Team:HKUST/Collaborations
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Collaboration | ShellBi
Overview
GTC
UCCKE
Symposium
HKU
CCU
Thessaly
ShellBi
Project
Description
Design
Engineering
Proof of Concept
Implementation
Safety
Contribution
Notebook
Wet Lab
Experiments
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Dry Lab
Model
Reach
Human Practice
Collaboration
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Team
Team
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Collaboration
Working Together to Achieve
Overview
This year, HKUST iGEM had the honor of working with several different iGEM teams on all domains of collaborations, from outreach to experimentation to modelling. We continuously mentored a local high school team and helped them troubleshoot their experiment. We also worked with another team in regards to modelling, in exchange for lab equipment support. Our continuous communications with different iGEM Teams has strengthened our network.
G.T. (Ellen Yeung) College
Our first meeting with the GTC iGEM Team was in Mid July, and we got to invite them to the HKUST Campus and meet up face to face. We shared our respective project plans and details. During the initial meeting, we gave them much advice in regards to how they are conducting their dry lab and modeling sections. We wanted to help them as much as possible as they were a high school team, and we took on the role of mentoring, giving advice and proposing changes to better their current project.
The second meeting we had was during the Symposium on August 11th, where we met with most of the GTC team as well as their PI. The GTC team had very little chance to do experiments, and so, they sought our help to troubleshoot a crucial part of their project- Purification of their chimera protein, PETase-MHETase. We agreed to help them, however, we ourselves were limited by our knowledge in protein experiments. As we were learning the procedures and trying to set up their experiment, they provided us with certain reagents that they used such as lysis buffer, elution buffer and wash buffer.
In order for the collaboration to operate smoothly we have had continuous contact almost everyday since the second meeting.
Following are the recipes that we used for the purification:
❒ Elution buffer: 50mM NaH₂PO₄ (pH8.0), 300mM NaCl, and 250mM imidazole
❒ Lysis buffer: 50mM NaH₂PO₄ (pH8.0), 300mM NaCl, and 10mM imidazole
❒ Wash buffer: 50mM NaH₂PO₄ (pH8.0), 300mM NaCl, and 20mM imidazole
After looking at their SDS-PAGE results, we realised that their total cell lysate is extremely impure [data not shown]. Even though the target protein size is visible on the gel, it cannot be concluded that this protein is indeed the chimera they are looking for since there are other bands that are equally and even more bright on the gel.
We wanted to follow and control each step that we could, hence, we redid the process of obtaining cell lysates multiple times.
We maintained continuous conversation regarding the project and their progress. We gave advice on their project and even conducted some ourselves. However, we too went through multiple failures, such as the SDS PAGE not being clear or conclusive at all. Following summarises our mentoring offered to GTC.
Troubleshooting from HKUST for GTC:
1. Suggested conducting a western blot using anti-6x his tag antibody to ensure the protein is indeed expressed
2. Prepared an equilibration buffer with recipe: 20 mM Tris/HCl, 200 mM NaCl; pH 7.5 for preparing the Ni-NTA column
3. Prepared multiple different elution buffers than that was provided by them, with varying concentrations of imidazole. This allowed troubleshooting their problem
4. Provided advice on how to quantify Western Blot data
United Christian College (Kowloon East)
Our first meeting with the UCCKE High School team was on August 11th, during the symposium hosted by our own iGEM Team. We presented our project ideas, and identified the potential of a collaboration where both our teams could benefit in regards to our project. In follow-up communications and many different proposals with them, we decided that
we could assist with their modeling aspect,
and
they could provide us with a fluorescence spectrophotometer plate reader
that we required for our project.
We arranged a virtual meeting on September 14th to learn about and assist with modeling in their project. During the meeting, we introduced the basic principles and the uses of monod equations and discussed how this equation can help them predict their knockout strain growth rate. In exchange, we used UCCKE’s plate reader to verify our
TCS basal results.
After the meeting, we summarized the equations mentioned in our meeting to properly document the methodologies behind the proposed modeling method.
Our part
1. Suggested conducting a western blot using anti-6x his tag antibody to ensure the protein is indeed expressed
2. Received the equipment we most needed at a time when our own plate reader had technical errors
Symposium
A platform for sharing synthetic biological ideas is important to us, and with 11 Hong Kong iGEM teams competing this year, we decided to fill in that gap.
We hosted the Hong Kong iGEM symposium this year,
inviting 8 of Hong Kong’s iGEM teams
to share not only their project ideas, but also their resources.
The in-person symposium was hosted successfully on HKUST’s campus on August 11th 2021, and we were honored to have Professor King Chow (HKUST) and Professor Becki Kuang (HKUST) as guest speakers to inspire and educate our student audience.
The iGEM teams that participated were
HKU, CityU, GTC, UCCKE, HKUST, CPU-WYY-WFN, HKIS, and SSC.
It was a full day event, from 9:00 to 18:00, in one of the lecture theatres at the academic concourse of the HKUST campus. There were more than 80 participants that attended live, and we conformed with the COVID regulations that were in place on our HKUST campus.
The format was similar to the Jamboree presentations,
where each team would present their ideas in 20 minutes, and allow time for feedback, questions, and comments on each other’s projects. We also left plenty of time for a mingling session after all the presentations, taking that time to communicate and learn more about how other teams are functioning, and about their journey through iGEM so far. We also invited several ex-iGEM team members and advisors from the undergraduate iGEM teams, and they gave comments to each group in regards to their projects. During the symposium, there was also a talk in regards to the iGEM Entrepreneurship Program Innovation Community (EPIC) from one of our ex-iGEMers at HKUST. They talked about how we could expand and grow our project into a start up even after the Jamboree.
It was a very fulfilling experience for us, as you could see for each individual team, whether they were an undergraduate or high school team, the amount of effort and dedication put into their project ideas and execution. We took this opportunity to
collaborate and network with local iGEM teams, sharing ideas, asking questions, and creating discourse in order to improve on our projects.
Through the Symposium, we were able to communicate with a few iGEM teams in regards to collaborating further.
Special thank you to our guest speakers
Professor
King CHOW
Acting Dean of Students of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Principal investigator for HKUST iGEM team of 2021
Professor
Becki Yi KUANG
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Event Photos
Attached below is our rundown and brochure of the event!
Hong Kong University
The HKU iGEM Team graciously helped us with the Chinese and Cantonese translation of our educational booklet “Magic Mr. Clam”
National Chung Cheng University
We were contacted by the CCU iGEM Team from Taiwan to conduct a Cantonese translation of their educational booklet “The War on Germs”, in order to make it more accessible to Cantonese speakers.
Thessaly
We were contacted by the Thessaly iGEM Team from Greece to conduct a Cantonese translation of their promotional video.