##School Surveys: As first-time iGEM participants, we initially lacked a clear direction for our project when we began recruiting team members. However, after our first meeting, we decided to focus on a topic that would be beneficial to our school community, particularly the secondary students. To identify common issues, we conducted an online survey among students in grades 7-12, asking about challenges they face from a student perspective.
The most frequently mentioned issue was sleep problems, although other responses were also significant.
Our team met again and decided to address the sleep-related concerns of our peers. We followed up with a second survey to gather more information about students’ sleep habits and the specific causes of their sleep difficulties. The results indicated that while students don’t have issues during sleep, many struggle with falling asleep and waking up feeling refreshed and energized.
After several brainstorming sessions, we concluded that aromatherapy stood out as the most promising solution to help improve our peers’ sleep quality.
##Fundraising Event We decided to organize a fundraising event that would not only generate much-needed funds for our project but also serve as a great team-building opportunity. Our members divided into teams to brainstorm and plan the event, and we all agreed to host a games day.
Together, we created posters, set up various games, and managed the entire event. Each team member took responsibility for different activities: - Martina: Water game - Jessica and Violet: Café offering milk tea and pancakes - Janna and Alin: Ring toss - Michael and Carson: Math game - Louis: Crack the golden egg and Hand of Fire - Allen: Arm wrestling
The event was a success, raising 2,600 yuan. More importantly, it brought a lot of fun and excitement to both our team and the entire school!
##Aromatherapy Workshop After deciding to use aromatherapy to address our students’ sleep problems, we realized we needed to deepen our understanding of the practice. To do this, we invited aromatherapy expert Ms. Aoife Corcoran to lead a workshop for our team.
During the session, we learned about the history of aromatherapy, the process of producing essential oils, and the various ways aromatherapy can be used, particularly to influence mood. We had the opportunity to smell different essential oils, create our own blends, and enjoy a calming chamomile-guided meditation.
##Access to laboratory While we can conduct some experiments in the school laboratory, we recognized that not all of our research could be done there. To overcome this limitation, we reached out to the Shenzhen Institute of Translational Medicine. Professor Shi Chen generously offered access to their facilities and introduced us to Ms. Je Hou, who would assist us with our lab work .
##Our IGEM Mentor: We were privileged to have Srimathi Lakshminarasimhan as our IGEM mentor through the Mentor program. She gave us a lot of valuable guidance and support. We met online on Mondays. Unfortunately, due to the fact that our school closed down and all our school email addresses were suspended we lost contact with her.
##Hunting for promotors: Since we aimed to activate gene expression using light, we reached out to Dr. Lou at the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology in Guangming Science City to discuss the light gene expression system used by the UCAS iGEM 2018 team. During our visit, Dr. Lou offered valuable advice and connected us with Prof. Jin, who then introduced us to Mr. Huang. They provided us with the PDawn promoter, which activates gene expression in the presence of blue light.
##Sudden Change Unfortunately, we received the disheartening news that our school would be permanently closing at the end of July 2024, as decided by the regional office. Along with this announcement, the school informed us that it would no longer support the iGEM team due to the closure. This left us in a challenging situation, as we suddenly had to seek alternative sponsors to cover the Jamboree fees. Thankfully, through multiple sponsorships, we were able to secure the necessary funds.
After the school closed, our team members were dispersed to different schools, making it difficult to stay in touch and coordinate the completion of our project. Despite these challenges, we did our best to see the project through and did as much as possible.