After last weeks training week we hope to finally begin construction. There are still a few hurdles: Our genetic circuits need our supervisor's approval and we might need to order some additional parts.
One of the human practice events we're most excited about is collaborating with the DIYbio community. We want to finalize the concept and find a space for it, as well as apply for funding. Hopefully we also have a much nicer and more complete wiki by the end of this...
Also, we will be creating our "project trailer" this week, which we'll use for a very exciting Kickstarter campaign...
Monday
Wiki Meeting - Today we had a meeting to assess the progress on wiki.
Tuesday
Meeting - Fundraising. We all met with Kate from Biochem Eng about getting publicity for crowd fundraising
Meeting - Public Engagement. Met with Hilary from Public Engagement Unit regarding beacon bursary for DIYbio project
Wednesday
Wet Lab Training - Today we proceeded to train other team members in restriction enzyme digest and transforming bacteria.
Modelling meeting – Talked through conceptual problems, outlined how the models should work, and made some decisions about how to proceed
London Hackspace Meeting – Philipp, Yeping, Leonard and Martina visited the Hackspace Base at Old Street to discuss our ideas for human practice. They also had the opportunity to try some of their equipment, including running a gel in their lab.
Thursday
Meeting - Organising Construction - Members of the Construction Crew have now reached a stage where they can provide a timetable for the construction of Biobricks. They have produced a Gantt Chart, which will assist in managing this part of the project over the summer
Meeting - Crowdfunder Campaign - Philipp, Leonard, Aurelija and Yeping have been brainstorming ideas for a Crowdfunder Campaign. A Crowdfunder Campaign involves designing a short, quirky video to capture peoples attention about out project. This can be posted on www.sponsume.com to recruit for funding from wider audiences - most notably the wider UCL. Outcome: Decided on a stop-motion style of video and produced a rough storyboard
Friday
Wet Lab Training- We continued training our other team members where we performed gel electrophoresis of our enzyme digest products. We were also going to purify our plasmid DNA from our previously transformed cells but strangely after centrifuging there were no pellets.
Meeting - Crowdfunder Campaign - Philipp, Leonard, Aurelija, Rhiannon and Yeping discussed the style of the crowdfunder campaign. Outcome: Decided it would progress like the turning pages of a book and produced a more detailed storyboard
Meeting - Radio Show
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