Revision as of 18:26, 11 August 2018

Second activity

Shenzhen University, May 6, 2018

On the third day after the team was formed, we received an invitation to participate in the exchange meeting organized by the IGEM team of Shenzhen University. And we just teamed up, the project direction has not been determined yet. The inviter said that if we don't have time to prepare, we can't report, but in order to experience the feeling of participating in the competition, we decided to use papaya anti-ring spot virus as an example to introduce our project ideas at the exchange meeting.

So, on the morning of May 6, 2018, we, members of the first IGEM competition team of Shenzhen High School, gathered at the Yili Gate of Shenzhen University’s Xili Campus.

Entering the lecture hall of the venue, the seating was completed, the exchange meeting officially began, and the confident team members were all absent-minded at first, and only listened without a ride. However, listening and listening, the players finally realized the seriousness of the problem: we can hardly understand the explanations of other teams on their projects. Oncoming is a round of terminology bombing. The players lost their way in the oceans of various "xx enzymes" and "xx acids". At this point, we finally realized that we have blind self-confidence, and the back is already slowly getting cold.

We prayed and prayed that the moment of coming to the stage was slower. Our main lecture, Li Chen and Mo Yilin were like needles. Finally, "I have to ask the Shenzhen Senior High School team to take the stage to speak". Just like the blue sky, the death penalty is declared in general and passed to our ears. Li Chen and Mo Yilin took the heavy steps to the podium and started their debut.

The two speakers showed an amazing calmness when they first appeared and were obviously under-prepared compared with other groups. In the report, we explained the theme of “killing diseases by crops in a non-genetically modified way”. And it is admirable to closely combine the practical examples of papaya and ring spot virus. In the next questioning session, we ushered in the bombardment of the concentrated firepower of all the teams. Specific issues are:

(1) Why do you want to make papaya instead of other crops?
(2) Why do you have to use non-genetically modified methods, and can't use genetically modified methods? Did the GM knowledge directly be released to the public soon?
(3) If bacteria are used to kill diseases, will it harm the human body that consumes crops? How is the bacteria treated?
(4) How can special RNA in bacteria enter the crop?

The two speakers on the podium struggled to cope with the intensive fire bombing. We had no choice but to move out of the "we haven’t been in the team for a long time, and the project direction has not yet considered maturity."

At this time, the players finally realized the danger of the road ahead and the ridiculous self-confidence. We felt the strong atmosphere of IGEM, and we also began to seriously consider the direction of our project: RNAi technology is a technology that players are always interested in. But what problems do we need to solve with this technology? Obviously, the difficulty of the topic of "Papaya and Ring Spot Virus" has exceeded the scope of the ability of middle school students, and we can only find another way. Finally, we decided to go to the field to conduct a field survey, consult with the farmer's uncle, and ask the relevant experts to find the answer to the question "Which is the most widespread pest in the local field?" So we decided to conduct a field survey next week.