Team:FAFU-CHINA/Partnership
FZU-CHINA
Overview
Since both teams are located in Fuzhou, China, FAFU-CHINA and FZU-CHINA have been in close contact since the beginning of the team construction. Through HP's investigation, we found that the main purpose of people's use of scented products is to adjust their mood. In subsequent literature review, we found that linalool has a role in relieving anxiety in humans HP literature. This coincides with the FZU-China project. Our two teams decided to work together to address the issues of anxiety and depression that young people face today. FZU-CHINA decided to tackle depression directly by targeting GABA regulation in the body. Fafu-china, on the other hand, uses aroma to regulate mood and relieve anxiety. Since then, the two teams have communicated and collaborated on experiments, HP, education, wikis, art, etc, helping each other improve their respective projects.
2021.06.20 The first online meetup
On June 20, 2012, FAFU-CHINA contacted FZU-CHINA and reached the intention of conducting competition exchange and cooperation this year. On June 20, 2021 or so, get in touch with FAFU-CHINA and FZU-CHINA, after discussing cooperation direction. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the FAFU-CHINA team could not continue the experiment in the school. So the two teams agreed to continue their cooperation through online communication during the summer vacation. FZU-CHINA can stay in school during the summer vacation, so the FZU-CHINA team proposed to use their laboratory equipment to help us verify the effect of plasmid B3 first.
Communication
| FAFU-CHINA project | FZU-CHINA advice |
| Microbial fermentation itself produces odor problems | Can microbial fragrances be masked? Can an inorganic nitrogen source be used ? |
| Which microbes are used as the chassis | Chassis microorganisms should be at least stable at higher concentrations of terpenoids. |
| Scented substances indirectly relieve human anxiety, but the specific regulation is unknown. | The neuroregulatory pathways in both groups are similar, and both are related to the use of the GABA neurotransmitter regulatory system. |
At the same time, we also discussed some issues with FZU-China and improved our project together
| How can the production of E. coli be used in human society? | FZU-CHINA:The idea is to "self-heal" depression by producing GABA in a subtle way. FAFU-CHINA: We want to produce aroma through microbial fermentation, so that people can smell pleasant aroma anytime and anywhere. |
| What kind of control system and inducer is suitable for both of us? | FZU-CHINA: One is illumination, the light induction system. The second is to eat the food or food after digestion and decomposition products. That's chemical induction. FAFU-CHINA: If you want to use the changes of physical factors to adjust the output of aroma, the commonly used physical factors are light and temperature, which can be considered from these two directions. |
| How to solve the endotoxin released by lysing e. coli in the final production of products? | FZU-CHINA:The endotoxin-deficient E.coli BL21 was specially selected. FAFU-CHINA: Lysed E.coli endotoxin is released into the medium. Finally, the waste medium will be centrally recovered and treated. No human contact. |
| If the production and regulation system is too long, will it affect the stability of the whole system? | FZU-CHINA:Under the existing conditions, we bypass the problem that visible light cannot be transmitted through the intestinal tract through the self-generating optical module. We expect GABA to be produced simply by exposure to the sun, but there is no way to solve this problem. FAFU-CHINA:In order to minimize the experimental period, the gene circuit should be simplified as much as possible. |
2021.07.25The first online project exchange meeting.
In this online meeting, the FAFU-CHINA and FZU-CHINA shared the progress of their respective projects, and after discussion, the two teams decided to use the light genetic system to achieve the autonomy of their respective projects. However, due to the different background and target products, we finally chose different photogenetic system components. So we discussed the construction of optical control components, performance verification and other experimental methods.
| How do we simulate light-controlled conditions? | FZU-CHINA:It is not yet thought that the only way to simulate lighting conditions is by adding a spontaneous light module. FAFU-CHINA:We want to apply the last of these microbial systems to night lights. Therefore, we adopted the method of 12-hour discontinuous cultivation to simulate the actual application scenarios. |
| How do we verify the performance of light-controlled components? | FZU-CHINA:The luminescence effect of luxCDABE was verified by IPTG induction, and the emission light and excitation light for measuring blue fluorescence intensity were set by a microplate reader. Moreover, Cre-Vvd is very sensitive and can easily form dimers. FAFU-CHINA:The performance of the light-controlled element can be explained indirectly by the intensity of fluorescence. |
The FZU-CHINA also actively proposed suggestions to simplify the experiment cycle.
2021.8
Because of the epidemic, FAFU-CHINA could not stay in school to do experiments. FZU-CHINA heard the news and has been eager to help. So we provided a light-controlled component and asked FZU-CHINA to help us verify the performance of this component. We provided BBa_K3127998 (YF1, FixJ, PhlF, GFP), FZU-CHINA to help us access the fragment into the plasmid and transfer it into BL21. After blue light culture, green fluorescence was found under fluorescence microscope. This helped us preliminarily verify the role of BBa_K3127998.
