Colloquium of four teams at Peking University

In August, we invited three other iGEM teams to attend the meetup in the College of Life Sciences of Peking University, where we met and exchanged ideas with members from Tianjin, BIT-China and UCAS. We introduced our projects and built up mutual facilitation among teams. As one of the first teams of China to attend iGEM, Peking take the responsibility for guiding and helping other first-time contestants, UCAS for example. Additionally, we suggested the members of Tianjin to use Golden Gate Assembly methods by considering their problem of low efficiency of assembling.

Visiting BIT for academic exchange

In the end of July, we visited the iGEM team BIT(Beijing Institute of Technology)-China. We shared our project design and gained some feedback which might promote us. Zhang Yihao, our instructor, shared with them his iGEM experience and insight to synthetic biology.

The process of BIT-China was limited because the result of RFP expression and asked us for help. By consulting literature and doing experiment, we suggested them to wait for a period to make the color displaying complete or have the protein exposed under UV light.

Back to the beginning of July, iGEM team OUC-China (Ocean University of China) visited our team. Zhang Haoqian, our advisor, emphasized the significance of our project, also pointed out the problems and disadvantages of our projects. Then he gave us some advice on how to promote our project and team building better.

Offering help to other teams

We assisted several iGEM teams of China by offering them plasmids and other experimental materials.

For instance, our team assisted Jilin-China with Interlab Measurement Study by sending them the plasmid J23117+I13504.

In addition, we mentored a high-school team: BHU(Beijing High School Union) from July to October. We supported them not only the guidance of fundamental molecular laboratory operating but the experimental materials such as expression vector pET28a and corresponding primers, as well as all enzymes and laboratory equipment.

Conference of China iGEMer Committee

From September 2nd to 4th, Conference of China iGEMer Committee (CCiC) was held in SYSU, Guangzhou. Four members of our team attended the conference. Our instructor, Zhang Haoqian gave the keynote speech to 26 iGEM teams from different cities of China at the opening ceremony of CCiC. With the help of this platform for Chinese iGEM teams to communicate, all the teams got numerous responses from others, including suggestions on the thoughts of experiments, heated discussions on pathway design, and reflections on safety and application. Peking performed well during the presentation and poster section and gave many useful suggestions to other iGEM teams during communication. Also, we recognized the limitations and inadequacy of our project which encouraged us to make more effort.