Team:SIS Korea/Collaborations
In June, we got an opportunity to do a meetup with team KOREA and Korea_HS. Team Korea_HS’s goal is to help Alzheimer’s patients by creating an antibody that was able to attach to non-cell surface receptors. They attached Cell-penetrating peptide(CPP) to the N-terminus of scFv(CPP-scFv(P5)), an example of a “hyperstable” antibody that reduces environmental constraints, to design a version of hyperstable scFv(P5) that can penetrate the cell membrane. Team KOREA’s goal is to develop a treatment for Parkinson's disease utilizing optogenetics without the side effects of the existing methods. They fused proteins containing DRD2 and opsin to trigger the nigrostriatal pathway and increase dopamine signalling in the patient’s brain. Sitting in a circle, we exchanged feedback on all of our presentations and projects to further strengthen our case. Team KOREA was wondering about how to spread awareness of their project at school. We advised them to go to their biology teacher, or their team instructor and ask the teacher to allow them to display their achievements in the school’s bulletin or in his or her classroom. This way, people will be intrigued to learn about the crisis that they were combatting and at least become aware of the problem. Team Korea_HS was asking about fundraising methods to earn money for their project. Team KOREA offered the use of online websites like GoFundMe and we offered them options like fundraising on the streets or holding raffle events at school. Our collaboration efforts continued after the meet-up with us maintaining contact with them and asking them about their progress. This team was also new to the competition and it was helpful for us to start figuring things out with them together.
In October, we got another wonderful opportunity to collaborate with a Korean team. This time, we approached KUAS, the only Korean collegiate team, who thankfully was happy to help us understand the competition better. KUAS had been participating in iGEM for many years and gave us great advice to think of when preparing for our first attempt at iGEM.
Most of our collaboration happened online, with us asking questions on what different categories of the jamboree were like and what we had to prepare. For instance, due to our inexperience about the jamboree itself, we asked KUAS about what happens in the days of the presentations. They told us to focus more on the human practices parts of our project (rather than the biology part) as the focus of the competition is more on creating a better world with our project, not just the development of great new innovations. Thus, with this viewpoint in mind, we were able to shift our focus from studying the biology behind PETase to what we can really do with our product, and how helpful it is going to be to wasteful Korea.
Furthermore, KUAS advised us to think more about the potential questions from judges rather than just to focus on the 15-minute presentation. We were worried that the judges will ask deeply biological questions, but apparently, they are more keen to know about our human practices part rather than the technical aspects of our project. This, again, helped us shift our attention to collaborations and campaigns, which we tended to overlook slightly.
KUAS was super helpful and kind, answering even our smallest worries and reassuring us that the jamboree was not as daunting as it sounds. In conclusion, this collaboration was very successful as it helped us grasp a better idea of what to expect during the jamboree, and learn how an experienced team gets ready for the competition.
Professor Ching Tack Han and her branch helped us greatly with the start of our lab and project. They have taught us a lot about cloning and such laboratory procedures. Especially when we were facing hardships with our project, they have helped us find the best and most efficient method to resolve the issue. We are greatly thankful to Sogang University for giving us such a chance.
We worked with KAIST University researchers in the Environmental Management Research Laboratory in order to further gain knowledge on the environmental impacts our experiment
could lead to. We give special thanks to Eun Lak Kim, who helped us stay in contact and gave us strong feedback regarding our works.
From Incheon National University, professor Yeong Don Park and his research team helped us greatly. Their research team, in the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering, helped us greatly when it came to our analysis of our experiment and the utilization of Scanning Electron Microscopes(SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy(AFM). These two technologies helped us analyze exactly how much PET was able to be degraded.
In the midst of June, we met up with fellow Korean high school teams, namely Korea_HS and Team KOREA. During this meeting, each team presented the progress of their respective projects and their future plans regarding both biology and human practice. At the end of each presentation, the teams stated their specific points of trouble in their developmental process.
After each team’s presentation, we all sat together in a circle and asked questions and gave suggestions as to how to solve those points of trouble based on their own experiences or improve the quality of the project in various ways such as ways to increase its usefulness in real life. This widened our perspective on our project and also helped us in the development of the prototype that would begin later in our project.
We found the projects of the other teams fascinating. For example, Team KOREA worked on a fusion protein using light signals that would help reduce the side-effects of heavy drug treatment on Alzheimer’s patients, which we found as an interesting and unique way to combat the harms indirectly brought by one of the most prevalent diseases today.
As we were all first-time participants, we found the meeting very helpful and informational. Not only did we receive constructive feedback, but also a clearer idea of the requirements of the competition.
Collaborations
Other iGEM Teams
KOREA Team Meetup– Team KOREA and Korea_HS
KUAS Korea
Universities
Sogang University Department of Life Science
KAIST
Incheon University
The Meetup:
