Team:AHUT China/Human Practices Inte
Integrated Human Practice
A Visit to Ma'anshan Shifan Primary School
We are a team that wants to change the world, and it was necessary to expand our influence. But, when a student surprising about the relationship between environmental issues and carbon dioxide, we realized that even the students around us knew too little about the thing that we wanted to do. We try best to make students understand that bioengineering is fundamental.
Thus，we decide to go to primary school to promote our project. We asked the students some questions: the first question was the most controversial, with half saying carbon dioxide and half saying ozone. Finally, we showed them the correct answers to all the questions, which helped them better understand what we were talking about.
This activity let kids know IGEM, know carbon dioxide.Primary school students represent a future farther than us, we can let our influence continue.
Headline:"Infrared can make carbon dioxide concentration measure more accurately"
Dr. Wang Shuangshou received his Ph.D. from Nanjing University in 2015, with rich analytical chemistry knowledge and experimental experience. He also has a strong interest and love in biology and analytical chemistry.
When we had trouble finding out how to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in the gas, Dr. Wang Shuangshou came to help us. Most gases are homogeneous mixtures with complex compositions. At the same time, the concentration of carbon dioxide in water is very low and unstable, and the error is very large. So we do not know how to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in the gas. We want to find a more accurate way to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in the gas. When we consulted with Dr. Wang Shuangshou on this issue, he suggested that we use the infrared spectrum to conduct a quantitative analysis of gas, and gave us an example of the carbon dioxide infrared probe in the cell room, which can accurately measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in gas.
For carbon dioxide under infrared light, the theoretical four absorption peaks are infrared inactive vibration and degeneracy, because the change value of dipole moment is equal to zero. In fact, there are only two fundamental frequency peaks 2350 cm-1and 666 cm-1 in the spectrum.
Outreach with a steel factory in Ma'anshan
When our team is considering the industrial process of project industrialization, we found out that the statistics from the website was too old. Since improving the current situation and reduce pollution is our main goal, we decided to visit an actual factory to see whether our plan would work. And the reason we chose this Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd to visit is because of this factory has a lot of harmful exhaust every day
After asking back and forth again, we got contact with Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. We interviewed a researcher.
After communicating with the relevant researcher, I learned that this is mainly sulfide and other harmful gases. At the same time, the amount of emissions per hour is huge.
The researchers told me that they still use the factory sintering flue gas method to remove sulfur, which is time-consuming and expensive, but it is the least harmful method to the environment. After listening, I cannot help but sigh that China, as a country with rapid development in industrialization, can consider environmental protection as an important indicator while developing its economy and production, which reflect the country's high attention to the ecological environment and the concept of sustainable development. In communication with staff, we also explained our thoughts about using CA2. The factory technical personnel thought the idea is good, and the method will sure to reduce environmental pollution, but he reminded us of the complexity of the actual production process and the problem of the high cost. I get to know that researchers need to think about many actual problems when they want to use a certain method in manufacturing, which is very different from the production process in the lab. All production and management should serve for the sustainable development of the human ecological environment, rather than simply pursue the maximization of profits of the enterprise.
This means that we have considered the need of the society. we hope that our research can focus on the specific problem and make the product can deal with it. And the feedback factory gave also guided our project in a clear way.
The factory was located in a small village near Ma'anshan, so it took us a bit of time to get there.
During the tour of the factory, we saw different machines. We then realized how hard it was to make an industrialized process able to be applied to the practical market. To achieve our goal, we still need to improve the efficiency and conduct multiple experiments to test the validity.
After hearing about our iGEM project, he expressed great interest in our experiment and invited us to conduct a series of tests in their laboratory in order to obtain valid data to test the feasibility of the experiment.
The end result was also surprising. Our experiment has some advantages over the original method in many indexes.
We feel more confident in our project. Also, we realized how hard it is to change the process. We need to combine our result in the current situation to make it useful for the actual practice.
An experiment--collaborate with OUC
Solving the problem of modularization of riboswitches, the team of OUC proposed the theory of modular riboswitches. They use the "Stabilizer" to stabilize the structure of the riboswitch and use the "tunner" to insulate Stabilizer and GOI and allow for predictable tuning.
