The CUG-China team actively expanded its intercollegiate collaboration network by engaging in a profound interaction with the SMU-UniFon-China team from Southern Medical University. This collaboration, centered on 'two-way science outreach, resource sharing, and project mutual learning,' involved the exchange of promotional materials and the joint organization of campus promotion and project exchange activities. These initiatives not only enhanced the public visibility of both projects but also fostered a cross-disciplinary understanding of synthetic biology. During this collaboration, we received exquisitely produced promotional materials for the SMU-UniFon-China team's project, 'FLU: Intelligent Defense System Against Influenza A Virus.' Particularly noteworthy was how the team translated complex synthetic biology designs into accessible public health guidance—such as a 'Symptom Comparison Chart: Flu vs. Common Cold,' 'Key Defense Points for Three Transmission Routes,' 'Tiered Protection Strategies,' and a 'Household Emergency Kit Checklist.' This approach fully demonstrated the deep integration of Human Practices with societal needs. While sharing and studying these materials within our team, we also distributed their brochures, posters, and stickers to students at China University of Geosciences through an on-campus booth event, effectively disseminating knowledge on public health identification and protection techniques.

Concurrently, we sent our project handbook and promotional items, including stickers, keychains, and custom masks, to Southern Medical University, assisting the SMU-UniFon-China team in conducting their own on-campus presentations.

This collaboration was far more than a simple material exchange; it was a practical exercise in interdisciplinary dialogue. The professional expertise of the SMU-UniFon-China team in medical communication and public education profoundly illustrated to us that the true value of synthetic biology lies not only in laboratory breakthroughs but also in its ability to integrate into the society in ways that the public can understand, accept, and participate in. Conversely, our perspective in environmental engineering and Earth systems thinking helped broaden the medical team's concept of 'health'—extending it from individual protection to the health of the entire ecosystem.
Looking forward, we plan to deepen our collaboration with SMU-UniFon-China in areas such as online joint projects and community health-environment co-promotion initiatives. Together, we are committed to practicing the core spirit of iGEM— 'Responsible Innovation'—and making synthetic biology a true bridge connecting science, society, and the future.

1. Participation in Waterloo iGEM's 2025 Project Symposium
The Waterloo iGEM team consistently updates its project progress on campus and social media platforms like Instagram, sharing snippets of the team's daily preparation. Upon achieving milestones, the team publishes links to online symposia, fulfilling educational and outreach goals through regular reporting and open sharing.

In 2025, Waterloo iGEM collaborated with the McMaster SynBio team for their project initiation. A member of CUG-China, currently studying in Canada, attended their concept-sharing symposium, 'Blueprint of Biology: Computational Pathways in Synthetic Biology.' This project aims to apply principles from computer algorithms and statistical logic to the field of synthetic biology.

The team proposed an insightful analogy: the 'ensemble consensus' philosophy of the Random Forest model in machine learning—which makes more robust predictions by aggregating the wisdom of numerous decision trees rather than relying on a single, potentially biased model—provides profound inspiration for drafting computational blueprints in synthetic biology. When designing and constructing complex biological systems, we face similar challenges of high-dimensionality and noisy data. Computational tools like Random Forest can help us identify key design rules from a vast library of biological parts (e.g., promoters, RBS sequences), predict the behavior of genetic circuits, and ultimately optimize metabolic pathways. This is, in essence, integrating the wisdom of 'consulting a council of friends instead of one' into the process of engineering life, allowing us to plan more efficient and reliable biosynthetic pathways through an integrated computational lens.

As we pursue higher-precision biological designs, computational tools have evolved more powerful paradigms, such as the XGBoost algorithm. It transcends simple model consensus by introducing a philosophy of 'iterative refinement,' where subsequent models specifically focus on correcting the errors of their predecessors, akin to a team of experts that continuously learns and improves. This mindset resonates deeply with the spiral, iterative DBTL (Design-Build-Test-Learn) cycle in synthetic biology. XGBoost efficiently handles noise and missing values in high-dimensional biological data and, through its built-in regularization and cross-validation mechanisms, provides highly reliable predictions for the performance of genetic circuits or the yield of metabolic pathways. This guides us toward the optimal biological design with minimal experimental iterations.