2021.08.31 The 2nd online meeting - to implement the cooperation of the school information meeting and agreed on the popular science education for senior high school students.
The online meeting was arranged for education. Since the two universities were located in the same city, they planned to hold a series of lectures on synthetic biology in a local middle school. The two teams fully exchanged views on the content, time and location of the lectures. But because of the pandemic, getting approval from relevant schools may be difficult. The two teams decided to carry out education activities through the combination of online and offline. FZU - CHINA also want to take advantage of the new report as to the biological professional students propaganda and synthetic biology. The two teams also discussed the division of the content of the presentation.
In the end, we decided that FZU-CHINA would be responsible for the publicity of synthetic biology, while FAFU-CHINA would be responsible for the publicity of its own project and the publicity of synthetic biology related methods.
2021.09.03-05 Part of the contest wiki exchange
After participating in CCIC, we are nearing the end of the project. After summing up the CCIC exhibition, the two sides began to communicate about the making of the wiki. The two teams shared valuable ideas with each other after reviewing the best wikis of previous years. After fully considering the views of the other side, the web teams of both sides immediately started relevant work and maintained close communication. In their spare time, both sides also discussed some problems on the wiki: such as how to carry out the adjustment of the conflict of the navigation bar. Css usage skills, etc.
2021.09.05-08 Information session, art poster design exchange.
In order to fully publicize the freshmen information conference of Fuzhou University, the art and art teams of the two teams collaborated on the poster design. In addition, the presentation form of the final presentation video was continuously discussed.
2021.09.09 Joint interview
After returning to school, both parties wanted to systematically understand the physiological processes related to depression and anxiety. Therefore, FZU-CHINA contacted Dr. Zhuang Zisen from the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University. Dr. Zhuang systematically introduced the pathogenesis, current treatment methods and problems of depression. This provides a physiological basis for both of us to understand the physiological background of human emotions. FAFU-CHINA got in touch with zhangweiyi, a teacher in the forest health major of our school. He introduced us to the creation of human emotions. The concept of forest health and how physical factors such as smell affect humans. And how these chemical factors can have a positive impact on humans. After the interview, we exchanged information in time. And enriched the application basis of our project.
2021.09.10 The information meeting was officially launched.
Due to time conflict, members of the FAFU-CHINA could not get to Fuzhou University for the presentation. So members of the FAFU-CHINA made a short video to promote their project and its synthetic biology approach. FZU-CHINA played this video during their presentation. And actively provided feedback on the video.
2021.09.11-16
FZU-CHINA team sent us the plasmid containing φX174E gene from the lysis module. We transformed the plasmid into DH5α and successfully expressed φX174E protein through IPTG induction, and observed the cell lysis.
Before the experiment
After the experiment
2021.09.20-21 Communication of video clips of the publicity meeting, and confirmation of subsequent arrangements of publicity in high school.
After the publicity meeting, the irregular online meeting could not satisfy the communication between the two teams any more, so we set up a group chat on wechat, the communication APP, and immediately put forward any questions on the wechat group. In the wechat group, the two parties communicated with each other about the description of the project, the writing of the wiki and the content of the subsequent cooperation in order to achieve the best presentation effect.
2021.10.3
During the National Day holiday, all the players of both sides held a staff communication meeting online. The two sides concluded a series of activities jointly hosted by them. We focused on the information gathered from previous joint interviews. To understand the existing depression treatment methods have great disadvantages, the effect of treatment is also very limited. This provides a solid theoretical basis for our project to be finally put into human society. We talked about how ultimately our project would change human society. The members of FZU-China suggested to us the design of a small sacca that could accompany patients at any time. But given the difficulty of the design. Ultimately, we decided to use the night light as a vehicle to put our aroma production system at the head of the patient's desk. Let aroma accompany patient's morpheus and working time. Members of each group introduced their current work progress and obstacles, and both sides solved the current work problems. The experimental group communicated the final experiment and discussed the problems encountered in the experiment. Art and web students plan to add special presentation forms to their web pages. Since the regulation mode designed by FZU-China is quite complex, we suggest them to show the regulation process under different conditions in the form of animation.
reference
[1] Linck V，Da Silva A，Figueiró M，et al. Effects of inhaled linalool in anxiety，social interaction and aggressive behavior in mice[J]. Phytomedicine，2010，17( 8) : 679.
Tongji_China
Overview
We want to apply the project of Tongji_China to environmental protection. At this time, Tongji_China contacted us. They not only hope to remove the smell of wet garbage, but also hope to synthesize fragrance substances, so as to completely break people's long-standing prejudice against wet garbage. We had a lot of conversations online and eventually reached a partnership.
