at 16 ℃ (OD2 0.34 vs. 0.83 in control). Together, these three systems establish a probiotic platform capable of high-level metabolite production with robust “user-triggered + environment-triggered” containment, balancing efficacy and biosafety.
Through our iGEM journey, we realized that this competition is never a solo endeavor. Collaboration is at the heart of iGEM: by communicating with other teams, sharing progress, and learning from each other, we are able to refine our project and bring it closer to real-world impact. Our experiences with CCiC and our discussions with Squirrel-Beijing clearly demonstrated that meaningful exchange with fellow iGEMers not only improves technical design but also strengthens the community spirit of synthetic biology.
Collaboration at CCiC
In the summer of 2025, BSDFZ-China attended the Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC) for the very first time. CCiC is the largest synthetic biology exchange platform for iGEM teams in China, jointly organized by former iGEM medal-winning teams and universities. Every year, it brings together high school and university teams to share projects, receive feedback from peers and experts, and explore the future of synthetic biology.
At CCiC, we presented our project on early intervention for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and exchanged ideas with teams from all over China. The discussions not only gave us valuable feedback but also inspired us to strengthen our science communication and outreach on AD. CCiC showed us that collaboration is more than sharing projects—it is about connecting science with society.
Figure 1 : BSDFZ-China team members presenting our project on early intervention for Alzheimer’s disease at the CCiC.
Collaboration with Squirrel-Beijing
We collaborated with Squirrel-Beijing（https://2025.igem.wiki/squirrel-beijing/collaboration） through a series of in-depth discussions on experimental design. Together, we focused on topics such as synthetic biology gene circuit design and metabolic pathway optimization. Both teams shared our experimental progress and openly exchanged ideas on the challenges we faced in the lab. These conversations not only helped us refine our own project design but also strengthened the collaborative spirit that lies at the heart of iGEM.
Figure 2 : Collaboration with Squirrel-Beijing
