COLLABORATIONS

Beijing-Tianjin iGEM Alliance Establishing Conference & Meet-up

Many iGEMers are thinking about a question, also are many iGEMers are experiencing one dilemma. When new blood flows in an iGEM team and old ones leave for the broader world, except from experience on experiment and knowledge about this field, what can we do for the followers? How to unite more teams to expand our influence on the whole society? How to prevent a meaningful Human Practice activity from vanishing as soon as its initiator leave the iGEM teams?

To better pass on the conventions and spirits of iGEM, also to promote the communication and collaboration between iGEM teams from Beijing and Tianjin, we UCAS-China team brought up the idea of establishing the Beijing-Tianjin iGEM Alliance. Gladly, our idea was responded positively. TUST_China cooperated with us to contacted other 4 teams, including BNU-China, NKU_CHINA, TJU_China, and Tsinghua who was invited to join our meet-up as guest team. On Sep 16th, we UCAS-China team invited other 5 iGEM teams to Institute of Biophysics (IBP, CAS) and held a meet-up, also to discuss the current and future collaboration between member teams of this brand new Beijing-Tianjin iGEM Alliance.

Firstly, we have a roundtable discussion. And this part will be reserved for every year’s conference. We discussed many topics, included but more than:

• The continuation of Beijing-Tianjin iGEM Alliance
• The efficient methods of resource sharing, such as equipment and reagent
• The cooperation of holding influential HP activities together
• The cooperation of consulting with the experts or companies relating to law, ethics and other aspects.

After, each team presented a small souvenir as the symbol of their team, put it into the collection case we UCAS-China prepared for this conference. We UCAS-China team, as the advocator of this alliance and the organizer of this meet-up, were going to keep it for the following year and give it to the host team of next year’s conference then.

After a short break, six teams gave presentation of their project, shared ideas and opinions. We invited Dr. Liu from IBP and our advisor also a former iGEMer, Meng Fankang to give advice and guide.

Thanks for all the teams attended as well as the support and engagement of all the iGEMers from BNU-China, NKU_CHINA, TJU_China, Tsinghua, TUST_China and UCAS-China.

In the following years, we plan to unite more iGEM teams, hold alliance conference each year in turns, pass on our significant Human Practice activities and collaborations, and show our steadfast spirits and creativity to the world.

Meet-up invited by PKU

On Aug 7th, Peking iGEM team invited UCAS-China and other 4 undergraduate teams to attend a meet-up, including BIT_China, BNU-China, Tsinghua and OUC-China. During the activity, six teams gave presentation of their projects, shared ideas and had a great time. It’s the first time for UCAS-China team to attend a meet-up in 2018, we were glad to share our projects and inspired greatly by the fantastic ideas from other iGEM teams. Thanks for invitation from Peking team and all dear iGEMers who participated enthusiastically.

Meet-up with ZJUT-China

On March 31th, at the very beginning of the new journey in iGEM 2018, iGEMers from UCAS-China 2018 team and UCAS 2017 team met with ZJUT-China iGEMers, who covered more than a thousand kilometers from Hangzhou to Beijing. iGEMers from two teams shared their ideas of new project for 2018. The direct and deep discuss benefited both teams, also acted as the preparation for further collaboration in the future. ZJUT-China was preparing a project related to antibiotics and CRISPR/Cas9 system. Wish them a good result!

At the very beginning of the new journey in iGEM 2018, iGEMers from UCAS-China 2018 team and UCAS 2017 team met with ZJUT-China iGEMers, who covered more than a thousand kilometers from Hangzhou to Beijing. iGEMers from two teams shared their ideas of new project for 2018, they were preparing a project related to antibiotics and CRISPR/Cas9 system. Wish them a good result!

Mentoring a High School team BNDS_CHINA

Knowing about BNDS_CHINA’s project of 2018 is focusing on using a quorum-sensing system to deal with the fish disease caused by Aeromonas hydrophila, which has some kind of correlation of UCAS 2017 team project “We Fit Fish”, UCAS-China team invited BNDS_CHINA to campus in Yuquan Road to have an idea sharing meeting on July 7th. Team members of 2017 UCAS team offered some advice and guidance on their project design as well as practical tips on aquaculture practice. Also, we gave them an aquaculture tips brochure made by UCAS 2017 iGEM team as a gift. Some advice also given by them to our project of 2018. Wish them a good result.

Knowing about BNDS_CHINA’s project of 2018 is focusing on using a quorum-sensing system to deal with the fish disease caused by Aeromonas hydrophila, which has some kind of correlation of UCAS 2017 team project “We Fit Fish”, UCAS-China team invited BNDS_CHINA to campus in Yuquan Road to have an idea sharing meet on July 7th. Team members of 2017 UCAS team offered some advice and guidance on their project design as well as practical tips on aquaculture practice. Also, we gave them an aquaculture tips brochure made by UCAS 2017 iGEM team as a gift. Some advice also given by them to our project of 2018. Wish them a good result.

Bilateral talk with BNU-China

BNU-China team invited us to their lab on September 24th, a bilateral talk about the details of equipment collaboration on Enzyme-labeled Instrument and Flow Cytometer, as well as the general design of our gift daily iGEM greatly promoted communication between UCAS-China and BNU-China. iGEMers from BNU-China were warm and reliable, we were so glad to share work and ideas with such a group of friends! Wish both teams have excellent performance in Giant Jamboree!

Daily iGEM

We collaborate with BNU-China to present a gift for the world, Daily iGEM. We had a bonus part to send greetings from more than 15 iGEM teams from all over China.

Know more about Daily iGEM by on our Gifts for the world page.

Offering equipment and experimental help to BNU-China

In Beijing-Tianjin iGEM Alliance Establishing Conference, we UCAS-China team communicated with many teams. Knowing many teams were bothered by the limitations in equipment using, we expressed our willingness of offering help as possible as we can. Since we had usage permission in using two well-equipped laboratories in Institute of Biophysics, CAS and Institute of Microbiology, CAS, when iGEMers from BNU-China asked us whether we could allow them to use our Enzyme-labeled Instrument and Flow Cytometer to monitor the fluorescence emissions of their engineered bacteria, we agreed without hesitation.

Before conducting the experiment, we offered advice on the design of their protocol. We helped to detect both OD and fluorescence intensity of samples in different concentrations simultaneously to evaluate the function of their bacteria. After, we engaged in the analysis of the result. With our help, they needn’t get up and take samples early in the morning but can obtain a much larger amount of data, saving them trouble and improving the reliability. We also mentored them when they came to use the Enzyme-labeled Instrument in Institute of Microbiology, CAS. In addition, we helped prepare the samples for flow cytometry, enabling them to get more precise data.