Team:UIUC-Illinois/Notebook/MeetingNotes

2/17/12 Meeting
iGEM advisors meeting
Present: Cara, Adi, Uros, Bob, Asha, Amanda, Will, Isaiah, Angela
Advisors: Dr. Jim, Todd, Courtney Evans (Lab manager), Brad Evans (post-doc), Dr.
Bhalerao
Agenda:
- Team formed in 2007, first competition in 2008 (four competitions)
- Discussion: do we want to create a computational team? Involve open
recruitment or connections. One of the teams at the finals had a
computational team that created an evolutionary model of gene dynamics.
(Prof. Bhalerao involved heavily in the computational side)
o Bhalerao – it shouldn’t be done if it’s not 110%
- The pep talk: Don’t lose commitment, you are chosen to represent Illinois.
Don’t quit and do your job.
o Bring it on!
o Watch past presentations to realize the level of competition that we’re
facing. They’re mind blowing.
- 2 aspects to this experience: the synthetic biology (the idea, the research, the
quality of the physical project), marketing (broad vision, best presentation, a
sense of a dynamic vision is important, the judges like videos!)
- Understanding synthetic biology: this is the big idea, understand it before
anything else. Cut through the jargon. Take advantage of its flexibility.
o When presenting to the judges, need to let them know that we’re doing
synthetic biology, not nanobiology.
- Meet with the advisors regularly to keep on track.
Summary of Advisor’s labs:
- Dr. Jin: Doing yeast and e. coli metabolic engineering. Engineer a pathway to
create a phenotype of interest. All projects are about genetic manipulation
and perturbation (also some environmental perturbation) in order to produce a
phenotype faster, easier, cheaper. Will learn genetic manipulation, how to
culture the cell in large scale and small scale (fermentation/bioreactors), mass
spect to analyze the metabolic product. Also some computation in order to
analyze results (but not a good idea to focus on in this time frame of 2-3
months).
- Dr. Bhalerao: Pathogenic research. What happens to the stress response of
the cell and the cell’s evolution in response to a metabolic engineering/gene
circuit that you have put in the cell? Well it’s hard, so you look at evolution on
the population scale. Can we control the evolution of the bug? If we so we
can build better vaccines or harness these bugs for more work. (Example:
can we control the evolution of pesticide resistant bugs?) Project:
bacteriophage system. How does system change under different stresses?
It’s complex to measure, so can we genetically modify these bacteria to
visually tell us things? Will learn genetic manipulation, mathematical
modeling, evolutionary genomics.
- MMG (Brad Evans, Todd, Courtney): help contruct a series of vectors that
will put tags onto the e.coli genome that will tease out their functions. How
can we figure out what this protein does and how it does it? VERY iGem
applicable.
- Dr. Rao: similar to Dr. Jin, chemotaxis, as well.

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!

