Introduction
Interaction among scientists has played a very important role in the development of science. Scientists in various fields collaborated to consider existing problems from multiple perspectives, which has led to many new discoveries. Such collaboration is also essential for the development of synthetic biology. We cherished this point and worked in collaborations with teams from other universities that have different cultures.
Through collaborations, we were able to deepen our understanding of the different team’s projects and gain new perspectives. This kind of interaction with others to gain new perspectives and broaden one’s horizons is a great activity in science.
Kyoto
Our team formed a partnership with team Kyoto, another iGEM team from Japan. We worked together on a variety of activities, taking advantage of each team’s connections and commonality in projects.
For more information about the partnership and their amazing project, please visit the Partnership page!
https://2021.igem.org/Team:UTokyo/Partnership
SZU-China
SZU-China iGEM team (from Shenzhen, China) contacted our team iGEM UTokyo through email and Twitter. SZU-China was looking for an iGEM team to translate their IntestiNo cards and their instructions, which are used in a game they invented to help people learn more about the intestinal microbiota. We responded by translating the cards and instructions sent to us by email from Chinese and English into Japanese.
We are very proud that we were able to translate a wonderful, educational and interesting game invented by SZU-China into Japanese and make it popular in Japan.
We at iGEM UTokyo were also able to deepen our understanding of the importance of communicating our projects and knowledge in an easy-to-understand manner.
When we think about how we can communicate things in a way that is easy to understand, we often associate it with making materials easier to read, but what SZU-China was doing this time was innovative, developing a new tool for education.
Japan Meetup
On September 11th, We participated in the “Japan Meetup” hosted by team Tokyo Tech. Although the meeting was conducted online, it was a valuable opportunity for us to inspire each other.
In the meetup, each team firstly gave a presentation on the outline and current progress of their project, followed by answers on questions and feedback from other teams. Afterward, the teams were divided into breakout rooms to exchange opinions on a variety of topics, including more detailed aspects of this year’s project and the management of each team for the next year and beyond.
As this year’s activities for iGEM were restricted by coronavirus prevention measures, it was a very meaningful meetup where we could share how each other’s teams are working on their projects, dealing with the negative impacts of the coronavirus. It was also fruitful in that we could keep in touch with other teams in Japan and make acquaintances even among freshman iGEM members.
Thanks to team Tokyo Tech for organizing this event!
https://2021.igem.org/Calendar/Events#Japan_Meetup
Tsinghua
This year, we are making a pathogen detection system by S. cerevisiae as a part of our project. This system is based on the project of iGEM 2013 Tsinghua. Unfortunately, our experiment on this field was stacked in the process of plasmid construction due to the complexity of its sequences. In order to resolve this problem, we contacted the iGEM Tsinghua team. They gave us various advice through email, including advice on construction support and plasmid provision.
Thanks to the Tsinghua team for their kind help!!
In the future, we will continue to value collaboration with people with different backgrounds and knowledge, and find various discoveries from them that we could not have made on our own.