Bielefeld Collaboration - Aurelija corresponded with Sebastien from iGEM Bielefeld to discuss how we are both modelling our use of laccase.

Hackspace - Yeping finished planning the workshops for the collaboration with the London Hackspace. We're really looking forward to the workshops starting on Wednesday!

Darmstadt Collaboration - Bouran swapped address with Henrik from Darmstadt today, we'll be sending them Laccase for characetrisation, while they are sending us a cutinase enzyme for expression in our Roseobacter.

Purdue Collaboration - James was in touch with Chris from Purdue again to discuss swapping protocols for curli characteristion.

Lab clean-up - Safety always first. We had a huge clean-up of the lab, including scrubbing the microwave spotless! We're now ready for our last month in the lab.

British Science Association - Philipp and Bethan met with Roland Jackson to discuss our DIYbio collaboration.

Hackspace Day 1 - We went en masse to the London Hackspace this evening for the first workshop. Carina, Yeping, Philipp, Martina and Bethan were all present. Howard met us there. We bought a glycerol stock of W3110 E. Coli and empty petri dishes to show the biohackers how we make minimal agar plates for day 1 protocol of making competent cells. Quite a few people turned up and they were very keen to have a go!

iGEM connection' - Bethan is organising with iGEM Paris-Bettencourt a trip to Paris to discuss how our two project approach biosafety, and also discuss aspects of our DIYbio collaboration with members of the CRI's Education X.0 project. Paris iGEM also invited us to participate in their debate on the 16th!

Hackspace Day 2 - Together with the hackers, Bethan helped to build a shaker to agitate our cells overnight. This involved using a number of equipment only available at the Hackspace, including hand saw, glue gun and motor. The biohackers were very keen to give us an electronics tutorial as we build our circuit for the shaker. A variable resistor was included in the circuit design so we can control the speed of the shaker.
We also performed PCR of the cholorophenicol plasmid backbone required for our ligations. At hackspace, they have a very cool 'ancient' thermocycler. It has no heated lid so mineral oil has to be added to samples to prevent evaporation. The biohackers showed us how to program the machine. There are so many steps compared to the one used in our lab!

Hackspace Day 3 Our shaker from yesterday was still alive today and the liquid cultures in falcon tubes are all cloudy showing growth! Together with the biohackers we ran a 1% gel of the PCR product from yesterday using their DIY gel tray. Their tray didn't have a cover, you can also see how the wires are connected! Using a hand held UV filter and UV light, we visualized our gel. The PCR has worked! Gel shows the expected band at 2070bp. PCR clean-up is to be done at the UCL workshops since the centrifuge at Hackspace is only estimated to be able to do 5000rpm

Press C-lab published an exciting write-up of our 1st day at the Hackspace