On August 5, the 2nd SynBio Challenges · Innovation (hereinafter referred to as the event) hosted by the Synthetic Biology Branch of the Chinese Society of Biotechnology was held in the Mingzhu Campus of SIAT University (preparatory). The event is intended to provide a platform for young students to exchange, learn, innovate, and create, and foster a reserve fresh force for synthetic biology, life science and interdisciplinary disciplines. This event attracted a total of more than 400 participants of 80 teams from 48 universities across the country (including Hong Kong and Macao) to participate in the competition offline. The number of participating teams this year increased by three times compared with that when the event was held for the first time. It was watched by 3.21 million people online and offline, who witnessed the high-spirited outlook of young students in the field of synthetic biology in China. The competition is not only an event of brainstorming and collision of ideas among young students, but also a relay race of the spirit of scientists and innovators by the “pioneers” and “practitioners” in the field of synthetic biology. It is a grand event for the younger generation of young people to carry on synthetic biology.

The event was jointly launched and sponsored by 30 organizations such as SIAT University (preparatory)’s School of Synthetic Biology, Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology,  Quantitative Biology Center of Peking University, School of Biomedicine of University of Hong Kong, School of Life Science of Sun Yat-Sen University, Life Ethics Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, “Belt and Road” ANSO, Shenzhen Association of Science and Technology, and the government of Guangming district.

Compared with last year, the event introduced Infrastructure - Bacteria Game and Infrastructure - Protein Design on the basis of the regular track. Adopting a novel and unique form of competition, the event takes major science and technology infrastructure for synthetic biology as a fair, open and enabling arena. Through the definition of decoupling requirements, model design and experimental verification, the wide accessibility of synthetic biotechnology is achieved, so that everyone can understand life, design and transform the biological systems under the premise of safety, controllability and ethics, allowing young students, experts and scholars in the field of synthetic biology to embrace a new epoch of “Seeking Knowledge and Creation for Concrete Purposes”.

Lin Xiang, secretary of the Party Group and vice chairman of Shenzhen Association for Science and Technology, said in his opening speech that the event aimed to encourage the “new generation of youth” in the field of synthetic biology to explore the frontiers of science and technology, break the disciplinary boundaries, and have a dialogue on future development. Zhao Wei, deputy director of the Preparatory Office of SIAT University and director of SIAT Academic Committee, said that as a grand competition for young students in the field of synthetic biology in China, young students can exchange technology and learn from each other through the competition platform to promote their learning and grow together. He encouraged all the participating teams to “create a future themselves rather than wait for the future to come” and work together to create a new name card for synthetic biology in China. Zhang Xian’en, deputy director of the Chinese Society of Biotechnology, director of Synthetic Biology Branch, and dean of the School of Synthetic Biology of SIAT University, on behalf of the society and organizer, introduced the development of synthetic biology, the origin and purpose of the event, who hoped that through the platform, the teenagers and youngsters could compete with their best performance and with a spirit of friendship. The event will become a new international competition for young students, which will foster high-quality talents for the development of synthetic biology together with the international Genetic Engineering Machine Competition (iGEM).

Following the concept of “Seeking Knowledge and Creation for Concrete Purposes”, the event highlighted the characteristics of interdisciplinary integration, which covers three fields: agricultural environment, industry and healthcare. The teams adopt a diverse range of topics to highlight their individuality. The “HUST-China” team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology won an award for innovation. The team has designed an E. coli-based rare earth elements enrichment and recovery system, using synthetic biology to achieve a reasonable transformation of E. coli, build a rare earth elements enrichment and recovery system with a high efficiency, a low cost, and absorbing diverse elements. Other than protecting the environment, it can also recycle these precious resources. In addition, the event has set up three individual awards in the regular season, namely, the best popular science article, the best defense, and the most popular design. The “AFMU-China” team from the Air Force Medical University won the most popular design award after online voting. The team has designed and developed an early home quick detection kit for metabolic symbolism of plasma trace RNA, which can achieve home detection, trace detection and quick detection and analyze the detection results with an App, deliver a detection report that is easy to understand and achieve online remote medical services. The “HUST-China” team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology won the best defense award, and the “SynEn. Pro” team from Hubei University won the best popular science article award. 12 teams such as the “ZJU-China” team from Zhejiang University and “ShanghaiTech” team from ShanghaiTech University won a gold prize, and 13 teams won a silver prize.

In the infrastructure innovation competition, the “m-RNA” team from Nanjing University and “Hust _ Chem” team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology won the protein design award, while the “Swim Fast” team from Wuhan University won the bacteria game award.

In the interview, Deng Zixin, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, honorary dean of the School of Life Science of Shanghai Jiaotong University and director of the Key State Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, said, he was optimistic about the future of the event as China’s first synthetic biology competition, as the event well promoted the imagination and innovation of the teenagers, which was expected to yield subversive achievements in the future.

Yi Xiao, secretary general of the Organizing Committee of the event and a researcher with Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, said, the participating teams of the event in the first year were all from Chinese mainland. The participation of teams from Hong Kong and Macao this year enabled the event to form a trend of “Greater China Plus”. In the future, the Organizing Committee will invite international teams to Shenzhen to participate in the event and support the implementation of excellent projects in the event with the vigor and passion of Shenzhen in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Gu Daining, a student from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said, “This is the second time that I participate in the SynBio Challenges. I am very glad to come to Shenzhen this year to feel the atmosphere. I met a lot of excellent students here. We discussed together, and had the opportunity to consult with experts and scholars face to face. Shenzhen is at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation. A face-to-face communication with experts is of great help to our study and research.”