iGEM Meeting Minutes
3/4/12
Announcements:
Publicity - Divya
- Everyone needs to sign up for an EOH shift on the google doc. Melissa and
IGB have been contacted about equipment for a PowerPoint, posters, and 2
computers. An iGEM flyer is being made for EOH.
- IGB fellows: a research symposium where 2 people will present a poster to
IGB scientists. We will need people to cover shifts throughout the day. This is
in a professional setting. Last year’s E. Chiver project will be presented.
Social Chair - Cara
- Everyone get excited for EOH! Social events will be planned after safety
certification and EOH is done. A good idea is to do something before spring
break.
Corporate – Adi
- Next week, a meeting with Courtney and Melissa will take place. Bob will
accompany Adi to discuss getting funding for the website.
Secretary - Asha
- EOH posters will be worked on after this general meeting. Cara and Asha will
be going to the first Engineering Council meeting this Wednesday evening.
Lab Manager - Isiah
- Lab work for EOH has been worked on by Angela. Last year’s project is still
under consideration as to whether or not it will be included for EOH.
- It is important for everyone to have access to IGB to come into the lab.
Web Master - Bob
- Bob has been looking at old wiki setups and has contacted David Chen from
last year to help with this.
- There will be the wiki page for project results and a different iGEM website for
publicity and information. The judges only see the wiki. Another option is for
the wiki to be hosted off of our own website.
- Learning python would help with Tinker Cell. When we decide what we want
to model, we can start looking at what we specifically need to learn of python.
Treasurer - Anthony
- Needs to receive the account number from the last year’s treasurer.
Vice President – Uros
- Everyone needs to complete the EOH training and print the safety inspection
sheet in order to be ready for the Friday morning safety check.
- Everyone also needs to meet with Courtney to complete the IGB safety
training.
President - Angela
- Next advisor’s meeting is Tuesday, March 6, 3-4 PM at IGB. We will be
discussing why last year’s team was not fully successful.
- Next Sunday, Angela will go over the E. Chiver project from last year. And
every Sunday someone will go over another project.
- Next week’s article: “A sensing array of radically coupled genetic ‘biopixels’.”
It will be presented by Uros.
Discussion:
1) Safety quizzes and IGB keys
a. Keys are not working after hours or during the weekend. This problem has
been brought up to Courtney.
b. This Tuesday Adi, Bob, Anthony, and Asha will meet with Courtney to
complete their safety training.
c. So far only Cara, Uros, and Isiah have an IGB key.
d. Procedure:
d.i. Take all three safety quizzes
d.ii. Go to Courtney for 30min IGB specific safety presentation
d.iii. Get the access paper signed by Courtney (can ask her for a copy)
d.iv. Go to 1st floor of Gatehouse to the front desk, tell them you are
iGEM and need access
d.v. Pay the $8.50 and get a receipt
d.vi. Take your receipt to the Union Bookstore on Wright, go to id center
in back
d.vii. Tell them you need access to IGB and give them the receipt from
the Gatehouse (be prepared to take a new id picture!)
d.viii. Finally make sure you go to your residence hall front desk and get
your new icard re-activated
d.ix. Make sure your new icard will give you after-hours access, maybe
go to IGB front doors after 5pm and see if you can swipe into the
front doors
2) New meeting Schedule
a. General meeting: We will still meet every Sunday from 3-5. For the rest of
the semester, the Chemistry Library will be our meeting place.
b. Journal club: The journal club will meet every week after the general
meeting. We have 5 papers that the advisors suggested we read.
c. Advisor’s meeting: First advisors meeting will be this Tuesday, March 6th
from 3-4 at the IGB.
3) Has everyone contacted their lab advisor?
a. If not, do that asap!
4) EOH progress
a. We will meet after this to familiarize ourselves with the presentation for
EOH.
b. Everyone needs to partner up with someone who knows the presentation,
that way at EOH we are prepared.
5) Journal Club (Presented by Anthony)
a. “Synthetic biology: advancing biological frontiers by building biological
systems”
b. PowerPoint is attached to the email of these minutes.

