On February 27th, we participate in the iGEM Competition Exchange Meeting, inviting Ms. Zhang Nan, Vice President of iGEM Global Development. This meeting is hold by our kindly neighborhood SZU-China, with participants from Southern University of Science and Technology, South Medical University, Beijing Normal University Zhuhai, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Southern Medical University, and Guangdong Medical University. We also welcomed teachers and students from Shenzhen Middle School, Basis-China, AIS-China, and LINKS-China. The meeting included in-depth discussions on topics such as challenges and explorations in synthetic biology, competition resources, team transformation, competition planning, and team-building experiences. This exchange not only addressed teams' questions about the iGEM competition but also deepened our understanding and gathered valuable feedback.

The iGEM Southern China Regional Meeting (iSCRM) is a special event organized by SZU-China. We were honored to be invited to participate in this grand event, themed “Get Ideas Ripple.” On May 19th of this year, we我们有幸被邀请去参加 the 8th iSCRM. A total of 16 teams from universities and high schools from all regions of South China, nearly 200 people went to the meeting for exchange and discussion. The number of people reached an all-time high.

During this exchange meeting, we shared our project and received very valuable questions in return.

During this exchange meeting, we shared our project and received very valuable questions in return.

"Why choose a mineralization approach instead of synthesizing organic compounds?"
"Does the project have economic value?"
"Have you collected feedback from children after the outreach activities?"

These questions not only guide us in enriching our project content but also serve as the most direct feedback from the public regarding our work.

This exchange was not only a valuable experience but also a great opportunity for us to connect with other teams! Organized by SZU-China, we had the opportunity to connect with many teams in the venue and at the dining area. During this process, we engaged in face-to-face exchanges with teams such as SCUT-S-China and HUBU China. The completion of HUBU China's project and SCUT-S-China's innovative ideas on carbon absorption provided us with valuable insights. Additionally, the creativity demonstrated by high school teams like Songshan-Lake, Basis-China, and SMS-Shenzhen in their projects and social practice activities greatly impressed us.

Through our discussions with ECIB-PKU, we developed a strong interest in their hydrogel project, and their collaboration with game companies on HP activities greatly inspired us.
Additionally, we continuously refined our project by leveraging various seminars provided by CCiC, with our biggest gains being in the area of biosafety.

We engaged in in-depth exchanges with iGEM teams from across China and attended lectures by Prof. Zhang Weiwen and Dr. Bao Yuhan on "Biosafety in Synthetic Biology: Policy Theory and Industrialization." This exposure to cutting-edge research helped our team identify a new breakthrough in the Safety section of our project and clarified the direction for our future research.

Through this discussion and our face-to-face communication with Professor Zhang, we recognized that our project cannot be deployed in natural environments for a long time. We also confirmed the necessity of designing a suicide switch and a biosafety chamber.

From August 1 to 3, the SUSTechOCEAN team, along with other teams, held the 2nd iGEM Greater Bay Area Industry-Academia-Research Forum at Southern University of Science and Technology. This regional exchange event was jointly initiated by the iGEM teams from Southern University of Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University Zhuhai Campus, University of Macau, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

As one of the regions with the highest concentration of iGEM teams and bio-related high-tech industries globally, the four universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area collaborated to establish a new model of iGEM teamwork, with a focus on school-enterprise linkage. This forum aimed to connect key innovation and growth hubs in the region, fostering industry-university-research cooperation and promoting the collaborative development of the bio-industry cluster in the Bay Area.

As organizers, we played a key role in venue arrangements and event promotion. We visited the Shenzhen Engineering Biology Innovation Center and companies like Baywan Biotechnology, gaining insights into real-world synthetic biology applications. These experiences inspired our research and highlighted the importance of school-enterprise collaboration.

In Shenzhen, we also explored the industrial potential of synthetic biology by visiting startups and discussing the latest industry trends.

We visited the tropical rainforest on China’s largest southern island and connected with local villagers and youth to learn about their views on the climate crisis and ecological protection.

TDespite its poverty, the village strongly promotes education, with multimedia classrooms and discussion rooms. We were fortunate to have close exchanges with them and even learned some of the local dialect.

Their deep environmental awareness left a strong impression on us, making them a model we often reference in our future outreach efforts.

We visited Professor Li Xiubao and his lab to gain an in-depth understanding of coral as a natural carbon sequestration system. In the context of the climate crisis, ocean acidification poses a serious threat to this carbon sequestration process. Our carbon sequestration method draws inspiration from the natural carbon-fixing mechanism of corals, so this exchange has provided extremely valuable guidance for the future development of our project.