Project

The idea is a continuation of the EPFL's iGEM 2009 project. The initial plasmid designs come from a team 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 to use by the LBTC, the lab who hosted us for this summer.

Some flowcytometry 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 was 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 Maerkl - For emotional support and advice. Prof Deplancke - For his grand plans and bottomless optimism Prof Hacker - For mammalian advice, HEK, CHO primers 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!) andpushing through our orders Pascal Odermatt - For quick & dirt... useful troubleshooting Prof Fussenegger - For providing us with the Melanopsin plasmid 2009 EPFL team - For inspiring us with the idea for the project

Sunil Kumar Raghav and Paola Alejandra Gilardoni - for helping us with WB & Silver Staining Castro Diaz Natali - for providing pCEP Grisoni-Neupert Barbara - for providing pcDNA3.1(+) Korneel Hens - for providing T7 primer Alina Isakova - for advice for WB & Antibodies & rtPCR & provided antibodies Henrike Marie Niederholtmeyer - for helping us with rtPCR providing RT enzyme and with microscopy LBTC and LBNC - For hosting most of our experiments and letting 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 flowcytometry and letting us monopolise the flow cytometry machines EPFL BI-OP team members Arne Seitz, Mathias Fournier - for helping us with the microscopy Prof Petersen, Dr. Kremer - for providing us with calcium stainig for microscopy Prof Hatzimanikatis - for helping us with modeling the dynamics of LovTAP binding to the DNA Prof Dal Peraro - for helping us with modeling of the LovTAP-VP16 molecule Dr Karlen - for the safety training and advisory

The gymnase teachers who hosted us (Mouna, Sander, please provide names) Everyone who answered to the survey (gymnase students, EPFL students, people at the fair)

& all the others who helped us!