Collaboration
1. CCIC Conference
1.1 Conference Overview
In the current era of accelerating global technological revolution and industrial transformation, synthetic biology, as a highly creative interdisciplinary field, is driving changes across various sectors such as healthcare, biotechnology, and food processing. The CCIC, a premier synthetic biology conference in China and a platform for iGEM teams worldwide to share and exchange ideas, has become a "barometer" for industry development. It holds irreplaceable importance and far-reaching influence in promoting technological innovation and accelerating the translation of scientific research into practical applications.
From August 6th to 9th, 2025, CCIC & SYNBIOPUNK 2025 was successfully held at the Beijing Zhongguancun Exhibition Center.
1.2 XJTU-CHINA Participation
The XJTU-CHINA team participated with their project "AI-assisted Design, Screening, and Application of D-Allulose-3-Epimerase (DTE)", engaging in deep exchanges and presentations from a unique multi-dimensional perspective, comprehensively showcasing the team's exploration path, technological breakthroughs, and growth trajectory in the field of synthetic biology.
During the conference, team members systematically presented the project's complete workflow, from computational design to experimental validation. The Dry Lab team, based on protein prediction and generative large models, built an intelligent design platform for DTE enzymes; the Wet Lab team focused on the expression, purification, and functional validation of the enzyme protein, achieving the transformation from "computational sequence" to "active protein"; the HP team, starting from societal needs and humanistic perspectives, constructed the project's narrative logic and value expression system, making the technological story more relatable and resonant.
Over the four days of intensive exchange, the team engaged in multiple rounds of in-depth dialogue with teams from universities across the country and field experts.
This participation in CCIC & SYNBIOPUNK 2025 was a comprehensive transformation for the XJTU-CHINA team, from technical deepening to cognitive upgrading, injecting strong momentum into the project's subsequent development and yielding multi-dimensional gains.
Team members became more convinced that in this highly interdisciplinary and integrated field of synthetic biology, only by breaking down disciplinary barriers, integrating technology and humanities, and strengthening collaboration within the team and between teams can they continuously break through technical bottlenecks, achieve greater innovation, go further and more steadily in the field of synthetic biology, and contribute more power to promoting industry development and social progress.
2. iGEM West China Exchange
2.1 Event Overview
On the afternoon of July 16, 2025, the 2025 iGEM West China Exchange, hosted by the School of Life Sciences and Medicine and the School of Life Sciences of Northwestern Polytechnical University, and organized by the NPU iGEM Organizing Committee, was successfully held in the lecture hall of NPU's School of Life Sciences and Medicine. This exchange, themed "Synthesizing the Future," brought together iGEM teams from multiple universities in Western China to explore the limitless possibilities of synthetic biology through project presentations, free discussions, and faculty sharing.
2.2 Impact on XJTU Team
The Xi'an Jiaotong University iGEM team participated online, engaging in in-depth exchanges with multiple teams from Western China on cutting-edge topics in synthetic biology. This helped establish a high-level dialogue platform for synthetic biology teams in Western China and injected new ideas for the improvement and innovation of respective team projects.
This iGEM West China Exchange brought comprehensive gains to us, promoting the dual enhancement of the project's technical depth and humanistic breadth.
This cross-border concept broke the application boundaries of traditional synthetic biology projects, sparking widespread interest among participants. Many teams engaged in lively discussions around the feasibility of the plan, pet gut adaptability, and other issues, providing valuable suggestions for further refinement of the plan.
In the future, the team will take this exchange as a new starting point, continuously deepen technology research and development, expand application scenarios, and cultivate deeply in the field of synthetic biology with more solid achievements and a more open attitude, demonstrating the innovative vitality and social responsibility of XJTU students in serving the people and promoting global well-being.
3. XJTU-CHINA & YAU-CHINA Exchange
3.1 Exchange Overview
Synthetic biology, as a cutting-edge field spanning multiple disciplines, thrives on the collision of ideas and the sharing of experiences. On July 14, 2025, the Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) iGEM team and the Yan'an University (YAU) iGEM team conducted an in-depth exchange focusing on cutting-edge exploration and practical achievements in synthetic biology.
This event, themed "Sharing Experience, Promoting Mutual Growth," aimed to break down inter-university barriers, promote breakthroughs in technology integration and project innovation for both teams, and inject new vitality of collaborative development into the young scientific research power in the field of synthetic biology.
After the exchange, team members, full of enthusiasm and friendliness, led the YAU team on a tour of the laboratory research platform. Team members exactly introduce the laboratory's advanced equipment and cutting-edge technologies, as well as the ongoing research projects. From precise experimental instruments to innovative research methods, sparks of ideas collided during the interaction and exchange.
After the tour, the two universities also held a gift exchange ceremony. XJTU presented cultural and creative products with school identifiers, while YAU brought self-created peripherals with local characteristics related to synthetic biology and their team. These interactive sessions further enhanced the cooperative trust between the two teams, encouraging them to actively engage in collaboration in more areas and at deeper levels, form a closer cooperative network, continuously stimulate innovative vitality, and contribute youth wisdom to solving practical problems in the health field!
