Team:HZAU-China/Partnership

Loading

Overview

In 2021, the HZAU-China and SZU-China teams faced the same problems and proposed different solutions. Effective diagnosis and personalized treatment are the different footholds of the two teams, and the different project footholds fully reflect the complementarity. In order to achieve a win-win project promotion, we have maintained communication during most of the season. Our communication has benefited the project design, experiments, model and human practice.

Figure 1. The logo of two teams.

First acquaintance: China iGEM Online Meetup

In the China iGEM Online Meetup, HZAU-China and SZU-China teams met for the first time. During the project sharing session, we found that the content of each other’s projects all pointed to the same topic- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This made us very happy, even though we were oriented towards different audiences, on different tracks. In the process of team communication, we shared ideas and reasons for the selection of biomarkers in the early stage of the project, and exchanged the pre-investigation content such as the prevalence of IBD, the existing diagnosis methods, and so on, which are useful for the planning of our human practice activities in the later stage. After that, in order to better promote continuous communication during the project promotion process, we established team chats on WeChat and QQ to maintain continuous communication.

Figure 2. The poster of China iGEM Online Meetup.

Propel: iGEM Southern China Regional Meeting

In response to the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, the Southern China Regional Meeting was held online as scheduled. The HZAU-China and SZU-China teams were invited to participate. After more than a month, the two teams’ projects have made substantial progress and encountered some new challenges. During the meetup, we discussed in detail the problems encountered during the experimentation of each other. For example, E.coli Nissle 1917 is the common strain of the team. Regarding the transformation of E.coli Nissle 1917, we shared our respective experiences. At the same time, in the face of stricter domestic epidemic prevention and control requirements, how will research and communication plans of human practice be adjusted? During the communication, the HZAU-China team mentioned that we plan to hold a pet free clinic in July, but all preparations may have to be cancelled due to the epidemic. The SZU-China team told us that Since the 1920s, October 4 was established as “World Animal Day”, its purpose is to promote the fun of raising companion animals and make the public aware of the contribution of animals to human society. Therefore, it is recommended that we postpone volunteer activities to October, which can also trigger The public thinks and participates more. So we postponed the volunteer activity to October 4. This volunteer activity has achieved good results in mobilizing public participation. At the end of the meetup, we, as a member of the gut manual, carried out the gut manual signed.

Figure 3. The cover of program reference manual.

Experimental group Comminication

In the middle of the summer vacation, we had an experimental communication. The respective teams explained the difficulties of experiments in their projects. When talking about we are still struggling with how to choose substances that relieve inflammation. The SZU-China team suggested that we can use the antimicrobial peptide LL-37. For us, the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 has a small molecular weight and will not cause a greater burden on the circuit. We accepted the suggestion of the SZU-China team and chose LL-37 as an anti-inflammatory substance to add anti-inflammatory module to our project, which will make our project more complete.

Figure 4. Communicating about experiment with SZU-China.

Figure 5. The biological function of LL-37

In future communication, LL-37 has always been the focus of our cooperation. Since SZU-China did not have Tricine- Tris SDS, we suggested that they send some protein samples. We help SZU-China complete the analysis of Tricine-Tris SDS- PAGE. SZU-China’s cell characterization data for LL-37 and our antibacterial test results mutually confirm the reliability of LL-37.

Figure 6. The LL-37 example from SZU-China.

Modelling group Comminication

Model is a very important module in the iGEM project. We are discussing some common problems in establishing models. When the SZU-China team mentioned that the concentration of the SOD substrate is difficult to determine, we suggested that they can try a series of parameters to simulate and discuss the results by situation. At the same time, informed them that they can adopt the MCMC algorithm to simulate the parameters. In the mutual discussion, we are very interested in some models. For example, we all wanted to try to establish a model of intestinal flora competition, but due to the complexity of the model, no effective results have been made. The abundance analysis model of SZU-China gives us certain guiding significance.

Figure 7. Communicating about model with SZU-China.

You can also find our partnership with SZU-China on their wiki: https://2021.igem.org/Team:SZU-China/Partnership

We also have a long-term cooperative relationship with XHD-Wuhan-A-China. We give them guidance and help. More information you can see here. (https://2021.igem.org/Team:XHD-Wuhan-B-China/Partnership)