Team:Tsinghua/Integrated
Human Practices
Integrated HP
A Multilateral iGEM Forum at BIT
Chinese schools have fine tradition of participating in iGEM with great interest in genetically engineered machines and synthetic biology. The number of teams from mainland China has reached 57 in 2018, many top universities and high schools included. Involved in a renowned competition which emphasizes team work and cooperation, 2019 iGEMers in Beijing reached an agreement that communication were supposed to be enhanced among different teams, as we could realize the win-win situation with the suggestions and help of our competitors. Amazingly, Eight iGEM 2019 teams in total took part in the multilateral forum held on August 6th in Beijing Institute of Technology，including Peking University, Tsinghua, Tsinghua-A, BIT-China, OUC-China, CAU-China, BNU-China, UCAS-China.
Spark Talk on Photo-activated phase separation
Spark Talk is one of the most welcomed student forums in Tsinghua as a regular event held by School Science and Technology Innovation Association, It has been providing a cross-disciplinary platform through sharing and communication of students passionate on scientific study. Xinghuo class students are selected from undergraduate sophomores to build a platform for interdisciplinary and peerrecognized learning and development for students with academic interests and academic potential, so that students can continuously establish lofty ideals, open up their ideological horizons and strengthen their horizons. It is also a daily activities of Xinghuo Plan, Tsinghua University Student Innovative Talents Training Program, which are made up of the most intelligent and promising research stars of undergraduate. Here, students from different professional backgrounds exchange ideas and inspire the innovative spark on scientific researches of each other.
The 6th CCiC hosted by SUSTech
The 6th CCiC Conference, organized by Shenzhen Synthetic Biology Association, was held in 2019 from August 19th to August 23rd at Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenzhen, CCiC is a synthetic biology event initiated by the iGEM teams in China and has been held for five sessions, efficiently provided communication and interaction for more than 200 teams and more than 2,000 participants. Three of our team members took part, presented and learned from other teams. This synthetic biological academic conference forum lasted for 4 day and as many as 70 teams shared their innovative ideas and ongoing experiments. We introduced our phase separate project in the way of poster presentation.
Questionnaire
Overview
Despite we have our own iGEM experimental plan, it’s of great importance to learn from others and know more potential strategies when coming across difficulties. It’s also an essential part of our integrated human practice to see how much ordinary people know about ‘photo-induced’ and ‘phase separation’. At the beginning we gave over our questionnaires to visitors at CSTM. One step further, this questionnaire is designed to investigate the understanding of people with biological background on light control and phase separation. The first version aims at people or students have some knowledge of biology and the questions are more general. With the results from 184 participants, we revised it to 2.0 in order to brainstorm and to collect suggestions from lab difficulties more specifically. We have got 11 effective responses from more professional people. And this information has helped us better our experimental process and advance the research horizons with new possible approaches.
1. Please choose your highest education level?
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high school or lower education level
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bachelor degree
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master degree
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PhD, Doctoral degree
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postodoctoral
In 1.0 we asked about the educational level of our participants and here’s our result. But it’s not so necessary to focus on that our ‘professional advisors’ from 2.0 so we only collect their major information as it’s in Graph 2, which shows strong background in synthetic and cell biology and ensures the effectiveness of their suggestions.
2. What's your major?
3. Have you heard or understood the following light sciences in life sciences and related fields?
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Selective illumination of light
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Light shear (light trigger)
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Light-controlled material
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Light-controlled gene
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Others (please fill in the blank)
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Not sure/no idea
The 2.0 version makes this question more specific by supplementing a choice, that is ‘Light controlled genes from others’ in 1.0. And here’s our multi-choice questions percentage calculation method—1. Multi-choice question option percentage = the number of times the option is selected, the number of valid answer sheets; 2. The meaning is the proportion of the number of people who choose this option in all the number of people filled in.Therefore, the percentage of multiple-choice questions may exceed one hundred percent. For example: 10 of them filled out a multiple-choice question, of which 6 chose A, 5 chose B, and 3 chose C. Then the ratio of selecting A is 60%, the choice of B is 50%, and the choice of C is 30%. The three percentages add up to 140%. As it shows in the 2 charts, more participants of 2.0 know better of light sciences and more related fields to it.
