Difference between revisions of "Team:USTC/Practices"

Water Cleaning Technology Lecture

In April 14 th, we USTC iGEM along with our supervised Encoding Life Asscociation(ELA) held a lecture on water cleaing technology based on common physical and chemical technolgy as well as some biological engineered technology. During this lecture, our team member introduced some intriguing methods that provided by previous iGEM teams, including genetically modified photoremediation of TU-Munich 2013 iGEM team and biological replacement of heavy metal ion contamination in water. These illstrations met many children's curiosity on what amazing works synthetic biology had made.

Then, our team members briefly introduced iGEM and our projects to the audience. Our simple interpretation on our chemotaxis and interference approach is so fancinating that many adults strongly changed their perspective on genetically engineered bacteria and molecular biology. They all wish these incredible jobs would make more contribution to our human being, environment and the earth.

Saving Earth, Saving Water, Theme Activity

In April 27 th to 28 th, a theme activity called Saving earth, saving water was established in University of Science and Technology of China. We iGEM team, cooperating with Encoding Life Asscociation(ELA), Natural Protection Asscociation organized different propoganda and introduction to the public.

At the beginning, our host briefly introduced the situation we all human-being encountering in China. Many solutions from different countries were put into discussion with them. And we exhibited dozens of posters that containing information on policies and laws related to environment, water contamination and so forth.

Demonstrably, biologically engineered technology implemented by our iGEMers previously were introduced for our audience. Besides, our project also was mentioned during this activity. It was the first time that people had seen such incredible works done by E. coli and other engineered species. Many people said, taking part in this activity made them better and deeper understand the magnificent work that synthetic biology could achieve. Childern wrote down their dreams on our broad, some of whom proudly promised that they would join in iGEM, were they admitted to university one day!

In order to make our audience better enjoy these galleries, activities, we degisned dozens of questions. Individuals who answered them would receive a tiny but useful gift from us. The activity finally attracted hundreds of people joining us, which made such big contribution to evoke public cogniction on water and other environmental issues.

Come and extract the genome of strawberry!

Attempting to attract more contemporary and children on synthetic biology, this may we built an activity called Come and extract the genome of strawberry with our kitchen materials. This activity firstly sent the fundamental knowledge and mechanism of DNA extraction for the attenders, which were introduced by our volunteers. Then attenders started extracting DNA from strawbeery with the protocol we had already prepared. And assistance from our professional lab guys made they all successfully extract the DNA in white.

One of a sci-freak major in organic chemistry in USTC laughed in those following words,

That was incredbily amazing! It is the first time that I saw DNA by myself. I cannot believe that we could simply extract DNA using table salt, cleanser essence and alcohol. Maybe next time we could try on our epithlial cells!

Biology to High School Students

A lecture on general molecular biology, synthetic biology and iGEM was held in August. Leader of USTC, Juntao Yu introduced the basic molecular biology mechanism and iGEM to high school students who were deeply intrigued in biology.

Leader firstly introduced the daily laboratory apparatus to the kids and students such as centrifuge, vibrator, PCR Instrument, high pressure steam sterilization pot, incubator and etc. We explained the mechanism of some of them and we were glad to see some middle school students caring about the working mechanism of centrifuge. So we continued teaching them more about the physical knowledge in it and it felt really pretty good to share them with our lose and gain and enlighten the kids who interested in science.

Then, the leader held a small class for kids: we exquisitely prepared a presentation specifically for kids to introduce to them the basic knowledge of DNA and genetic engineering with simple words and lovely pictures. We are surprised to know that children know the name of DNA, while they almost misunderstand the essence of DNA. So we instructed them about the scale, location, function, discovery and shape of DNA based on history and research. Besides, genetic engineering was also introduced using chocolate biscuits as example. We wished kids possess a memory about the mechanism in biological world and the seed sowed by us could prosper in the future.

Finally, a panel session was beginning: This session is almost for students and adults to let them know iGEM, establishment and history of our team built in 2007 and future of synthetic biology and biological technology. Since the public in China recently is concerned about GMO severely, we want to directly and briefly introduce to them the genetic engineering technology and let them judge whether the GMO is safe for our daily requires with our lead tip. We tried our best to landfill the gap between the fast developing science and puzzled people even if we finally managed to influence few. We still believe few can influence more with their constructive suggestion and going into action so that one day people in China, even in all over the world, will go forward with science shoulder by shoulder.

Cross Talks

CineCom

CineCom, movie community of University of Science and Technology of China, is interested in communication with our iGEM team. Here is the record with their leader, Mr. ChiKeng Hwang.

USTC: Recently, many biological films released……

CineCom: Jurassic World.

USTC: I just want to say that. There are also some excellent dramas. For example, Orphan Black by BBC America. They are related to genetic engineering, cloning, and other hot topics. Are these topics now very popular in science fiction dramas?

