As we had not made final decision on our project, we discussed with Doctor Zhang about it on 2nd April.

Personal profile:

Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. in Integrated Life Sciences (Biology) at Peking University in 2017 and B.A. in Biological Sciences at Peking University in 2012. He presently serves as the chief technology officer (CTO) of Bluepha Co., Ltd., a pioneering synthetic biology startup focused on organism engineering for the production of biopolymer polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and commercialization of SynBio technologies. He has over 14 peer-reviewed publications. He has also instructed many iGEM teams including Team Peking over the past nine years and has won many prizes in the iGEM competition.

Firstly, Dr. Zhang denied Alexln 2 Ceratinase 3 Mitochondria because of the obstacles we cannot overcome. Then he introduced us the current situation in the field and the problems that urgently need to be solving, also he shared his own practical experience. What’s more, he offered us biological database resources and some of contacts when knowing our financial difficulties and resources needs. At last, Dr. Zhang gave us some comprehensive opinions on team management and social skills with teams and various people.

At the second conversation, Dr. Zhang introduced his experience and standards of iGEM item by item, and also provided opinions related to our experimental design. He specially pointed out that we lacked a video that could systematically introduce laboratory biosafety level.

After making the final decision of Melanoma, we communicated with Dr Zhang and simply introduced our theory and experiments. He raised some further questions on various aspects, such as how confident we are to ensure that knocking BRAF can cure Melanoma. What’s more, if we are going to manufacture medication that can be practically used, how we are going to transport it. He also offered us advice on how to prepare the presentation on Jamboree.