Team:UESTC-China/Partnership
Figure1. CPU-China and UESTC-China.
Click here to know more about CPU_CHINA.
Collaborative work at different stages
April
Before our project officially started, we met CPU-China in the iGEM China community. Then we had preliminary communication with them in April, which helped us determined our partnership.
May
After CPU-China confirmed to use manganese peroxidase to degrade polyethylene, how to select chassis bacteria became a challenge to them. In May they held an online meeting with us to ask us for advice on this issue. We have rich experience in yeast using,
so we helped them to compare the advantages and disadvantages of cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris for the secretion and expression of highly glycosylated MnP. Finally, they decided to use Pichia pastoris GS115 for expression. And this
month, both of us participated in China iGEMer Online Meetup. During the meetup, we had met more than ten teams who had chosen pastoris as expression chassis. So, we found Yeast Alliance to provide a platform for these teams to communicate
and cooperate. We invited CPU-CHINA to join Yeast Alliance which made our relationship stronger.
Figure2, 3, 4. Friendly communication.
June
This month we had our first official communication with CPU-CHINA. And this time we focused on the similarities between us two teams. We introduced our projects in detail and shared the protocol of the experiment with each other. Both of us found a lot
of things we can work together in the future, such as sharing hydrophobic protein granules.
July
We sent our cultural creative products to each other at the beginning of summer holiday, hoping to bring some surprises to each other's intense experimental life. At the same time, the project concept was further transferred to each other.
Figure5. The cultural creative products.
August
As the founder of Yeast Alliance, we held a formal Yeast Meet-up three months after the foundation of Yeast Alliance. CPU-CHINA was one of the three teams participating in this meet-up who shared the experimental protocol and answered questions risen
by the audience. This meet-up not only helped the members of the Yeast Alliance, but also strengthened the friendship between our two teams during the preparation process.
September
CPU-CHINA gathered all the teams that had held presentations in science museums during the summer vacation together then formed a national outreach publicity campaign named ICII. It happened that we planned to hold some activities in Sichuan Science and
Technology Museum. So, when the person in charge of the event invited us to participate, we said yes without hesitation.
October
At last month’s meet-up, we collected some of the experimental problems that other teams haven’t solved yet, including CPU-China's. At the beginning of October, we consulted the teachers in Chengdu Yeast Institute with these problems. And with the help
of them, both of our experiments were further advanced. Plus, we cooperated with them in compiling Yeast Handbook! With the experience accumulated in the previous months, we wrote a yeast handbook together, hoping to bring practical
help to the team in the future. Click here for more details.
Benefit
We have both benefited greatly from our partnership.
CPU _ CHINA helped USETC-China:
Sent dCas9 -- SpyCatcher protein with His-tag as positive control to us.
UESTC-China helped CPU _ China:
1.Determined the use of Pichia pastoris expression system.
2.Guided them to improve the quality of competent yeast.
3.Assisted them to complete interviews with Pichia pastoris expression field's experts.
4.Sent them the reagents needed to complete the new enzyme activity assay.
5.Helped them detect the wild Pichia pastoris they used.
Work Together
It can be said that we were inseparable from each other's experiments. We sent our experimental material ABTS to CPU-China in Nanjing to help them carry out the experiment smoothly. After we communicated with experts in October, we exchanged and improved
our protocols with each other. CPU-China provided an executable solution for protein salting-out concentration, while we provided a proven method for protein purification by ion exchange.
Figure6. Beijing 101ID.
Be Interviewed by Beijing 101 Middle School
Beijing 101 Middle School' project is about improving the quality of recycled paper, which is similar to our project and both of us focus on paper. So, in July, they did a short interview with us to find out how the two projects could work together.
Figure7. Online Tencent Conference.
Popular Science Video with Beijing 101ID
Background
Beijing 101 MiddleID’s project is similar with ours, both of which focused on paper issues. In China, there are some schools established in remote areas where students' learning conditions are not particularly good. So, we wanted to provide these students
with an opportunity to learn more about paper. And our two teams worked together.
What we have done
As one of the four great inventions of ancient China, papermaking has a long history. So, we made a comprehensive introduction to the knowledge of paper from four aspects. They are: the origin of papermaking, modern and ancient papermaking, the value
of recycled paper and DIY recycled paper.
Figure8. Online Tencent Conference.
We were lucky to have CPU-China and Beijing 101ID with us as while preparing for the competition. And we will cherish this friendship for a long time.