Difference between revisions of "Team:AHUT China/Human Practices"
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| − | <p >We used this drone to carry the detection device into the air and tested it near the end of the factory's exhaust system. It was found that the concentration of carbon dioxide near the smoke extraction device was extremely high, 5-20 times greater than the normal value. According to the document "National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting and Reporting and Other 11 Greenhouse Gas Management National Standards Released", the proportion of various costs in the exhaust gas from such a plant's production process is: oxygen: carbon dioxide: sulfur dioxide: vulcanization Hydrogen: Carbon monoxide: Hydrogen chloride: Fluoride: Nitrogen oxides: Other = 14:10:3:3:3:2:3:8:54, <br> | + | <p >We used this drone to carry the detection device into the air and tested it near the end of the factory's exhaust system. It was found that the concentration of carbon dioxide near the smoke extraction device was extremely high, 5-20 times greater than the normal value. According to the document "National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting and Reporting and Other 11 Greenhouse Gas Management National Standards Released", the proportion of various costs in the exhaust gas from such a plant's production process is: oxygen: carbon dioxide: sulfur dioxide: vulcanization Hydrogen: Carbon monoxide: Hydrogen chloride: Fluoride: Nitrogen oxides: Other = 14:10:3:3:3:2:3:8:54, <br> We have measured the composition, content and mass percentage of each gas in the factory exhaust gas after averaging as follows: </p><hr size="10" color="rgba(68,64,64,1.00)"> |
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Revision as of 05:57, 8 October 2018
1 . HP--Creative Art Course for primary school students
AHUT_China（This year's project is about carbon dioxide.）With the increasing impact of the greenhouse effect on the global environment,it’s very important to know how to efficiently deal with greenhouse gas CO2.Traditional CO2 collection technology is not mature, restricted by high energy consumption and low efficiency.
Our project simulates the protein molecule expressed by the mutation of carbonic anhydrase gene Loci, obtains the high thermal stability of carbonic anhydrase (CA-2) and imports it into Escherichia coli cells to achieve efficient CO2 collection
On July 5, 2018, we arrived at the XiangXiangle Art and Culture House, and we had a creative art class with the children.
In class, we studied biology with them and learned creative art courses.By letting children learn the signs of iGEM competition and explaining biological knowledge for them, especially the concepts of genes and synthetic biology, etc.,We encouraged children to add their own ideas to the iGEM logo and use painting to depict genes, synthetic biology, and iGEM competitions in their heart.As shown in Picture 3.
After learning the course we designed, every child completed their own works with the guidance of the teacher Long Lijuan and the iGEM team members.
Our Human Practice-- Creative Art Courses in Primary School Students is very meaningful. It not only introduces the iGEM competition, but also introduces the iGEM team of the Anhui University of Technology.And at the same time, this activity guides the children to have a preliminary understanding of life and the corresponding disciplines.
2 . We discussed with the AHUT's model airplane team
Currently, our project is still at the laboratory stage, has not yet reached large-scale application.To better seek the scene of large-scale applications, Anhui University of Technology's model airplane team and we held a seminar and developed a program of social practice with the help of the instructor group.
We got in touch with a factory in Maanshan(Maanshan Steel Plant), and a six-rotor drone was provided by the model team, as shown in Picture 1
Zhao Lei, who has studied embedded programming development in the team, has developed a carbon dioxide detection device that can be mounted on the unmanned aerial vehicle with different gas sensors (The gas sensor can detect the mass of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other gases in each liter.) and STM32 ARM microcontroller. As shown in Picture 3:
We used this drone to carry the detection device into the air and tested it near the end of the factory's exhaust system. It was found that the concentration of carbon dioxide near the smoke extraction device was extremely high, 5-20 times greater than the normal value. According to the document "National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting and Reporting and Other 11 Greenhouse Gas Management National Standards Released", the proportion of various costs in the exhaust gas from such a plant's production process is: oxygen: carbon dioxide: sulfur dioxide: vulcanization Hydrogen: Carbon monoxide: Hydrogen chloride: Fluoride: Nitrogen oxides: Other = 14:10:3:3:3:2:3:8:54,
We have measured the composition, content and mass percentage of each gas in the factory exhaust gas after averaging as follows:
3 . Cooperation with the Indian Institute of Technology
As the project continues to advance, HP's exchanges and cooperations between teams are more frequent and in-depth. After seeing the cooperation application issued by the iGEM team of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Madras) at the iGEM official website, we contacted IIT-Madras to discuss cooperation actively.
We are pleased to collaborate with the iGEM team of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-Madras) to make a video on the science of synthetic biology in the mother tongue. The Indian Institute of Technology is also working with other teams in English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati and Hindi.