To test the feasibility of the OUC team's modular ribose switch in practical use, they needed to express it in different experimental environments to explore the stability of the structure.
So we were delighted to work with the ocean university of China to help test whether their project could be equally successful in different laboratories.
The team of the ocean university of China sent their samples to us, and we carried out specific operations by referring to their experimental methods. Finally, we fed back our experimental results to help them perfect the project.
An interesting experiment program
We created an experimental program for people who are interested in spreading the project beyond our peers and team members, in order to reach out to a greater community. Our goal was to increase the knowledge about iGEM Stockholm in general, to make it easier for future teams to establish a better relationship with the universities in Ma'anshan.
Some students who took part in the experiment sighed: "I can't believe that the biological experiment is so interesting, but it took so long time to keep it in a thermostat." Others say, "the bacteria under the microscope are really bright."
We thought the experiment program to be a win-win situation - people interested in the project get a greater insight into what it means to be an iGEMer, while we build a greater foundation and platform for the iGEM AHUT teams to build on. We got great inputs from the iGEM experiment, which proved to be very helpful when building our presentation.
Using the software to provide--collaborate with UP
While browsing the iGEM website, we found information about University Potsdam, the University of Germany seeking cooperation. We are very happy, because the content of this cooperation fits our project well, and it is all about the research of thermal stability. After many email exchanges between the principals of both sides, we have established a friendly cooperative relationship.
We sent the protein sequence of wild carbonic anhydrase in the project, and then they used their software to provide a series of high-temperature-resistant mutation sites and predict the temperature.
We are very grateful to University Potsdam for providing us with so many mutation sites as a reference for project experiments. However, unfortunately, due to the late establishment of the cooperation, we have many tasks in the later stage, so we can not spare more time to carry out the relevant experiments of these mutation sites. So they didn't get much data.
It must be said that this is a great pity.
Our vision of a synthetic biology lab---collaborate with OUC
We discovered the cooperation of synthetic biology laboratories published by the OUC team on the iGEM website. The team members agreed that this was a good chance, so we got in touch with the OUC team.
We looked up a lot of information about synthetic biology laboratories so that we could summarize the experimental equipment that we could recommend to them. We also mapped out a simple layout of the lab, a little bit simple, but a good expression of our idea of the lab.
At 8:00 PM on July 24th, we officially conducted a video conference with the University of OUC. At the meeting we gave a detailed account of our vision of the laboratory and had a friendly discussion with the other party.
A cartoon about e. coli--collaborate with OUC
As the only major related to biology in our school, in order to expand the influence of IGEM and attract more people to participate in IGEM competition, our major students popularize the basic knowledge of biology in our school every year. The Ocean University of China recently Shared a cartoon about e. coli. We take this opportunity to cooperate with the association for scientific innovation to carry out this comic book publicity activities.
Attending meeting:iGEM Shanghai China Regional Conference 2019
Being at the beginning of our journey, we felt overwhelmed by how many directions our project could take. Therefore, we jumped on any opportunity to get some more insight into different mindsets and strategies to make a successful project and product. iGEM Shanghai China Regional Conference 2019, an event where students can meet different organizations, was a splendid opportunity to listen to people from different parts of the biology field. It gave us the opportunity to mingle with both students and professionals, but also to discuss what the world is lacking that we could bring to the world through iGEM AHUT.
complete the questionnaire
Our communication with the students in the school shows that they are not sensitive to the common sense of the environment and know little about IGEM. At the same time, we introduced the competition to the students who did not know about it, which increased the exposure rate and popularity of IGEM in the school.
"Cherishing our only home on earth"
Nowadays, the beautiful sky gradually disappears.
We want to appeal to the students to find out the beautiful sky. Through the WeChat official account, we released an activity about "shoot the blue sky and white clouds around us ", and got a warm response.
We publicize from WeChat official account, QZone and Twitter
To better promote, we publicize simultaneously from the WeChat official account, QZone, and Twitter.
We regularly push the experimental process on the WeChat official account and Twitter.
In QZone, we released the latest activities.
We carry on the propaganda through these three aspects, thus making our overall propaganda effectively achieve the goal.
