Team:SKLBC-China/Projects
Background
1.About WeChat
One of iGEM’s ambitions is to provide a platform where world-wide iGEMers can share their projects, exchange experiment results and promote the fundamental concepts of synthetic Biology. It came to us that if we can combine social network APPs with iGEM community, there will be a great social impact on enormous iGEMers as well as bio-lovers. Therefore, considering the growing demand of iGEM community in China, we chose WeChat, the most popular social network APP with over 600,000,000 users around the world, as the platform of our project.
2.Motivation
We have been dreaming of developing a tool that helps iGEMers save time when conducting experiments, or make the best of their spare time to finish trivial works before the experiments. What if a fantastic idea hit an iGEMer when he/she is waiting at the bus stop, but he/she can’t find the relevant bio-bricks immediately, which leads to the lost of a great idea? What if an iGEMer finds it annoying or troublesome to add prefixes and suffixes for a large amount of bio-bricks? We are here to tackle this issue.
3.WEiGEM1.0
WEiGEM 1.0 is a public platform that includes bio-bricks searching and article pushing service. Users can search for bio-bricks by looking through the category. The article pushing，service contains latest news on advanced science and academic researches, including synthetic biology, life technology and brief introduction on previous iGEM projects.
Project Description
1.Bio-brick searching engine
Brief Introduction:
Bio-brick plays a crucial role in the field of synthetic biology; hence the core of WEiGEM is bio-brick. We further developed WEiGEM2.0 based on the popular WEiGEM1.0. Through WeChat, we establish a strong connection among iGEMers, mobile phone, and personal computer.
Suffered by the low-efficiency bio-brick searching engines, we came up with the idea of developing a newer, more unique and more efficient searching engine based on the large bio-brick database from iGEM website. We picked several important attributions such as functions, types, status, etc. and assembled them in one search page, allowing users to fill up whatever search box with pieces of information that they consider necessary. Therefore, we can not only search bio-bricks by their names,but also search them according to certain descriptions. Furthermore, users can choose the binding type of prefix and receive bio-brick information with genetic sequences including prefixes and suffixes. Through redesigned algorithm which fits our engine most, our search engine can respond more quickly and be used more conveniently than those previous searching tools. After attaining the bio-bricks they need, if users consider some bio-bricks important, they can mark them down and review them later for other purposes.
Features:
1)Multiple search choice and cross-match
In addition to the common free search mode, we considered the demand of users, and developed various humanized functions. For instance, the function column in the searching page serves to find bio-bricks by keywords in their function and helps an iGEMer match the functions he needs with the bio-bricks that are yet unknown to him but can possibly actualize his goals. This will definitely motivate the researchers’ inspirations when their minds sparkle and need to find bio-bricks immediately, conveniently and accurately.
2)Auto addition of prefix and suffix
Considering the feedback from wet teams that they find it troublesome to use the original genetic sequences without prefix and suffix during analog piecing experiments with great need of bio-bricks’ sequences, our search engine has the ability to add prefix and suffix according to users’ demands and display them with different color from the usual sequences. With a choice box including various binding types, users can simply choose the type they need and let the program judges the gene order of corresponding bio-bricks. Finally, users can view the genetic sequences with colored prefixes and suffixes and copy these sequences in one click.
This seemingly tiny feature actually helps cut down useless efforts in experiments.
3)Mark down the bio-bricks you need
“Favorite” is a common feature that we can usually find in the social platforms. They’re implanted into the WEiGEM 2.0 now, making it more convenient for users to look up the former searching data and avoid searching repeatedly. One can mark down the bio-bricks he/she find them likely to be useful in the future and review them later for experiment design.
4)Bio-bricks information sharing by QR code
QR code is another wonderful and significant tool to the optimization of our search engine. First off, each bio-brick has its unique QR code, and one can share the detailed information to others in a scan. Imagine a situation like this: team members are working together and need to search for bio-bricks. Once one member receives the result, others will be able to scan the QR code and view the details about the bio-bricks. Besides, the QR code also works as a syncing tool. Since we had cooperation with team SKLBC-GDSYZX, we allow the Forum users to scan the QR code pop up automatically in the “Favorite” section of SKLBC-GDSYZX’s website and sync their marked bio-bricks data to the website.
2.Article pushing, learning and sharing
For new learners in synthetic biology and other biology lovers, we expand the influence of WEiGEM 1.0 by various offline promotions and the improvement of articles’ quality. Each article is evaluated carefully to meet the interests of our users while it provides expertise or up-dated discoveries in the field of synthetic biology. At the end of each article, there are quizzes related to the article above available for users to add more fun in their path of learning synthetic biology. After reading the articles, users and share them to their friends or make personal comments on a specific topic so that more people can join the discussion and therefore extend the social impact of synthetic biology.
3.Projects Collection
When wet teams are searching for the award-winning projects in the previous competition, they found it difficult to find the specific award-winning projects they need in the official page where the results are listed according to letters and regions. Therefore, we optimize the data arrangement and displays, presenting them to users in the category of Medals and Special Awards. We also tagged projects with “Software”, “New Bio-Bricks”, etc. Some of the projects had been marked with the type of bio-bricks included. Users can browse brief introductions of different projects, enter the wiki page of the projects and share them on Moment, a convenient way of sharing on WeChat, by which iGEM’s projects can spread to other people and expand the influence to different social stratums.
4. 1kg Bio-Box
Cooperating with Ai Ju, a well-known social enterprise in China, we developed an innovative education tool kit called 1kg Bio-Box, on the purpose of promoting the basic concepts of synthetic biology and offering ways for kids in China to establish the crucial logical thinking process during the experiment of synthetic biology. This Bio-Box includes creative tools and class designs that are accessible to kids in all ages and serve long-term usage.
