Team:NYMU-Taipei/Collaborations

This year, NYMU-Taipei 2017 has been devoted to collaborating with worldwide iGEM teams; oversea universities includes Team KU Leuven from Belgium, Team Tokyo Tech and Team KAIT from Japan, Taiwanese universities includes Chung Shan Medical University (CSMU_NCHU_Taiwan), Chang Gung University (CGU_Taiwan), and Chung Cheng University (CCU_Taiwan), and high schools includes Taipei American School and Wego Bilingual High School. To broaden our horizons and exchange synthetic biology knowledge with each other, we not only communicate with oversea iGEM teams but also provide lots of experimental help to local iGEM teams.
In Taiwan, we connected with several local universities as well. NYMU-Taipei this year helped both Chung Shan Medical University (CSMU_NCHU_Taiwan) and Chung Cheng University (CCU_Taiwan) form their iGEM team through the internet connection. We also taught Chung Cheng University (CCU_Taiwan) how to run Fusion PCR through the webcam. In the collaboration with CCU_Taiwan, we not only taught them the principle of Fusion PCR but also shared our experience with them and reminded them some precautions while running Fusion PCR. Lastly, we sent our experiment protocol as a reference for them. This year, NYMU-Taipei also had collaboration with Chang Gung University (CGU_Taiwan). In July, we attended the Taiwan iGEM Conference held by Chang Gung University (CGU_Taiwan). This was the first iGEM conference we attended and was the first time we presented our project to other iGEM teams as well, which was a milestone for NYMU-Taipei and we all enjoyed the time spent with other Taiwan iGEM teams.

Besides universities, NYMU-Taipei also collaborated with senior high schools, including Taipei American School and Wego Bilingual High School. Because one of our team members comes from Wego Bilingual High School and two of our team members come from Taipei American School, they help us build long-term relationship and collaboration with their high schools. For instance, Taipei American School this year helped us with suicide mechanism functional test. To test whether our suicide mechanism is reliable, they measured the growth curve of Escherichia coli DH5α adding the shuttle vector with Holin-Endolysin-NrtA system which is lactose inducible. Their functional test results make us more certain that our suicide mechanism is reliable, which means that our project is responsible and without biosafety concern. Moreover, we also taught Taipei American School how to conduct site-directed mutagenesis as well as assay biofilm production, which is also a great progress to their project.

In collaboration with oversea iGEM teams, one of our team members visited Team Tokyo Tech and Team KAIT in Japan. We held a modeled presentation, and they gave us some constructive suggestions in our presentation and tried to improve some parts of our project that might be challenged in Giant Jamboree. We also paid a visit to their lab so that we can have a deeper understanding of each other’s project. Most important of all, in 2009, Team Tokyo Tech made Melanin possible to express in Escherichia coli. As a result, they gave us lots of useful experiment advice of how to produce Melanin in Escherichia.coli, which inspired us the idea to express black pigment in our microalgae. In collaboration with Team KU Leuven, we participated in a worldwide iGEM translation project, which is comprised of several teams worldwide to reach the consensus of making the spread of synthetic biology knowledge without a language barrier. Team KU Leuven from Belgium invited us as one of the members and we were responsible for Traditional Chinese translation. In this collaboration, our team project was translated into different languages, including Russian, German, French, etc.

Last but not least, in August, NYMU-Taipei participated in Asia Pacific Conference, which is one of the largest activities for iGEMers in Asia. iGEM teams from all over the Asia came to this conference, so we have opportunities to meet around 25 iGEM teams from Taiwan, China, Japan, and the US. Asia Pacific Conference was just like a modeled Giant Jamboree, which gave us chances to practice and learn how to present our project better. After this four-day event, we learned a lot from these Asia iGEM teams and knew that we still have much room for improvement in our presentation skills and poster design.

Chung Cheng University

In 2016, NYMU-Taipei team helped students from National Chung Cheng University to form their iGEM team. Excitingly, they are going to participate iGEM competition this year as team name “CCU_Taiwan”. In 2017, we showed them how the Photo-Bioreactor functions, taught them how to run Fusion PCR through webcam, and informed them some team operations and matters. During the 2017 iGEM Taiwan Conference and the 5th Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference, we discussed on projects and gave both teams some useful suggestions to make both of us improve to be better. We are happy to have communication with CCU-iGEM team, and look forward to their results this year at Giant Jamboree.

