Team:SZU-China/Excellent in Another Area
Excellence In Another Area
In this year's iGEM competition, we imaginatively produced products that serve different purposes in different fields. Based on the love of synthetic biology, we try to make bold and pioneering innovations in the three fields of "Art and design", "Entrepreneurship", "Diversity and inclusion". We promote synthetic biology and our projects to the public with novel products. Please appreciate our efforts in each field below.
Member portrait
In the early days of the SZU-China 2021 team establishment, we decided to introduce the team members to everyone in the form of cartoon images. Based on the collected member photos and the characteristics of everyone, we drew each person's exclusive portrait combined with everyone's role in the team and showed it to the public in the WeChat public account.
Fig.1 A,B,C,D member portrait.
Material
To promote knowledge related to synthetic biology and intestinal physiology, we have designed and organized various types of educational activities. To match different groups' basic knowledge and comprehensive ability, we have designed materials to meet different needs that help to support our various activities.
Fig.2 intestinal flora puzzle.
Early childhood is a critical period for health education and an essential stage for forming good hygiene habits. Moreover, compared with adults, children have poor intestinal barrier function and are often prone to digestive diseases. For this reason, children's intestinal health education activities have become an indispensable part of our practical activities. We hope to let them know how to prevent common digestive diseases through puzzles and picture books. Let children have a clear and intuitive understanding of intestinal health and intestinal flora so that children can consciously protect their intestines and maintain intestinal health. It can also give children a preliminary understanding of synthetic biology and arouse their interest in synthetic biology.
Fig.3 A,B intestiNO card.
Fig.4 A,B experimental badge.
Fig.5 bacteria anthropomorphic keychain.
Fig.6 Facial mask with our logo.
Compared with children, college students have more solid basic knowledge, and at the same time, have more substantial knowledge acceptance and curiosity. Therefore, we hope to disseminate knowledge related to synthetic biology and intestinal flora to college students in various ways. The intestiNO card adopts an entertaining and entertaining approach, allowing students to experience the relationship between life behaviour and changes in the intestinal flora during play. Laboratory badges arouse students' interest in synthetic biology through basic synthetic biology laboratory operations and instrumental personification to achieve the purpose of promoting synthetic biology. College students can understand the concepts and basic practices of synthetic biology by understanding the experimental operations and content in the badge. Combined with the current epidemic situation, we have also produced SZU-China's exclusive masks, which are practical and beautiful.
Fig.7 iGEM synthetic tickets.
Fig.8 A, B two posters of GreatProtein.
Fig.9 the element of GreatProtein.
Fig.10 game screen of GreatProtein.
Since the general public knows little about synthetic biology, we made "GreatProtein" game. By demonstrating to the public how scientists rely on the central dogma, use a single gene element to synthesize protein at the end, and build the cornerstone of life matter to popularize science and synthesize biological knowledge. In the game, players can superimpose genetic elements through manipulation and finally synthesize a protein. It implies the central dogma by constructing a fundamental part and then forming an organic whole. The game is rich in colours and has gained the love of many people.
Promotion Vedio
This year's promotional video describes the process of an IBD patient discovering that he has IBD through a first-person perspective and introduces our project design. The video starts from the common symptoms of IBD: abdominal pain, diarrhoea, pus and blood in the stool. It shows the process from the onset of IBD patients to the consultation. Our project led by IBD uses a cocktail method to make an adjuvant for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. In order to shoot the promotional video, we bought and produced many props. We use chocolate sauce and ketchup to simulate pus and blood in the stool. Use a toy called "Water Baby" to simulate different engineering bacteria. The modified jelly is used to simulate the human intestines, and the cocktail glass refers to cocktail therapy. We strive to have both form and spirit. Combining engineered bacteria in the form of cocktails to achieve the goal is a method in synthetic biology. Our project's original intention is to combine different engineered bacteria as components and finally combine them into pills with a particular proportion to alleviate IBD. We hope to introduce IBD to the public through the video, improve the public’s understanding of IBD and synthetic biology, and introduce our project design and goals.
Fig.11 A,B,C,D some screens of our promotion video.
Business plan
Based on our project and the data collected in the previous investigation, we have drafted a business plan for our cocktail-style adjuvant for inflammatory bowel disease. Comprehensive consideration of our project from multiple aspects, combined with the current market environment and patient needs, to give full play to the advantages of our genetic engineering bacteria, extensive data analysis and microcapsule technology, make corresponding analysis and formulate related strategies. The business plan aims to link synthetic biology and entrepreneurship in the project so that our project is not limited to research but also to improve the practical and practical feasibility of the project in subsequent development.
You can click Entrepreneship to see the details.
App demo
In order to better promote and apply our IBD adjuvant to the market, we have designed a supporting health management application platform that serves IBD patients and even all patients with gastrointestinal diseases. In this way, the health education and management of patients and the adjuvant treatment of drugs are linked together systematically.
This health management platform will realize the patient's health management through individualized diet customization and communication communities. Adjust the patient's medication ratio through the patient's individual situation and continue to track it. We strive to record patient conditions for a long time and regulate the proportion of medications used to maximize the advantages of synthetic biology drugs.
Fig.12 A,B,C the screens of our app demo.
This year, we creatively put forward the concept of "Standard General Manual". We hope to provide objective, practical and meaningful answers to the common difficulties and problems met by the teams committed to the intestinal direction in safety, ethics, colonization, and bioinformatics. We hope to provide a feasible solution with reliable documentary evidence and organize it into a book.
INTESTINAL Program Reference Manual
This year, we creatively put forward the concept of "Standard General Manual". We hope to provide objective, practical and meaningful answers to the common difficulties and problems met by the teams committed to the intestinal direction in safety, ethics, colonization, and bioinformatics. We hope to provide a feasible solution with reliable documentary evidence and organize it into a book.
After nearly three months of sorting and collecting repeated revisions, this idea of ours has received a positive response from the other seven teams. The "INTESTINAL Program Reference Manual" compiled by the eight teams was signed at the intestinal conference held concurrently with the South China Exchange Conference. The full text of this reference manual is more than 80 pages, divided into three parts: dry experiment, wet experiment, and bioethics. It consists of eight significant parts: strain selection, quorum sensing, intestinal colonization, biosafety, hardware and instruments, and bioinformatics. The reference manual covers the outstanding achievements of previous outstanding iGEM team projects in the above sections. (See Contribution for details)
We hope that the "Intestine Program Reference Manual" reached through multi-team, cross-professional, and cross-regional in-depth cooperation can provide a new idea for the iGEM competition. This kind of cooperation more widely accepts iGEMer from different teams and different professional backgrounds. iGEMers, through sharing out the work and cooperating with one another, will jointly make constructive contributions to the continuation and development of the match.
Fig.13 iGEM INTESTINAL Program Reference Manual