Agenda of Advisor Meeting
3/6/2012
Team Structure
- President – Angela Chen
- Vice President – Uros Kuzmanovic
- Secretary – Asha Kirchhoff
- Treasurer – Anthony Chau
- Corporate Director – Adi Malik
- Publicity Director – Divya Tankasala
- Social Chair – Cara Schornak
- Web master – Bob Chen
- Lab Manager – Isiah Ramos
- But it is everybody’s responsibility to contribute and direct themselves, as well
as collaborate with all the others to make the project a success
Team Operation
- Meetings
o Bi-weekly advisor’s meeting
 Tuesday from 3-4 PM
o Weekly general meeting
 Keeping track on team operations
 Discussion on one past project
o Weekly Journal club
- Recent Activities
o Participated in E-week events
o Preparing for Engineering Open House
 In order to use this in the human practices part of our project,
we will video tape people’s opinions on synthetic biology, video
tape the exhibit, and count the number of people we interacted
with
 A short edited video can then be used for the human practices
part of our website
 Overall, the responsibilities of human practices falls to Divya,
Cara, and Asha
o Completed safety quizzes
 Make sure Courtney has a copy of your completed safety
quizzes! This is absolutely necessary to do before you get your
IGB card access.
o Started Journal club on March 4
 Important to critically examine the articles, not just read them.
We have to sharpen our critical thinking. We also should read
review articles for every paper.
o Started project discussion – 2011 U of Washington and Imperial
College London
o Started Bootcamp in each lab
 Every week everyone should share what they are learning in
bootcamp. This will lead to brainstorming.
o Presented E. Chiver project in the 2012 Institute of Biological
Engineering on March 2
 Angela and Jaimie recreated the old presentation so that it was
more suitable to a symposium. The presentation was filmed, so
it will be sent to all of the advisors.
Discussion
- Bi-weekly meeting with advisors
o What do we discuss in this meeting?
 Present our ideas for projects to the advisors so they can give
us an indication of how we are progressing and if our plans are
viable.
o Introduction to Prof. Liu of Bioengineering as one of our advisors.
- Team Operation
o Would identifying a topic in the first week of summer be too late?
o Brainstorming
 Rules:
· No idea is bad. Especially for the first 2 weeks, there
should be no filter. Everyone should have the chance to
speak.
· After a few weeks start editing the ideas. Check
iGEM.org to make sure that no one has done our idea
before. This is also another good resource to check and
see what type of projects went well and why.
o Dr. Bhalerao advises to skip looking at the past projects of UIUC iGEM
or other iGEM teams. Courtney agrees that we will never be proficient
in synthetic biology, so it’s important to just come up with good ideas
(which is the hard part). Looking at past presentations and projects is
what we should all do individually, not at the meeting.
o Our project should be feasible, something we enjoy, and something
really cool. Our presentation should also be able to market and
capitalize our idea, as well as convince everyone that it is better and
more exciting than anything else.
o Look at our old past projects and see if we can finish any or do any
better.
- Team Collaboration
o Is collaborating with the University of Michigan team, or others,
feasible?
 Try to build bridges with as many teams as possible. That way
we have as many options as possible. These contacts need to
be made soon.
 Our collaboration can be pooling human practices, sharing data
or technology, or even sharing a project. It is possible to actually
collaborate on the same project, especially if one lab blind tests
the other’s idea, or one team plans and the other executes.
- iGEM registration
o Registration is now open. Do we have an iGEM account?
 Yes.
o Can we join iGEM – Entrepreneurship?
 A good idea, ultimately we do want our project to be applicable
in real life.
 We need to acquire an additional advisor from the business
school. Try Kathy Baylis in Agriculture/Consumer economics.
She is a friend of Dr. Bhalerao’s and her husband is a professor
in the business school.
 Dr. Bhalerao thinks we should pursue the economic models
track.
 This has the same registration deadline as the normal iGEM
competition, which is March 31.
- Funding Sources
o Where do we find funding sources?
 We start from scratch every year. The only one that is
guaranteed is IGB. We should start early.
 Funding went well last year; we’re starting with $15,000. But we
should knock on all doors.
o Should the corporate director and president talk with the IGB director?
 Yes, make a formal appointment and have an impressive
presentation. Dress down for it and make them give you money.
 Also, make a brochure for iGEM 2012 and then go and talk to all
the heads of all the Colleges. We can print it on nice glossy
paper for free at IGB. Our brochure should contain as specific
as a project idea as possible. We want to let everyone know that
we plan to deliver. Also market that we want to join the
Entrepreneurship competition this year.
 Also, contact Peter Fox. He owns the land that is Research
Park. Also contact Scott Pilkins, the director of Research Park.
Illinois Ventures in particular is one we should talk to. Steven
Slyger from Nanodisk at Research Park.
o In May, we will all need to fill out a form for travel reimbursements
($700).
- Server
o Do we have a server for the iGEM website?
 We do, Dr. Bhalerao has it in his office.
 We would be able to secure $100 for a high quality website from
Adi’s Chicago web developer contact. But we should make sure
it has dynamic contact. It it’s just static, we shouldn’t spend the
money, and we should just use a template.
- 2011 iGEM project
o Why didn’t we advance to the international competition?
 There was no data uploaded. It was a human error. A lot of
people liked the idea, but there wasn’t enough data and
characterization to show the judges.
 The idea was too complex, the execution was poor. The project
never really came together, it had no final polish.
 This year the goal is to ADVANCE.
o How should we manage time/human resources to complete a winning
project?
 Towards the end of the project, everyone needs to continually
be checking and double checking that everything is correct and
has been submitted.
 We really don’t want to let our wiki go until the last minute.
Ideally it should be created over a long amount of time.
 We also really want to focus on our presentation. We should
memorize it, but then make it seem effortless.
 Things that stand out: great idea, great execution, and obvious
team chemistry.

3/7/12 Engineering council
Present: Asha, Cara
Officer announcements
- Engineering open house:
o Thursday night – you must attend check in at Kenney Gym starting at 6
PM! T-shirt pickup, equipment, and signs will be given out at this
meeting. The final safety meeting is at 9PM after this.
o We need to volunteer 4 hours as a society, and register on the EOH
website (attractions tab, volunteer, google survey and doodle).
o Fun stuff: Tesla Coil Concert at 9 PM on Friday, Dorm room fire
simulation (11, 1, 3 PM on Friday only!), James bond exhibit. Friday
night speaker is Danny Forester (host of Build it Bigger on Discovery),
but this needs tickets which you get can on the hour every hour at
Grainger. Also, you can download the EOH app.
- EC executive board elections: society should decide on who to vote for once
the names and statements are sent out.
- EC/BC barcrawl (engineering and business council). Wed, March 14th at 9
PM. Can sign up on facebook
- March madness bracket challenger: $5 per entry with money going to Habitat
for Humanity.
- Committed Student Award: We can nominate one student for significant
contributions to an EC society. Application available online.
- Town Hall meeting with Dean Tucker (dean of undergrad engineering) is
Monday Match 12th, 1320 DCL at 5 pm. Free food!
- Undergrad Research Workshop: March 13, 11-12 in 112 Engineering Hall.
- How to make your own nonprofit: March 14, 5:30-7 PM in 269 Everitt Hall.
- Rock your internship: March 27, and grad school workshop after the break
- Awards:
o Committee member of the month: Sid Sethupathi (Eweek mastermind
and a freshman)
o Society Member of the month: Joseph Shim of IEEE
o Society of the Month: AlChE (E week champs)
o Yearly Awards: Most improved society: IIE
o Yearly Awards: Outstanding Society: SWE

