGEM Slack Channel, our team spotted an excellent opportunity to contribute to a meaningful investigation on representation in iGEM. All team members actively participated in the research carried out by Team King College London by providing information including, but not limited to, nationality, ethnicity, identity, and disabilities.
Collaboration with Team Nantes_iGEM:
We were invited by Team Nantes_iGEM to be part of their virtual art exhibition revolving the theme of green algae and the environment. Hoping to link this piece to our project, we had the mind-blowing idea of illustrating the lungs as a tree, with DNA strands like ribbons flying off the branches and magnetic protein crystals ready to attack. The picture is a perfect representation of our project design in an abstract manner.
The exhibitions have taken place at many venues, presenting to researchers and professionals in the field and the non-scientific community. We have also participated in their virtual exhibition, which was done together with Team iGEM Athens on in October. Seven teams from France, Estonia, Athens, China, and Brazil have contributed to this international initiative to share synthetic biology with the world. We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity and hope our piece contributed to enriching the exhibition and allowed viewers to understand our project's general idea simultaneously.
MIT Mammalian Meet-up:
Hoping to broaden our range of knowledge, we signed up for the MIT Mammalian Meetup held on the 27th of August, 2020. Speakers lectured on the topics of synthetic circuits, gene circuits, and mammalian research. Despite the difference in time zones, we were able to catch the beginning of the meetup and zoomed away with some useful insights on the implications of the accessibility of such life-changing enabling innovation, the ethical considerations, and the status quo of the synbio field.
Collaboration with iGEM IISER Bhopal: Genos E-Magazine
We submitted an article on common cancer types, including detailed explanations on lung, colon, liver, and breast cancer, in hopes of sharing the science behind oncology to a broader audience. Publishing our work in the Genos Magazine means it reaches a demographic outside of China. We have uploaded an episode related to cancer types on our broadcast but fully narrated in Chinese. After the magazine's publication on the 21st of October, 2020, we have distributed this to many schools in Beijing to promote STEM education.
Collaboration with iGEM_Evry:
We collaborated with iGEM_evry by widely distributing their survey on rosewood furniture to the community in China. This is a good example of utilizing the culture and physical location to our benefit. We also interviewed a few survey responders and compiled a detailed document with their views on rosewood furniture. This primary data collected was of great help to their work on the illegal trafficking of rosewood.
Collaboration with Team University of Rochester:
We worked together with Team University of Rochester on the Science As Art (SAA) Project to integrate the commonly distancing discipline with a creative subject. Art uses no words, so there is no communication barrier and is accessible to all. Art can be viewed as a universal language and is truly expression without borders. Art also inspires imagination and interpretation. This art can be shared with the iGEM community as well as the general public to inform them of our project related to NSCLC.