IIT-Madras sends an English script to our team. We need to match the provided slideshow video with the provided text and add the translated text to the subtitles, and finally make it into Chinese video.
We thought it was a simple matter, but there were some problems at the beginning. The problem is summarized as follows:
1. The English script does not exactly match the sound in the video, and some paragraphs are missing.
2. English and Chinese belong to different language families. They are slightly different in grammar, and the word order is reversed in translation.
3. Some video pictures and sounds are out of sync and need to be adjusted.
4. Our team members are not familiar enough with the Indian accent in English, and some words cannot be completely accurate.
After consultation and repeated revisions by the iGEM team members of the Anhui University of Technology, four days later, the results were satisfactory and the video was sent to the iGEM team of the Indian Institute of Technology. We have established a good relationship with the iGEM team (IIT-Madras) of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
With the successful completion of the HP cooperation, the Anhui University of Technology iGEM team (AHUT-CHINA) looks forward to more cooperation opportunities with the Indian Institute of Technology iGEM team (IIT-Madras).
4 . Visit Hua Qi environmental companies (Zhou Yu)
On the afternoon of September 12, 2018, our team AHUT_China visited Maanshan Hua Qi Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. (Hereinafter referred to as HuaQi Environmental Protection Company).
We know that environmental pollution is mainly air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution. Our project is to deal with greenhouse gas CO2 in air pollution. How to deal with greenhouse gas CO2 efficiently is particularly critical as the increasing greenhouse effect has a serious impact on the global environment. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the current environmental pollution in China, we visited HuaQi Environmental Protection Company. HuaQi Environmental Protection Company, is a company specializing in sewage treatment. After Ms. Zhang Qi introduced the company, we visited the intelligent water transportation management system and laboratory.
Liu Shanshan, the company's technical staff, led us to visit the laboratory. During the visit, we learned that water pollution currently is harmful to the environment and people's health. So, water pollution treatment is very important. We introduced our project to computerize the protein molecules expressed by carbonic anhydrase gene mutations to obtain carbonic anhydrase (CA-2) with high thermal stability and import it into E. coli cells in order to achieve efficient collection of CO2. The project is currently in the theoretical stage. She is interested in our project. If the CO2 emission can be effectively controlled at the source, the problems such as the continued destruction of ozone layer, the melting of two-stage glaciers and the rapid extinction of a large number of species can be effectively solved. And she is more concerned about how this project can be applied in practice, and puts forward some suggestions for our project. At present, the CO2 gas capture technology mainly includes chemical absorption, pressure swing adsorption and membrane separation. She suggested first that transgenic E. coli be cultured in solution environment with chemical absorption to achieve CO2 collection, and secondly that CO2 be treated with biological rotating disc.
5 . iGEM(Linkoping_Sweden)
We saw the cooperation request issued by Linking University's iGEM team (Linkoping_Sweden). Linkoping_Sweden has a new idea of cooperation. They want other teams to use letters or emails to show interesting things happening inside and outside the team. So we participated in this cooperation. This is an interesting collaboration, as it may be boring during the experiment, but the stories that happen in the experiment make the experiment fun. And by organizing these stories, we learn more about our experiments.
6. Biofilm Process Water Purification Laboratory
On September 8, 2018, our AHUT-China team visited the Biofilm Process Water Purification Laboratory of the College of Architecture and Engineering of Anhui University of Technology. The graduate student Xu Fan led us to visit the laboratory. The seniors introduced us to the principle of purifying sewage in the laboratory, which made us understand that relying on the microbial membrane fixed on the surface of the carrier to degrade organic matter has the characteristics of good effect and low technology and low cost.
Then we introduced our project to the seniors. The seniors said that many problems caused by CO2 also brought us many problems. Therefore, he has great hope for our project. At the same time, we have learned that the biomembrance process can not only treat sewage, but also can be applied to the treatment of organic gases. The pollutants in the organic waste gas are first contacted with water and dissolved in water, that is, diffused from the gas film into the liquid film; The organic pollutant components in the liquid film are diffused to the biofilm by the difference in concentration, and they are captured and absorbed by the microorganisms therein; the organic pollutants entering the microorganisms are decomposed as energy and nutrients in the metabolism of the microorganisms themselves. This provides us with some ideas on the combination of theory and practice.
Through a visit to the Biofilm Process Water Purification Laboratory in the afternoon, we learned about the biofilm treatment of sewage. At the same time, we also learned the necessity of our project. The impact of greenhouse gas CO2 cannot be underestimated. We also hope that our project can be applied to practice. The knowledge of biofilm processes in the treatment of organic waste gases has also given us some inspiration, and we may be able to use this knowledge when dealing with CO2.