iGEM Meeting Minutes
3/11/12
Announcements:
Publicity - Divya
- Film and pictures from EOH will be posted to the facebook page during spring
break. The brochure template will also be created over spring break.
- Melissa wants iGEM to contribute a little blurb to the online newsletters. Asha
will be writing that.
Social Chair - Cara
- Is planning a game night before spring break. Details will be posted on the
facebook page.
Corporate – Adi
- Not present, look for an announcement through a separate email.
Secretary - Asha
- Still need to send minutes for the ec. Meeting, and last advisor’s meeting.
Lab Manager - Isiah
- After spring break, will be in charge of cleaning the lab bench and desk.
However, everyone will help with both of those.
- Also after spring break, Isiah and Anthony will collaborate on ordering
supplies, and then it must be checked with Angela for approval before actually
ordering things.
Web Master - Bob
- Will be moving to Bhalerao’s lab.
Treasurer - Anthony
- Anthony and Isiah have started lab work with Bhalerao.
Vice President – Uros
- Is presenting the journal club today.
President - Angela
- Good job on EOH everyone! =)
Discussion:
1) What did you learn in lab bootcamp this week?
a. Anthony and Isiah (Bhalerao): has a general overview of the lab with oral
instructions. Biohazards were discussed and a gel was created. Actual lab
work will start this week (at least twice a week). They will write a proposal
for a procedure on how to extract, characterize, and transform a specific
gene. Bob will also be switching into Bhalerao’s lab.
b. Asha and Divya (Rao): No contact yet, we will definitely try to meet this
week before spring break.
c. Cara (Brad): Lots of stuff! Working hard over the past few weeks, Cara
has been performing electrophoresis, ligation, and transformation.
2) Meetings schedule
a. Over spring break, everyone should review past projects and come up
with their own proposal for a project.
a.i. Group 1: Angela, Asha, Bob, Isiah , Anthony
a.ii. Group 2: Divya, Uros, Cara, Adi
a.iii. There will be no discussion on the past projects, but it is important
for inspiring our own project proposals.
b. Next general meeting is on March 25 from 6-9 PM. It’s long because we
will be discussing proposals and projects. However, it will be in a social
setting with food!
b.i. There will be no journal club!
b.ii. Group 1 will take 20 minutes to present their proposal.
c. Next advisor’s meeting is on March 27 from 3-4 PM in IGB.
c.i. Group 1 will present again, and the advisors will give their critiques.
d. Weekly meeting on April 1
d.i. No journal club!
d.ii. Group 2 presents their proposals
e. Advisor’s meeting on April 3 from 3-4 PM at the IGB.
e.i. Group 2 will present their proposals again.
3) E. Chiver was presented at the IBE conference. We watched the presentation
that Angela and Jaimie gave. (Attached to the email of these minutes).
a. It was a good novel idea, but it was not possible to transform that many
genes with the small number of people who had lab experience.
b. So for this year, we want to characterize one gene really well and then
build up from that simple concept.
b.i. Another good idea: find another concept and make it easier or
better in some way.
4) Journal club: “A sensing array of radically coupled genetic ‘biopixels’.” Presented
by Uros
a. Presentation attached
Email list:
Adi Malik <adi.malik24@gmail.com>,
Angela Chen <chen398@illinois.edu>,
Anthony Chau <chau3@illinois.edu>,
Asha Kirchhoff <kirchho2@illinois.edu>,
Bob Chen <riboflavinbob@gmail.com>,
Divya Tankasala <divzmyster30@gmail.com>,
Isiah Ramos <greenstatic92@gmail.com>,
Uros Kuzmanovic <ukuzma2@illinois.edu>,
manda68@gmail.com,
jones28@illinois.edu,
ysjin@illinois.edu,
chrisvrao@gmail.com,
bhalerao@illinois.edu,
courtfuentesevans@gmail.com,
brad_ev02@yahoo.com,
freesto1@illinois.edu,
joannema7@gmail.com,
mmckilli@illinois.edu,
luting@illinois.edu