National Tsing Hua Universitya

After the 5th Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference, NYMU team had a chance to contact the primary instructor of NTHU team, Dr. Ya-Tang Yang, and his laboratory students. Dr. Yang is the associate professor of Institute of Electronics Engineering, National Tsing Hua University. They provided us with a set of Photo-Bioreactor made by themselves and taught us how to use the Photo-Bioreactor. During August to September, we discussed with Dr. Yang and his lab students, trying to fix some difficulties we encountered.
After the Photo-Bioreactor finally worked smoothly, we started to measure the OD value of microalgae we cultivated, collected huge amounts of data, and drew growth curves for our projects. Meanwhile, we shared collated data to Dr. Yang’s lab for research use. We believe this collaboration would be a great academic exchange and produce some interesting results.

_{Dr. Ya-Tang Yang, NYMU team member with Dr. Yang’s lab}

_{The growth curve of Chlorella vulgaris as well as Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942}

Chang Gung University(Wego Education)

As part of the presentation we brought forth to Wego Bilingual High School, "we invited National Chang Gung University to collaborate with us. This presentation includes the introduction to synthetic biology, the process of developing, researching, and expanding on a research topic for iGEM in hopes of inspiring them to create their own team in the upcoming year. In addition to presenting our own topic and past projects of NYMU, we also collaborated with NCGU so that, through their presentation, the students would receive further insights in the understanding of how a research team and project come together. Our presenters started the event off with basic components of synthetic biology and iGEM; the NCGU iGEM team then followed up by focusing on the term “entropy” and, after a series of interactive questions with the student body, brought in their project idea of the de-inking paper. We believe that this collaboration was a success in not only the education of high school kids but also such that the two teams were able to learn more from each other.

Chung Shan Medical University

In March 2017, thanks to the introduction of medical students in our school, we contacted the students from Chung Shan Medical University and National Chung Hsing University. These students are going to establish a joint team called “CSMU_NCHU_Taiwan”, and participate in the iGEM competition this year. They ask our teacher, Prof. Chang, and our team for some advice about forming an iGEM team, and how to integrate a project. We communicated through webcam, and we also explained and reminded them some competition rules. During the 2017 iGEM Taiwan Conference and the 5th Asia-Pacific iGEM Conference, there were great opportunities to exchange both team projects and gave practical suggestions for improvement. We highly look forward to their project and results in Giant Jamboree in November, and are honored to participate in the growth of a new team.

TAS_Taipei

Taipei American School collaborated with us by assisting our characterization of shuttle vector with Holin- Endolysin- NrtA system (BBa_K2350021), and measurements of growth curve with Escherichia coli DH5α, by adding lactose to induce kill-switch, in order to determine whether the suicide system works. With their assistance, we verified that concentration of E.coli significantly decrease after kill-switch functioned in different lactose concentrations.

_{Figure 1 TAS_Taipei independently tested the function of our lactose-induced kill-switch system. In different concentrations (0-250 mM) of lactose, it induced decreasing on bacteria population.}

We have also shown mutual friendship for our long-lasting relationship by teaching them how to conduct site-directed mutagenesis as well as assay biofilm production. Also, two TAS students, Catherine Chang and Leona Tsai, are also NYMU team members. This year, they help us communicate with team TAS_Taipei, finish public outreach for Human Practice, and present our project at the 5th Annual Asia Pacific Conference and the Giant Jamboree.

Link: Safety

IGEM Tokyo Tech

In August, one of our team members paid a visit to Tokyo Institute of Technology for the purpose of searching for team collaboration and friendship with IGEM Tokyo Tech. We sincerely appreciate the warm welcome and excellent reception from all members of IGEM Tokyo Tech. We exchanged information of our idea of IGEM, current work of our projects and future potential collaboration. We held a modeled presentation, provided a constructive suggestion for one another and tried to improve some parts of our projects that might be challenged in Jamboree. Their project this year is about constructing a new co-culturing system across bacteria, plant cells, and animal cells through the signal molecule.
In 2009, team Tokyo Tech focused on the topic of Terraforming of Mars. An elaborately described method of creating blackened Escherichia coli was displayed on its wiki. After consulting IGEM Tokyo Tech and delving into their project, we intended to construct a plasmid containing Melanin sequence and further transform the plasmid into microalgae. Apart from in 2012 distribution kit was used, which was submitted by IGEM Tokyo Tech in 2009, when constructing Melanin plasmid. We sincerely appreciate the help from team Tokyo Tech for consulting and discussion.