7. Our Meeting
Background: Each team's project in IGEM is not perfect at the start.In order to make project more and more perfect and make the team members cooperate with each other more and more smoothly,each team holds the team meeting to discuss again and again. So it is important for us to hold meetings to make some discussions.The members of the IGEM in our college held a conference every week to discuss how to solve our current problems and how to do next.
The text: Our members of iGEM keep the habit of discussing at meetings once a week since March 10.
On March 10, the conference included that:
①Division of labor at that time.
②Members of the experimental group introduced the carbonic anhydride enzymatic carbon fixation project.
③We made a plan for the next step.
Through the discussion in this meeting, our division of labor has become more rational and the efficiency of work among members has been fully improved,and at the same time, our team members got a preliminary understanding of the project that we are going to carry out.
On March 17, the conference included that:
①The most common type of CO2 fixation technology in the current stage.
②The expression and the Catalytic reaction mechanism of carbonic anhydrase in human, animal and plant;
③The living environment of carbonic anhydrase and how to maintain catalytic activity of carbon anhydrase.
Through the discussion at this meeting, we learned that traditional CO2 fixation technologies include chemical/physical solvent absorption, membrane absorption, deep-sea fixation, etc.
However, these methods has been proved that they are extremely expensive in practice, and it further proves that the use of carbonic anhydrase as a potential biocatalyst is a promising fixation method.
On March 24, the conference included that :
①the basic knowledge of biological brick.
②The main function of carbonic anhydrase in our project;
③We arranged the mission about HP and Collaboration.
Through holding this meeting, we knew that it was helpful for the experimental group to design and transform the biobricks in the later stage. And some other works were arranged, so that we can be prepared for the following assignments.
On March 31, the conference included that ：
①The experimental group summarized the basic professional knowledge related to the competition
②We initially summarized the schemes of HP and collaboration.
③Our instructors tell the students who go to the United States how to get the visa .
Through this meeting, we made our parts of HP and Collaboration more complete and detailed.
On April 14, the conference included that ：
①The experimental group needs to understand the basic knowledge of genetic engineering.
②The activities of hp-related are determined by the group of HP and collaboration.
③Interpretation of the standards of the Medal.
Through the discussion in this meeting, we have listed the ways of expert discussion and external communication for the activities of HP and collaboration. Meanwhile, the members of the experimental group are planned to start the research of Interlab, and some members decided to participate in CCIC held in Shanghai during the summer vacation.
On April 21, the conference included that :
①We should complete the preliminary research of Interlab:We need to test the device which is in the DNA KIT needs to be sent to the United States, and GFP fluorescent protein expression may be required.
②The members of the group of HP and collabarbitration gives us some feedback on opinions of relevant government officials of the municipal environmental protection bureau.
③Our instructors tell the students who decide to go to the United States to fill out forms of DS160.
Through the discussion in this meeting, we planed to complete the test report of Biobrick and submit the Excel data form before the registration time of Interlab on July 9 (as of September 29). Meanwhile,the members of the group of webpage should began to design wiki pages and other related contents.
On April 29, the conference included that :
①the experimental group should complete the ot-2 application before May 1.
②The group of the HP and Collaboration should continue to work on related activities.
Through the discussion in this meeting, we asked the experimental group to conduct a detailed research on Interlab in the next stage. Meanwhile, the members of the group of HP and collabarbitration need to investigate the previous Collaboration projects and make a summary.
On May 13th,the conference included that :
①The Interlab research of the experimental group was completed, and the instructor should plan for the following projects.The members of the group of HP and collabarbitration had completed the research of the collaboration.Through the discussion in this meeting, we planed to continue to improve the website design of the wiki in the next stage,and the website design needs to conform to the theme of this year. Meanwhile, the experimental group should pay attention to collecte some relevant experimental pictures used on the wiki when conducting experiments.
On May 19th，the conference included that :
Each group tasks are still in the completion stage, and we should discuss the existing problems in the next
conference.Through the discussion in this meeting, we planed to complete the exhibition of posters of CCIC in Shanghai in the next stage and complete the presentation of related projects.
On June 8, the conference included that :
①The experimental group needed to complete the Data Form, online 4 forms, and Project Description, and the Safety Form (referring to the completion of 17 years) before June 29;
②The group of HP needed to hold a lecture in our college.
Through this meeting, our team members had a high degree of tacit understanding, and the atmosphere of the discussion became more and more active.
On July 27, the conference included that :
①The experimental group completed the uploading of Interlab experiments and records.
②The Logo production is completed by the group of art layout.
③One of the HP activity is completed by the members of the group of the HP and collaboration.
Through this meeting, we planed to meet the IGEM gold award requirements for the next phase of the experimental group,two different wiki designs should be prepared for the web page team,and the modeling group needs to dock with the experimental group to find a solution that can implement mathematical modeling.
