Team:LZU-CHINA/Contribution

Part.1 Part.2 Part.3 Part.4 Part.5
We participated in the CRISPR Conference, constructed a series of biobricks and summarized the methods for selecting pseudovirus, which provided experimental ideas and guidance for future teams. We held the 2021 China iGEM Online Meetup, produced educational packages for students in the northwest and a series of popular science works, contributing to the promotion of synthetic biology.
1.Part
We developed a treatment strategy for COVID-19. We built a series of biobricks to build CRISPR-Cas13d system. These contents covered all aspects of this topic. We constructed biobricks BBa_K3760000, BBa_K3760001 with 6×His tag Cas13d protein, which provided a method for the future iGEM teams to express Cas13d with high purity and high activity. In order to detect the activity of Cas13d cutting ACE2 mRNA, we constructed the target sequences of ACE2 BBa_K3760003, sgRNA of RfxCas13d BBa_K3760005, BBa_K3760006 and BBa_K3760007, providing ideas and methods for teams to detect the activity of Cas13d in the future. We constructed HEK293T-ACE2 stable cell line BBa_K3760004 to provide materials for the following iGEM teams to study the treatment of novel coronavirus cells. To verify the degradation of ACE2 mRNA by CRISPR-Cas13d system in lentiviral vector, we constructed BBa_K3760002, BBa_K3760011. We hope that these biobricks can provide new ideas for future iGEM teams to treat viral diseases, construct CRISPR-Cas13d system and knock down a protein in the body to help them complete the experiment.
In our team's project this year, we use the GFP (BBa_E0040) as reporter gene in our construction of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus. We added our usage under this part page.
Fig.1 .CRISPR-Cas13d system targeting ACE2-encoded RNA
(Maybe you can click on this figure.👆)
2.The CRISPR Conference
The CRISPR Conference in China is an exchange meeting of iGEM teams using CRISPR technology to experiment with the aim of exchanging experimental experience between teams. LZU-CHINA participated in CRISPR meetings and cooperated closely with other teams that also used CRISPR technology. After the CRISPR sharing and exchange meeting, each team will also summarized the experience of using CRISPR technology, collaborated to produce the CRISPR application guide, summarize the valuable experience of each team, and provide experimental guidance for the future team to use CRISPR technology.
3.Education Package
In order to better popularize the knowledge of synthetic biology and promote the iGEM competition, we worked with other iGEM teams to produce education packages. According to the content of the questionnaire, we have produced educational packages for students of different ages, including synthetic biology drawing manuals, comics, popular science videos, interesting lectures and so on. We provide free education package content and publicity materials to the teaching support teams, and guide them to use these materials.
Our work will not stop here. LZU-CHINA will follow up on the promotion of educational packages worldwide, disseminating science and knowledge to more children in poor areas. This will make more children understand synthetic biology and stimulate their interest in biology. At the same time, we will also provide iGEM teams with survey data, promoted drawing manuals and comics to increase the diversity of popular science works in the future. We will suggest them to continue to investigate the students' understanding of synthetic biology.
Fig.2 .PPT cover of education package
4.China iGEM Online Meetup
LZU-CHINA organized the 2021 China iGEM Online Meetup with three other iGEM teams in the mainland. The participants benefited greatly from the exchange and discussion of the meeting. This meeting not only promoted the exchange and cooperation of iGEM teams in China, but also provided a good online communication platform in the pandemic environment. We hope to build a bridge for the future iGEM teams to communicate with each other. Together we promote further communication and cooperation to promote the publicity of synthetic biology.
Fig.3.Cover of China iGEM Online Meetup
5.Provide Pseudovirus Selection Strategy
We discussed the methods of simulating the novel coronavirus with our partner Naval Military Medical University, and summarized a series of pseudovirus packaging methods. The advantages and disadvantages of AAV, lentivirus and VSV are summarized, which provides experience and help for future iGEM teams and other users to better select the pseudovirus strategy suitable that suits their own experimental process.