KAIT Japan

In August, one of our team members paid a visit to Kanagawa Institute of Technology in pursuit of team collaboration and friendship. We exchanged ideas of IGEM, team current work of our projects and future potential collaboration.We also held a modeled presentation for the purpose of both enhancing our presentation skills and figure out ambiguous parts in our project, which might be challenged in Giant Jamboree. Their project this year is about solving allergic system problem, which really inspired our team in many aspects.

Pakistan: Team Peshawar

Belgium: Team KU Leuven

We sincerely appreciate the invitation from team KU Leuven in Belgium for team collaboration. Due to language hurdle, the spread of synthetic biology and the communication of each teams’ projects have encountered hindrance. Therefore, we decided to translate each teams’ project description into their native language respectively. This translation project is comprised of several teams worldwide with different languages. We are honorably served as one of the members of it and responsible for Traditional Chinese. Through this multilateral collaboration, we have learned many aspects of synthetic biology and combined them with our education human practice.

iGEM Franconia

We noticed an interesting collaboration request on iGEM Community/ Collaboration page and decided to communicate with the Franconia team. NYMU team got this amazing opportunity to collaborate with iGEM teams around the globe by designing and finishing the translation of the biological themed card (whose idea originated from Franconia team) into universal languages. The biological themed card is a card game where the basic deck contains cards that can be pathogens, cures, preventatives, or anything that influences human health. Since the NYMU team has specialists in the field of medicine, we collaborated with team Franconia and other iGEM teams to help the iGEM community translate the biological themed card into traditional Chinese.
We believe that this cooperation is significantly meaningful because not only does this card game raise people’s awareness of pathogens and biosafety issues, but also the translation of the basic deck into universal languages can help the biological themed card itself extended to more areas in the world. We are honored to collaborate with these teams and deeply believe that our translation can make people stay away from anything that negatively impacts their health. The following PDF file is our translation.

Asia Pacific Conference

Later in July, we attended the 5th Annual Asia Pacific Conference held at National Chiao Tung University. During the four-day event, we had the opportunity to meet around 25 iGEM teams – from Taiwan, China, Japan, and the US. The conference began with each team displaying their posters and getting a big picture of what everyone’s project is about. For the following days, each team would each hold a 40-minute presentation session with Q&A time. Through our presentation, our presenters acquired a sense of what the final presentation at Giant Jamboree will be like. Furthermore, during the Q&A session, we received many feedbacks in regards to improvements that could be made -- including the utilization of waste proteins that are produced in the cycle of biofuel. For the rest of the conference we attended others’ presentations; by listening to every team’s progress and obtaining a sense of the field they are researching in, we were able to acknowledge the pros and cons of our own project while seeking for possible collaborations. For example, we were able to establish a partnership with National Chang Gung University -- allowing us to collaborate on the presentation brought forth to Wego Billingual High School. Likewise, we also got to know the members of NTHU_Taiwan; they introduced us to NTHU Professor Yang, who taught us how to use photobioreactor to detect algae growth curve. Still, this conference was extremely valuable not only because we were able to learn from each other, but more importantly due to the fact that we had the privilege to talk and spend time with people of the same interests!

Taiwan Conference

On July 17, 2017, NYMU iGEM attended the Conference Chang Gung University iGEM team held. Teams all around Taiwan attended this conference. It was extremely interesting to meet teams in Taiwan. This was the first iGEM conference NYMU 2017 attended and it was the first time we met with other teams. We were extremely thrilled to be able to share our project with ideas and we were so intrigued by listening to projects from the other teams. We spent the entire day talking to other teams and getting to know their progress. We started off with an icebreaker where teams were forced to describe their project in less than 1 minute. This was a fun icebreaker as it forced members to simplify their projects to the basics. In the afternoon, we presented our project and received feedback from the other teams. There was a close discussion on projects. After the conference ended, we made established friendships with groups that we later met at The Asia Pacific iGEM conference. Furthermore, we were able to brainstorm on possible collaborations in the future by getting a glimpse of what each team's project is about; for instance, we learned that National Chang Gung University shares a similar denitrification mechanism as us, eventually, this led to a successful collaboration between the two iGEM teams. This was an important milestone for NYMU-TAIPEI iGEM team because it was our first contact with the public and, overall, we were exhilarated to meet with other teams and were glad we had the opportunity to listen to other teams’ presentations.