Team:UIUC-Illinois/Notebook/MeetingNotes

iGEM Weekly Meeting – Sunday, February 19, 2012
Getting card access to IGB
- Take 3 safety quizzes online (Angela will send out the link)
- Take the certificate you get from this to the IGB gatehouse, first floor, and they
will give you another certificate
- Take this 2nd certificate to the iCard people and get your card access!
- Do this asap!
EOH
- Will be going into the lab on next Saturday to keep up with the wet lab side of
the e.chromi project (we are allowed to be in lab from Monday to Saturday)
- 2nd project: coliroid. A red light system would need to be built so that we can
illuminate the bacteria. (we already have the necessary e.coli strain).
- Potential projects: making e.coli smell like bananas or wintergreen! Also,
seeing strawberry/your own DNA. (these are all really good for kids)
- The budget is $50. Making a nice printed poster is $80 through the IGB, so
lets go simple (tri-fold, old posters, Adi’s computer presentation, hang up
Asha’s dry erase board)
Team Work Delegation
- There are no longer any set positions. We are going to self-delegate tasks,
but then we are also going to cross our own borders and help each other out.
- Big idea! Everyone needs to work together, collaborate, and do their part.
- We still do need a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer because we
are an RSO.
- The engineering council needs us to submit people for these positions. We’re
going to choose these people, but we’re all going to collaborate. Isiah will
send out the survey about this.
- There is still the possibility to change positions if as time goes on we see that
people have different strengths than originally thought.
- Read the Pubmed “Leading a Successful iGEM Team” by Wayne Materi
Presentations of Past Winning Teams
- Adi’s article has been posted to the facebook page
o E. coli were reengineered to be a chemical recording device. Once
they were exposed to a certain stimuli, they would lengthen as a
function of time. So the longer the e.coli were in length, the longer they
had been exposed to the chemical stimuli.
o Helpful in a biological context, also a nanorecorder for toxins or
pollutants.
o Possible project idea: rewire e.coli to detect any type of toxins for a
specific environment.
 Another idea, not only does the e.coli change color when a toxin
is detected, but it starts to break the toxin down. Research if
past iGEM teams have done this.
- First place: University of Washington
o Used e.coli to produce alkanes, a major part of diesel fuel
o Used a protease that digested gluten and made it able to digest more
gluten (idea of taking pills with the protease in it so gluten intolerant
people can take the pill)
o Biobricks: magnetic e.coli, magnetism toolkit for future iGEM teams,
submitted 65 biobricks!
- Will talk about Imperial College London and JZU – China next week
Project Ideas!
- The above e.coli that detects and cleans up toxins
- A harmless e.coli that goes in your body and detects trace amount of
carcinogens or other toxins
- Bioskins: gloves with e.coli on them that would change color letting you know
what different types of chemicals are on your gloves or that there is too much
dangerous chemical on your hands
- Getting rid of carbon monoxide. Either in your home through a bacterial
system, or putting it in factories to purify the exhaust air before it is released
- Bacteria that make biofuels. Lets repurpose these to make them even more
useful. Can we harness photosynthesis or put them in the smokestacks to
purify the air?
- Create a bacteria to keep invasive populations in check. (light sensitive so
they undergo apoptosis during the day)
- BUT – we need to research these ideas to make sure that we can actually
execute these.
- The iGEM categories: Best food or energy project, best environment
project, best health or medicine project, best manufacturing project, best
new application area, best foundational advance, best software tool, best
information processing project, best human practices advance, best
poster, best entrepreneurship
- We REALLY want to register for both iGEM and the new entrepreneurial
competition.
Lab Assignments
- Jin: Uros, Adi, Bob
- Bhalerao: Isiah, Anthony
- Brad: Cara
- Rao: Divya, Asha