iGEM Meeting Minutes
3/25/12
Announcements:
- Thanks for the wonderful food everyone! Special thanks to Cara for
organizing this and Anthony for hosting!
- Presentations today!
- Only 6 weeks left! There will be no meetings in May so everyone can focus
on their finals, so we have to make good use of the 5 general meetings we
have left!
- Things to do before summer:
o Clean up the lab! Angela started, but we need to dispose of all the old
chemicals and strains. We also need to make an inventory that will be
digitalized. Isiah will be in charge of the lab, but we are all going to
help! Things to be cleaned: 4 degree room for fridge, -80 and -20
degree rooms for freezers, lab bench, and lab desk.
o Familiarize ourselves with the protocol that Angela will send out.
o Familiarize ourselves with the lab machinery. PCR, gels, centrifuge.
Get to know these in lab bootcamp.
o Familiarize ourselves with biobricks. We’re going to try to create a
circuit based on previous year’s biobrick kits. Also, the biobricks are
free so if you want one, just go to the part registry to order it. The email
for ordering is hq@igem.org.
o We want to find sponsors. Divya and Adi will needs to collaborate to
create a brochure and start contacting corporate sponsorships. This
will really come together after we figure out what our project is.
- Upcoming publicity events:
o Undergrad research symposium: Divya will be contacting us about
when this it gets closer.
o Volunteering to do chemistry demos with Courtney sometime in mid to
late April. Send Courtney an email if you are interested!
- Collaboration with other teams:
o We have been contacted by University of Michigan to collaborate. We
will see how this progresses as we both come to conclusions about our
separate projects.
o During the summer our goal is to go visit WashU, Northwestern or
both! We will take a weekend off during the summer to have fun with
another iGEM team! Anthony and Cara will collaborate on this
contacting the teams and getting SORF funding.
- General outline of summer schedule:
o There will be a short daily meeting that is mandatory! This is just so
we all know what everyone else is doing and can keep on schedule
and organized.
o We will have deadlines, but flexible lab hours. Come in Mon-Fri as
your work requires. The goal is to lead ourselves and be self-sufficient.
o Our first day in lab is May 16. We get a short little break after finals to
recharge and get ready for a great summer in lab!
o May 19-20, the first weekend we are at the IGB, we will have meetings
on Saturday and Sunday! This is the only weekend we will have
meetings.
o We will also have weekly advisor’s meetings. Courtney will not be
present, but will communicate with us through email.
o During the summer, we have 7 days of travel breaks. You MUST let
Angela know if you want to take more than a week off. This seems like
a lot of work with no breaks, but we want to work hard to try to
complete a great project! If we finish early, there will be more free time
towards the end of August.
o We will finish the wiki during summer! We will also try to
completely finish the project during the summer.
o Human practices will be completed during the summer under the
leadership of Asha with assistance by Cara and Divya. However,
everyone should help!
o We will have social events during the summer. We want to bond and
manage our stress!
Presentations:
**** Note! Our next advisor’s meeting is Tuesday from 3-4. All presentations will
have 5 minutes to talk. A good idea is to start with an elevator pitch. This will be followed
with 5 minutes of discussion. This year the plan is also to choose multiple projects. So
we need ideas – no idea is bad! If you would like to present 2 ideas, you will be able to
present at both advisor’s meetings. ****
Anthony – Production of a New Food Source for Aquaculture of Predatory Fish
Isiah – Bacteria Refined Oil
Adi – Biodegradation of plastic by reengineered E. Coli
Asha – Tuberculosis fighting E. Coli
Bob – Electrical energy from photosynthesis
Uros – gives everyone useful articles/links to past iGEM projects
Angela – Engineering RNA site specific binding proteins

