PetroChina Dagang Petrochemical Company

Oil production of Dagang District in Tianjin has won its name in China. By communicating with engineers from Dagang Petroleum Enginnering College, we can work on turning our products into productive force, which will draw a perfect ending to our project. It will also leave some questions for future teams to answer, encouraging them to come up with better ideas.

Communicate with Research Institute

Figure 1.

Because our research areas are similar, we chose this research institute as our partner. We hope that under the instruction of Fenglu, who is respected in the field of Bio-energy, our experiments can be improved, and our products can have more applications in this field.We presented the details of our project to other scientists, in order to raise awareness of the field of synthetic biology and incite constructive discussions regarding the scientific specifications of our project.

We visited PetroChina Dagang petrochemical company, getting a better understanding of oil production. During the factory study tour, we communicated with engineers in the plant and found some environmental problems in the production. Then we introduced our project of producing alkanes in the bacterium E. coli, engineers put forth their suggestions to apply this project to large-scale production in the factory. This visit broaded our eyes and gave us pactical knowledge, thus the significance of our project showed up more clearly.

60-Second Biology

Our human practice this year take the different backgrounds and needs of general public into consideration. We made full use of the Internet platform and tried our best to enlarge popularization of synthetic biology in China. To be more specific, we made videos to introduce iGEM and molecular biology which are limited in 60 seconds so that the message is efficiently sent to the audience, and draw the attention of the public. We also hope that through this activity, more and more Chinese people will take notice of the development of genetic engineering, an area that may change the future of the globe.

The "Lab-Safety Month of Tianjin University"

Figure 1. The "Lab-Safety Month of Tianjin University"

Under our advocation, Tianjin University started the " Lab-Safety Month of Tianjin University", and a number of activities were held, in which our iGEM team played important roles.

The" Lab-Safety Month of Tianjin University" campaign was a successful safe work practice, and we hope that we can seize this opportunity to take the initiative to start the lab-safety campaign among the universities in Tianjin city.

This campaign was the first specific campain focusing on lab-safety in China, and was composed of various activities such as lab-safety lectures, lab escape drills, lab-safety checks, top 10 safe labs selection and filming videos about lab-safety. Our iGEM team was responsible for organizing and propagating some of the activities.

Tianjin University made and revised three regulations in Dec, 2012-Tianjin University Lab Management Regulation, Tianjin University Lab-Safety Management Regulation and Tianjin University Lab-Safety Responsibility Regulation. These regulations perfected the regulations related with lab-safety, and helped to build up the lab management system of Tianjin University. Teachers from Tianjin University are now compiling a book named Basic Knowledge of Lab-Safety for College Students. To regulate the use of chemicals in our unversity, an Integrated Management System of Chemicals is also developed. For students whose majors are related with chemicals, they have to be trained about safety rules. Only after passing an lab entrance examination can they enter the labs for studying and working. Besides, postgraduates are equipped with special protection equipments to ensure their personal safety.

Plague Inc Competition

Figure 2. Plague Inc Competition

To help students enjoy themselves while learning knowledge about safety, we held a Plague Inc Competition after studying and discussion. This game required participants to spread viruses around the world to make human beings die of terrible epidemics. In the process of virus transmission and infection, players need to strengthen their infectivity and resistance against antibiotics. Many students showed great enthusiasm to this game, and took part in our competition, two of whom are awarded with prizes.

This competition enabled students to enhance their awareness of safety before conducting research work. It also tested their ability of making strategies and overcoming difficulties, which also helped them to implement their research plans efficiently.

The 3M Lecture

Figure 3. The 3M lecture

We also invited a professional lecturer Mr. Wang Enye from 3M to give us a lecture on Lab hazards and Self Protection. In the lecture, he talked about 4 aspects:basic knowledge about lab hazards and self protection, recognition of lab hazards and risk control, Respiratory hazards and self protection, and eye,face,skin hazards and self protection. The lecturer encapsulated the important technical fundaments of laboratory safety.The emphasis on the fundamentals will help the student and practicing scientist to understand the concepts and apply then accordingly. Some of the lab management officials and student representatives of related departments attended the lecture.