Overview:
For the first time that BJEA participates in iGEM, we take collaboration as a significant part of our experience and as a valuable opportunity to gain knowledge, suggestions, and inspirations to improve and polish our project. Also, we express ideas according to teams we collaborate with, to build a win win cooperation.
For the purpose of sharing our experience and learning from other teams, we held meetups with two teams: iBowu_China and worldshaper_shanghai on July. Specifically, we collaborated with iBowu_China at BJEA, and with worldshaper_shanghai online in Tencent meeting. Moreover, we went to Tianjin University and were mentored by TJUSLS_China. Finally, we joined “plasticase”, which is a special organization started by iGEMers from CPU_China. Through this opportunity, we joined an online seminar, sharing our project, receiving valuable and professional suggestions and comments from experts. Through these collaborations, we received enlightenment on how to design more influential HP activities according to our project, learning resources and methods on various techniques, and advice on how to make our project more rigorous and more meaningful.
Worldshaper_Shanghai
On July 22nd 2021, by communication on e-mail and Wechat, we made an appointment to start an online meetup on Tencent Meeting with Worldshaper_Shanghai, in order to discuss and introduce both teams’ project, discuss issues we encountered, and explore whether we have other opportunities to develop further collaborations.
(Figure 1. Worldshaper_Shanghai logo)
(Figure 2. Invitation email from Worldshaper_Shanghai)
(Figure 3. Our response email to invitation letter)
Firstly, for the experiment and project idea part, we introduced and explained both of our project with PPT. On one hand, our group demonstrated our method of designing and making a fusion protein to increase the working efficiency of mLCC on PET bottle.
(Figure 4. Our group is showing conventional diagrams of our project)
On the other hand, Lyu Jiawen, team leader of Worldshaper_Shanghai also explained the principle and experiment method of their project, under the topic of designing a novel drug screening model of Alzheimer’s Disease. They use fruit fly as a fundamental model. By inserting APP gene, and further comparison between drug treated fruit fly and non-treated fruit fly, they were keep moving on to create such a screening model.
(Figure 5. Worldshaper_Shanghai is showing conventional diagrams of their project)
Secondly, we asked questions of problems that we met from different aspects, including HP activities, wiki design, learning resources for modeling, and etc, for Lyu Jiawen. Specifically, for Human Practice part, we found an opportunity to post educational videos designed by each of our teams together online to expand clout. What’s more, we shared ideas on HP activities. For example, they mentioned that they had contact some experts associated with their project to consult ideas about their project. This idea inspired our team to contact with government department that is responsible for city operation, which includes garbage management, to discuss prospect of our project and understand current technology and approach on garbage management. For model part, they recommend us to use Matlab, a learning resource, to develop our group’s modeling work since we still wanted to enhance our modeling part.
In conclusion, this online collaboration is efficient and helpful for us to improve our project from various angles. What’s more important is that other than experience shared between us, we also gained a chance to post our educational video together, and we became familiar with Worldshaper_Shanghai, which builds a foundation for us to develop further collaboration.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1AU4y177fx?share_source=copy_web
This is education Video we post on www.bilibili.com with Worldshaper_Shanghai
iBowu_China
On July 22nd 2021, by communication through Wechat, we made an appointment to start an off-line meetup in Beijing Etown Academy with iBowu_China, in order to discuss and introduce both teams’ project, communicate on problems we encountered, and explore whether we have other opportunities to develop further collaborations. In this meeting, the experiment group leader, Ji Zhangcheng and their team advisor of iBowu_China both attended the meetup activity while all the students of our team attended.
(Figure 1. iBowu_China logo)
(Figure 2 & 3. Both two teams are doing a brief introduction)
Initially, we had a simple ice-breaking activity by giving a brief self-introduction, which includes our responsibilities in the team, from each of us.. Then, we started the meeting.
Firstly, for the experiment and project idea part, we introduced and explained both of our project with PPT. On one hand, our group illuminated our methods of designing and making a fusion protein to increase the working efficiency of mLCC on PET bottles.
(Figure 4. Our group is presenting our project with PPT)
On the other hand, Ji Zhangcheng, the experiment group leader of iBowu_China, also demonstrated their project. They wanted to reduce the cost of the more expensive glycyrrhetinic acid by hydrolyzing better collected glycyrrhetinic acid into more cost-effective glycyrrhetinic acid. In addition, they wanted to increase the cancer-inhibiting effect of glycyrrhetinic acid by synthesizing proteins such as beta-Gd into glycyrrhetinic acid in a synthetic biological way.
(Figure 5. iBowu_China is presenting their project)
Secondly, we watched promotion videos from both of our teams. Through this process, we got a closer look on the other team's project. What’s more, we had a deeper and further understanding on different forms and methods that two teams focused on.
(Figure 6. iBowu_China is demonstration their promotion video)
Thirdly, we exchanged and asked questions in modeling, HP and other aspects. For modeling part, we learned from them that modeling not only needs the support of its own experimental data, but also needs references from relevant documents. For Human Practice part, we also shared our activities.To illustrate, they wantedto promote the knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine through their iGEM project, so they planned to make a documentary about Chinese herbal medicine, in order to promote the quintessence of Chinese culture. We were also inspired by this, and we hoped to spread biological knowledge by making videos. Furthermore, they suggested us to do interviews for relevant experts, and shared their interview experience with us. For notebook, which belongs to wiki part, we learned that they were using photographs of their notes and create a PDF document. These has broadened our minds on various aspects for our project. We believe this conversation helped us indirectly, but effectively.
(Figure 7. Two teams are discussing problems encountered)
Finally, we took each other on a tour of the campus, during which we asked and answered some detailed questions about our projects.
(Figure 8. & 9. Team leader from our team is showing our campus to iBowu_China)
In a word, we gained a lot from this offline meetup. We not only expanded the idea of conducting HP activities, but also learned from each other's experimental experience and improved the details of our team's work. This event also laid the foundation for our future cooperation with iBowu_China, also gave us enlightenments on how to improve our project.
(Figure 10. iBowu_China and BJEA_China taking a group photograph)
As a first-year team attending iGEM, we have to admit our lack of experience comparing to some proficient teams. However, we are eager to learn, on order to improve ourselves and our project.
TJUSLS_China
During the time when we visit TJUSLS_China in Tianjin University, as a mentor, TJUSLS_China has given us an abundance of instructions on experiments. As university students, team members from TJUSLS_China are equipped with more and more professional experimental knowledge and skills. Thus, they taught us many crucial experiment principles and skills, such as protein purification, operation of high pressure bacteria breaker, and etc. Additionally, team members, who are specialized in modeling from TJUSLS_China, gave constructional suggestions on our group’s modeling working, offering us an immediate help when we were facing difficulties. What’s more, team leader of human practice group from TJUSLS_China introduced their work for us by using a detailed PPT, expanding our mind and inspiring us for more ideas.
CPU_China
Our team joined “plasticase”, which is a special organization started by iGEMers from CPU_China that provides iGEMers a platform to communicate with groups who are studying topics related to plastics. Through this opportunity, we joined an online seminar, sharing our project, receiving valuable and professional suggestions and comments from experts, and learned through other groups from their presentation. This experience allowed us to learn from a variety of aspects by listening and visually learning, and gained confidence from the approval from experts to keep moving forward energetically.