iGEM advisor’s meeting
3/27/12
Project proposals:
Angela: RNA Site- Specific Recognition Machinery Using PUF
- It is know that PUF bind the RNA and assists with gene expression.
However, not many other details are known.
- It’s like zinc fingers for RNA
- Is 8 base pairs specific enough to identify viruses? What if we used
several PUFs? 16 base pairs would probably be enough. This works well
as a viral detection system.
- RNA detection system is a possibility but it would take a long time to
perfect.
- Use possibility is an in vitro RNA regulator. Binding of PUF to mRNA
inhibits its expression. Very simple, and a proof of concept experiment.
This could tie into the lysin manufacture for the tuberculosis proposal
- Want a quick easy test to see if this works. This is definitely worth
pursuing.
Anthony: Production of a New Food Source for Aquaculture of Predatory Fish
- E. coli naturally make triglycerides, but not the type we’re looking for.
There is the possibility to introduce another substrate.
- Is there the possibility to create a bioreactor where the enzyme just
breaks down fats?
- More research on possible substrates needs to be done.
Asha: Tuberculosis fighting E. Coli
- Wouldn’t work with tuberculosis, would use M. smegmatis which has 17
known phages
- It takes 2 weeks to grow! It’s hard
- Perdue might be pursuing something like this because one of their
professors has done research on it.
- Instead of looking at tuberculosis phages, just look at bacteriophage
ideas in general.
- Need to look at the lysin proteins in more detail.
Bob: Crossing the Self-sustainability of Photosynthetic systems with Other Cells
- It’s not really possible to introduce photosynthesis to e. coli.
- Nanotechnology or endosymbiosis would be better options
- We need a model for this
Recommendations:
- Do the PUF project and then pick another one of the 3 application
projects to pursue.
Announcements:
Divya – publicity:
- We are signed up for IGB Fellows, where the E. Chiver poster will be
presented. 1 or 2 people need to present, so watch for the email closer to
May.
Cara
- WashU has been contacted, Cara’s contact is working to connect us to
the WashU team.
- NU will be contacted next, along with Perdue
Angela
- This Saturday we will be cleaning up the lab! Everyone should come to
help and learn more about where everything is in the lab. It will start at 1.
- The coming weekend meetings are very important, please commit the
time to be there!
- On April 10th we will meet with Dr. Robinson, the head of the IGB. You
have received an email with the details of this.
o Aside from this meeting, every Tuesday until May will be an
advisor’s meeting.

iGEM Weekly meeting
4/1/12
***Important! Please be punctual! With so few weeks left, every minute counts! ***
Announcements:
Adi, Corporate:
- Contacting academic departments of bioengineering and ag&bio engineering to
see if we can obtain funding. Dr. Amos (undergrad BioE head) has been contacted. She
said that she might not be able to write us a check, but the BioE facilities might be
opened to iGEM. A meeting is scheduled for this/next week for Angela, Adi, and Dr.
Amos to meet.
- by the end of summer, companies will be contacted as well. (Fischer Scientific)
- Website: Alex will have a template created by the end of April. Adi has sent him
Harvard, Calgary, MIT, and Imperial College London as examples. (Calgary and
Imperial are both best wiki winners). Adi is putting in a request so that this will be done
in PHP, that way our wiki can be dynamic.
- Only 5 other teams have signed up for the America division of the
Entrepreneurship competition. This is very promising for us!
Bob, Web master:
- Has met with David, the web master from last year. Bob’s going to get to
experiment with the template from last year on another server. The link to this
has been put on the iGEM facebook page.
Divya, Publicity:
- Undergraduate Research Symposium is on April 11th! Volunteers are much
needed, so email Divya if you can make it for just a few hours.
- A workshops on how to effectively present posters are also going on this
Wednesday and Thursday at the UGL. Come when you can and let Divya know about it!
(This event has been added to the iGEM google calendar.)
- iGEM is going to get registered for Quad day next fall.
Isiah, Lab manager:
- Need to start deposing old materials in lab and cleaning the bench. That will
happen this week. In the following weeks we will streak stuff out to see what is