3.2 Technical Exchange
From a technical perspective, the XJTU team made important accumulations in enzyme design AI modeling and multi-model coupling strategies. Members learned about the cutting-edge ideas of quantum chemical molecular interaction analysis and plan to integrate them into their existing AI modeling system to further improve the accuracy of full-sequence enzyme prediction and the precision of molecular dynamics simulations, thus refining their technical roadmap. Meanwhile, regarding multi-model coupling strategies, the differential equation solving optimization methods discussed by both sides provided new solutions for addressing the problem of low computational efficiency in models. The Wet Lab also gained experience in data collection and processing, helping them establish more scientific data standards and provide higher quality data support for Dry Lab modeling.
3.3 Cooperation Model
In terms of research philosophy and cooperation models, the two teams jointly identified the R&D direction with "demand-oriented, cross-integration" as the core concept. Both sides agreed that synthetic biology research should not be divorced from social needs and must closely address public livelihood pain points and industry difficulties. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen cross-integration between multiple disciplines and universities to achieve technological breakthroughs and innovation.
This exchange activity fully demonstrated the responsibility and commitment of young researchers to respond to social needs with technology and promote scientific boundaries through collaboration. In the future, both sides will take this exchange as a starting point, continuously deepen cooperation, jointly explore and advance hand-in-hand in the frontier field of synthetic biology, and contribute youth power to solving social problems and promoting scientific progress with youthful wisdom and sweat.
4. XJTU-CHINA & AFMU-CHINA Exchange
4.1 Exchange Overview
When the precise innovation of engineering technology meets the clinical orientation of medical research, synthetic biology ushers in new possibilities for the integration of medicine and engineering. On July 27, 2025, the Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) iGEM team and the Air Force Medical University (AFMU) iGEM team conducted an in-depth exchange focusing on the research, development, and medical applications of synthetic biology technologies. This exchange, aiming for "technical mutual learning and integration of medicine and engineering," explored new paths for the application of synthetic biology in the healthcare field through multi-session, professionalized exchanges, and also built a bridge for long-term collaboration between the two university research teams.
4.2 Technical Sharing
The XJTU team started from the needs of clinical applications, introducing the potential value of the DTE enzyme in Adjuvant Therapy for Diabetes, functional food development, and other healthcare areas. They highlighted how the AI-designed and optimized DTE enzyme can more efficiently convert D-fructose into D-allulose, a low-calorie, high-sweetness sugar, providing key support for blood glucose control-related medical schemes and healthy food R&D.
The AFMU team focused on CAR-M technology, presenting their project "Engineering CAR-M Cells for Targeted Solid Tumor Therapy and Efficacy Optimization." As a frontier direction in cell therapy, CAR-M technology leverages the phagocytic function and immunoregulatory role of macrophages, showing unique advantages in solid tumor treatment. Team members, starting from clinical pain points, explained the project's core breakthrough: addressing the difficulties traditional CAR-T cells face in infiltrating the solid tumor microenvironment and their susceptibility to immunosuppression, by using synthetic biology to engineer macrophages to express chimeric antigen receptors that specifically recognize solid tumor antigens, while simultaneously knocking out immune checkpoint-related genes to enhance their tumor-killing ability and survival time.
Animal experiment data presented showed that the engineered CAR-M cells effectively accumulated at the tumor site, significantly inhibited tumor growth, and did not show significant adverse reactions like cytokine release syndrome in safety assessments. Furthermore, the team shared key technical details for the large-scale production process of CAR-M cells, including optimized induction differentiation systems and improved gene editing efficiency, laying the foundation for subsequent clinical translation.
4.3 Medicine-Engineering Integration
Following the technical sharing, the XJTU team led the AFMU team for a close observation of the DTE enzyme's AI design platform operation process and the Wet Lab facilities, consulting on details regarding the use of automated screening instruments and high-throughput detection equipment. During the tour, besides technical issues, discussions also arose about inter-university differences. For instance, as a comprehensive university, XJTU has a rich and complementary professional structure, making it easier to find students from suitable majors for Dry and Wet Lab work, while AFMU, as a medical university, is slightly less proficient in coding and modeling for Dry Lab. This exchange further proved that interdisciplinary subjects like synthetic biology are of great significance for student cultivation and skill enhancement.
The integration of medicine and engineering is not only complementary at the technical level but also a fusion of research philosophies—only by empowering medical innovation with engineering technology and guiding technological development with clinical needs can synthetic biology truly serve the healthcare cause and bring more well-being to patients.
Through discussions with the AFMU team, the Dry Lab members strengthened their data processing logic and enhanced their practical abilities in AI model optimization and data integration. The Wet Lab team reinforced the standardization and rigor of their experimental operations. The HP team increased their exploration into the intersection of medicine and engineering, public health, and medical directions.
This exchange made both sides deeply recognize that technology R&D needs to balance scientific innovation, interdisciplinarity, and clinical practicality, and that the growth of young students requires broadening their horizons and honing their abilities through cross-field communication. In the future, based on the gains from this exchange, the team will continue to deepen the medical adaptability R&D of the DTE enzyme project, while focusing on cultivating students' interdisciplinary scientific literacy, preparing youth power for synthetic biology technology to serve the healthcare cause.