However, another core tenet of iGEM is its educational value—effectively communicating your team's work and its significance to the broader public. Following the theoretical introduction, Waterloo iGEM masterfully used protein design as a case study to demonstrate the application of algorithms in synthetic biology, effectively showcasing the immense potential of interdisciplinary approaches in our field.

Computational pathways are transforming synthetic biology from an experimental science into a predictable, programmable engineering discipline, a trend vividly exemplified at the frontiers of medicine. Protein structure prediction tools, exemplified by Google DeepMind's AlphaFold2, provide us with precise 'molecular blueprints.' Building on this, the first computationally designed vaccine in 2022 marked our entry into an era of de novo life element design. This is not merely an isolated success story but reveals a clear developmental trajectory: from breakthroughs in foundational computational tools, to the precise design and synthesis of therapeutic molecules like vaccines, and onward to future applications in broader health fields, such as oral medicine. This powerfully demonstrates that computation is no longer just an aid to biology but has become the core instrument for drafting the blueprints of life and re-engineering living systems.

The above encapsulates how the University of Waterloo's iGEM team promotes its project. Through this exchange, we also felt their immense enthusiasm and vitality, which we believe is one of the key drivers fueling their project's advancement.

1.Lab Tour and Research Methodology Exchange at the Waterloo Wetland Biology Lab

During the exchange, our team members also visited the Wetland Biology Laboratory at the University of Waterloo and observed professors conducting field sample collection and analysis. We were impressed by their highly standardized operational protocols: each team member was equipped with detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), ensuring experimental reproducibility and data reliability. This culture of rigorous research management provided invaluable insights for optimizing our own experimental record-keeping and quality control systems.

2.Discussions with Waterloo Professors and Team Members

We proactively established contact with Professor Trevor Charles, a faculty advisor for Waterloo iGEM, and engaged in regular communications. As a leading authority in functional metagenomics and bioplastics, the experience of Professor Charles's team in 'mining novel functional genes using alternative hosts' shared conceptual parallels with our own exploration of extremophile chassis. Furthermore, we maintained active online communication with the Waterloo student team members throughout the process.

Outcomes and Reflection

This collaboration not only introduced a cutting-edge computational biology perspective into CUG-China's 2025 project but also solidified our belief that true innovation stems from the convergence of diverse ideas. We have actively integrated the 'ensemble consensus' philosophy proposed by the Waterloo team into our own project design. Looking forward, we are eager to collaborate with Waterloo iGEM and other teams worldwide to collectively build an open, collaborative, and responsible synthetic biology ecosystem.

On August 6, 2025, the CUG-China 2025 team concurrently participated in two significant synthetic biology exchange events: the Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCiC) in Beijing and the Shenzhen SynBio Innovation Challenge.

1.CCiC Beijing: Deep Dive into the iGEM Community

From August 6th, the three-day 12th CCiC Conference was held in Beijing. This year's conference was the first to integrate the dual tracks of CCiC academic exchange and Synbiopunk industry co-creation, attracting over a thousand synthetic biology researchers, industry developers, and young scholars worldwide to explore the deep integration of biotechnology with fields like artificial intelligence and green manufacturing.

CUG-China shared our project progress and insights on stage with iGEM teams from across the country. We also engaged in Human Practices experience-sharing sessions with several teams, including Bluepha. We presented our comprehensive societal engagement strategy, structured around the H.E.A.R.T. framework. Listening to presentations from diverse teams not only broadened our project perspective but also deepened our understanding of the essence of Responsible Innovation.

We displayed our project poster in the dedicated poster session, which attracted members from numerous universities, providing an excellent platform for project promotion and in-depth discussion.

2.Shenzhen SynBio Innovation Challenge: Technical Demonstration & Interdisciplinary Exchange

On the same day, other team members participated in the Shenzhen SynBio Innovation Challenge. The event ran from the afternoon of August 6th to the 9th, guided by the core philosophy of 'Knowledge through Creation, Utility for Society,' and attracted over 200 university teams and nearly 1,900 young talents from around the globe. The competition was designed to leverage the support of Shenzhen's major scientific infrastructure for synthetic biology research and capitalize on the city's leading position in the future industry of synthetic biology, actively promoting the integrated development of education, technology, and talent.

