Week 1 (11/03/2024-17/03/2024)
Project design
Various potential projects were deliberated, and team members were organized into groups to further assess the feasibility of these initiatives.
HP issues
The group member of initial diagnostic project (which was the final project of Peking iGEM 2024 later) conducted interviews with Dr. Xiao Li and confirmed the necessity of this project.
Art design
Team logo was designed.
Week 2 (18/03/2024-24/03/2024)
Team building
Second regular meeting and team building ceremony were taken place in 23/03/2024.
After selection test, the final team member of Peking iGEM 2024 was confirmed. We took a picture to mark this special moment.
Plus, our team leader established team disciplinary rules for everyone to follow.
Final project selection
After deliberating on all exploratory projects, our team unanimously decided to concentrate on disease diagnostics as the chosen project.
Week 3 (25/03/2024-31/03/2024)
Members of the wet lab team have been tasked with meticulously designing the project and outlining all necessary experiments. Research on the complete project vision and details began.
Week 4 (01/04/2024-07/04/2024)
Thorough project invesitgation and preparation for preliminary experiment
Wet lab team members gathered necessary parts and designed plasmids for the project. And we planed to consult with Assit. Prof. Liqin Zhang on the design of our project.
HP
We assigned two of our team members tasks to give guidance on the operation of experiments for high school students of The Affiliated High School of Peking University.
Week 5 (08/04/2024-14/04/2024)
Project investigation
We consulted Assit. Prof. Liqin Zhang about the overall design of our project.
Week 6（15/04/2024-21/04/2024）
Project refinement
After communication with Assit. Prof. Liqin Zhang, we broadened the pathway of downstream signaling to the split proteases after aptamers binding from connecting via zinc finger protein to other ways such as unnatural amino acid click chemistry or tag connectivity.
The plasmids were essentially designed, and protocols along with reagent lists were assigned to wet lab team members to commence drafting.
Team collaboration
Recommended by Junting Zhou, we adopted Notion as our team’s platform for collaboration work.
MAGA: Make Aptamer Generally Applied
Project begin, started to do some literature research.
Week 7 (22/04/2024-28/04/2024)
Project research progress
We done duplicate checking and made sure that our project wouldn’t coincide with other previous projects. The protocols and reagent lists were essentially completed, and further literature research was conducted to support the project. And the plasmids were submitted to the company for synthesis.
Week 8 (29/04/2024-05/05/2024)
Project research progress
Continue to refine protocols and experimental details, and count the time available for wet lab group members to do experiments in order to schedule them.
HP
HP members informed other team members about the exchange meeting held by BIT-China.
MAGA:Make Aptamer Generally Applied
After the literature research is completed, the preliminary experiment begins.
Week 9 (06/05/2024-12/05/2024)
Updation about team discipline
Rules of punishiment were added.
Wet lab regulations
Developed mechanisms for running wet experiments, including operational and collaborative norms, logging patterns, and team discipline.
Week 10 (13/05/2024-19/05/2024)
Wet lab issues
Pre-experiments for plasmid transformation and protein expression validation were performed.
Laboratory booking mechanism was established.
HP issues
Sign up for CCiC, discuss about the necessity of Synbio Challenge Competition participation and prepare for meetings of exchange in Tsinghua.
Week 11 (20/05/2024-26/05/2024)
Wet lab issues
Executed laboratory setup and instrument handling. Established project packing methods and angles.
HP issues
Report about the knowledge we acquired in meetings of exchange in Tsinghua.
Week 12 (27/05/2024-02/06/2024)
Financial issues
Explanations on the financial issues about CCiC and social practice.
Wet lab issues
Progress on the wet experiment was temporarily put on hold in preparation for final exams.
Art design
The initial design sketch of our team uniform was shown.
Week 13-15 (03/06/2024-23/06/2024)
iGEM project progress was paused for two weeks because of final exams.
Plans for next step of our whole project
The criteria of medals was explained and we chose three special prize required for gold medal.
Wet lab issues
The summer schedule for wet lab group members was tallied and a wet lab implementation plan for the summer was developed.
HP issues
Team members were informed about collaborations with Loving Heart Society on aid education, meetings of exchange with iGEM teams in Beijing and participation in CCiC and Synbio Challenge.
Mid-term evaluation
Advisors organized talks with each team member to know the works they had done and determined whether a certain team member had the qualification to continue to be a iGEM team member.
Week 16 (24/06/2024-30/06/2024)
Wet lab issues
The entirety of the wet experiment was determined, and pre-tests for two experiments, EMSA and Protein Extraction, were conducted, which turned out to be unsuccessful but laid the groundwork for the subsequent experiments.
HP issues
Reported about the knowledge we acquired in meetings of exchange with iGEM teams in Beijing, and recruited members to design teaching plan for aid education.
Week 17 (01/07/2024-07/07/2024)
Wet lab issues and progress
EMSA and protein purification experiments were continued.
