Team:NNU-China/Team/Partnership



Partnership

(Gold Medal#5)

Overview

    Because of the recurrence of the COVID-19 epidemic, our partnership with Worldshaper-Nanjing took the way of combining online and offline. We held several meetings in the aspects of experimental design, HP and Wiki production. We have established a continuous partnership from May to October 2021 and achieved good results. Because our team members have certain experimental experience, we helped Worldshaper-Nanjing carry out laboratory safety education, helped them in plasmid construction, and supplemented their data in questionnaire distribution. We also listened to Worldshaper-Nanjing's opinions on HP and cooperated with them to carry out successful community education and education for students in mountainous areas.
    Here are some details about the progress we made together to each other's project.
Fig. 1 time axis

1. May-Understanding synthetic biology

    On May 5, we have determined to conduct preliminary cooperation with Worldshaper-Nanjing and make some preparations for the later activities. We invited Dr. Wang Qingzhuo from Nanjing Normal University to give a popular science explanation of synthetic biology to the members of our two teams.
Fig. 2 Dr. Wang Qingzhuo's popular science presentation of synthetic biology

2. June-Focusing on laboratory safety

    Our team arranged a laboratory safety manual to explain the laboratory safety to the team members of Worldshaper-Nanjing on June 10. Moreover, we familiarized them with the structure of the laboratory and the use of instruments and equipment.
Fig. 3 NNU-China explains laboratory safety to Worldshaper-Nanjing team members

3. July- Disscusion on partnership plans

    On July 20, we held a formal meeting with Worldshaper-Nanjing team. In the meeting, two teams shared each other's project introduction and current progress, as well as the ideas on HP, publicity and other work. Through this meeting, our two teams discussed how to communicate closely in the next step and jointly discussed the competition rules of iGEM.
Fig. 4 Formal meeting on July 20

4. August to September- Partner in science popularization of synthetic biology

    On August 6, our two teams reached a cooperation intention to carry out science popularization together at the regular meeting. In terms of activities, Worldshaper-Nanjing shared with us an interesting online interactive platform. We also agree with the idea of Worldshaper-Nanjing to produce multilingual picture books. We actively completed the production of picture books and led Worldshaper-Nanjing to cooperate with more iGEM teams.
Fig. 5 Online conference on August 6
    On August 13, NNU-China and Worldshaper-Nanjing jointly launched a popular science course of synthetic biology——"decoding life,decrypting synthetic biology" in mountainous areas of Guizhou, China. In the online course, we introduced synthetic biology and our projects, and gave enthusiastic responses to the questions from the high school students. Through this course, we found that there are serious regional differences in the development of synthetic biology. We hope to ignite the interest of children in mountainous areas in science through our popular science publicity.


5. August to September - Help on questionnaire distribution

    On August 25, we exchanged information on the current resumption of offline activities in Nanjing. Because worldshaper Nanjing is a team of high school students, in terms of questionnaire distribution, there is a lack of data on respondents aged 18-30 for their team. Our team helped Worldshaper-Nanjing distribute their public questionnaire and solve their data shortage in the age group of 18-30.
    In terms of finding expert resources, Worldshaper-Nanjing also gave good suggestions to us. We can seek the help of other iGEM teams by holding or participating in the theme meetup. At the same time, we also exchanged experience in holding meetup.
Fig. 6 Online conference on August 25
    On September 10, we held an offline meeting with Worldshaper-Nanjing team members to discuss the award evaluation and the writing of various materials.
Fig. 7 Offline meeting on September 10

6. September - Partner in community education

    On September 11, team members of NNU-China and Worldshaper-Nanjing went to Wu Fu community in Nanjing to carry out science popularization activities. This activity aims to bring science into life and synthetic biology into the community. In order to make it easier for community residents to understand, we made and printed picture books about our project in advance. Starting with COVID-19, we introduced the harmful microbes in life, how synthetic biology affects our lives and so on. The popular science activities in the community have received a warm response. The community residents can not only learn the knowledge of epidemic prevention, but also understand the cutting-edge technology of synthetic biology, so as to truly let synthetic biology enter the community. We are also reaching a cooperation intention with Wu Fu community to strive for long-term science popularization.
Fig. 8 NNU-China and Worldshaper-Nanjing team members go to Wu Fu community

7. October-Final presentation

    On October 10, we held an offline meeting with Worldshaper-Nanjing team members to discuss the problems encountered in Wiki web page programming. Both sides provided many new ideas for code writing and web designing.
Fig. 9 NNU-China and Worldshaper-Nanjing team members are discussing wiki production