functional. The 4th week, everyone will send their results to Isiah who will compile the
data into 2 different books that will allow us to be effective during summer.
- Times for this week: Monday 11 AM – 5 PM, Wednesday 11 AM – 4 PM if
necessary, Friday after 11 AM. We are NOT allowed to be in the IGB after 5 pm. Watch
for Isiah’s email that will follow up to this.
Cara, Social:
- No news back from WashU, and there is currently no IGB money to travel to
any other colleges at all.
- Cara and Asha will look into traveling funds from Engineering Council.
Anthony, Treasurer:
- If we get SORF funds we will get reimbursed for all of our travel expenses. So
we will have to pay for everything upfront, but once we present a receipt we will be
endorsed. This will not cut into our IGB funding.
- This will be discussed with Courtney in the next advisor’s meeting.
Uros, Vice president:
- Uros had the same idea as Adi. Dr. Jin suggested creating magnetic organisms
– yeast that are magnetic. However there are not many applications. Uros will be further
communicating with Dr. Jin about this and brainstorming ideas to come up with a
proposal. In the meantime, Uros and Adi will be collaborating on the project proposal.
- Since degrading plastic is a popular idea, we will investigate to see if any other
teams are going to be pursuing it. If so, then we will try to collaborate with that
university’s team.
Asha, Secretary:
- Please email me your powerpoint presentations for your proposals! Also, post
them to poptab.
- Cara and Asha will be attending another Engineering Council meeting this
week. We will be voting for Engineering Council positions. You have all received an
email with information on the candidates, so please send your opinions and feedback to
both Cara and Asha
Angela, President:
- Everyone needs to go officially sign up for the UIUC-Illinois iGEM team.
Courntey has sent everyone an email with directions on how to do this.
- In April, we will be working on finalizing our idea. So work on your proposal
further! Review more literature and refine the proposal in order to make it
even better.
- If you have yet to present, send Angela a title and a summary of your
proposal.
- Overview of the Parts Registry:
o Where all the biobricks are
o At the beginning of the summer we will get a kit with about 500
biobricks that we can use in our parts.
o The parts registry shows the parts by type with information about each
type of part. Green W’s means the part works!
o Upper right hand “get this part” is where you can order the part. Be
sure to note the part name, the plasmid backbone, and what kind of
antibiotic resistance it has. Ordering any part is free!
o Computer modeling: perform a scratch where we put the sequences
together to check them before we got to the lab
o Before summer, spend some quality time learning what all the different
types of parts are and how to put them together. But don’t memorize
everything – it’s just not possible! Also review iGEM standard cloning
protocol. Angela will take an hour next meeting to give an introduction
to cloning and standard protocol.
- Next week’s meeting: Will be sometime Sunday NIGHT due to Easter. Check
the facebook group for more details. There will be no journal club. Still bring
ideas and develop our existing ones! Develop further proposals.
Proposal presentations:
- Divya – Transplastomic antibacterials
o Plant derived antimicrobials: traditional antibiotics, MDR inhibitors,
Compounds that target bacterial virulence
o Genetically modified plants have new genes inserted into the chloroplast
DNA.
o We create transgenic plants that make drugs.
o We need to find someone on campus with a gene gun.
- Cara – A Privy Understanding of E. Coli
o After natural disasters or in underdeveloped areas sanitation and
uncontained sewage is often an issue. We need a quick, inexpensive,
simple solution.
o Create packages of freeze dried bacteria that will be able to handle high
volumes of human sewage. But the bac in a bucket with water or direct
sewage, and a color indicator shows when the sewage had been purified
and it is safe to dispose of the remainer of the waste. Color goes from blue
-> colorless.
o The kill mechanism is sunlight. When you throw the newly processed
waste water out, the bacteria die in the sun.
o Good project for human practices and for entrepreneurship; need to
target/focus the pathway more.

