Dear families, 

Thank you to all the families who joined me at the recent Head of School coffee morning. I appreciated the opportunity to connect, hear your thoughts, and discuss what matters most to you in our school community. Your support and engagement make a real difference. 

亲爱的家长们，

感谢所有参加我近期举办的‘总校长咖啡晨会’的家长。我很珍视这次与大家交流的机会，能够倾听家长的想法，并讨论在我们学校社群中对家长来说最重要的事情。你们的支持和参与确实意义非凡。

SIS Student Co-Captains iGEM Team’s 

‘Joy-Filled Drink’ Project

SIS student Zita from Grade 11 co-captained a recent annual global event, The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) in Synthetic Biology, an event open to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Established by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), iGEM challenges participants to push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling real-world issues. Each year, teams receive a standard DNA library from the organisers, enabling them to select a unique research focus and introduce the required samples into biological systems through carefully designed models and analysis, ultimately engineering new bio-systems. 

The team contributed to this effort with the ‘Joy-filled Drink’ project, an innovative solution for stress relief and depression management. The team engineered E. coli Nissle 1917 to produce two mood-enhancing compounds, kaempferol and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), both recognised for their beneficial effects on mental health. To optimise kaempferol production, the team explored fusion enzymes, testing a range of linkers (GGGS, GGGS2, TPTP, TPTP2), and successfully identified linkers that significantly improved yield. The research also investigated the impact of multi-copy genes, discovering that the F3H gene enhances production while the FLS gene has the opposite effect. 

The team aims to bring a natural, accessible option for emotional well-being to the market by integrating these compounds into a fruit tea product. The project exemplifies the power of synthetic biology in addressing mental health challenges, showcasing its potential to create practical solutions for complex, everyday problems. 

To find more details of the team’s project:  

https://2024.igem.wiki/jiashu-southchina/   

SIS学生联合主导iGEM团队

“快乐饮品”项目

SIS学校11年级学生Zita近期在合成生物学领域的一项全球性年度活动——国际基因工程机器大赛（iGEM）中担任联合队长，该活动面向高中生、本科生及研究生开放。iGEM由麻省理工学院（MIT）创立，旨在鼓励参与者通过解决现实世界的问题来突破合成生物学的界限。每年，各参赛团队都会从主办方处获得一个标准的DNA库，从而能够选择一个独特的研究方向，并通过精心设计的模型和分析，将所需的样本引入生物系统，最终构建出新的生物系统。

团队通过“快乐饮品”项目为这一努力做出了贡献，该项目是一种创新的缓解压力和抑郁管理的方法。团队改造了Escherichia coli Nissle 1917（大肠杆菌尼氏1917株），使其能够产生两种能改善情绪的化合物：山柰酚和γ-氨基丁酸（GABA），这两种化合物均被认为对心理健康有益。为了优化山柰酚的产量，团队探索了融合酶技术，测试了一系列连接子（GGGS、GGGS2、TPTP、TPTP2），并成功找到了能显著提高产量的连接子。研究还调查了多拷贝基因的影响，发现F3H基因能增强产量，而FLS基因则产生相反的效果。

团队的目标是将这些化合物融入水果茶产品中，为市场带来一种自然、易获取的情绪健康选择。该项目展示了合成生物学在解决心理健康挑战方面的力量，体现了其为复杂日常问题创造实用解决方案的潜力