Biocraft is the treasure we received from the members of 2012 SJTU-BioX-Shanghai, which is a freedom club majoring in disseminating the concept of Synthetic Biology and offering the chances for people loving biology to communicate.
As Bertrand Russell has put it, three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed our life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Right through Biocraft, we, the members of 2013 SJTU-BioX-Shanghai, began to know the field of synthetic biology. Right through Biocraft, the 2012 iGEMers passed their passion on to us and encouraged us to keep going ahead. Right through Biocraft, we traced the history of iGEM in SJTU and will pass on the "synthetic biology" we learned to the 2014 iGEMers.
We have sought love, first, through the interactions between teammates, through the countless nights and weekends we spent together in the library and laboratory. With equal passion we have sought knowledge. We have tried to apprehend the genetic power by which DNA holds sway above expression and what people can do about it, via literature searching, brainstorming, experimental design and modeling.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens, but always pity brought us back to earth. The more we learn, the more echoes of cries of pain reverberate in our heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by illness and the whole world of energy shortage, make a mockery of what human life should be. We long to alleviate this evil by means of what we master.
This is how we feel about iGEM and Synthetic Biology. We have found it worth experiencing, and would gladly pass on the passions to others. Hence the club BioCraft helped us. With the help of Biocraft members, especially those who didn't actually participate iGEM but just are interested in iGEM, we spread the concept of synthetic biology on SJTU campus.
If anyone asks, we would refer to ourselves as a bunch of craftsmen in white uniforms and the laboratory is our manual workshop where amazing happens. Simply speaking, we use DNA sequences of defined structure and function as standard parts, which will be assembled to create multifarious devices. Thus, the prefix “Bio” has been labeled in our name.
Synthetic Biology is a new biological area of research and technology, adding a new dimension to biotechnological revolution. Its broad application prospect excites everybody, including better availability of vaccine and new medicine, sustainable energy source made from reproducible materials, bioremediation and biosensors to detect toxic chemicals.
What people have now achieved may just cover a diminutive piece of the big picture. But little by little, we believe, we can make it happen.
We inform people, but most of the time, we impress people.
The activities we have successfully held fall into the following categories:
1) Edutainment on Campus
Synthetic Biology is never a traditional discipline and we do not want to spread the knowledge in a traditional way. During the semester, we managed to spread the knowledge of Synthetic Biology to the students of biological or non-biological majors in SJTU, through a series of activities, both educational and enjoyable.
In addition, we are not just satisfied with spreading "synthetic biology" among students in university. We also grasped every chance to make public, even children, learn more about synthetic biology. The picture shows that our teammates introduce biology, especially synthetic biology, to the children who were visiting SJTU, right in front of the board exhibiting the Nobel Prize winners.
2) Communication with Corporation
Not only should Synthetic Biology thrive in lab, but also it ought to go into corporations. If we want the fruits gained in the field of Synthetic Biology accepted by public, then cooperation with corporations may be a good choice. Members of Biocraft did a lot as the aspect of communicating with corporation.
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