Team:NUS Singapore-A/shadow/Collaborations
1. CUHK
NUSGEM initially wanted to explore using RNA aptamers as a reporter system for our stress promoter (htpG1) and blue light repressible promoter. However, we faced a lot difficulties in constructing our aptamers reporter system and we could not get a successful construct for many months. However, we read that the CUHK iGEM team was working on aptamers. Hence our team leader, Nanda, met up with them in Hong Kong.
After an exciting discussion at the Lee Woo Sing College of Chinese University of Hong Kong, both teams saw a great collaboration opportunity, discovering many similar aspects of our projects in wetlab, hardware and modelling.
The two teams concluded our meeting by agreeing to keep in contact, and we continued to discuss intensively on our collaboration even after Nanda returned to Singapore.
As the CUHK team was working on a RNA-based project, they were urgently looking for a particular strain of E. coli, BL21 Star. It is a RNase-knockout strain to maximize RNA production. They asked whether our lab has it - we do! Without hesitation, we shipped the strain over to them within a week.
Because NUSGEM needed help on RNA aptamers constructions, Team CUHK offered their expertise by redesigning our RNA aptamer constructs and designing suitable primers to increase the chances of successful construction. In addition, they incorporated the RNA aptamer that they aimed to characterise, iSpinach, with our stress promoter (.BBa_K2819010) for us to characterise. Both teams agreed on constructing the same constructs, including those that they hoped for us to characterise, using the same set of primers. They advised us to use overlap PCR in our constructions, a technique that we don’t usually use in our lab. We took their advice and our gel electrophoresis results below show that our overlap PCR was successful!
With their help, we were finally able to successfully construct the RNA aptamer plasmids! After successful constructions of the aptamer constructs, NUSGEM assisted CUHK in characterising them. We measured the fluorescence intensity given off by the aptamers under different temperatures, and found that that lpp-tRNA-iSpinach gives off a higher fluorescence reading than lpp-tRNA-Spinach 2.1 (Figure X)!
CUHK also hoped to carry out their survey with a wider audience, so NUSGEM not only helped them in their survey, but also spreaded the word of their survey to help them to gather responses in Singapore.
Click any slide for more
[8/8] - Dr. Yvonne Chow
In Progress
[8/8] - Dr. Yvonne Chow
In Progress
[8/8] - Dr. Yvonne Chow
In Progress
Visit from Jiangnan iGEM team
On 18 July 2018, NUSGEM was privileged to host 2 members from the Jiangnan iGEM team!
The Jiangnan iGEM team members were in Singapore for a summer exchange programme, and they chanced upon our project. They took the initiative and wrote to us about the possibility of a meet-up to share our respective team’s iGEM experience, and learn more about the problems we have encountered, and how we managed to overcome them.
Without hesitation, we agreed to meet up with the Jiangnan iGEM team members! In fact, we were all so excited about the meet-up that we planned an engaging day of activities for our fellow iGEM-ers!
Firstly, we invited them to the BioMakerSpace, which is where our NUSGEM team carries out most of our experiments. At the BioMakerSpace, we brought them on a lab tour, which culminated in a fruitful sharing session on our projects, where we even exchanged solutions on the problems we faced. After the laboratory tour, we brought them on a NUS campus tour, visiting the various libraries (there are more than 6!) in our school, as well as the biofoundry in SynCTI (Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation).
The two teams had a great time interacting with each other and we can’t wait to see each other again in the Jamboree!
[8/8] - Dr. Yvonne Chow
In Progress
[8/8] - Dr. Yvonne Chow
In Progress
[8/8] - Dr. Yvonne Chow
In Progress
SGiGEM Meet
On 11 June 2018, all three Singaporean iGEM teams met up at the National University of Singapore, for the first ever Singapore iGEM meet!
The goal of our inaugural meet-up was to provide an opportunity for all Singaporean iGEM participants to get to know each other, network, and spark fruitful discussion on potential collaborations. This meeting was the first official platform for all three teams (NUS_Singapore-Sci, NUS_Singapore-A and NTU-Singapore) to share with each other our respective team projects, and discuss possible avenues for collaboration. Hearteningly, members from all three teams felt the meet-up was fruitful, and we made many exciting plans for collaborations!
No meeting is complete without food! All of us had a great time socialising and discussing our iGEM experience over a pizza party! The meetup was indeed a great opportunity to get to know members from other teams, and even our own team members better, and perhaps more importantly, many memories were made that night!
HEAR OUR STORY
We’re using synthetic biology to change the way the world thinks and functions.
We’re a little disruptive, dangerous and maybe a tad too bold. But the world needs some shaking up every now and then, and we think we’re just the right people for that.
Together we’re going to engineer biology and create something awesome.
CONTACT US
nusigem@gmail.com21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, Singapore 119077