Moments recorded by Yizhou Wang & Lanlan Shan
March
Our iGEM project started in March 2023. The first important thing was to tidy up a room! As this was the first time our school had participated in such a competition, everything started from scratch: we swept the floor, installed a set of computers, bought new machines and so on.
April
After the kick-off meetings, we shared our enthusiasm, got to know each other and officially divided our team into 3 groups: Wiki, Experiment, Publicity. And we set our goal: to use genetic engineering to find a way to cure or alleviate peach tree gummosis disease. To achieve our goal, we need to start with the most basic thing-sterile culture. Almost everyone tried it at least once. At the same time, our wiki was structuring.
May
It was May. We added a new group: 3D Printing. They wanted to print a simple fluorometer that would help our work. Our wiki had made great progress! And the sterile plants grew green, and we took care of them. Most of us tried to do DNA extraction from different plants and PCR by using peach gummosis-related SNP primers.
June
With the final exams coming up, our work has slowed down, but the team members have been meeting a lot and discussing a lot of things: from solutions to experiments, to wiki programming, to our school life and homework. After the final exams, everything will start again with a vengeance!
July
We ran two science programmes for primary and secondary school students, while three groups went to the Ningbo campus of Zhejiang University to learn experimental skills related to genetic engineering.
August
We produced our promotional video and had our personal photos taken.
September
We now had a -80℃ fridge and an ice machine. So we bought some DH5 alpha competent cells to do the transformation! produced our promotional video and had our personal photos taken.
October
Getting ready for the judging section.