Forum

After more than a month of brainstorming, we have preliminary designed three sets of experiment scheme. At this moment,IGEM2013-HZAU (Huazhong Agricultural University)and Igem2013-HUST (Huazhong University of Science and Technology) start their experiments. In order to exchange experiences and stronger friendship, three teams had an exchange in 3rd floor meeting room of department of life science, Wuhan university, on a weekend in March. The team leader and the other 6 members of iGEM2013-HUST attended this meeting， sharing their designing ideas and their following plans。And after that, the team leader of iGEM2013-HZAU with his huge team composed of 10 members, also presented their experimental programs and the favorable conditions provided by their school, which indeed let us envy. Then Zhaoren HE, as the team leader of iGEM2013-WHU, gave a speech about our thoughts of experiments and our appreciation to them for coming the meeting. Finally everybody talked of own thoughts in a cheerful voice, the meeting ended happily.

Display during Scientific Fair

In order to raise the profile of the IGEM, especially to the public who are interested in science, we publicized the IGEM competition and our 2013-IGEM projects (including our final project and our alternative projects) to the whole students of Wuhan University and the citizens living around, in the Scientific Fair of Wuhan University. In this Scientific Fair, we designed display panels and posters to promote IGEM and introduce our project. And thus, made the public feel the fantastic charm of the synthetic biology.
We mainly introduced the following topics to the public:
(1). Introduced the synthetic biology, including the research propose, research contents, research methods and application of the synthetic biology to the public.
(2). Introduced the IGEM, including the organizers, the ideas and significance of this competition.
(3). Introduced our IGEM final project: precise gene expression regulation system based on CRISPR-Cas9 and tandem promoter.
(4). Introduced our alternative project of raising the content of zinc ion in rice by Escherichia coli, and the project of controlling the protein yield in a properly high level in E.coli by N-starvation system. In addition, we explained how we determined our final project, including the feasibility analysis and value assessment.

After this practice, we felt that there were numerous people becoming more interested in the amazing and fantastic synthetic biology. And we do hope that there will be more individuals giving attention to the synthetic biology and the IGEM so that they can develop stronger.

Communication

1.Communication with USTC team member

Our contacts with USTC started in June 3rd, when Sitao Zhang, the team leader of 2013 USTC iGEM team visited our lab. We shared ideas about synthetic biology and informations for iGEM. Later in July, They asked us whether we had any suggestion on protein expression of Bacillus subtilis, as there is no teacher employing such system in USTC. We collected information for Bacillus engineering by asking the teacher and graduate student in our university who are using the system. And then we sent these information to USTC. Hopefully these information did some helps.

2.Communication with BGI team member

As our busy experiments moving towards the end with the passing summer vacation, our long-term partners –iGEMers of Beijing genomics institute(BGI) in Shenzhen are also trying their best doing their research. After a short telephone conversation between our team leaders, we fond that it was time for our two teams to hold a seminar and exchange our experiences and advices we have gathered during iGEM. It was at this great time that Shuang Zhu from Shenzhen BGI came to Wuhan University for a visit and we held this seminar between Wuhan university and Shenzhen BGI with great joy. In our WHU-IGEM lab, Shuang Zhu told us about their project idea and plan in detail and we also shared ours. Then we had heat conversations about our preparation and experiment experiences during iGEM and we find that we have so many interesting experiences and exciting feelings to share as iGEMers. Our team leader- Hangxing Jia also told Shuang some of our problems as we try to produce our own biobricks and Shuang gave us some valuable and effective advices with the practice of her team. Finally, we made a conclusion of our process during the past months and planned our future assignment with the helpful advices from Shuang Zhu. As faithful and helpful partners for each other, We are all looking forward to further cooperation between WHU-iGEMers and Shenzhen BGI-iGEMers in the near future.


3.Giving CAU team suggestions
We communicated with team-CAU.Both teams introduced projects and give some meaningful advice to each orther. Since it is the first time for CAU to attend the IGEM, we offered some basic guidence to them.

Lectures to peers

1.In the College of Chemistry and Molecular Science of WHU In order to raise the profile of the IGEM, especially within the freshmen who just start their colorful life in the campus, and promote the academic communication between different subjects in IGEM, we publicized the IGEM competition and our 2012-IGEM project to the freshmen in College of Chemistry and Molecular Science of Wuhan University. Furthermore, we had a heated discussion on the future of the synthetic biology through the different perspectives of biology and chemistry, which made us know more about how to combine the study methods of biology and chemistry on synthetic biology studying.

We mainly discussed the following topics:
(1). Introduced the IGEM, including the organizers, the ideas and significance of this competition, and the form of this competition.
(2). Took our IGEM project of converting the excessive intake glucose into cellulose and degrading overmuch fatty acids by Escherichia coli, as an example to explain how an IGEM project works.
(3). Communicated the meaning, study methods, and the future of the synthetic biology through the different views of biology and chemistry. We found that biologists concentrated more on the whole biological function of the designed protein, whereas the chemist focused more on the structure and chemical properties of the designed protein. However, since the structure and chemical properties of the protein are essential factors of function studying, once we can perfectly combine the study methods and ideas of biology and chemistry, the synthetic biology studying will grow with leaps and bounds.


2.In the College of Life Sciences of WHU In order to raise the profile of the IGEM, especially to the sophomores who are full of enthusiasm to study synthetic biology, we publicized the IGEM competition and our 2013-IGEM project to the sophomores in College of Life Science of Wuhan University. Furthermore, we had a heated discussion on the application of our precise gene expression regulation system and the research significance of the synthetic biology.
We mainly discussed the following topics:
(1). Introduced the IGEM, including the organizers, the ideas and significance of this competition, and the form of this competition to the sophomores in CLS.
(2). Introduced our IGEM project of precise gene expression regulation system based on CRISPR-Cas9 and tandem promoter.
(3). Discussed the application of our project, such as the application of the oscillator system in our project. We considered it as a probably essential tool in controlling certain protein product’s yield in industry. And it may even can also function well when it comes to the bio-computer design.
(4). Communicated the significance and study methods of the synthetic biology. After this meeting, we found that our sophomores more attracted by the mystery of the synthetic biology, and they formed a belief that synthetic biology would lead to a massive transformation of the biology research.