Along with making progressions in our own laboratory, we also reach out to make mutualistic connections with other iGEM teams. Some cooperative activities that we participated in are described below.

In August, we participated actively in the 8th Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCIC). Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we were unable to attend the physical meeting in Shanghai, but we joined the online meeting room and reached out to make connections with a variety of iGEM teams. As we were paying attention to the speeches delivered by other teams, we found out that some teams shared a common goal with us, or that part of their project were inspiring to our project. Directly after the meeting, we contacted several teams for brief discussions, but the communication did not extend itself into a long term collaboration.

For example, we had contacted with team SCUT-CHINA and obtained advices and inspiration regarding artistic representations of the project. Prior to construction of promotion video, we found it very difficult to design an animatic and artistic illustration of our project. PPT was too dull, and pure animation consumed too much time. Attracted by the unique and animated promotion video from SCUT-CHINA, we contacted the graphics leader of the team and asked for advices in making team representations. SCUT-CHINA offered us valuable and practical advices regarding the use of PPT and animations. They also recommended us useful apps like FOCUSKY.

Thanks to the CCIC meeting, we also made connections with BJU_China, NWU-CHINA-A, and QHFZ-China and developed closer collaborations in the future. Together, we hosted an online educational activity in September, and more detailed information was present in the following paragraph.

Figure 1. Presentation poster for CCIC event

In September, BJU_China invited NWU-CHINA-A, QHFZ-China, and LINKS_China to hosted an online educational forum that is open to the public. The theme of the educational forum was about the history, application, production, and artistic importance of pigments and dyes. Synthetic biology was also a big part of the educational activity, since the activity is designed to publicize the idea that syn-bio technology can be applied to daily life events like the production of pigments and dyes. Together, the four teams hoped that this activity will help the public to develop deeper understanding about dyes and develop interest in synthetic biology.

The designated date for our team’s online presentation was September 19, and we hosted the forum using Tencent Meeting app to an audience group of more than 100 people. Most of our audiences were college students. During the presentation, we explained the cultural and historical significance of pigment by referencing its usage in the Greco-Roman Era and in the traditional Chinese tie-dye industry. We mentioned a variety of ways to manufacture dyes from fermenting the shells of snails to the employment of modern chemical additives. Last but not least, we linked dye production to the synthetic biology field by introducing the audience of pigments produced by genetically modified microorganisms. In the modern period, people do not have to rely on plants, animals, or chemicals to produce dye in traditional ways, but the syn-bio technology offers us a brand new way of manufacturing dyes using microorganisms like genetically modified E.coli.

Overall, the cooperative educational activity lasted for four days, and most of the audience members appreciated the activity and sent positive feedbacks. (Link to the recorded video of presentation posted on bilibili (https://b23.tv/vQqtLR)

Figure 2a. LINKS_China’s poster about the online forum. The words in the center advocate the audience to “join the adventure to the miraculous pigment world”

Figure 2.b Logo from NWU-CHINA-A, QHFZ-China, LINKS_China, and BJU_China; order from left to right

Sharing the same laboratory, we assisted members of Whittle in their daily experiments. Specifically, we gave them advices in expression of proteins and molecular cloning experiments. Moreover, we also contributed to the progression of Whittle’s project by giving them the ptac-RiboJ bio-brick and informed them ways to make use of it.

Facilitating the project development of BNDS_China, we invited them to visit our laboratory and use the microplate reader, which allowed them to test their sensor samples and receive a visual result. Using the microplate reader in our laboratory, BNDS_China was able to make quantitative measurement, which is a crucial criterion for bronze award.

In return, the instructor of BNDS_China, Tingzhen Liu, provided help to our hardware construction and gave useful suggestions to us for improvement of the NeoLeathic Tanner.

Sharing the same laboratory, we cooperate and build strong partnership with team AISSU-Union. The mutualistic bond between the two teams propels both teams to progress more efficiently and effectively. Cooperation with AISSU-Union includes utilizing of Yeast Toolkit, transformation of yeast, constructing plasmid vectors, and wiki support. A detailed description of the collaboration with AISSU-Union can be reviewed in the partnership page. (Link to partnership)