On August 23, the conference included that :
①The experimental group completed a certain of Biobrick designs, and the experimental group estimated that two improved biological bricks and two new biological bricks will be submitted.
②We voted on the wiki design.
Through the discussion in this meeting, we asked the modeling group to model the reaction of carbon dioxide airflow with saturated carbonic anhydrase solution after the investigation is made clear. The work of each group will set the Deadline mechanism and strictly stipulate the completion time.
Conclusion: our IGEM team of Anhui University of Technology discussed and solved various problems in the progress of our project through conferences.And our final project has been improved;the members have more and more trust in each other.The conference is still going on, AND our story is still going on.I believe that our team of IGEM team will be able to achieve success in this year's competition!
8. Public number iGEM WeChat of Anhui University of Technology
AHUT_China upgraded the original WeChat public number in July 2018. During the implementation of this year's project, more than ten original articles have been published since the establishment of the team. We actively carry out social practice through such external publicity platform, popularize iGEM contest and introduce our project this year.
Here's part of the title of the original article:
1. Biofilm water purification laboratory (September 17, 2018)
2. Communication and cooperation -- (Sweden) iGEM (lingshou-sweden) of Linkoping University (September 12, 2018)
3. Bio-chemical research center ---- -professor Xu xia (September 11, 2018)
4. International cooperation - Harvard university iGEM team (Harvard) (4 September 2018)
5. International cooperation - IIT -madras team (30 August 2018)
5. Thumb up for iGEMer spirit (July 29, 2018)
7. Coli (July 26, 2018)
8. Carbonic acid bacteria (25 July 2018)
9. What is IGEM? (July 23, 2018)
After each HP activity, the members of AHUT_china group timely summarized, wrote the text, translated it into English, and made it into WeChat manuscript, which was published on the public account of iGEM WeChat of Anhui University of Technology.
Public account iGEM WeChat of the Anhui University of Technology, including three main sections of project progress, cooperation and communication, and popular science articles, for more convenient access and reading by subscribers.
The project progress module makes the team weekly publication, the experiment process and the team Logo display. The team weekly report is a periodic report, and the team often holds meetings, from 2018-03-10 weekly report to 2018-06-23 weekly report, a total of 11 pieces, recording how we prepare step by step, and continue to implement, to promote the process of the competition, to bring everyone into our laboratory, reveal all kinds of laboratory, and tell the hard but happy life of the co-generation.
Cooperation and communication are also divided into two parts. HP and Collaboration record some activities in HP, such as primary school students' creative class activities, visits to Huvernon environmental protection technology co, LTD, etc. Collaboration introduces our interaction with iGEM teams in other universities.
The popular science article module focuses on the popular science of synthetic biology. It mainly propagates the International genetic engineering Competition (iGEM) through words and pictures. It has been held by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) every year since 2005. It is the highest international academic competition in the field of Synthetic Biology. And the knowledge related to our team's experiment, such as the popularization of carbonic anhydrase and escherichia coli.
The public account of iGEM WeChat of Anhui University of Technology is mainly for schools and the society. It can be promoted to WeChat users through WeChat channel, so as to improve the popularity of the international genetic engineering competition and create the image of the iGEM team of Anhui University of Technology.
9. Paying Visit to Biochemical Research Center and Discuss Project with Professor Xia Xu
On Sept.26,2018,members of the Team AHUT_China were very honored to visit the biochemical research center and visit professor Xia Xu.Professor Xu is a doctoral supervisor.Her research direction is mainly based on molecular simulation,which is designed for drug delivery, CO2 capture and transformation, biological materials,anti-microbial, disease treatment and functional polypeptide in vitro-detection, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, microfluidics, online detection technology and so on.
We communicated with Prof. Xu about the project of absorbing CO2 in the air by introducing the synthetic modified carbonic anhydrase gene into escherichia coli and raised some relevant questions, and she gave us detailed answers.Here were our interview content.
①Q:The laboratory has synthesized the gene sequence of human carbonic anhydrase by the total synthesis method, which, as far as we know, is a little bit different from the original one. May I ask you what these differences are?
A:Compared with the natural one, the synthetic gene of human carbonic anhydrase by the total synthesis method replaces the 203rd amino acid.As a result,the synthetic gene performs more stable when exposed at high temperatures.Our main application scenario is in the factory, so the modified human carbonic anhydrase must be highly active under such conditions.
②Q:Our project is to introduce the full synthetic gene sequence of human carbonic anhydrase into escherichia coli through psb1c3 carrier to achieve the goal of absorbing CO2 in the air through carbonic anhydrase. Therefore, we want to get some information about the frontier in this field home and abroad, for instance, the technology of absorbing CO2 in the air through biology or other methods and so on.
