Team:SZU China/Practices




Human practice

On the way to make a better world.



  • Get motivated from IGEM Headquartes
    On May 19th, SZU-iGEM took part in the meeting with iGEM Headquarters along with Southern University of Science and Technology of China and Xiamen University. In the meeting we raised the questions regarding to team communications worldwide and giving some suggestion related to the judging part. The words and experience Mr Randy Rettberg shared about the reason he set up iGEM did give us great motivations to create a better world.

  • The Festival exhibit of College of Life Sciences of SZU
    Biological graduates are once considered to be one of the groups with lowest employment rate and biology has since been left out in many students’ mind. However, synthetic biology open a window for the university student to look deeper into the fantastic aspect that various biological parts can be synthesized like a computer. The Festival exhibit the last year and this year project of our team attached with the synthetic biological information. Surprisingly it receive some praise. Some literal students even the exchange students grew strong interest in our project and would like to join us in the lab.

  • The Juvenile Biology Maker in Primary School
    Asking an adult a question,you may receive a certain answer but asking a primary school student you will receive even more questions. Primary school is where the curiosity and interest fosters. On Sept 11th, we extended our footprint to primary school to talk to those little scientists who has affinity for nature and science. In the meetup, we demonstrated how our system works as well as the related knowledge about bladder cancer. After the lecture, students came to us with lots of questions about our project and cancer. With laugh and passion, the idea spread in every corner of the room and the love for science passed down to the new generation. After that we decided to be their biological mentor and give them lectures once a month. It can never be more pleasant to be the one to sow the seed and make a little difference.

  • 1.Learn from bladder caner professor Mr. Cai
    We’ve been thinking about what we can help in face of the deadly disease. Cancer is a ominous word for most Chinese people especially for the old generation that used to be conservative. On the other hand people find it helpless when they were diagnosed as cancer. Since then we not only conducted a survey on synthetic biology and bladder cancer but also interviewed professor Mr. Cai Zhiming who has abundant experience in terms of the therapy of bladder cancer to search the way out. Professor and also the director of Shenzhen Second People hospital told us that the effect of different therapies varies depends on patients’ body condition and also the psychological states. Sometimes the physical condition is largely influenced by the mental states. However most sufferers inclines to isolate themselves and thus fear of death grow day by day. It is proved as we tried to reach the patients but only receive refusal.

  • The significance psychotherapy for cancer patients
    Referring to the group psychotherapy which originally means a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group now include any helping process that takes place in a group, including support groups, skills training groups and psycho-education groups. We realized that some principles group psychotherapy shares may help those cancer patients. For example, the recognition of shared experiences and feelings among group members and that these may be widespread or universal human concerns, serves to remove a group member's sense of isolation, validate their experiences, and raise self-esteem. Studies also indicates clear evidence for the effectiveness of group psychotherapy for depression: a meta-analysis of 48 studies showed an overall effect size of 1.03, which is clinically highly significant. But the reality is hospital in China rarely apply this form of therapy to help those patients. Another reason is because cancer patients usually refuse to talk about cancer even themselves were deceived by their family concerning the fact would depress the suffers.

  • 3.Mr Tumor，Go Away From Them!
    Having learned the overview, we came up with the idea to set up the platform similar to group psychotherapy for cancer sufferers to communicate with each other. The trial to obtain approval from hospital was turned down as usual for several weeks. In this case,we tried to reach the Cancer Mutual Aid Association and gladly both sides agreed to help. On Sept 12th SZU-iGEM teams and cancer sufferers gathered in Bijiashan Park ready for the meetup. Team members joined the sufferers to do the exercise which believed to be beneficial for keeping a calm mind prior to the meetup. The communication started later with a 67-year-old woman who was diagnosed as mammary cancer 11 years ago telling her encouraging story about how she got out of depression and keep exercising for all these years. A 47-year-old attorney Ms Wei told the participants that she tried all means to treat the cancer but at last realized the psychotherapy is the most effective one. The intense situation in family and stress from work would only worsen one’s health. Now her wish is to live longer than her parents and witness her son get married. For another 69-year-old woman Ms Xiao, she’s far more optimistic than anyone else even carrying cancer. She organized a model team in which the members are all mammary cancer sufferers and performed all over the country. We were all deeply touched by her spirit and most significantly we witness the young cancer sufferers sobbing from laughing when hearing the story. There’s nothing powerful than an positive mind and tender than people’s care. The communication gave us a new angle to look at life as well as to introspect ourselves. For the patients we passed the hope of life and resolve the isolation and fear inside their heart. Now we’ve built the long term cooperative relationship with Shenzhen Cancer patient Mutual Aid Association to organize more interactive activities for cancer sufferers.

  • Conference of China IGEMers Committee
    Realizing the significance of team communications, SZU-iGEM this year joined the China iGEMer's Meetup in Peking University where we shared our project with other 30 teams all over China.It is in the communication that we are able to find out the flaws and raise the better way out. During the tea break we caught the chance to learn from other teams hearing their advices so as to further improve our project and experiment. Thanks for other teams'suggestions and we are thankful for the people who have given us favor and feedbacks.We are on the way to make a better world.

  • It will be continued...
    Human practice actually give us a chance to step out of the lab and fulfill our responsibilities for the society and an instant to introspect our lives. It is a start but keeping it move on would be the true human practice for all of us.