Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference
From July 30th to Aug 3rd, we joined the Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference hosted by iGEM NCHU Taichung in Chung Hsing University. More than twenty iGEM teams from Taiwan, China, and Japan gathered around and shared the incredible projects. Lively discussion surrounds all the time after team presentations and at posters sessions, where we gained many valuable advices from professors and other iGEMers.
In the evening, teams hung out, had dinner, visited night markets, while sharing funny stories and problems encountered during the preparation of Giant Jamboree. Mouth-watering chicken fillet and freshly made pearl milk tea sure brought us closer together. We had a great time, especially with iGEM Fudan-CHINA, iGEM NAU, and iGEM XMU-China, who kindly approached us looking for the possible cooperation further in the future.
It was a precious experience and practice for us to present our project in front of so many Asia iGEMers before Giant Gamboree. Great thanks to NCHU Taichung iGEM team for hosting such wonderful conference!!
Mini-seminar with Mingdao, NCTU_Formosa and NTHU_Taiwan
On July 23rd, four teams from Taiwan gathered together, presented our projects in turn and exchanged feedback with each others. Fresh, creative ideas made this conference not only inspirational but also unforgettable.
We were glad to be a part of this conference taking place in NCTU. It was thrilling knowing this conference is arranged and hosted by Mingdao High School team, which has been participating and obtaining good results in iGEM.for years. 20 minutes presentation and 10 minutes questions and answer times were yielded to each team.
Mingdao aims to build low-cost, rapid-screening and accurate diagnostic device of HIV, living mosquitos is involving in this portable device!
NCTU_Formosa introduced their system of balancing varieties of bacterial growth in the soil by applying corresponding amount of bacteriocin.
NTHU_Taiwan intends to regulate the population of bacteria Vibrio, which possess great potential of commercializing.
All projects are pursuing a better future for human or industries. This seminar helped all teams to re-examine the feasibility and conprehensive aspects of their projects for further improvement.
Questions about BioWatcher asked by other teams in this mini-seminar:
1. Bioluminescence is too weak to penetrate tissue?
The bioluminescence used in BioWatcher has an emission wavelength of 490 nm.
Although the intensity of bioluminescence at this wavelegth is not as strong as a aprt of it will be absorbed by body tissue, experiments proved the successful bioluminescence penetration captured under imaging system. Besides,the fact that this mild intensity of this bioluminescence is invisible to naked eye can ease the users’ concern of turning into green-glowing lamp.
2. Concerns about applying engineered cells in human bodies
The application of our system can be widely used in detecting soluble and insoluble ligands in the enviroment, living organisms and,our ultimate pursuit, in human bodies which post serious concerns. In terms of deliverying engineered cells into human body, invasive and noninvasive measures, such as injection, nasal delivery and viral therapy, are considered.However, we faced our biggest challenge--choosing the proper cell to be applied. Several aspects need to be evaluated including life span of the cells, its amount in circulating system, possible immune rejection…etc. As hard as it is, existing cellular immunotherapy is keeping our hopes up. Undoubtedly, this project is still immature. However, white blood cells and mesenchymal stem cells are our candidates so far.