Attributions

University of Calgary Support

The University of Calgary iGEM team would like to thank and acknowledge all of the support from the University in terms of student stipends, support personnel, facilities, and materials which made this project possible. The Department of Biological Sciences and the O'Brien Centre for the Bachelor of Health Sciences provided the laboratories we worked in this summer, and the O'Brien Centre allowed us to continue our work even into the fall term. Additionally, a special thanks to all departments and faculties which financially contributed to our project.

Advisor and Instructor Support

All research work was performed by the undergraduate students on our team. Our professors and advisors contributed support and ideas to the students and facilitated a safe and efficient laboratory environment. Special thanks to Dr. Lisa Gieg, whose experience in petroleum microbiology provided the facilities and protocols required to make our work possible (including GC/MS and culturing of various organisms). And thanks to Dr. Anders Nygren for his help with engineering the electrical circuits used in the our biosensor prototypes. Finally, thanks to Dr. Mayi Arcellana-Panlilio for her troubleshooting advice.

Support From Additional Professors and University Staff

Special thanks to Dr. Doug Muench, one of our advisors whose support made it possible for us to obtain our laboratory space in Biological Sciences. In addition, we would like to acknowledge other professors in the department of Biological Sciences including Dr. Greg Moorhead, Dr. C. C. Chinnappa (both for supplying equipment), Dr. Michael Hynes, Dr. Ray Turner, Dr. Gerrit Voordouw, Dr. Howard Ceri, Dr. Denice Bay, and Monika Schwering for their support with supplies and protocols. Additionally we would like to recognize Dr. Viola Birss, Bri Campbell, and Anusha Abhayawardhana in the Department of Chemistry for their assistance with the electrochemical studies conducted by our team. Finally we would like to thank Dr. Arin Sen in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering for his advice with the design of our bioreactor and Dr. Jennifer Cobb, Deirdre Lobb, Dr. Steve Robbins, and the SACRI Research Group for their donation of chemicals.

Outside of University Research and Technical Support

We would like to thank and acknowledge the support of various individuals from other Universities. This includes Dr. Michael Ellison for his lab's contribution of Keio Collection Knockout strains used in this project, the 2011 University of Washington iGEM team for sending us plasmid DNA of the Petrobrick as the DNA construct available in the registry was incorrect. Thanks to Dr. Josie L. Garcia from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones, Madrid Spain for contribution of a plasmid containg the hpaC gene. Dr. John Kilbane for the contribution of the Rhodococcus baikonurensis containing the Rhodococcus IGTS8 dszABC plasmid. Special thanks to our professor Dr. Lisa Gieg for her contribution of a Pseudomonas sp. LD2 species previously reported to degrade carbazole. Finally, special thanks to Abanacai Corporation, Ohio for their samples of a oil skimming sample kit used in our bioreactor design.

Outside of University Additional Support

We would like to thank the individuals who we had requested to do interviews with Christine Daly (Suncor Inc.), Ryan Radke (BioAlberta), Kelly Roberge (K Roberge Consulting Ltd.), William Sawchuk (ARC Resources), Gordon Lambert (Suncor Inc.), and Zvonko Burkus (Alberta Environment). We would like to thank our representative Claudia Bustos for all of her hard work and support of our team from the Telus Spark Science Centre. Thank you to Robert Kotch from the Bonniebrook Waste Treatment Plant for allowing us access to their facility to learn more about how their reactors were designed. We would also like to thank Lorne and Laurie Swalm for their generous support of our project. Finally, we would like to thank the E. coli Genomic Stock Centre at Yale University for their support and quick release of the glyA Keio Knockout gene.