4. Have you heard or understood the concept of phase separation in life sciences and related fields?
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Forming "order" by accumulating specific molecules in cell compartments by phase separation
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Protein particles formed by phase separation are associated with specific diseases
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Phase separation can sense environmental stimuli and protect cells
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Others (please fill in the blank)
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Not sure/no idea
The 2.0 version makes this question more specific by supplementing a choice, that is ‘Phase separation and enrichment of transcription of factors’ s from others’ in 1.0. As it shows in the 2 charts, more participants of 2.0 know better of phase separation and more related fields to it.(the same multi-choice questions percentage calculation method）More professional people know of each aspect of one field in a more average way.
we made the following question to a sorting question to fill in the numbers in square brackets to make the most possible solution to stand out. We also asked them to briefly describe the reasons for their ranking. The average composite score of the sorting questions is automatically calculated by the questionnaire star system according to the ranking of all the candidates' options. It reflects the comprehensive ranking of the options. The higher the score, the higher the overall ranking. The calculation method is: option average comprehensive score = (Σ frequency × weight) / fill in the number of questions. The weight is determined by where the options are arranged.
5. Based on your understanding or experience, what do you think are the experimental difficulties in light control?
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Low orthogonality caused by cross color
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Different response efficiencies to illumination because of different systems themselves
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Light leak
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The accuracy of light regulation in a particular area
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Others (please fill in the blank)
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Not sure/no idea
The comparative result is that different response efficiencies to illumination because of different systems themselves the accuracy of light regulation in a particular area will be the biggest two problems. And the degree of other experimental difficulties is listed as that in 2.0.
6. What systems do you think phase separation of light control can be applied for
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Increase cell local area enzyme concentration
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Study the unique properties of molecules in the phase
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Regulate cellular activities and intracellular structures
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Others (please fill in the blank)
The results are similar in 1.0 and 2.0. All of the enzymes listed are likely to take advantage of the ability to increase the intracellular local enzyme concentration in a corresponding phase under light control.
7. If we achieve the ability to increase the intracellular local enzyme concentration in a corresponding phase under light control, what rate of reaction do you think can be used for this reaction?
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Luciferase
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Pigmentolytic enzyme
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Fat hydrolyzing enzyme
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Others (please fill in the blank)
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Not sure/no idea
The results are similar in 1.0 and 2.0. All of the enzymes listed are likely to take advantage of the ability to increase the intracellular local enzyme concentration in a corresponding phase under light control.Beyond the normal questions, we also set two similar obstacles we came across in the experiments as the mode situation to see how these professional would tackle them. In 2.0， we made the two be two sorting questions to fill in the numbers in square brackets.
To make the most possible solution to stand out. We also asked them to briefly describe the reasons for their ranking. The average composite score of the sorting questions is automatically calculated by the questionnaire star system according to the ranking of all the candidates' options. It reflects the comprehensive ranking of the options. The higher the score, the higher the overall ranking. The calculation method is: option average comprehensive score = (Σ frequency × weight) / fill in the number of questions.
The weight is determined by where the options are arranged. For example, there are 3 options to participate in sorting, the rank has a weight of 3 in the first position, the second position has a weight of 2, and the third position has a weight of 1.
8. Suppose you have encountered the following problem in experiments with light-controlled phase separation: proteins have been redistributed into different phases without light induction. The expected effect is that the protein enters the phase only after increasing the light-protein binding constant by light induction. In what order would you choose to try to respond?
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Look for possible light leaks and improve light protection
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Adjust the inducible factor or its concentration to change the concentration of different phase separation proteins
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Find components that require a higher threshold to be induced
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Others (please fill in the blank)
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Not sure/no idea
The result demonstrates that when the phase separation system still does not show the expected effect(no redistribution of final proteins) after the induction, adjusting the inducible factor or its concentration to change the concentration of different phase separation proteins is probably the most worth trying method, though there is no big difference among other solutions in 1.0.
9. Suppose you have encountered the following problem in the experiment of photo-controlled phase separation: after the induction, the phase separation system still does not show the expected effect, that is, the final protein is not redistributed; will you choose one or the following ways to try?
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Prolong light induction time
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Increase the density of light induction
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Adjust the concentration of the inducing factor to change the concentration of different phase separation proteins
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Replace phase separation components and try other phase-separable proteins
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Others (please fill in the blank)
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Not sure/no idea
The result demonstrates that when the phase separation system still does not show the expected effect(no redistribution of final proteins) after the induction, increasing the density of light induction is probably the most worth trying method, though there is a tiny gap between it and adjusting the concentration of the inducing factor to change the concentration of different phase separation proteins in 1.0.
