Team:Exeter/Diary/wk3

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2nd-6th July 2012

The group attended this month’s Café Scientifique to obtain a general feel for the type of talks and discussions that take place there. We soon realised it was a relaxed atmosphere where topical debate was frequent and encouraged, I’m sure we’ll have plenty to talk about when we do our talk in September!

Becca spent the week designing Gibson primers that unfortunately weren’t required due to a slight change in plan. She researched and designed the primers for Hyaluronan synthases (HAS) and the three other genes needed to get hyaluronan but currently it appears we can’t afford them. Gracefully she also assisted Alex in getting to grips with SacB and the primers for it.

This week we began investigating the ethics and impacts our project may have if successful. Alex B and Becca went to see Sabina Leonelli to obtain some extra guidance whilst Alex C has been investigating the potential impacts to pre-existing systems. We’ll be transferring everything we discover to their own corresponding wiki pages soon! Applications of SacB and HAS have also been explored whilst thinking how we can best display our triumph visually in the lab!

At the end of the week we’ve said goodbye to our engineer Alice, as she heads off for a lovely summer break in Budapest! But don’t despair she’ll be returning to help us out at a later date.