Team:NPU-CHINA/Communication
EDUCATION
In October, we gave a lecture to to the freshmen of our college, introducing them to synthetic biology in detail."Design nature", breaking through the law of natural life evolution, is of great significance to reveal the nature of life and explore the basic principles of life activities, especially in promoting the disruptive innovation of biotechnology, showing infinite potential.This lecture stimulated their interest in and identification with biology, as well as their understanding of synthetic biology.
We introduced students to IGEM competition, its influence and significance.We shared our experience with students and made suggestions for students who want to participate in IGEM competitions in the future.We interact with students on site, ask questions and guide students to solve problems with divergent thinking.We stimulated students' interest in synthetic biology，let they discover that they could use the tools of synthetic biology to solve complex problems in their lives.
We popularised the harm of aflatoxin.Aflatoxin B1 is extremely toxic,it was designated as a classⅠ carcinogen by the World Health Organization cancer research agency.Aflatoxin pollution in food spread to all regions of the world, feed and food in the national standards of aflatoxin content has strict regulations.Aflatoxin can be enriched in livestock, affecting agricultural and sideline products (eggs, milk, etc.), but also directly into the human body through eating.
After we presented synthetic biology, iGEM and our team's work, many students wanted to learn more about synthetic biology and iGEM and expressed their desire to join the iGEM competition next year.
We also held an information session on IGEM and Synthetic Biology for high school students through an online Tencent meeting.We introduced IGEM and synthetic biology to high school students of The High School Attached to Northwest Normal University and The High School Affiliated to Xi'an Jiaotong University. Our teacher Mrs.Shang popularized the knowledge of Novel Coronavirus and nucleic acid. We cooperated with NWU-China-A and GA_State_SW_Jiaotong to share our projects respectively.
We explained the central principle, molecular cloning and other biological concepts in detail to high school students, and introduced the concept of synthetic biology.Synthetic biology is a new branch of biological science in the 21st century,In recent years, the research of synthetic biological substances has made rapid progress.Unlike traditional biology, which dissects a living organism to understand its internal structure, synthetic biology takes the opposite approach, building up its components from the most basic elements.Unlike genetic engineering, which extends, changes and transfers genes from one species to another, synthetic biology aims to build artificial biological systems that operate like circuits.Synthetic biology will promote the understanding of the essence of life. Through computational design, synthesis and reconstruction, editing and control, artificial life will be constructed, and the transformation of the code of life from "reading" to "writing" will be realized, which will greatly improve the understanding level of the essence of life.Synthetic biology has a strategic impact on the global science and technology economy, constantly breaking through the natural scope of life, and the ability of technological methods for the design and synthesis of life systems is rapidly improving.
We introduced the International Genetic Engineering Machine Competition(iGEM), which is the international top science and technology competition for college students in the field of synthetic biology. It is also an interdisciplinary competition involving interdisciplinary cooperation in mathematics, computer science, statistics and other fields, which has a wide international influence.
We also introduces the technology of synthetic starch of carbon dioxide, and then Teacher Shang Xiaoya of our school brought the related science of novel Coronavirus and the development of vaccine to the students.
We shared our team's project with students. We found that Bacillus subtilis has the function of secreting aflatoxin degradation enzyme. We transferred aflatoxin degradation enzyme into Bacillus Subtilis WB600 by constructing prokaryotic gene expression vector to overexpress the degradation enzyme to meet the demand.The organic selenium nanoparticle synthesis system was introduced to realize the selenium enrichment function of Bacillus Subtilis.In order to further ensure that degradation enzymes can be secreted in large quantities to meet the needs of bacteria in vitro, we added a self-lysis system in Bacillus Subtilis, activated under specific conditions to make cells self-lysis.
The NWU-China-A team introduced their project to synthesize imperial purple dye from E. coli.The GA_State_SW_Jiaotong team used Escherichia coli, Pichia coli and Bacillus subtilis to express GAS6 protein, introduced the suicide system, and GAS6 growth factor activated hair follicle stem cells, so as to solve the problem of hair loss.
The GA_State_SW_Jiaotong team gave lecture to high school students,Introduced their own team and project, carried out relevant popular science.The students showed great interest in solving the problem of hair loss.We also introduced our team and projects, popularizing the dangers of aflatoxin and the role of selenium.Students also actively interact with us, full of interest.
We promote synthetic biology and iGEM through lectures to undergraduates and high school students in collaboration with other teams.We have also produced a glossy brochure to amplify our publicity efforts.
The brochure NPU-CHINA made
Through this multi-faceted publicity, we successfully popularized the knowledge of synthetic biology and expanded the influence of iGEM.Through our team's lecture, many high school students and undergraduates are interested in synthetic biology and iGEM and come to us for information about iGEM.Among them, many students actively want to form or become new teams or new members in iGEM competition.We believe that through this promotion, we will see their inspiration in the field of synthetic biology in the next and future iGEM competitions, put into practice, and develop new members.
CONTACT NPU CHINA
NPU-CHINA is the iGEM team of Northwestern Polytechnical University
Address: 127 West Youyi Road Beilin District, Xi'an,
Shaanxi 710072, China
Contact: npuigem@outlook.com
bilibili: NPU-iGEM
