We believe our team deserves a Gold medal, because we met the following criteria:

Bronze Requirements:

• Register the team, have a great summer, and plan to have fun at the Regional Jamboree.
• Successfully complete and submit this iGEM 2012 Judging form.
• Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki and the team's parts using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
• Plan to present a Poster and Talk at the iGEM Jamboree.
• 

  Enter information detailing at least one new standard BioBrick Part or Device in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.

  We have planned, constructed 18 new Parts. For each Part we have provided to the Registry:

  • Primary nucleic acid sequence
  • Description of function
  • Authorship
  • Safety notes, if relevant.
  • Acknowledgment of sources and references

• 

  Submit DNA for at least one new BioBrick Part or Device to the Registry.

  We have submitted to the Registry 18 new Parts and 3 improved existing Parts

Additional Requirements for a Silver Medal

• 

  Demonstrate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected; characterize the operation of your new Part/Device.

  We have characterized 15 new Parts/Devices. We have demonstrated that all 15 Parts worked as expected. For a description of our Parts go to our Parts page. Here is a brief description to our Best Parts:

  • Best Natural Part: BBa_K731000 - A serine acetyltransferase (CysE). This is a key part in our black crust project: it was used in a Composite Part (BBa_K731030) as a device to reduce sulfate that ultimately produces cysteine
  • Best Engineered Part: BBa_K731400 - Our favorite BioBrick encoding for a cysteine desulfhydrase, controlled by an IPTG inducible cassette. This is the second key part for the Crustaway project. This BioBrick produces an enzyme that uses cysteine as the substrate to form sulfidric acid.
  • Best Improved Part: K731722 - Our new entry in the terminator collections of the Registry: a T7 terminator! This terminator was characterized with both T7 and E. coli polymerases.

• 

  Enter this information and other documentation on the Part's 'Main Page' section of the Registry.

  We have entered in the Registry informations and characterizations of the following Parts:

  • Part Numbers: BBa_K731000, BBa_K731010, BBa_K731020, BBa_K731030, BBa_K731040, BBa_K731201, BBa_K731250, BBa_K731255, BBa_K731400, BBa_K731480, BBa_K731520, BBa_K731700, BBa_K731701, BBa_K731702, BBa_K731710, BBa_K731711, BBa_K731712, BBa_K731721

Additional Requirements for a Gold Medal

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  Improve an existing BioBrick Part or Device and enter this information back on the Experience Page of the Registry.

  We have improved 2 existing BioBricks from the registry: B0010 and K314111. Our new entries are:

  • BBa_K731722 (new entry for B0010)
  • BBa_K731300 (new entry for K314111)
  • BBa_K731500 (new entry for K314111)

  With BBa_K731722 we provided a valid functioning alternative to BBa_B0010, which is a transcriptional terminator deposited in the Registry. Part BBa_B0010 from the registry was inconsistent (i.e. the gel did not show any insert of the right size) and no functional characterization was available. Others in the past have tried to use this part and failed.(http://partsregistry.org/Part:BBa_B0010:Experience , http://openwetware.org/wiki/Cconboy:Terminator_Characterization/Results). Therefore we have amplified BBa_B0010 from BBa_E0840 and subcloned into pSB1C3. We have now resubmitted a well functioning B0010 terminator and named it BBa_K731722. We have documented our entry in the Experience section of BBa_B0010.
  
  

  With BBa_K731300 and BBa_K731500 we are providing two new ready to use IPTG inducible cassette that are an improvement of Part BBa_K314111.
  BBa_K731300 is a part that encodes for the LacI protein controlled by the constitutive lacIq promoter in the reverse direction. We have chosen the reverse direction to avoid complications arising from RNA polymerases.
  BBa_K731500 is a composite part that consists of BBa_K731300 followed by a tac promoter and a lac operator, both in the forward direction. Several entries are listed in the Registry for lacI or lacIq. However, there is no “ready to go” device available. Our two new entries make it easier for Registry users to build IPTG inducible devices.



• Help another iGEM team
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  Outline and detail a new approach to an issue of Human Practice in synthetic biology as it relates to your project, such as safety, security, ethics, or ownership, sharing, and innovation.

  • We have compiled “The SRB handbook – safety guidelines for H₂S producing bacteria” to share our experience and help other iGEM teams working safely with H₂S and H₂S producing bacteria in the laboratory. The handbook is available in our wiki page under the H₂S section of our lab notes.
  • We also have taken steps to introduce experts in the field to our new approach. We have interviewed a sculpturist, a geologist, a restorer, a chemical engineer who works in stone restoration, and one of the authority in conservation of arts and monuments of Trento. A merge between Art and Science to validate the usefulness of our method and how that would have an impact on the art of stones restoration and conservation. The results of our survey are posted in the Art and Science section of our wiki.