A:So far, the most advanced way in the world uses algae as the carrier for absorption, and researchers have made detailed explanations.In the past, many studies used plant carbonic anhydrase to capture CO2.Though this kind of carbonic anhydrase can survive in most environments,yet efficiency of human carbonic anhydrase for capturing CO2 is dozens of times higher than that of the plant one.
③Q:The major scientific research direction of biochemical research center.
A:It can be concluded as drug delivery, CO2 capture and conversion, biomaterials and regenerative medicine.
④Q:As far as we know, the carbonic anhydrase expressed in escherichia coli in our iGEM project is more active than that did in human body. This is because of the effect of modifying the active site based on the carbonic anhydrase expressed in human body. Therefore, we want to know how to find out the relevant active site to improve the activity of carbonic anhydrase by computer.
A:The relevant active sites of carbonic anhydrase are known in the knowledge base. We use computer to simulate mutation of the known active sites of carbonic anhydrase to see if it can improve its function, which is verified by conducting relevant experiments later.Our workload and efficiency can be reduced and improved by computer simulation.
After that, Prof. Xu guided us to visit the molecular cells and experimental operation area in the biochemical research center.She showed us relevant experimental equipment and operation process, and then we used the enzyme marker to measure the absorbance and fluorescence of bacterial liquid under her guidance. We became more interested in biology and chemical engineering after this visit and the collaboration among our team members have been improved as well.
Resume of Professor Xia Xu: Xia Xu, female, doctoral supervisor
Academic Title: PhD
Job Title: Professor
Her research direction is mainly based on molecular simulation,which is designed for drug delivery, CO2 capture and transformation, biological materials,anti-microbial, disease treatment and functional polypeptide in vitro-detection, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, microfluidics, online detection technology and so on.
Study Experience:
1987-1991 Bachelor of material specialty at Harbin Institute of Technology
1996-1999 Master of chemical engineering, institute of process engineering, Chinese academy of sciences
1999-2004 PhD in biochemistry at Oxford University
Work Experience:
1991-1996 Assistant researcher, institute of process engineering, Chinese academy of sciences
1996-1999 Postdoctoral in the department of engineering, Oxford University
2003.4-2006.5 Senior researcher at the Oxford University biomedical engineering institute
2006.6-2009.12 Research at the Institute of process engineering, Chinese academy of sciences
one of the people in the "A Hundred Talents Program" put forward by the Chinese academy of sciences.
2010.1-2017.6 as a “Wanjiang Scholar” (a project launched Anhui provincial government to recruit academic elites, create academic masters and drive discipline construction)
2017.7- working at Anhui University of Technology
Overview of scientific research projects and achievements as a researcher in institute of process engineering, Chinese academy of sciences:
In 1991, she obtained bachelor degree of engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology; In 1999, she received master degree from the institute of process engineering, Chinese academy of sciences and in 2004, Prof. Xu received doctor degree from Oxford University. From 2003 to 2009, she worked as a postdoctoral and senior researcher at Oxford University, engaging in scientific research and part of teaching. In 2010,she was selected into the "A Hundred Talents Program" of the Chinese academy of sciences, and appointed both as the vice director of research of biochemical engineering and equipment and the assistant director of the national key laboratory of biochemical engineering. From July 2010 till now, professor has been working in school of chemistry and chemical engineering, Anhui university of technology. She is the director of biological chemical center of AHUT and one of the “Wanjiang Scholar”. She once won the national science and technology progress award and was rewarded the first prize of the science progress from Chinese academy of sciences
Research direction in recent years: her research direction is mainly based on molecular simulation,which is designed for drug delivery, CO2 capture and transformation, biological materials,anti-microbial, disease treatment and functional polypeptide in vitro-detection, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, microfluidics, online detection technology and so on.Nearly 40 papers has she published on major academic journals, such as Biotech. Bioeng., Hum. Reprod. Sensor Actuat B - Chem, Osteo. Cart. In addition,Prof. Xu wrote 2 chapters in the monograph and applied for 2 international invention patents and 13 Chinese invention patents.After returning to China in 2010, she has successively hosted two projects under the national natural science foundation. Another one is the major research and incubation program under the national natural science foundation. As for Chinese academy of sciences,she presided one strategic new industry project and one project of scientific research and development of equipment, as well as other enterprise projects.
