Humans' reform on nature has always been one part of its construction. Human practice is not only a question of making synthetic biology known to the world; it’s a human right for every person to know what is really going on. As iGEMers, we have the duty to make iGEM known and eliminate misunderstandings about the subject. As the only iGEM team in Shandong Province, OUC-China always puts great emphasis on making iGEM known to more people.

December 2012 Scientific Research Camp
February 2013 Brainstorming Winter Camp
March 2013 Meeting with Dr. Wu Longfei in CAS
Early April 2013 Visit from SCAU
Late April 2013 Visit to Beijing and Tianjin
May 2013 Tour of CAS
July 2013 2nd Hands-on experience summer camp with Qingdao No.2 High School
August 2013 3rd summer camp of Life science and technology
September 7, 2013 Model iGEM in Beijing
September 16, 2013 Seminar with Mr. Tong Zhe, Founder of One-man University
　　　

After last year’s OUC-China team came back from Boston, they organized a Camp aimed at potential 2013 iGEMers, with 12 iGEM direction members and 6 non-iGEM direction members. The camp members were divided into groups of three and assigned tasks every week. At the same time, the 2012 OUC-China iGEMers delivered lectures, resources, lab courses, sharing everything that they know about iGEM and scientific research. We tried out a new lab management system, which not only made a positive impact on our lab, but also on other neighbouring labs. The Scientific research camp told us about all the basics of iGEM and synthetic biology.

The 2013 iGEMers arrived on campus on February 22, ten days before the start of the spring semester. We were there because we needed time to get together in the winter holidays and discuss what we learned during the holidays.
In those ten days, we got up early every morning and went for a run around the field, then signing our team song, Life in Full Bloom. We read papers and news, discussed ideas and studied past projects. On the last day, we invited professors to give advice on the ideas that we showed them.

We met Dr.Wu Longfei by chance when he came to OUC to give a lecture. We did not know about him before. How excited we were when he started talking about MMB! After the lecture, we had a long chat, resulting in agreement for further cooperation. We arranged to meet in Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. At Chinese Academy of Sciences, we thoroughly explained our project to Dr.Wu Longfei and Dr.Xiao Tian. They were willing to provide us with the strain that we need, Magnetospirillum Magneticum AMB-1.

At the beginning of April this year, seven team members from team SCAU-China paid us a visit. It’s their first year in iGEM, so we invited last year’s iGEMers to give them lectures and answer their questions. Members of the two teams went hiking together, discussing their projects and exchanging their experiences. The visit established the basis for further cooperation.

We visited Tianjin and Peking iGEM teams in order to learn from their experiences. The iGEMers from Beijing and Tianjin welcomed us and showed us around their labs. We talked about our projects and had conferences about lab management and advances in synthetic biology. OUC-China is a relatively “young” team, so we learnt a lot from these “old” teams.

We took a tour of the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We learned about many kinds of new technology and scientific advances.

This year, we organized a summer camp enrolling 24 students from Qingdao No.2 High School, introducing them to the biolab and motivating their interest in Bioscience. We arranged many fun science activities for them, such as analyzing samples of marine organisms, making their own specimens, and making drinks out of artificial food additives, which left a deep impression on them about food safety. We concentrated on biosafety, hoping to raise their awareness on the subject of experimental safety.

It’s our third year organizing the Science and Technology Camp, aimed at the new sophomore students. In order to ensure that the camp members have an overall understanding of Life Sciences, we gave then lectures on biochemistry, took them on a field trip to do botany sampling, taught them to do molecular experiments and showed them new realms and advances in science such as bioinformatics, microchip technology, system biology, and of course, synthetic biology.In addition, we organized a mini-Jamboree, because academic Jamboree is a relatively new concept in China, and we would like young undergraduates to know more about it. The members of the summer camp prepared their own projects during the summer holidays. During the event, they gave presentations and explained their posters, while we tried our best to create the right atmosphere for a Jamboree. The poster reception attracted many students around the campus, filling the members with satisfaction from completing their own project.

September 7, we went to Beijing to Participate in the Model iGEM, organized by Peking iGEM team. The Model iGEM is aimed at providing a chance for communication between Chinese iGEM teams. We showed our idea about synthetic biology with other teams, including Peking, BIT, Tianjin, NJU-China, Fudan.

One-man University is an online university founded by Mr. Tong Zhe, based on the popular social network, renren.com. Recently, it’s been a big hit in China, renewing peoples’ views on learning institutions and education.It was an honor to invite Mr. Tong Zhe to give us a seminar on how to learn in the course of doing research. He gave us a talk and answered our questions about scientific research. It’s a real inspiration for us about how to educate undergraduate students to learn by themselves and for themselves.

Communication and collaboration with other iGEM teams is another important part of iGEM. We help Tsinghua University for constructing and charactering these folowing circuit. And also, In 2011 iGEM competition, we have studied Quorum-Sensing, so we provide some AHLs they required for further experiment.