Through our project presentation and live Q&A session, CUG-China received direct feedback from judges and industry experts on our technical roadmap, engineering feasibility, and societal value. We gained particularly valuable insights concerning extremophile system stability and product separation energy consumption. This feedback has been instrumental in effectively steering our project's evolution from a 'proof-of-concept in the lab' towards a 'feasible, deployable technology.'

Outcomes and Follow-up Actions

Through these parallel events, CUG-China 2025 not only presented our project progress to the global iGEM community but also garnered invaluable feedback from academic, industrial, and policy perspectives. Key suggestions have been integrated into our Sustainability Report.

This 'Two-City Initiative' demonstrated our commitment to actively engaging with the global synthetic biology network and embodied the core iGEM spirit of Openness, Sharing, Responsibility, and Innovation. Our participation was immensely fruitful.

Personal Development for Team Members

Enhanced Presentation & Communication Skills: Through project talks and poster sessions, our members learned to articulate complex technical logic and Human Practices narratives clearly and concisely under time constraints, significantly improving their scientific communication and on-the-spot response abilities.

Deepened Cross-Team Collaboration Awareness: In-depth exchanges with numerous domestic and international teams, including receiving feedback from professors from Thailand, Singapore, Japan, and other countries, broadened our international perspective. We learned to draw inspiration from diverse cultural and technical backgrounds.

Cultivation of an Engineering Mindset: Dialogues with industry representatives and academic teams prompted our members to start thinking beyond 'lab feasibility' to practical engineering concerns such as cost, system stability, and market acceptance.

Tangible Gains for the Team Project

External Validation of Project Direction: Our core designs, including the extremophile chassis and electro-driven carbon sequestration pathway, received recognition from peers. Crucially, we obtained critical advice on product separation and system containment, providing a direct basis for subsequent optimization.

More Robust Human Practices: By mutually evaluating societal engagement frameworks (such as H.E.A.R.T.) with multiple teams, we refined the logic of our collaboration with enterprises, experts, and the public.

Effective Expansion of Collaboration Network: We established connections with multiple iGEM teams, laying a solid foundation for future Wiki peer-review, joint science outreach, and Dry Lab tool sharing. This has truly integrated us into the global iGEM collaborative ecosystem.

Our team attended the Climate Change Global Lectures, a flagship dialogue platform established by the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development (ICCSD) at Tsinghua University. This platform addresses the latest developments and cutting-edge topics in global climate change and international governance by inviting global climate leaders, renowned academics, and business pioneers to share new progress, insights, and practices in addressing climate change. A notable example was the lecture recorded here, delivered by Mr. Zhong Baoshen, Chairman of LONGi Green Energy Technology, titled 'Challenges and Breakthroughs of China's Photovoltaic Industry'. This lecture provided our CUG-China 2025 project with a highly strategic industrial perspective and systemic inspiration. Our key takeaways are as follows:

1. The 'Technology-Market-Policy' Synergy is Central to Technology Deployment

Mr. Zhong pointed out that despite having the world's most complete manufacturing system, the photovoltaic industry is currently trapped in a cycle of overcapacity, internal price competition (price involution), and trade barriers. The root cause lies in the failure to effectively translate technological advancement into market sustainability. This serves as a critical warning for our project: even if our electro-driven CO₂ fixation system achieves high efficiency in the lab, it will struggle to form a closed-loop business model if it is divorced from the real-world energy market structure and policy incentive mechanisms.

2. 'Full Life-Cycle Zero Carbon' as a Future Industry Prerequisite

LONGi is not only a manufacturer of photovoltaic modules but is also committed to building a 'zero-carbon industrial chain,' setting clear carbon footprint targets from silicon purification to module recycling. This aligns strongly with our project's original intention of 'using green electricity for carbon fixation' but also sets a higher standard. For instance, processes such as creating the strong acid environment for acidophile cultivation, manufacturing corrosion-resistant bioreactors, and the downstream purification of glycerol may contain hidden high energy costs. In the future, we can employ Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools to quantify the carbon emissions across the entire process, ensuring that the 'carbon fixed' significantly outweighs the 'carbon emitted during production.'