Projects:
1.2010.1-2014.4 "A Hundred Talents Program" of the Chinese academy of sciences
scientific research funds: 3,500,000 RMB
2.2011.12-2013.11 she co-presided the development of equipment for dynamic test on microdrug dissolution and scientific research and development of equipment of the Chinese academy of sciences
scientific research funds: 3,430,000 RMB
3.2012.1-2015.12 she presided the study on the mechanism of freezing damage of stem cells under NSFC(Natural Science Foundation of China)
scientific research funds: 600,000 RMB (21176238)
4.2012.5-2015.4 she presided over the key technology of biopharmaceutical and its application under the name of the strategic emerging industry of Chinese academy of sciences
scientific research funds: 5,000,000 RMB (4,000,000 RMB from enterprise)
5.2013-2015 she presided an entrepreneurial project of study on the biomaterials
scientific research funds: 200,000 RMB
6.2016.1-2019.12 she presided the study and application of the regulation mechanism of cytoskeleton to human pluripotent stem cell fate during cryopreservation under the NSFC
scientific research funds: 800,000 (21576266)
7.2016.1-2018.12 she presided over the study on mesoscale structure and regulatory mechanism in CO2 enzymatic capture system under the major research plan in NSFC
scientific research funds: 950,000 RMB (91534107)
Book chapter1．Xia Xu*.Cryopreservation: Cryopreservation of stem cells in Comprehensive Biotechnology. Elsevier. Volume 5, 2011, Pages 481-488
2．Jiabin Zhang, Hu Zhang,Xia Xu.Smart Materials to Regulate the Fate of Stem Cells in Smart Materials for Tissue Engineering: Fundamental Principles. RSC Smart Materials Series. 10.1039/2046-0074.
Theses:
Book chapter1．Xia Xu*.Cryopreservation: Cryopreservation of stem cells in Comprehensive Biotechnology. Elsevier. Volume 5, 2011, Pages 481-488
Jiabin Zhang, Hu Zhang,Xia Xu.Smart Materials to Regulate the Fate of Stem Cells in Smart Materials for Tissue Engineering: Fundamental Principles. RSC Smart Materials Series. 10.1039/2046-0074.
10. Four schools met
September 9, 2018, We arranged a video conference with members from northeastern university, Shandong University and northwestern University. During this time, we briefly introduced our project background and project ideas and planned the agenda of the Meeting. As the greenhouse effect has become a common concern in recent years, how to effectively capture carbon dioxide has become a worldwide problem. At present, carbon dioxide capture mainly includes absorption, adsorption and membrane method, these are high cost, renewable energy consumption and two times pollution problems. The use of CO2 to capture the high catalytic efficiency and environmental friendliness of the carbon anhydride has aroused wide concern,
So our Anhui University of Technology team put forward a project on the generation of carbon anhydride through E. coli to absorb carbon dioxide. First of all, our project successfully expressed the Wide-type carbonic anhydride enzyme in Escherichia coli, however, due to its poor stability and ease of deactivation, its industrial applications were limited. Therefore, based on the molecular simulation technique, the effect of mutation of amino acid residues on the conformation and activity of enzymes was studied, and the mutant carbonic anhydride with high thermal stability was Obtained. The experimental results show that the purified mutant carbonic anhydride has higher stability and activity than the wild type of carbonic anhydride enzyme, which realizes the effective capture of CO2. Northeastern university, Shandong university, The members of Northwestern University have expressed their strong interest in our team project of Anhui University of technology, so we have the highlights of our project and other members of the school exchange, Highlights: 1, relative to the high cost, high efficiency and poor circulation of traditional methods, we choose high catalytic efficiency, low cost, A safe and environmentally friendly method for trapping CO2 with carbon anhydride. 2, using the molecular simulation technique, the amino acid as the basic unit, the effect of remnant radical mutation on the two-stage structure of the carbonic anhydride enzyme, and the influence of the molecular conformation, the best amino acid mutation site was obtained, and the thermal stability of the enzyme was improved without affecting the enzyme Activity. 3, we obtained the expression of wild type and mutant carbonic anhydride enzyme strains of Escherichia coli, and two kinds of carbon anhydride enzyme in vitro purification, wild-type carbonic anhydride enzyme has a certain CO2 capture efficiency, more importantly, the mutant than the wild type of carbonic anhydride enzyme has better stability and activity, realize the CO2 efficient capture.