CineCom: I think nowaday science fiction superhero plays the main theme of the majourity of these movies because such script does not need too deep excavation, but only gorgeous special effects, which can gain substantial box office.

USTC: Yes, but haven’t the superheroes started to tiring us? In fact, the superheroes are human beings with specific features, perhaps one day, synthetic biology can realize the superhero story.

CineCom: Their superpowers are innate. I do not know much about synthetic biology, I think it might undermine the law of natural evolution.

USTC: Probably, ethics is a very important issue, let’s take the X-Men for it, I think if there is a group of people with specific abilities in the world, maybe the order will be destroyed.

CineCom: From the perspective of evolution, the evolution of our abilities is to meet the real needs. For example, at paramecium stage, we can only engulf and divide; until the evolution of adult classes, we have the ability to build and engineer. If humans grant the paramecium human strength, it will only continue to devour and split, instead of construction and renovation. If a similar situation occurred to humans because of the synthetic biology, It will result in catastrophe. I think this is precisely the potential threat of the "super heroes".

USTC: Cool! It seems that you are a superhero fan! So besides superheroes, do you think these dramas are in line with scientific principles? For example, the black hole in Interstellar and the theory of clone in Orphan Black?

USTC: What do you think can science and movies collaborate?

CineCom：The movie is actually a kind of media. So there are lots of collaborations in the progress of filming and screening. These are some applications of the techniques, but not science researches.

USTC: Thank you.

sNC

sNC, natural conservancy of USTC is a student organized association. Now, we invited their leader Mr. ChungKim Whang.

sNC: The main activities of natural conservancy of USTC are bird observing and cradling. Meanwhile, we are committed to promote ecological balance and popularize environmental protection knowledge on campus.

USTC: Sounds like we have a lot to communicate. How fast do the birds extinct around the world?

sNC: With the reduction of wetlands, and the destruction of the habitats of the migratory birds, the birds are facing unprecedented pressure to survive, not only birds, many other species’ extinction rate is higher than last century.

USTC: Certainly. Species conservation now becomes a hot topic. From your perspective, does molecular biology contribute to species protection? Can we preserve the genomes of the extinct species and use them to culture new ones?

sNC：Molecular biological researches on genes provide us with a better reference of classification and explanations of the reasons for extinction from the microscopic point of view. For the endangered species, if they cannot adapt to the natural changes, humans cannot help them, either. As for the species under the threats of human destruction, humans should not look for ways to protect them just to cover up their bad damage to them. Your proposed method can only save genomes, but to keep the species alive, suitable environments should be maintained, which cost lots of manpower and resources.

USTC: That is actually molecular biology did not play a significant role in animal protection?

sNC：I certainly believe that molecular biology and ecology are closely connected, but generally speaking, science develops focusing on the needs of society, for example, pharmaceuticals. We do not pay enough attention to the treatment of animals suffering from the disease, because generally it seems to follow the laws of nature, sick and old animals should be eaten by predators, so that evolution goes forward. However, the improvement in medical conditions extend humans life span and promote humans well-being. So this is not an individual can decide, but will reach a uniform height in the future.

USTC: Oh, I see. So what do you do to propagate ecological knowledge?

sNC：For eco-propaganda, public misunderstanding about it is just like the one about genetic engineering. People judge things based on subjective preferences of decision, and therefore does not comply with the laws of nature. Protection of nature is not to protect animals from being eaten, nor to raise endangered animals until prosperous progenies. We usually start from the child, giving lectures in primary schools.

With SCU_China

The communication with SCU-China was held on May this year. The contents containing both projects and some experience about experiments and modeling.

The 3rd International Genetically Engineered Machine Conference in Taiwan

The 3rd International genetically engineering machine conference was again held in Hsinchu, Taiwan by National Chiao Tong University (NCTU) and NCTU_Formosa in July, 2015. More than 20 teams from Taiwan and Mainland joined the conference for understanding each other and meeting many friends. The conference included official presentations along with Q&A and a poster session. During the meeting, we introduced our project to all, received much valuable advice and gave much advice about other teams' work, especially the team BIT. And the host guided us to visit the National Palace Museum where many treasures and collections sit. We sincerely acknowledge NCTU for their warm serve and we gained a lot through the conference.

2nd CCiC Summit in Peking

CCiC, that is China Community of iGEM competition, was held a huge summit in Peking University in August. During the summit, more than 20 teams in China exchanged comments and opinions on project.

With HFUT-China and USTC-Software

The meet-up between HFUT-China, USTC-Software and USTC was held up by HFUT-China in August. We respectively introduced our development and breakthrough of our project. Because this meet-up was mainly built for software improvement, we provide some advice for software team to enhance an user friendly software.

With BIT

Communication with BIT was held in Beijing during CCiC conference. We deeply exchanged our projects and opinions on each other project were really precious for project improvement. And cooperation between BIT was decided to establish during the conference.