Team:SKLBC-China/Software
Brief Introduction
Bio-brick stands a pivotal status in all iGEM experiments, being the base of synthetic biology. Targeting iGEM community, we upgraded WEiGEM 2.0, a cloud-based bio-brick search engine, by new features including optimizing the search algorithm, personalized search options, auto-addition of prefix and suffix and instant mark-and-share your bio-bricks on your mobile phones. With in-time and well-sifted biology articles, WEiGEM 2.0 serves as an educational and social media center where iGEMers’ ideas flow toward biology lovers. We further developed an education tool kit “1kg Bio-Box” to engage potential millions of students in remote areas of China into synthetic biology. In conclusion, we manage to build bridges in connecting thousands of bio-bricks to iGEM community and public.
Background
As the advancements in the field of synthetic biology take place rapidly in recent years, the attention on iGEM is increasing at the mean time. More and more ambitious undergraduates and even high school students are eager to join the iGEM communicity, explore more possibilities in synthetic biology, and contribute to this flourishing area. However, when trying to access more information in synthetic biology, getting a quick check on the previous iGEM programs, or conducting experiments in the laboratory, iGEMers, especially for those in China, always met various troubles which are bafflements on their way to explore iGEM as well as synthetic biology.
·High school students who are interested in biology yet unfamiliar with synthetic biology are baffled by academic papers with recondite terminologies.
·High school students who want to initiate their own research programs find it hard to decide on topics because of the overwhelming informations from countless resources and the uncertainty of the project's practicability.
·New iGEMers looking for inspirations from previous projects are overwhelmed by the vast sea of projects.
·Wet teams in iGEM are having trouble searching for biobricks, since extent biobrick search tools can not yet satisfy their demand.
·Using a script that can add prefix and suffix to the biobricks automatically can make the wet teams' researches more convenient.
·iGEMers cannot mark and store the biobricks that they consider likely to be useful to their projects in one place.
·Once spot great articles or useful biobricks, iGEMers cannot instantly gather together online in one site to discuss them or share their thoughts and puzzles.
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Considering thoroughly about the problems above, we catagorize the target users of WEiGEM2.0 in three major aspects:
·General Biology Lovers
·Inexperienced iGEMers
·Professional iGEM team members
Focusing on the demand of our potential users, we further developed WEiGEM2.0 on the basis of WEiGEM1.0, with more available and practical functions presenting to the public.
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.
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.
