Team:CAU China/Pre iGEM

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Pre-iGEM Cycle

Fig. 1 The Pre-iGEM Cycle By CAU_China 2021

During a few years of iGEM experience, CAU_China finds the training of new iGEMers at every starting season very inadequate and time-consuming. The new iGEMers will spend a lot of time learning basic experiments, iGEM requirements and previous examples.

Therefore, CAU_China 2021 decide to create a Pre-iGEM Cycle based on the iGEM Cycle suggested by iGEM (See “Calendar” in https://igem.org/Competition). We use this framework to train some iGEMers next year in advance, to let them experience iGEM and decide whether they are willing to stay, and to help our project this year. We hope these preparations will make CAU_China 2022 start their iGEM year more smoothly.

Feb. ~ May.

Team members for CAU_China 2021 were just starting their own iGEM year, so CAU_China 2020 was in charge of this period of pre-iGEM training.

Select pre-iGEM members: Select students who are competent, interested in iGEM but not ready to start iGEM this year. They may have more possibilities to be a pre-iGEMer if they ever contributed in brainstorming.

Finally, we selected five participants as our pre-iGEMers. They are: Gong Wei, Lei Shuangrong, Ning Hongshu, Liu Muhua, Zhou Yunlu. Their contribution to our project has been stated in the Attributions.

Fig. 2 Our passionate pre-iGEMers and team leader Li.
From left to right: Zhou Yunlu, Ning Hongshu, Liu Muhua, Lei Shuangrong. Sitting in the middle: Li Mingyang (Gong Wei failed to take a group photo because of certain personal reasons)

Learn basic knowledge in molecular biology: Due to the lesson arrangement in CAU, pre-iGEMers often haven’t learned molecular biology systematically. They need to at least learn basic concepts before they get into any iGEM work.

Discover iGEM competition and criteria: This event is led by the student leader of the previous year. We hope pre-iGEMers can know what this competition wants more clearly by studying criteria.

Jun. ~ Aug.

Then came the busy experimenting season. We hope pre-iGEMers can have equal chances to learn about wet lab work and help our project in some basic experiments.

Learn lab safety: Before anyone get to do experiments, they must learn lab rules and fully understand the importance of safety in our lab.

Trying out basic experiments: Under guidance, pre-iGEMers have learned the theories and tried out PCR, agarose gel electrophoresis, restriction analysis, plasmid extraction, gel extraction, transformation, etc.

Learn to use SnapGene: Pre-iGEMers have learned how to use the powerful software, SnapGene, to analyze their results in experiments.

Fig. 3 A Pre-iGEMer is learning how to use SnapGene from a team leader

Sep. ~ Oct.

When the due date was approaching, pre-iGEMers for CAU_China was getting ready to start their own iGEM year.

Joining in wet lab work: After training, they had the ability to do some basic experiments and they were welcome to help us in the busy wet lab work, if needed and they were willing to do so, of course.

Fig. 4 After receiving certain experimental skill training, a pre-iGEMer is carrying out a an experimental task.

Help to check our Wiki: Pre-iGEMers are important in Wiki checking because as partially “outsider” of our project, we believe they can offer objective advice and find out mistakes that we have ignored.

Learn from prize winners and start their own project: When everything in 2021 iGEM comes to an end, pre-iGEMers are expected to learn and conclude from prize winners and begin brainstorming as early as possible.

Of course, this is also a check point for them to decide whether to stay in iGEM team. We believe they can make rational choice after a year of pre-iGEM experience. Plus, we will also begin taking on new iGEM members who have missed the pre-iGEM selection but is capable enough. We will treat and train every member in CAU_China 2022 team equally, whether they are in pre-iGEM or not.

Quick handbook for starters in iGEM

Since starters in iGEM competition often find it difficult to get the resources they need from the complex iGEM web systems, we designed a handbook for starters to introduce the important navigations in iGEM website. We believe this handbook will make starters get familiar with iGEM websites and launch their project more smoothly. Moreover, this handbook is helpful to any one who is interested in synthetic biology and need information on every aspect of a synthetic biological program.

CLICK ME to download the handbook!