Brief history of our team

Well, it’s time for the start of a new journey of a new IGEM team. IGEM seemed to have magic power to attract a number of students to participate in it. At the beginning of November, 2011, with the guidance of some members from the precedent team,twenty juniors more or less stood out of 80 applicants to become the vanguard of the new team. Also at the same time, the new journey started.

During the November, 2011, members of the team were divided into three groups each of which is guided by one group leader, respectively. And every week each group was expected to meet 2-3 times to view and discuss the outstanding works of previous IGEM competitions. And at the end of week, a feast full of innovative ideas and interesting opinions brought by each group to all the team members. Delving into various excellent ideas and works from other universities and colleges, we began to have a more intensive understanding of IGEM and embarked on our own project.

At the beginning of December, 2011, all of three groups had their origin but undeveloped ideas and introduced their ideas to all the members at the team meeting. Of course, we never stopped there despite of the coming of the final examinations of the semester. At the end of the semester, January, each group determined their project and started to collect information and consult relevant documents to device their ways to achieve their targets during winter vacation.

Although during winter vacation, members of the team got separate and celebrated festivals with their family at their homes, they still tried to communicate with each other online. Everyday, new information are provided and new progress is made. And thanks to this long vacation, members do not only have a good rest but also develop their ideas.

After vacation came a new academic semester and also a new beginning. Each group came up with their well-established ideas and details of their plans and presented them to each other. Decision was made by all of the members that which idea or project is the best one for the team. And “CRISPR/Cas9 plan” captured everyone’s attention and won as the best idea. And so at the late February, the team determined their project and focused all their power and energy to work it out. In addition, to register the competition officially and at the same time acquire financial support from the department, the team had to prepare for the oral defence of the thesis in the department. To get support from the department, between late February and early March, everyday the team got together, discussed, enriched our plans and perfect our project. Fortunately, as an old Chinese phrase goes that KONG FU people live, the team successfully demonstrated their competency and received the financial support from the department.

After the oral defense, the team successfully registered competition and finally started the experiments and researches. Whether it’s day or night, whether it’s weekend or weekdays, there are members in the laboratory enjoying the happiness or overcoming the difficulties in the programs. Until now, six months has passed by, they still on their way to make their projects work well and still on their way to realize their dreams. Though there are tear and failures, setbacks and anxiety, the team still holds on. And on 3rd, October, 2012, the Asian qualifier, it’s time for the team to tell their ideas and dreams to the world.

Table below shows the history on the scale of month: