1. USTC

USTC and BIT focus on measurement this year and we face the same difficulty so that we set up the collaboration for dealing with the problem. We are really glad that we can have collaborations in the aspect of experiment, hardware and modeling.

Process

Both of teams took part in 2015 iGEM Asian Conference in NCTU (Hsinchu, Taiwan) at the end of July and both of us are interested in each other’s projects. In the middle of August, USTC attended the Conference of China iGEMer Committee in PKU (Beijing, China) and we had a chance to communicate the details of our collaborations face to face. In this meeting, we determine that we can cooperate in the aspect of experiment, hardware and modeling. After that, we assist each other by internet and make some progresses. Ultimately, USTC help BIT to build a more perfect modeling and BIT assist USTC accomplish the experiment of bacteria freeze-drying. Because both of us had demand for hardware, we all put forward some comments and advice for each other to make a better hardware.

Details

The Experiment of Bacteria Freeze-drying

Purpose

We all hope the ideal product could apply to reality. The method of bacterial powder help the idea come true result from following features:
1) Portative: it will be easier for hardware, like detecting device which is made by BIT or CACCI which is made by USTC, to carry bacteria.
2) Easy-to-store: the condition for storing bacterial powder is simple to achieve, that makes it convenient for users to use the product.
3) Recoverable: the bacteria will recover within normal water solution so that it will not bring extra burden to the users.

Protocol

1) Strain
Reserve it at -20℃.
2) Preparation of culture medium
Prepare: tryptone 5g, yeast extract 5g, NaCl 30g, glycerol 3g, Na2HPO4·12H2O 12.5g, KH2PO4 1g, and add distilled water 1L ;then split the liquid in different test tubes, and 10 ml for each tube ; sterilize these tubes for 20min at 121℃; save.
3) Other reagents and equipment
Skim milk; Eppendorf liquid gun, tube (Ф15mm x 100mm), IEC CL31 high-speed refrigerated centrifuge, low temperature refrigerator, common refrigerator, FD-1A-50 freeze dryer, 3ml colorimetric tube, CL-1 magnetic stirring apparatus, BHP9511 type water toxicity analyzer, SHZ- 82 thermostatic oscillator.
4) Preparation of freeze drying protective agent
Due to use the higher concentration of skim milk, milk is not dissolved so well, and after the static, there is some precipitation, so the lower concentration of skim milk is chosen, of which the mass fraction is 12%. The mass fraction of the solution of NaCl is 2.0%
5) Preparation of luminescent bacteria freeze drying preparation
Inoculate the bacteria, which was stored hypothermal, on fresh culture medium, undertake constant temperature oscillation culture until the logarithmic growth phase at 22℃, and the light is more bright; centrifugate the 5ml of culture with the speed of 5000r / min at 4℃ for 10min, the supernatant is discarded; with the addition of the equal volume of prepared frozen drying protective agent, heavy suspension is done in the bacterium strain; split them in different test tubes, and 1 ml for each tube; do pre-freezing at -70℃, then freeze and dry; after finishing drying these tubes, seal them with sealing compound. At last, reserve them at -20℃.

Modeling

USTC give us plenty of advice about modeling, especially in model 1 of our modeling. Model 1 is about the experiment of glycopeptide incubation and the experiment of competitive inhibition. The details is shown in “Biology-Model”.

2. Global Union Survey

The Global Union Survey led by BIT, BIT-China, CGU_Taiwan and Stockholm contains 11 teams from Asia, Europe and America. The members includes Berlin (Berlin), BIT (Beijing), BIT-China (Beijing), Brasil_USP (São Paulo), CGU_Taiwan (Taoyuan City), CUHK (Hong Kong), Leicester (Leicester), Stockholm (Stockholm), Tianjin (Tianjin), Toulouse (Toulouse), UCL (London).

Process

The idea was put forward in 2015 iGEM Asian Conference in NCTU (Hsinchu, Taiwan) at the end of July. The initial team consists of BIT, BIT-China, CGU-Taiwan and CUHK. We found that we can conduct a global survey which can achieve that all of teams can share the data about their own project from different areas. The idea attracted Stockholm’s attention and they brought the teams from Europe and America in at the beginning of August. During August, all the teams made efforts to collect the questionnaires from public and we processed data at the beginning of September. Ultimately, each team can gain the different data from other 10 regions and it’s useful for every project to improve their world-wide adaptability.

Details

The details of questionnaire is shown as follow:
iGEM (BCLSTU) Questionnaire
Thank you for taking time to help us to complete the survey. Please fill in this questionnaire according to your personal situation. These answers are only used for iGEM research activities and the information you fill in will be kept confidentially.

Q1：How old are you? *
a. 5-16
b. 17-28
c. 29-50
d. Above 50


Q2: What is your vocational type? *
a. Skill-oriented (cook, technician)
b. Research-based (teacher, doctor)
c. Artistic (Actor, poet)
d. Managerial (manager, lawyer)
e. Social (public relationship, administrative)
e. Transactional (secretary, accountant)


Q3: Do you know anything about synthetic biology? *
a. Perfectly clear
b. Know some, but not comprehensive
c. Just so so
d. Not very much, only know the concept
e. Totally nothing


Q4: How do you know the synthetic biology? *
a. People around you
b. Internet
c. Newspaper/Magazine
d. Lecture
e. Textbook
f. Other


Q5: In your opinion, is synthetic biology applicable in your expertise? WHY? *
a. Yes
b. No


Q6: Which of the following products, integrated with synthetic biology, is acceptable for you? *
a. Edible product
b. Detection product
c. Electronics
d. Artistry
e. Power source
f. Environmental product


Q7: How do you think organisms could change in benefit of the human society and environment? *





Additional Information：
Synthetic biology is an emerging branch of biological sciences, and has been making substantial progress over the past few years. The core notion of traditional biology is to study the internal structure of creature through dissection, while the synthetic biology is totally the other way around by building up components from the basic elements. The ultimate goal of synthetic biology is to set up artificial biosystem ad make it function as a circuit.


