Team:WHU-China/Human Practices

candlelight navigation—— communicate with professor like a friend The college students who just entered the school have many confusions. “Candlelight navigation” is an opportunity for them to communicate with some professors. Last summer, as freshmen, we had an unforgettable conversation with Professor Lu Xin. As a professor that majors in bird ecology, he stressed the importance of environmental protection for many times. I still remember the words he said on that day:” The water of the East Lake of Wuhan used to be so clear that there were always many teachers and students swimming in it… However, because of the deterioration of the ecological environment and excessive sewage discharge, the East Lake was once covered with a layer of horrible green film. Since then, we have no longer seen anyone swimming or playing in the lake…” Since then, this sentence has been lingering in our minds because we can’t control ourselves not to imagine the picture. After a year, Five people from the six at that time joined iGEM. The purpose of the competition was to make the world a better place. At that time, we set the initial direction for our ideas (time 2017.5).

We were curious about synthetic biology. In order to gain a deeper understanding of synthetic biology and iGEM, several of us visited iGEM headquarters during the winter vacation (2018.2). We were full of enthusiasm for iGEM and decided to join the iGEM team, and contribute our strength to make a better world…

水样编号	测量结果（OD（700nm））			平均值	磷浓度mg/L
1号水样	0.069	0.063	0.072	0.068	0.79
2号水样	0.107	0.109	0.105	0.107	1.23
3号水样	0.097	0.097	0.096	0.097	1.17

East Lake Water Quality Test
Later, in order to understand the eutrophication of the East Lake water quality more clearly, especially the phosphorus content, we went to three different places in the East Lake for sampling, and measured the OD value after processing with the total phosphorus content measurement kit, and prepared well. The standard curve is compared to measure the total phosphorus content of Donghu Lake
According to Vollenweider's classification criteria for reservoir lake nutrition status, if the total phosphorus content is greater than 0.1ml/L, the eutrophication standard is reached. According to the data we measured, the water quality of Donghu Lake has exceeded 7 to 10 times the standard .

4. Eutrophication in people's minds- Questionnaire and interview
In order to make our project closer to the society, we have completed some survey activities to understand the residents and students' understanding of the eutrophication pollution of the East Lake, especially for the eutrophication. We designed an electronic questionnaire and distributed questionnaires in Wuhan University, Xincun Street, Donghu Lake community and sewage treatment plant. A total of 85 questionnaires were collected. We processed the data of these questionnaires. The results are as follows:

Through the data of the questionnaire, we can see that most people are aware of the pollution in the East Lake water body and said that they have a certain understanding of the situation. This shows that many people, especially young people, are aware of the importance of managing water pollution. But when we asked if we knew about the eutrophication problem in Donghu, only little people said that the problem of eutrophication of water is a very common problem of water pollution, but few people really know what is rich in water. What are the indicators of eutrophication and eutrophication of water? How should water eutrophication be treated? This shows that most people understand that the water quality of Donghu Lake has certain problems, but the details are rarely known. This tells us that we need to do more public education about the details of these water pollution. At the same time, it is necessary to continue to complete our project.

After the guidance of the teacher and the brainstorming, we chose the design of polyphosphate. Teacher Mao asked us the question, which is the problem of the bacteria resistance. If we really intend to use synthetic biology to solve eutrophication. Then, the harmful substances in the environmental water body will have an impact on the expression and bacteria survival, and it is necessary to consider the resistance problem. We visited the very famous algae research base in China, the Aquatic Institute, in April. Mr. Zhang introduced us to the most advanced sewage treatment method - the bacterial and algal symbiosis system and the biofilm system. After we went back, We systematically reviewed the relevant information, and greatly improved and improved our design.

6. Synthetic biology enters the classroom！
In April 2018, we collaborated with the School of Life Sciences of Wuhan University to carry out the "Synthetic Biology Science Lecture, Microbial Flat Graffiti Competition", which enabled us to have the opportunity to educate children about synthetic biology and introduce them to iGEM and Our project. We first introduced the common microbial products around us, explained the mystery of yogurt and bean curd to children. After introducing the concept of microbes, we guided other children to understand the concept of engineering bacteria by exemplifying other microbes that dispel plastics. And then show the children an abstract synthetic biology. Finally, in order to enhance the children's understanding and understanding of synthetic biology, we conducted a microbial flat-grain graffiti competition, using LB solid plates with IPTG and introduction of related plasmids to express GFP as E. coli.

Visit Huada and Bluepha！

During this trip to Huada, we were also fortunate to have exchanges with the instructor of the Huada High school team (previously judge). She gave us a lot of help and provided us with some aspects in HP development and experimental design.

During the communication with Bluepha, alumnus Wang Boxiang affirmed our project and gave important suggestions for the selection and guidance of optical switches and the development of follow-up experiments.

communication with Team SYSU

We exchanged with Sun Yat-Sen University in May, describing each other's projects, teams and experiments, some experience in modeling, can be said to give us a very huge help！

Synthetic biology
enters the community

In order to let more people know about synthetic biology, we contacted the local community to carry out “WHU-iGEM into the community, synthetic biology science activities” to introduce the community to the GM, introduce the synthetic biology closely related to life, and also The science of the pollution of the East Lake water quality, and introduced the contents of our project, not only promoted synthetic biology, but also brought some tips on science and technology to the residents, which enhanced the scientific awareness of the residents, and the event was finally successful.

communication with Team Worldshaper

On July 31, 2018, the high school team worldshaper came to visit us. In addition to giving them introductions and exchanges on the project, in the process of communication, we learned that they encountered great publicity in the promotion of synthetic biology. Difficulties, we took the initiative to help them contact the community, provide them with a platform to showcase projects and promote synthetic biology, and the event was finally a complete success.

The existing method of environmental water control is mainly to control sewage discharge. We want to know more about how the real sewage plant works. The manager of the sewage plant gave us a detailed introduction to the overall process and took us to the sewage treatment tank，the drug add-on room, and some laboratories equipped with sewage plants.