Students from Tohoku University also briefed members of our other schools about their projects, and the Tohoku University project was inspired by the prevalence of fast food and the acceleration of urbanization, with the number of inflammatory bowel diseases (inflammatory bowel disease, IBD) Rising in asia, And the risk of developing colorectal cancer (colorectal cancer, CRC) in patients with IBD also increased. There are no drugs that are better for ibd, so they want to use engineered probiotics to treat IBD and prevent crc, using synthetic biology. The rest of us were very interested in the project, and our Anhui University of Technology team actively asked them for details about their project, and they briefed them on the project background and the project brief. The background of their project is that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is caused by inappropriate immune responses, which in general trigger a series of events that can disrupt the barrier when the immune system reacts excessively to the bacteria in the gut, eventually causing IBD when the immune imbalance persists without intervention. There is no cure for IBD at present, the best treatment now is to use anti-inflammatory drugs such as TNF inhibitor treatment, but the Patient's drug treatment effect is huge difference, to more than 50% of patients Ineffective. Probiotics are beneficial to the host of active microorganisms, colonization in the human intestinal tract, reproductive system, oral cavity and so can produce the exact health effects of the microbial group, has been beneficial to bacteria such as boulardii yeast used in clinical diarrhea Treatment. The Tohoku University team aims to design a biological system for ANTI-IBD and CRC prevention through the use of engineered Probiotics. Because the concentration of no in the intestinal tract of IBD is about 100 times times that of normal people, no molecule acts as their inflammatory signaling molecule, and probiotic Escherichia coli (nissle 1917) is selected as their chassis organism. The project consists of two sets of devices, one of which is an anti-inflammatory device, which includes a sensor for detecting inflammatory signals, a high-efficiency enhancer, and an effector that secretes interleukin (IL-10); the second is an anti-cancer device, which is expressed through engineered probiotics, which is derived from a cross-flowered vegetable ( Cruciferous vegetables (myrosinase), which converts the natural component of Thio-glucoside (sinigrin) from a cross-flowered vegetable into a turnip (sulforaphane), The product of radish is a kind of organic molecule with anticancer activity, and it can inhibit oxidative stress (oxidative stress), so it can also inhibit the intestinal inflammatory reaction. In addition, they use cold-shock kill switches (cold-excited expression lysis and Maz-ef) to prevent their engineered bacteria from escaping into the environment and causing DNA contamination.
Members of the Northwestern University team introduced their project background that saline soils may affect the growth of crops such as wheat and rice. Because traditional saline soils are difficult and inefficient, they have decided to address this global challenge in new ways. Several parts of the bacterium are designed to reduce the concentration within the Range. Their project is to modify potassium channels by using non-natural amino acid d-alanine, they obtained a new channel protein, which allows K + to be considered in a high concentration of K + and allows Na + to be considered in a low concentration of K +. Because of the use of d-ala, a part of the introduction of unnatural amino acids into bacteria was established. They analyzed proteins and tested them by molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemistry, and established mathematical models of the relationship between cells and salt concentrates. They will use patch clamps and a new method to test proteins and bacteria in the Solution. After their cell experiments, they will use it for agricultural and water purification processes.
The Shandong University team project is about PHB an environmental bio-plastic Project. At the same time, we will carefully analyze the problems in the experiments and modeling that are currently encountered in our project, so that we can better understand our project and excavate the parts that we may need to cooperate. In the course of the discussion, we talked about our understanding of synthetic biology, including its great potential for human benefit and the recent astonishing breakthroughs scientists have made. Then we showed and explained our project in depth, and they gave us some good suggestions, such as the improvements in cell secretion pathways that are practical, valuable and Meaningful. We are really looking forward to our late-stage cooperation and exchanges with the United States to participate in the event of grand camping meetings.
11. Lecture on iGEM in Anhui University of Technology (AHUT_China) by Feiyue Lou
Time: 3.30p.m. on Sept. 11, 2018, Tuesday
Location: Conference Room in the Innovative Education Faculty
We held a lecture aiming at letting more people know about synthetic biology and iGEM. With great honor, we invited Dr. Pei hao, who is currently working in the school of engineering and applied sciences in Harvard University and engaging in the application of microfluidics in biomedical field, to give students in AHUT this lecture. It has successfully attracted interests of hundreds of students, but due to the limited seats in the meeting room, we had to invited only more than 60 students to attend this speech. In order to enable more people to watch the lecture, we took advantage of the webcast platform, making more than 1,000 people enjoy this meeting online. Dr. Pei not only presented us the research progress of microfluidics but also shared teachers and students with the current research results.
Microfluidics Technology refers to the technology of controlling, operating and detecting complex fluids at the micro size. It is a newly interdisciplinary subject developed on the basis of microelectronics, micromechanics, bioengineering and nanotechnology. The rapid development of Microfluidics Technology in recent years has stricken revolutionary impacts in the fields of chemistry, medicine and life science. Biochips are regarded as an important tool for interpretating gene sequences in the Post-Genome Era and microfluidics chips are also known as "lab-on-a-chip", which use MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology for mixing the separated purification used in general laboratories and miniaturize devices such as enzyme reactions onto the chip for biochemical reactions, process control or analysis. The construction of this kind of chip is far more complex than microarray chips. According to ranges of its application, the chip can be further divided into three categories: sample pretreatment chip, reactive chip and analytical chip. They can perform complex and precise operations on microfluids (both liquid and gas), such as mixing and separation of microfluids, chemical reactions, microanalysis, etc. Besides, microfluidics chips also play a unique role in the screening of rare cells, the extraction and purification of MRNA, gene sequencing, single-cell analysis, and protein crystallization. They have been widely used in biotechnology research due to their lightweight, less sample or trial dose usage, fast reaction speed, large parallel processing and disposable features.