Monthly Meetings
Background: Each team's project in IGEM is not perfect at the start.In order to make the project perfect and make the team members cooperate with each other more and more smoothly,each team holds the team meeting to discuss again and again. So it is important for us to hold meetings to make some discussions. The members of the IGEM in our college held a conference every week to discuss how to solve our current problems and how to do next.
Our members of iGEM keep the habit of discussing at meetings once a month since January.
January
the conference included that :
- The basic knowledge of biological brick.
- The main function of carbonic anhydrase in our project;
- We arranged the mission about HP and Collaboration.
Through this meeting, we knew that it was helpful for the experimental group to design and transform the biobricks in the later stage. And some other works were arranged so that we can be prepared for the following assignments.
February
the conference included that:
- The experimental group summarized the basic professional knowledge related to the competition
- We initially summarized the schemes of HP and collaboration. The experimental group needs to understand the basic knowledge of genetic engineering.
- Interpretation of the standards of the Medal.
Through the discussion in this meeting, we have listed the ways of expert discussion and external communication for the activities of HP and collaboration. Meanwhile, the members of the experimental group are planned to start the research of Interlab, and some members decided to participate in CCIC held in Shanghai during the summer vacation.
March
the conference included that :
- We should complete the preliminary research of Interlab: We need to test the device which is in the DNA KIT needs to be sent to the United States, and GFP fluorescent protein expression may be required.
- The members of the group of HP and Collaboration gives us some feedback on opinions of relevant government officials of the municipal environmental protection bureau.
- Our instructors tell the students who decide to go to the United States to fill out forms of DS160.
Through the discussion in this meeting, we planned to complete the test report of Biobrick and submit the Excel data form before the registration time of Interlab on July 9 (as of September 29). Meanwhile, the members of the group of the webpage should begin to design wiki pages and other related content.
April
the conference included that :
- The group of the HP and Collaboration should continue to work on related activities.
- We plan to go to primary school, teach students and answer their questions.
- We had a discussion with our teacher about the project.
Through the discussion in this meeting, we asked the experimental group to conduct detailed research on Interlab in the next stage. Meanwhile, the members of the group of HP and collabarbitration need to investigate the previous Collaboration projects and make a summary.
May
Microbiological experiment:
The Interlab research of the experimental group was completed, and the instructor should plan for the following projects. The members of the group of HP and Collaboration had completed the research of the collaboration. Through the discussion in this meeting, we planned to continue to improve the website design of the wiki in the next stage, and the website design needs to conform to the theme of this year. Meanwhile, the experimental group should pay attention to collecting some relevant experimental pictures used on the wiki when conducting experiments.
July
the conference included that:
- Design our laboratory
- We cooperated with Universitat Potsdam,Germany University.
- The experimental group completed the uploading of Interlab experiments and records.
- The Logo production is completed by the group of art layout.
Through this meeting, we planned to meet the requirements of IGEM gold award for the next phase of the experimental .Two different wiki designs should be prepared for the web page team.Through cooperating, our team members had a high degree of tacit understanding, and the atmosphere of the discussion became more and more lively.
August
the conference included that:
- improve the collaboration with OUC.
- improve the loge.
Through this meeting,two different loge designs should be prepared for the web page team.
September
the conference included that:
- The experimental group planed to complete our part.
- We revoted on the wiki design.
Through this meeting, we planned to meet the requirements of iGEM gold award for the next phase of the experimental.
October
Through this meeting, we planned to recheck our experiment, logo, and web page.
Conclusion:
Our IGEM team of Anhui University of Technology discussed and solved various problems in the progress of our project through conferences. And our final project has been improved; the members have more and more trust in each other. The conference is still going on, and our story is still going on. We believe that iGEM team will be able to achieve success in this year's competition.
Our vision of a synthetic biology lab
We discovered the cooperation of synthetic biology laboratories published by the OUC team on the iGEM website. The team members agreed that this was a good chance, so we got in touch with the OUC team.
we looked up a lot of information about synthetic biology laboratories so that we could summarize the experimental equipment that we could recommend to them. We also mapped out a simple layout of the lab, a little bit simple, but a good expression of our idea of the lab.
At 8:00 PM on July 24th, we officially conducted a videoconference with the University of OUC. At the meeting, we gave a detailed account of our vision of the laboratory and had a friendly discussion with the other party.