Project

The idea is a continuation of the EPFL's iGEM 2009 project. The initial plasmid designs come from Nicolas Gobet, a member of the 2009 team. The cloning and troubleshooting and other further developments of these plasmids were done by the current team.

Experiments

The protocols mostly come from our advisors, but also from the kit suppliers and from the relevant core facilities at the EPFL. The advisors helped us learn the basics for most experiments. The cloning and the work in the mammalian cell lab was done by the team. The experimental designs come from the team and were reviewed by our advisors.

The DH5alpha host strain, CHO DG44 and HEK cells were kindly provided by the LBTC, the lab who mostly hosted us this summer.

Some flow cytometry and most microscopy experiments were performed by core facilities at the EPFL (as the devices we needed can't be used without a full training course).

Graphics & Website

All graphic design and drawings were done by the team. For the website, some open-source libraries/tools were used (Bootstrap, jQuery, Coffeescript) to help the development process.

Personal thanks

We would like to thank personally:

Prof. Bart Deplancke - for his grand plans and bottomless optimism

Prof. Sebastian Maerkl - for emotional support and advice, and for providing us with a second home in his lab

Prof. David Hacker - for advice about the mammalian cells, for providing HEK cells and for following our project during its whole duration

Sowmya Balasubramanian - for helping the lab accept us, CHO cell culture and regular advice

Matthew Blackburn - for applying his paranoia at the right times (PCR!) and pushing through our orders

Pascal Odermatt - for quick & dirt... useful troubleshooting

2009 EPFL iGEM team - for inspiring us with the idea for the project

Sunil Kumar Raghav and Paola Gilardoni - for helping us with WB & Silver Staining

Henrike Niederholtmeyer - for helping us with rtPCR

Natali Castro Diaz - for providing pCEP4-HA

Prof. Martin Fussenegger - for providing the Melanopsin plasmid

Grisoni-Neupert Barbara - for providing pcDNA3.1(+)

Korneel Hens - for providing the T7 primer

Alina Isakova - for advice about WB, rtPCR, and providing antibodies and SYBR Green Mix

LBTC and LBNC - for hosting most of our experiments and letting us use their ressoirces

Helen Chong Horrigan - for helping us with all the administrative issues

EPFL FCCF team members Miguel Garcia and Telma Lopes - for helping us with flow cytometry and letting us monopolise the machines

EPFL BI-OP team members Arne Seitz, Mathias Fournier - for helping us with the microscopy

Prof. Carl Petersen and Yves Kremer - for advice about calcium imaging and providing us with the Oregon Green dye

Prof. Vassily Hatzimanikatis - for advice on modeling the dynamics of LovTAP binding to the DNA

Prof. Matteo Dal Peraro - for helping us with the modeling of the LovTAP-VP16 molecule

Stéphane Karlen - for the safety training and advice

Karine Ryffel, Christian Hoyois and students of the Beaulieu Gymnase; Aminian Taraneh and students of the Burier Gymnase - for hosting our talks, listening to them and proving themselves excellent interlocutors

Lucie Eberhard and Yashas Rajendra for taking the team photos

Everyone who answered to the survey (gymnase students, EPFL students, people at Geneva Student Fair)

And to all the others who helped us!