iGEM meeting minutes from 2/26/12
- We watched the first 13:00 min of this video about Imperial College of London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ushmgPM7HT8
o Please watch the rest of this video on your own- it’s very inspiring!
o We are ahead of the schedule of ICL in their video; let’s not waste our time!
- Angela suggests that we have two more meetings during the week in addition to Sunday for a total of 3
short meetings a week:
o One to discuss team operation, one with advisers, one journal club meeting; each would be one
hour in length
o Multiple meetings would allow for more efficient use of team time and resources, we can solve
problems from one meeting before the next meeting so we don’t have to wait a whole week to
get answers
- PLEASE FILL OUT THE “WHEN IS GOOD” SURVEY FROM UROS
o this will select times for the two additional weekly meetings and give Courtney a time to come
talk to us about safety
- Safety Quizzes
o Please complete your quizzes this week, we cannot work in the lab on EOH projects until
everyone completes the quizzes
o We are thinking of having a quiz party on Tuesday night this week to do all the online safety
quizzes and have some food, check email/FB for a solid time
o Please stop by the IGB Gatehouse 2nd floor Monday-Friday 8-5 (except the noon lunch hour) to
get your IGB email address which is necessary for one of the safety quizzes
- Journal Club
o No article was discussed today
o We are looking to get JC running during the week based on the results from the when is good
survey- Anthony will lead first JC this week of 2/26
o Whoever will lead JC meeting of the week will create a small power point outlining the paper
o Other iGemmers will read paper and come ready to listen and discuss
- Adviser labs
o Please email your adviser to introduce yourself so that we can get working in lab
o Lab assignments:
Dr. Jin Dr. Bhalerao Brad Dr. Rao
Bob Isiah Cara Divya
Uros Anthony Asha
Adi
- EOH
o Equipment: projector, camera, computer
 IGB gatehouse, second floor, Melissa McKillip to obtain EOH presentation equipment
o Presentation committee- Cara has the practice poster for EOH, we should discuss what other
presentation materials we want to have at EOH
o Lab: glowing bacteria (bright yellow/blue) as backup in case we all cannot get safety certified in
time for EOH
- Social outing suggestion: visit another team such as Northwestern, U Michigan, Wash U, Purdue to
network and have fun
- Discussed timeline for Spring and Summer
o This semester
 learn lab techniques
 Journal Club- once a week to familiarize ourselves with the Syn Bio field so that we can
create a stellar, cutting edge project
o Summer
 1st week: identify the final project
 2-4 week: design the gene circuit - http://www.tinkercell.com/ will help you practice
 5-12 week: lab troubleshooting
o Overall- no specific time
 continue Journal Club
 Human Practices
 Wiki for the competition
 Have some FUN!
- Announcements:
o Publicity Director:
 open houses- once we do all of our work we would like to present it to as many ears as
possible raise awareness of iGEM
 create flyers and brochures
 events that we need to prepare for: EOH, Undergrad Symposium, IGB fellow, Quad Day,
Welcome events
o Corporate Director:
 Talk with Melissa McKillip about funding sources: UIUC and industry
 If we get good funding, we can commercially synthesize some DNA sequences and save
time!
o Web Master:
 learn how to code iGEM Wiki now
· Wiki is for the iGEM judges
 start Illinois iGEM website for meeting times, latest updates, and a place where the
general public will come to look at our iGEM work- therefore it needs to be broad and
understandable to the general public
o Treasurer:
 needs to take RSO treasurer quiz
- Uros presented the Imperial College of London websitehttp://
2011.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College_London
o take away points:
 liked the simplicity of their page
 they readily showed the implications of their project
 it was a global problem that had a wide area of impact
 they defined terms/provided links for definitions
 had lots of pictures and interactive features
- Take a look at the Yale University project from 2011 that identified a very simple problem in a very simple
way
o this is an example of the beauty of simplicity
o this Yale project was in the final for the regional jamboree and advanced to the international
competition- don’t need to be intricate to win
o we should take some hints from them!