Early stage of the project
After putting forward the idea of partnership, the two teams had an online meetup, where they exchanged views on their respective projects and progress. In the process of communication, Tongji_China unexpectedly found that both sides had the idea of making a questionnaire, so Tongji_China exchanged the content of the questionnaire with each other, and put forward suggestions on the modification of each other's questionnaire.
We help Tongji_China
We proposed to Tongji_China that we should refer to some existing mature questionnaire materials, such as CGSS (Chinese General Social Survey), ISSP (International Social Survey Project), and EASS (East Asian General Social Survey), and recommended some books on questionnaire survey, such as 10,000-Volume Method (Chongqing University Press). Meanwhile, we suggest That Tongji_China should pre-launch the questionnaire before it is released, so as to understand more people's views on the questionnaire.
Tongji_China helped us
Tongji_China also put forward some views on our questionnaire. Tongji_China suggested that the questionnaire expression should be as clear and easy to understand as possible. For example, some examples can be given for specific explanation. In addition, Tongji_China also proposed a combination of multiple choice questions and fill-in-the-blank questions to get a more comprehensive understanding of respondents' ideas.
Together makes us stronger
Through the communication and discussion of questionnaire design, we each completed a relatively complete and scientific questionnaire. Since our questionnaires have played a very important role in the development of the project, the cooperation on the questionnaire is very important for us to obtain real data and determine the direction of the follow-up project.
The interim
In the following project process, we still maintained frequent communication. As the application scenarios of our two teams' projects are closely related to human beings, Tongji_China believes that it is necessary to discuss the rationality of our projects from an ethical perspective. Considering that the two teams are not in the same city, we held a dialogue on ethical issues in our respective schools and acted as the online organizer of each other to let more people join in the discussion on ethical issues.
We help Tongji_China
FAFU-China invited Professor Zhan Liye from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. Professor Zhan Liye has been engaged in mental health education for many years, has rich experience in psychological counseling, and has participated in human social practice many times. We have some opinions on social ethical knowledge and personal privacy protection. We mainly focus on the privacy protection problems of interviewees and the ethical problems existing in the investigation and research. At professor Zhan's suggestion, during the collection of questionnaires. We carefully explain our intentions to interviewees and fully respect their wishes. Protect the privacy of interviewees. We jointly studied relevant laws and regulations. All of our questionnaires are placed and collected on the basis of rigorous discussion of the process.
Tongji_China helped us
From 14:00 to 16:00 on June 15, 2021, Tongji University invited Professor Lu Xinghua from the College of Humanities, Tongji University to hold a dialogue between biology and philosophy with the theme of "Philosophy colliding synthetic Biology -- Human beings and Their Garbage in the Biosphere". As the online organizer of Tongji_China, we organized the online session of this lecture. This lecture gives a new look at the synthetic biology and the project of Tongji_China from a philosophical perspective. With our assistance, more people will participate in it and the spark of thought will cross the distance.
Together makes us stronger
We recognize that there are ethical issues that inevitably arise when synthetic biology is used to solve real-world problems. In order to know more about the views of people in different fields, we organized various activities related to ethics, and organized them online so that more people could participate in them and we could get in touch with more different ideas.
Later stage of project
When our projects were in their later stages, the two teams held an online meetup on practical application problems.
We help Tongji_China
Just like the original idea of The partnership of Tongji_China, Tongji_China hopes to synthesize aromatic substances while wet garbage deodorizing, so as to better realize the efficiency of deodorization. Linalool produced by us has a strong ability to mask odor against polysulfides. Therefore, we decided to co-culture the hydrogen sulfide oxidation engineering bacteria constructed by Tongji_China and the linalool producing yeast constructed by us, so as to achieve the purpose of deodorizing and producing aroma. To this end, FAFU-China used modeling to simulate the co-culture environment of E. coli and yeast, and the specific results are as follows:
Tongji_China helped us
At the same time, Tongji_China also set out to prove the application scenarios envisaged by Tongji_China with experiments. Therefore, Tongji_China obtained linalool provided by us, and planned to react with hydrogen sulfide gas together with linalool and engineering bacteria of Tongji_China, and determine the gas composition through high performance liquid chromatography to determine whether the odor in the treated system has been treated.
Together makes us stronger
The exploration of project application makes our respective projects more complete. For us, the application of engineered odour-producing bacteria in wet waste deodorization provides an alternative application prospect for this project. For Tongji_China, deodorization and the generation of fragrance substances can help Tongji_China solve the problem that Tongji_China wants to solve ina more comprehensive way, and also provide a more pleasant working environment for practitioners of wet waste, which is in line with the project concept of Tongji_China.