Team:BIT-China/Collaborations
Jilin-China
This year, Jilin_China mainly helps us to improve and construct a model of
substance changes about the experiment circuit (Fig. 1). We provide them
the conditions and equations of each stage of chemical reaction and
they are responsible for
the realization of the equations and the whole regulating process.
BIT-China construct the modeling equations preliminarily.
The difficulty which we meet is how to identify the equations are right,
how can we realize equations by modeling software and how to draw an image
to reflect the whole process of the change of the substances. Because some
members of Jilin_China, they are majoring in physics, math, computer science
and chemistry, they have much experience in differential equations, application
of MATLAB and designing of computer programs. With these resources,
they have helped us solve our problems successfully.
Firstly, basing on the equations we provided they initial modify some of the equations.(Fig. 2).
Secondly, after several discussions with us, JLU understood the background of
our modeling part and the problems they were about to settle. Because of some
parameters in the equations is hard to measure, they reduce some unnecessary
equations and change the number of the variables, which make the process through
linear equations. The first picture is about the equations to describe the chemical
reaction processes between the enzyme and substrate made by BIT-China (Fig. 3).
The second picture has two parts, the one part is about the equations replace by
other symbols (Fig. 4), another part is about the linear equations to avoid
measuring the parameter (Fig. 5).
So we can use our experiment results to fit the equations by some modeling software.
Lanzhou
On September 18th, 2016, we met and exchanged ideas with members of
teams from Lanzhou by the Beijing Institute of Technology. After the
meeting, we confirmed our collaboration relationship.
To further extend
our system, we asked them
for helping us constructing the new BioBrick of our gene circuits.
They helped us finish the "another inhibitor" system
(arac+pBAD+B0034+TetR+B0015+pTet+B0034+RFP+B0015)
In this system, pBAD is one of the inducible promoter
(fromBBa_K808000) which can be induced by arabinose. B0034and
B0032aretwo kinds of strong ribosome binding sites (RBS) and the
strength of B0032 is only 33.96% of
B0034. pTet promoter is constitutively ON and repressed by TetR repressor.
The "inhibitor" system is very important for our project, we use the
concentration of inhibitor proteins as a signal indicating the plasmid
numbers, and it can trigger the downstream reaction by activating the
killer gene while the plasmid concentration reduce the threshold. So,
in this circuit, we use the red
fluorescent protein (RFP) to simulate the threshold of the pTet promoter.
CIEI-BJ
CIEI-BJ is a high school team and it’s their first time to participate in
iGEM competition this year. In the middle of July, team CIEI-BJ came to
visit Beijing Institute
of Technology and communicated with our team BIT-China.
As an undergraduate team, we shared the core concept of our project this year
and explained a little bit about how we have exchanged ideas among the
team members and how to assess
the feasibility of our design as a reference for high school students.
Later, team members in high school also shared their fascinating ideas.
However, some plans are not that practical due to the objective reasons.
A lot of questioned were raised by members of BIT-China to help
shape the project of team CIEI-BJ this year. The considerations refer to
the practical meaning and the possibility of conduct for an appropriate
project. What’s more, some suggestions are given to
optimize the details like designing an experiment to prove a concept.
After the discussion, we showed high school students around our lab and explained
the brief function of some experimental instruments. Besides, we introduced them to the
previous projects of our team with the aid of posters preserved.
We help them design the basic gene circuit. In the next few months, the guidance
of BIT-China to CIEI-BJ are not only limited to the project itself, but also extended
to the details about the competition procedures. We have been in touch with
CIEI-BJ through the Internet and give advice on many aspects, like how to
present our iGEM program to potential sponsors
and how to achieve the requirements for deliverables.
In September 17th, 2016, some members of BIT-China are invited to share their
experience on how to design the wiki page. A few examples were given to
explain the good elements in introducing the project in a simple way.
What should be put on the wiki were also discussed during this meeting.
Considering the web fluency and in order to design a clear page, notes are
listed for high school
members to pay attention when they are working on their wiki.
In the process of mentoring a high school team, we also benefited a lot.
Not only did we engage in the competition, but also we
had a better understanding of the community connected by iGEM.