The arrangement of the experiment was adjusted according to the progress of the experiment at that time. Conducted literature research on project design using only aptamer.
HP issues
Supporting teaching was prepared and performed.
Other issues
Visa preparation
Week 18 (08/07/2024-14/07/2024)
Wet lab progress
Extraction and activity testing of TEVp protein was completed.
HP issues
Nine of our team members participated in the CCiC.
Week 19 (15/07/2024-21/07/2024)
Wet lab progress
More successful EMSA experimental results were obtained.
Perodic work report
Team leader, wet lab leader, dry lab members and HP leader systematically reported our project and works to advisor and PI.
MAGA: Make Aptamer Generally Applied
After completing the initial training, we started to verify the effect of the model.
Week 20 (22/07/2024-28/07/2024)
Wet lab progress
Surface plasmon resonance tests were performed for both 29mer and 40mer aptamers to determine the binding of both to thrombin. Gibson assembly was performed for the PPVp split proteases attached to the aptamer.
HP progress
Suggestions on our project from CCiC were shared.
Week 21 (29/07/2024-04/08/2024)
Wet lab progress
Intact and split PPVp proteins were extracted and tested for activity.
iGEM preparation
Three kinds of iGEM presentations were explained and team members were reminded to start to prepare for presentation.
Week 22 (05/08/2024-11/08/2024)
Wet lab progress
The PPVp split protease plasmid was targeted for mutagenesis and validated by sequencing. DBCO-modified aptamer was ordered. And plasmids for soluble tag fusions of various proteins were started to be constructed.
HP issues
Four of our team members participated in the Synbio Challenges.
Week 23 (12/08/2024-18/08/2024)
Wet lab progress
Expression of cPPVp with nPPVp proteins bearing p-azido-l-phenylalanine was induced, as well as tGST-PPVpS-hCG proteins in the output module.
HP issues
Game designing for orienteering game and interview with a biotechnology company were on preparation.
iGEM preparations
Team members were informed of Deadlines of Rosters Freeze, Live Stage Talk + Team Booth proposals.
Week 24 (19/08/2024-25/08/2024)
Wet lab progress
Plasmids for all soluble tagged fusions were constructed and expression of the corresponding proteins was performed.
HP issues
Report on knowledge acquired during the interview with the biotechnology company and suggestions obtained during the meetings of exchange held by HZAU. (We participated in this meeting online.)
Week 25 (26/08/2024-01/09/2024)
Wet lab progress & MAGA: Make Aptamer Generally Applied
Affinity validation (EMSA) of the aptamer obtained from MAGA was performed. Two ways of aptamer-split protease ligation attempts were carried out.
iGEM preparations
Team members were reminded to finish the deadlines of live stage talk, team booth safety proposals and the promotion video.
Art design
The project mascot was designed.
Week 26 (02/09/2024-08/09/2024)
Project arrangements for September and October
Team leader made arrangements for the whole project and the wiki contents writing.
Wet lab progress
Click reaction between DBCO modified aptamers and the split proteases (nPPV and cPPV) incorporating non-canonical amino acids was performed and the EMSA experiments results were not supportive enough. Besides, another method of linking aptamer and protease through SA and biotin was on the agenda, with the plasmids constructed mostly successful and the EMSA experiments to confirm the linkage partly finished. Plasmids for protein expression with cell-free system was successfully constructed, but the company providing cell-free system reaction mix delayed their delivery for nearly two weeks without timely explanations.
iGEM preparations
Team promotion video was timely submitted.
Art design
Project related souvenirs and posters were designed for use as event props.
Week 27 (09/09/2024-15/09/2024)
Periodic work report
Two PI and two advisors listened to our presentation and gave important suggestions on our project.
Detailed project arrangements for September and October
Suggested by advisor, our team leader made a more detailed arrangements covering every member’s work.
Wet lab progress
EMSA of MAGA predicted aptamer binding was conducted again, demonstrating the potential binding with thrombin. Plus, EMSA testing SA-biotin linkage was completed.
HP issues
Cooperation with the gardening party held by School of Life Sciences was crowned with success, with many students coming to the iGEM stand, playing games related to our project and being impressed by our works.
iGEM preparations
B1 retardant certificate was submitted and two team booth talks were also submitted.
Art design
Draft of wiki homepage were displayed.
Week 28 (16/09/2024-22/09/2024)
Wiki
Home page has made great progress. Writing works of other parts have been finished.
Deliverables
Attribution form has been finished.
Week 29 (23/09/2024-29/09/2024)
Wiki
Home page has completed. Writing works of other parts have been finished.
Presentation
Writing works of script for presentation video has been finished.
Deliverables
Judging form has been finished.
Week 30 (30/09/2024-06/10/2024)
Wiki
All work of wiki has been finished.
Presentation
Shootings of presentation video has been finished.