Team:SUSTech Shenzhen/Collaborations
Collaboration
SUSTech_Shenzhen collaborate with several iGEM teams to make our projects better.
About CollaborationFive Schools Exchange Meeting
On 4th April, we had the pleasure of attending a meeting hosted by SCUT-China. Five iGEM teams were participating: SCUT-China, SYSU-CHINA, SYSU-Software, SCAU-China, SUSTech_Shenzhen, and SZU-China.
Each team presented their projects which were full of creative solutions based on social problems. After each introduction, members of other teams actively asked relative questions and gave constructive suggestions on not only experiments but also the HP part. SZU-China and we reached a preliminary intent on cooperation thanks to the similarity of our projects.
We not only saw the highlights and advantages of other teams but also found the aspects that we could improve. We were inspired by each other and achieved the purpose of mutual promotion. In the meeting, SZU-China mentioned the concept of the autolyzing switch, after an in-depth exchange of ideas, we used the BBa_K3142014 in the cleavage and regulation of lactobacillus in our project.
Communication with Central South University (CSU)
On May 15, 2021, our team carried out a communication meeting with the CSU-China iGEM team, where both teams fully demonstrated the progress of the project and provided helpful suggestions to each other in many aspects.
Both teams first introduced the profile of our project and then conducted discussions in Experiment, Modeling, and Human Practice respectively. In the course of communication, CSU-China shared their idea of a cell-embedding method-based procedure to regulate the level of insulin. They aim to change the situation that a diabetic might suffer from injections incessantly. Our team also gave a comprehensive introduction of what we were proceeding with.
During the discussion of the Modeling part, we took a deep insight into modeling ideas including Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE), Cellular Automaton, Animated Simulation, etc. Our team first raises a question about how to guarantee rationality when choosing a certain value for the unknown parameter in an ODE system. CSU-China then provided a method called Sensitivity Analysis for us, which is an effective testing method and of great assistance to us. Next, we continued to exchange the idea of how to simulate a biological reaction by using the ODE method. We reached a consensus that the ODE method is a kind of “dirty work” which needs us to pay a myriad of efforts to make sure it is well-operated. Moreover, in the next communication, we are inspired by the ideas they use to simulate and visualize the biological process. It provides us with many new perspectives to proceed with modeling work. Finally, we are both glad to stay in constant contact with each other and offer necessary help if needed.
Communication with the National University of Singapore (NUS)
On June 27, 2021, we contacted the team at the National University of Singapore, NUS_Singapore, through our supervising professor, and we have an online meeting to introduce our progress and exchange our thought.
Both of us introduce the project first. Our part contained an introduction to the ideas in experimentation and modeling. Since the idea for Boolean Network was not that mature at that time, we mainly focused on sharing the ideas and methods of ODE equations, trying to discuss strategies for optimization with each other. Besides, we also described a series of work carried out by our human practice team with the integral progress of the work. For NUS_Singapore, they introduced the condition of food in their country and the source of inspiration for their experiment. Then they gave a detailed explanation about their experiment design.
Their close attention to the transgenesis policy in different countries stimulated us to be more concerned about the experiment design safety, also know more about the acceptance level of engineering bacteria in other cultures. For our help to them, we helped them to get some important plasmids and our abundant human practices activities gave them more inspiration about how to carry out their activities.
Intestinal Congress
On August 6, 2021, we held the Intestinal Congress with other six iGEM teams, BUCT, SZU-China, NJMU-China, HZAU-China, BNUZ-China, Nanjing-China. Discussed mainly hardware instruments, intestinal colonization, escape issues, bioinformatics, gene integration, strain selection, quorum sensing, and ethical issues, and exchanged different opinions.
We are mainly responsible for introducing the hardware part in this meeting. In synthetic biology experiments, various experimental hardware instruments are a very important part. In the experiments of intestinal microbes, hardware instruments have also been widely used in genetic engineering and drug development. However, for some researchers, there may still be problems with the use of such instruments.
The seven teams completed the compilation of the intestinal manual together, introduced and summarized the above-mentioned part, so as to play a certain guiding role for the teams and experimenters who will carry out the intestinal-related experiments in the future.
CCiC
In August 2021, we signed up for the Conference of China iGEMer Community hosted by Fudan University. Because of the COVID-19 and the strict epidemic prevention policies, we were not able to attend the conference in person. On August 28th, we shared our project online and answered the inquiries of participants. We listened to reports, learned project ideas from different teams across China, and gained a lot of valuable opinions on our experiments, modeling, HP, and other aspects.