The following part is the questions from 11 teams (Berlin, BIT, BIT-China, Brasil_USP, CGU_Taiwan, CUHK, Leicester, Stockholm, Tianjin, Toulouse, UCL) according to their own project.


Berlin

1. If a technique was developed, that completely degrades plastic into biodegradable components, would our society (you as part of society) recklessly consume even more plastic (considering that the synthetics still is environmentally harmful)? *
a. Yes
b. No


2. Have you ever thought about the bad impact of plastic on our environment, and if yes, have you thought of reducing plastic consumption? *
a. Yes
b. No


3. Do you think that the plastic consumption should be regulated by laws? *
a. Yes
b. No





BIT

1. How much do you know about early detection of diseases? *
A. Perfectly clear
B. Know some, but not comprehensive
C. Just so so
D. Not very much, only know the concept
E. Totally nothing


2. How many times do you go through health checkups annually? *
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 3
E. More than 3 times


3. What do you think of household disease detection devices? (Choose one of your answers below) *
A. a) accurate / b) coarse
B. a) low cost / b) expensive
C. a) convenient / b) user-unfriendly
D. a) short timing / b) time-consuming
E. a) willing to use / b) reluctant to use





BIT-China

1. In your opinion, are you in favor of regulating the pH value with biological method to solve problems like soil acidification? *
a. Yes
b. No


2. Compared with traditional methods, why is the biological method better off in regulating pH value? *
a. High efficiency
b. Low cost
c. Automatic without complex machine
d. Other (Please write down it) _________________________
e. I don't learn about it.





Brasil_USP

1. How long does it take for one regular tire, the one used in our cars, to degrade if left in an open environment? *
a. 10 months years
b. 10 years
c. 100 years
d. more than 500 years


2. Is tire disposal regulated in your country? If yes, are these laws able to control correct disposal and recycling of rubber waste? *
a. Yes, but the regulation is not enough to control correct disposal and recycling
b. Yes, and the regulation is enough to control correct disposal and recycling
c. No, my country has no regulation about tire disposal





CGU_Taiwan

1. Are there any other factors that can give rise to Oral Cancer except for chewing betel nut, tobacco and gene? *
a. Yes
b. No


2. Are there any other symptoms when suffering Oral Cancer except plaques, lumps and ulcers? *
a. Yes
b. No


3. How much do you think is acceptable for a household cancer detector? *
a. No interests.
b. Price: _______________________





CUHK

1. Are you satisfied with the current quality of drinking water? (6 being totally satisfied, 1 being totally unsatisfied) *
6 5 4 3 2 1

2. Do you wish the levels of heavy metals in drinking water to be further decreased? (6 being highly wished, 1 being the least wished) *
6 5 4 3 2 1

3. Are you willing to install a small heavy metals water-filter on your water-tap at home? (6 being the most willing, 1 being the least willing)*
6 5 4 3 2 1





Leicester

1. Would you allow yourself to be treated with a genetically modified organism (GMO)? *
a. Yes
b. No
c. Depends on the disease


2. What would help you understand more about synthetic biology? *
a. Teaching in schools
b. Public lectures
c. Leaflets
d. Youtube videos
e. News articles
f. Other


3. What do you think the ethical issues concerning GMOs are? *
a. "Playing God"
b. The impact on the ecosystem
c. How GMOs are tested
d. Other





Stockholm

1. Do you think there is a limit at which medicine should stop interfering with disease treatment due to, for instance, economic reasons? Would not it be better to change the medicine focus and research funding to pandemics treatment instead of constantly appearing new and unknown diseases affecting predominantly older people? *
a. Yes
b. No


2. What, in your opinion, is the best, feature of a good cancer treatment?*
a. Transferability
b. Cost-effectiveness
c. Simplicity
d. High efficiency
e. Repeatability


3. What is the most important stage of the successful cancer treatment?*
a. Regular body condition check-up
b. Effective recognition and fast diagnosis of the cancerogenesis by utilization of specific biomarkers
c. Chemotherapy
d. Cancer cells removal surgery
e. Post-surgery avoidance of exposure to cancerogenic factors (such as occupational exposure to heavy metals or abstinence from smoking)





Tianjin

1. As far as you know, is there any measure about plastic recycling and treatment in your country, for example, plastic classification and specific factories for plastic degradation? *
a. A lot
b. A little
c. None
d. Not sure





Toulouse

1. What do you know about honeybees? *
a. Well they' can fly, it's cool
b. They are useless, they just sting
c. We use many products from the hive
d. They are necessary for a huge part of our agriculture
e. We can live without them, it's not a problem


2. Are you aware of the situation of Honeybees in your country? *
a. Yes, it's doing great!
b. Yes, beekeepers are undergoing some losses each year
c. Yes, beekeepers are undergoing huge losses each year
d. No, I don't really know


3. What would be your opinion on a biologic solution to fight varroa, a parasite that kills honeybees? *
a. This would be a great idea, since there is no solution nowadays
b. Why not if there is nothing else
c. I don't really know
d. You should focus more on pesticides
e. This seems strange to me, I wouldn't like it





UCL

1. Did you know that the gut microbiota could influence mental health?*
a. Yes
b. No


2. Would you take a chocolate bar containing probiotics to improve your mood? *
a. Yes
b. No


3. Would you be concerned about taking probiotics containing genetically modified organisms? *
a. Yes
b. No



Once again, thank you for taking time to help us to fill in the survey!

Results

The details of result is shown in “Human Practice-Survey”.