• March 16, 2025 — Formed the iGEM team.
• March 17, 2025 — First team meeting: PI briefed students and parents on the iGEM competition, introducing objectives and expectations.
• March 23, 2025 — Registered the team in iGEM and formalized positions and division of labor. Individual accounts were registered for the team roster. oSub-bullet: Connected with respective schools for assistance and established cooperation with ECUST laboratory.
• April 3, 2025 — Established a clear timetable to complete tasks and coordinate workflow.
• April 6, 2025 — Visited ECUST lab, brainstorming project focus on Ralstonia solanacearum (bacterial wilt). Received a lab safety briefing.
• May 5, 2025 — Met at the lab to discuss experiment details, establish workflow, and begin research supporting the project.
• May 18, 2025 — Conducted an online meeting to establish common goals and standards for the project.
• June 2, 2025 — Held a session with expert Wang Qiyao (王启要) for advice on the topic and to identify uncertainties.
• June 22, 2025 — Online meeting to conduct safety briefing and design a summer lab schedule; all pre-lab preparation completed.

First Lab Period (July 10–16, 2025)
• Day 1 (July 10) — Familiarized with plasmid extraction experiment; prepared LB medium.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Xingyi Yan, Chengxuan Zhang
• Day 2 (July 11) — Poured TSB plates and performed plate streaking experiments.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Xingyi Yan, Chengxuan Zhang, Bosen Du
• Day 3 (July 12) — Induced double exchange in confirmed plasmids, picked colonies for verification, and familiarized with experimental procedures.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Yitong Chen, Tyle Cheng, Bosen Du
• Day 4 (July 13) — Cultivated tomato seedlings, transformed plasmids, and performed plate inoculation (second round).
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Yitong Chen, Lucas Chen, Tyle Cheng
• Day 5 (July 14) — Genomic inoculation PCR construction, SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, plasmid transformation.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Joy Jiang
• Day 6 (July 15) — Colony picking, plasmid fragment amplification, strain preservation, PCR colony verification.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Hsuan Shih, Lucas Chen, Joy Jiang
• Day 7 (July 16) — Prepared electrophoresis gel, performed SDS-PAGE to verify plasmids, observed TCA experiment.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Hsuan Shih, Joy Jiang
• July 21, 2025 — Visited Shanghai Academy of Plant and Agricultural Sciences; interviewed Professor Peng Zhang for specialist insights.
• July 23, 2025 — Hosted an update meeting to coordinate dry and wet lab workflow and readjust responsibilities.

• August 15 — Prepared culture media and inoculated bacterial strains for protein expression (first cycle: PtsG and FabH).
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Lucas Chen, Tyle Cheng, Joy Jiang
• August 16 — Nickel affinity columns prepared; bacterial cultures expanded with IPTG induction.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Bosen Du, Yitong Chen, Lucas Chen
• August 17 — Cells lysed; proteins adsorbed, purified through nickel columns, and dialyzed.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Bosen Du, Yitong Chen, Xingyi Yan
• August 18 — Measured OD concentration of purified proteins; analyzed using SDS-PAGE; inoculated new cultures for second cycle.
Participant: Anderson Zhang
• August 19 — Began second cycle (target protein: GlnA); nickel columns prepared and IPTG induction performed.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Tyle Cheng, Chengxuan Zhang, Xingyi Yan
• August 20 — Attempted cell lysis for GlnA; inclusion body formation prevented extraction; experiment stopped.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Lucas Chen, Chengxuan Zhang
September 3–5 — Added solubility-enhancing tag, conducted revised purification cycles, performed SDS-PAGE verification, and successfully completed protein purification.
Participant: Anderson Zhang

• August 1 — Initial tests for alginate bead formation.
• August 2 — Tested encapsulation of E. coli within beads; measured solubility in water.
• August 5 — Prepared beads with different alginate concentrations to optimize stability and bacterial viability.
• August 7 — Conceptualized ErucaBead inspired by online SynBio Challenges 2025; product creation officially began.
• August 29 – September 28, 2025 — Began tomato experiments, selecting pots for four different treatment groups. Conducted initial experiments and collected ongoing data to evaluate the effects of treatments over time.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Joy Jiang, Lucas Chen
• September 21 — Completed final ErucaBead and tested strength and durability.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Joy Jiang

• July 23 — Interviewed Zhang Li, founder of Euny Biotech, for insights on biotech entrepreneurship and synthetic biology applications.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Bosen Du
• July 30 — Visited Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences; met Professor Wen Guangyue and Professor Gao Shigang to gather insights on market trends, practices, and regulations.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Bosen Du
• September 7 — Trip to the fruit and vegetable market to collect data and feedback from tomato producers, providing insights for understanding market needs and trends.
> Participant: Chengxuan Zhang
• September 20 — Met with Team Crouton (SHSID) to discuss collaboration.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Joy Jiang, Yitong Chen
• September 24 — Hosted a lecture for students and STEM teachers to introduce our iGEM project.
> Participants: Anderson Zhang, Joy Jiang

• May 5 — Completed team logo designs.
> Participants: Hsuan Shih, Joy Jiang
• September 9 — Finished art design of wiki home page.
> Participant: Hsuan Shih
• September 20 — Designed team gifts and pins.
> Participants: Hsuan Shih, Anderson Zhang
• September 25 — Designed team uniforms for production.
> Participants: Lucas Chen, Joy Jiang