As our brother team, we share the same culture and history background with Fudan. This year, it’s the second time we go to Giant Jamboree together. Familiar with each other, we frequently communicate our experiment process, giving a helping hand while one facing difficulties. Plasmid backbone psb1c3, DH5α, interlab… Whenever they are in need, we are by their side. Also, they shared experience in cell culture and lent machines such as fluorescent microscope to us.

We first got acquaintance with Jilin_China in Nankai Conference and kept contact with each other afterwards. To ensure the repeatability of our data, we sent C-terminal and N-terminal of ECFP to them, requesting them to test whether we have split the protein right. Meanwhile Jilin_China works on RNA thermosenser this year and they need to test the expression of sfGFP in different temperature, indicating in what condition the designated thermosensor is open. We gave a helping hand by examing wheather their positive control will change with different temperatures. We helped them to do some verification work. The result is as the figure above shows. As the result shows the floursence intensity of positive control has a linear correlation with temperature.

Jianzhao Yang from Peking came to Fudan University this July and had a friendly academic exchange with members of Fudan-CHINA. These two teams previously had little, but they became acquaintance after borrowing rainbow beats from one another. They scheduled an exchange on one project afterward in Shanghai. We introduces our programs to each other and took Yang to the lab and research platform where IGEM is at our school. Yang told us the method of connecting simultaneous multi-segments used by Peking University currently.

In September, we received an invitation from Tongji-Software and went to Tongji University who owns all kinds of delicate buildings. During this meetup, we realized cross-track communication. The model Tongji-Software used also included Probability Theory, sharing similarities with the Markov chain used in our main model. Inspired by them, we made some changes in terms of the probability parameters of the model, introducing some probability distribution conclusions in biochemical reactions, making the model more persuasive. After introducing the project to each other, we learned that Tongji-Software encountered some difficulties in the process of making a Wiki page. Our team member who is the computer master guided them on how to use templates, how to upload files, how to edit Web page code, and also reminded them of all the files and the external source code that needed to be uploaded to the iGEM server.

We decided to collect some interesting reasons for experiment failures and choose some of them to design a comic brochure, to add some amusement and at the same time remind everyone in the lab to be really careful and not to make mistakes during operation. Also we will distribute this brochure in our school and Giant Jamboree to get more researchers' attention in a humorous way. Luckily, we got response from iGEMers all over the world. Some of them are really miserable though bring us a lot of joy. We consider those stories lively but meaningful to all of us. Thus, thanks to our great talented drawer Hao Tian, a comic book was born — made up of funniest failure in lab, in a tearful smile. Read our comic now! Thanks for support from: Fudan, ICT-Mumbai, NUDT_CHINA, JNFLS, Tongji-Software, TUST_China, GreatBay_China, SCU-China.

At CCiC, we were attracted by the exquisite comic books made by China Ocean University. This comic book introduced the basic knowledge of synthetic biology in an academic way without losing wit. We used this booklet to help the iGEM team at Fudan Affiliated High school and received fantastic feedback. "I’m rather surprised at the affinity between synthetic biology and engineering，both featuring logic and inspiration, and thus have a better understanding of the “E” in iGEM.” “The comic vividly explains the basic logics in the biological gene regulation mechanisms. I used to know the very basic control systems like the Lacrosse operon model in E.Coli before, but now I found the more intricate systems no longer out of reach."

Exchanging ideas is always good for igemers and researchers, so we attended many meet-ups and conferences this year. We intended to attend a conference in NKU on the 6th of July. However, bad weather condition prevented our flight. A video was made to introduce our project before we answered questions from professors and other iGEMers online. Advice was collected and applied to the refinement of project design and purpose. Also we watched the presentation of other teams, getting to know how their experiment goes on. We got familiar with Peking, NKU_CHINA and Jilin_China through this conference and developed collaboration afterwards.

At the iGEM Reporting Conference held by National Chung Hsing University , we introduced our project to professors of synthetic biology and other teams. By this way, we gained valuable feedback from them to enable us to perfect our project background and made us realize the importance of pertinency we should pay more attention to hereafter. Moreover, we are more convinced of the rationality of our modeling after discussing with other universities on modeling issue. Besides, we met many iGMEers cherishing the same ideals and following the same path and we still kept in touch. In the end, we got the feedback of “the most interesting reason for the failure of the experiment”.

The 5th Conference of China iGEMer Community (2018 CCiC) was one of them. This year, it was held by ShanghaiTech University in 8.28-31. We delivered a formal presentation and explaining our projects in front of other teams both on the stage and by the poster exhibition. Judges also provided us with ideas on the demonstration of our project. We also communicated with other teams, exchanged our ideas about projects and posters design, and helped other teams deal with bottlenecks. We had great fun in CCiC!