Team:UIUC-Illinois/Notebook/MeetingNotes

From 2012.igem.org

Revision as of 21:16, 15 June 2012

Meeting Notes

Pre-May

May-June

June-July

July-August

August-Jamboree

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 <div id="meet1" style="display:none">
+<textarea rows="30" wrap="hard">iGEM Weekly Meeting – Sunday, February 19, 2012
+Getting card access to IGB
+- Take 3 safety quizzes online (Angela will send out the link)
+- Take the certificate you get from this to the IGB gatehouse, first floor, and they
+will give you another certificate
+- Take this 2nd certificate to the iCard people and get your card access!
+- Do this asap!
+EOH
+- Will be going into the lab on next Saturday to keep up with the wet lab side of
+the e.chromi project (we are allowed to be in lab from Monday to Saturday)
+- 2nd project: coliroid. A red light system would need to be built so that we can
+illuminate the bacteria. (we already have the necessary e.coli strain).
+- Potential projects: making e.coli smell like bananas or wintergreen! Also,
+seeing strawberry/your own DNA. (these are all really good for kids)
+- The budget is $50. Making a nice printed poster is $80 through the IGB, so
+lets go simple (tri-fold, old posters, Adi’s computer presentation, hang up
+Asha’s dry erase board)
+Team Work Delegation
+- There are no longer any set positions. We are going to self-delegate tasks,
+but then we are also going to cross our own borders and help each other out.
+- Big idea! Everyone needs to work together, collaborate, and do their part.
+- We still do need a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer because we
+are an RSO.
+- The engineering council needs us to submit people for these positions. We’re
+going to choose these people, but we’re all going to collaborate. Isiah will
+send out the survey about this.
+- There is still the possibility to change positions if as time goes on we see that
+people have different strengths than originally thought.
+- Read the Pubmed “Leading a Successful iGEM Team” by Wayne Materi
+Presentations of Past Winning Teams
+- Adi’s article has been posted to the facebook page
+o E. coli were reengineered to be a chemical recording device. Once
+they were exposed to a certain stimuli, they would lengthen as a
+function of time. So the longer the e.coli were in length, the longer they
+had been exposed to the chemical stimuli.
+o Helpful in a biological context, also a nanorecorder for toxins or
+pollutants.
+o Possible project idea: rewire e.coli to detect any type of toxins for a
+specific environment.
+ Another idea, not only does the e.coli change color when a toxin
+is detected, but it starts to break the toxin down. Research if
+past iGEM teams have done this.
+- First place: University of Washington
+o Used e.coli to produce alkanes, a major part of diesel fuel
+o Used a protease that digested gluten and made it able to digest more
+gluten (idea of taking pills with the protease in it so gluten intolerant
+people can take the pill)
+o Biobricks: magnetic e.coli, magnetism toolkit for future iGEM teams,
+submitted 65 biobricks!
+- Will talk about Imperial College London and JZU – China next week
+Project Ideas!
+- The above e.coli that detects and cleans up toxins
+- A harmless e.coli that goes in your body and detects trace amount of
+carcinogens or other toxins
+- Bioskins: gloves with e.coli on them that would change color letting you know
+what different types of chemicals are on your gloves or that there is too much
+dangerous chemical on your hands
+- Getting rid of carbon monoxide. Either in your home through a bacterial
+system, or putting it in factories to purify the exhaust air before it is released
+- Bacteria that make biofuels. Lets repurpose these to make them even more
+useful. Can we harness photosynthesis or put them in the smokestacks to
+purify the air?
+- Create a bacteria to keep invasive populations in check. (light sensitive so
+they undergo apoptosis during the day)
+- BUT – we need to research these ideas to make sure that we can actually
+execute these.
+- The iGEM categories: Best food or energy project, best environment
+project, best health or medicine project, best manufacturing project, best
+new application area, best foundational advance, best software tool, best
+information processing project, best human practices advance, best
+poster, best entrepreneurship
+- We REALLY want to register for both iGEM and the new entrepreneurial
+competition.
+Lab Assignments
+- Jin: Uros, Adi, Bob
+- Bhalerao: Isiah, Anthony
+- Brad: Cara
+- Rao: Divya, Asha
+</textarea>
 </div>