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From 2014.igem.org

Newsletter

Introduction

Inter-team communication is beneficial for each participant to catch up with valuable information and further improve the iGEM project according to advice from other teams. It is popular to use social websites or forums as a platform of inter-team communication. This year, XMU-China team (From Xiamen University) started a project named Newsletter, which aims to provide a series of online pamphlets that is regularly updated with communication letters from teams around the world. SYSU-China also participates in the Newsletter (see Fig-1).

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<p1> Left: the Front page of Newsletter electronic pamphlet, designed and issued by XMU-CHINA, the iGEM team from Xiamen University, China. Right: the front page of SYSU-China team in Newsletter issue-3. </p1>

The Newsletter mainly contains two sections: an introduction to the team’s current project and new things of fun about the team. Thus, all teams have a chance to get close to one another, and then create more opportunity for iGEM work. As participants of Newsletter, we introduced our team and project, shared our fun in daily life, and keep refreshing experiment progress.

SYSU-China in Newsletter – Special contribution

We are lucky and glad to have a chance to provide further help for XMU-China, which includes: iGEM judging form assistance and the interview for special issue, as one of the most active teams participating in Newsletter.

1. iGEM judging form assistance

We are glad to assist XMU-China team in releasing the survey questionnaire about individual evaluation on official iGEM judging questions. After we received their request for official judging form information, we shared with them our previous feedback form which includes the questions they need, and we sincerely hope that our material can help them conduct the survey among all teams.

As the result shown in their special issue-1, the survey was successfully conducted and reliable data was obtained. It seems that the question list did help them in better understanding the current official judging form, and we believe this work is useful to improve the scoring system of iGEM competition.

2. The interview with the glorious team: SYSU-China in 2013

The previous honor in 2013 of SYSU-China is an exhilarating memory, and their experience is interesting and inspiring not only for us, but perhaps all teams. In the Newsletter No.5, XMU-China interviewed the two previous leader and wiki designer of SYSU-China in 2013, who took the team to the finalist and get 2nd Runner Up and best wiki.

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<p1> Up-left: Mengyi Sun, one of the previous captains, is giving a lecture; up-right, Yuchen Zhao, one of the previous leader, is perhaps having dinner; down: the home page of SYSU-China wiki last year. </p1>

To some degree, there is a consensus in every team that team-construction is a one of the key points (even maybe most important) to achieve great success in iGEM. Accordingly, XMU-China Designed several questions for Mengyi Sun (see Fig-2), the previous captain, which focus on member selection, team difficulty, and work efficiency.

The Answer, not unexpected for us, is simple but clear: interest of science of synthetic biology and enthusiasm on experimental work lay the foundation of success. Based on such gist, we believe that the member selection (if there is a selection for your school) might first consider whether this person is willing to contribute to the project with interest and enthusiasm, rather than skill and knowledge background. If most members are intrinsically engaged in the project, other problems will not be critical.

To our great surprise, the interview also invited Yuchen Zhao (see Fig-2), another previous captain, who wrote an open letter for current SYSU-China in Newsletter No.5, additional memoir. The letter recalled the memories we went through, and we were still somehow moved deeply by her words, even though one year was past and the team was brand-new.

Additionally, XMU-China released the readme of one of our previous wiki designers, whose brilliant work got Best Wiki last year. They optimized cute-but-simple style and created a clear and attractive wiki, which significantly helped us explicit our work. We hope this self-introduction will help you with some inspiration.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to XMU-China for their effort on this platform of inter-team communication.