After the lecture, we conducted a questionnaire survey among participated students. From the feedback of more than 1,000 questionnaires collected, we can see that hundreds of students are full of interest in synthetic biology through this lecture, and students of different majors have made determination to take part in iGEM next year. (the questionnaire is followed)
12. Collaboration with Harvard
iGEM competition is coming to an end, and a lot of teams have put out applications for various collaborations on the iGEM website. Fortunately, we got an opportunity to be part of the team Harvard (Fighting Stigma Against Synthetic Biology), and we also wanted to promote communication between us through the cooperation.
This year, Harvard wants to work with other teams to end the misunderstanding of synthetic biology. We found that human exposure to bacteria tends to have negative effects, which considered as something dangerous. As an iGEM team, we understand that genetically engineered bacteria are largely untapped resources, helping us show the world the true potential of using such a bacteria for treatment, diagnosis, environment and more.Harvard plans to release a series of articles to show all the cool things and germs the team is working on. Besides, they want introductions of other teams’projects, so we send ours to them on request.
Here is the introduction of our project. In the wake of the increasing greenhouse exerting more serious impacts on the global environment, the question of how to efficiently deal with CO2 is particularly critical. However, the traditional gas collection technology featured by high energy consumption and low efficiency is not yet mature enough. Meanwhile, it is these characteristics that have limited the development of itself.Our project is to obtain carbonic anhydrase (CA-2) with high thermal stability through computer simulation of the protein molecules expressed by carbonic anhydrase gene locus mutation, and import it into escherichia coli cells to achieve efficient collection of CO2.
We are honored to participate in this cooperation, and hope that through this channel we can reduce the misunderstanding of genetic engineering.
13. Callobration with NEU-China
On August, 2018, our team established a connection with iGEM group of NEU-China-A and thus a couple of video conferences have been made so far. The two teams introduced each other's projects in detail; the project of NEU-China was to design a biological system against IBD and preventing CRC by using engineered probiotics. Since the concentration of NO in the intestines of IBD patients was about 100 times than that of normal people; therefore, NO molecules were chosen as inflammatory signals, and probiotics (Nissle 1917) were selected as chassis organisms. The project consisted of two sets of devices, one of which was an anti-inflammatory equipment, including a sensor for detecting inflammatory signals, an effective enhancers and an effector secreting interleukin 10 (il-10). Another one was an anti-cancer device, able to express a kind of myrosinase from cruciferous vegetables by virtue of engineering probiotics. Meanwhile, it can transfer glucosinolate, a natural ingredient in cruciferous vegetables into sulforaphane. Such a kind of product was a type of organic molecule with cancer-fighting ability and at the same time it could inhibit oxidative stress. Similarly, it could work against intestinal inflammation. In addition, we used cold shock kill switches (cold shock expression Lysis and maz-ef) to prevent our engineer bacteria from escaping into the environment and causing DNA contamination.
During exchange of project experience with each other, we learned that NEU-China-A had a little bit problem in one of the plasmid insertion experiments, so they asked us for help and wanted us to conduct the construction experiment of secreting the yebf-homoil10 plasmid. We and our counterpart made it clear about what we were going to cooperate followed by three video meetings. NEU-China-A helped us carry out experiments on optimizing the conditions of prokaryotic expression of CSCA protein and purifying expression. In a similar way, we helped NEU-China-A perform fragment-linking experiment. NEU-China-A provided us with original plasmid of PCDF-Duet1 (dry powder tube), they taught us to overlap the secretion label Yebf (from BL21(DE3)DNA, GenBank: EF648003.1) with human-derived interleukin 10 (from BBa_K554004, Spring 2018 Distribution 21K 2018 Kit Plate 1), and required us to add the FLAG label at the N end of homoIL10 for subsequent protein detection. According to the requirements of our friend, we conducted the experiment on construction of secreting the plasmid Yebf-homoIL10. Having sequenced and verified the plasmid construction successfully, we mailed the no-less-than-100ng plasmid dry powder to them.
NEU-China-A helped us implement experiments on optimizing the conditions of prokaryotic expression of CSCA protein and purifying expression. Our friendship has thus been strengthened and the projects have also been pushed forward as the result of this collaboration, which regarded as a successful cooperation by both of us.