Team:UIUC-Illinois/Notebook/MeetingNotes

From 2012.igem.org

Revision as of 19:29, 19 June 2012

Meeting Notes

Pre-May

May-June

June-July

July-August

August-Jamboree

@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 <li><a name="meet7" >3/11/12</a></li>
 <li><a name="meet8" >3/25/12</a></li>
+<li><a name="meet9" >3/27/12</a></li>
+<li><a name="meet10" >4/1/12</a></li>
 </div>
 <div id="meetingselection2" class="meetingselection">
 <center><h2>May-June</h2></center>
-<li><a name="meet9">2/19/12</a></li>
-<li><a name="meet10" >2/26/12</a></li>
 <li><a name="meet11" >3/3/12</a></li>
 <li><a name="meet12" >3/6/12</a></li>
@@ Line 795: / Line 796: @@
 <div id="meet9" style="display:none">
 <textarea rows="30" wrap="soft">
+iGEM advisor’s meeting
+/27/12
+Project proposals:
+Angela: RNA Site- Specific Recognition Machinery Using PUF
+- It is know that PUF bind the RNA and assists with gene expression.
+However, not many other details are known.
+- It’s like zinc fingers for RNA
+- Is 8 base pairs specific enough to identify viruses? What if we used
+several PUFs? 16 base pairs would probably be enough. This works well
+as a viral detection system.
+- RNA detection system is a possibility but it would take a long time to
+perfect.
+- Use possibility is an in vitro RNA regulator. Binding of PUF to mRNA
+inhibits its expression. Very simple, and a proof of concept experiment.
+This could tie into the lysin manufacture for the tuberculosis proposal
+- Want a quick easy test to see if this works. This is definitely worth
+pursuing.
+Anthony: Production of a New Food Source for Aquaculture of Predatory Fish
+- E. coli naturally make triglycerides, but not the type we’re looking for.
+There is the possibility to introduce another substrate.
+- Is there the possibility to create a bioreactor where the enzyme just
+breaks down fats?
+- More research on possible substrates needs to be done.
+Asha: Tuberculosis fighting E. Coli
+- Wouldn’t work with tuberculosis, would use M. smegmatis which has 17
+known phages
+- It takes 2 weeks to grow! It’s hard
+- Perdue might be pursuing something like this because one of their
+professors has done research on it.
+- Instead of looking at tuberculosis phages, just look at bacteriophage
+ideas in general.
+- Need to look at the lysin proteins in more detail.
+Bob: Crossing the Self-sustainability of Photosynthetic systems with Other Cells
+- It’s not really possible to introduce photosynthesis to e. coli.
+- Nanotechnology or endosymbiosis would be better options
+- We need a model for this
+Recommendations:
+- Do the PUF project and then pick another one of the 3 application
+projects to pursue.
+Announcements:
+Divya – publicity:
+- We are signed up for IGB Fellows, where the E. Chiver poster will be
+presented. 1 or 2 people need to present, so watch for the email closer to
+May.
+Cara
+- WashU has been contacted, Cara’s contact is working to connect us to
+the WashU team.
+- NU will be contacted next, along with Perdue
+Angela
+- This Saturday we will be cleaning up the lab! Everyone should come to
+help and learn more about where everything is in the lab. It will start at 1.
+- The coming weekend meetings are very important, please commit the
+time to be there!
+- On April 10th we will meet with Dr. Robinson, the head of the IGB. You
+have received an email with the details of this.
+o Aside from this meeting, every Tuesday until May will be an
+advisor’s meeting.
 </textarea>
 </div>
 <div id="meet10" style="display:none">
 <textarea rows="30" wrap="soft">
+iGEM Weekly meeting
+/1/12
+***Important! Please be punctual! With so few weeks left, every minute counts! ***
+Announcements:
+Adi, Corporate:
+- Contacting academic departments of bioengineering and ag&bio engineering to
+see if we can obtain funding. Dr. Amos (undergrad BioE head) has been contacted. She
+said that she might not be able to write us a check, but the BioE facilities might be
+opened to iGEM. A meeting is scheduled for this/next week for Angela, Adi, and Dr.
+Amos to meet.
+- by the end of summer, companies will be contacted as well. (Fischer Scientific)
+- Website: Alex will have a template created by the end of April. Adi has sent him
+Harvard, Calgary, MIT, and Imperial College London as examples. (Calgary and
+Imperial are both best wiki winners). Adi is putting in a request so that this will be done
+in PHP, that way our wiki can be dynamic.
+- Only 5 other teams have signed up for the America division of the
+Entrepreneurship competition. This is very promising for us!
+Bob, Web master:
+- Has met with David, the web master from last year. Bob’s going to get to
+experiment with the template from last year on another server. The link to this
+has been put on the iGEM facebook page.
+Divya, Publicity:
+- Undergraduate Research Symposium is on April 11th! Volunteers are much
+needed, so email Divya if you can make it for just a few hours.
+- A workshops on how to effectively present posters are also going on this
+Wednesday and Thursday at the UGL. Come when you can and let Divya know about it!
+(This event has been added to the iGEM google calendar.)
+- iGEM is going to get registered for Quad day next fall.
+Isiah, Lab manager:
+- Need to start deposing old materials in lab and cleaning the bench. That will
+happen this week. In the following weeks we will streak stuff out to see what is
+functional. The 4th week, everyone will send their results to Isiah who will compile the
+data into 2 different books that will allow us to be effective during summer.
+- Times for this week: Monday 11 AM – 5 PM, Wednesday 11 AM – 4 PM if
+necessary, Friday after 11 AM. We are NOT allowed to be in the IGB after 5 pm. Watch
+for Isiah’s email that will follow up to this.
+Cara, Social:
+- No news back from WashU, and there is currently no IGB money to travel to
+any other colleges at all.
+- Cara and Asha will look into traveling funds from Engineering Council.
+Anthony, Treasurer:
+- If we get SORF funds we will get reimbursed for all of our travel expenses. So
+we will have to pay for everything upfront, but once we present a receipt we will be
+endorsed. This will not cut into our IGB funding.
+- This will be discussed with Courtney in the next advisor’s meeting.
+Uros, Vice president:
+- Uros had the same idea as Adi. Dr. Jin suggested creating magnetic organisms
+– yeast that are magnetic. However there are not many applications. Uros will be further
+communicating with Dr. Jin about this and brainstorming ideas to come up with a
+proposal. In the meantime, Uros and Adi will be collaborating on the project proposal.
+- Since degrading plastic is a popular idea, we will investigate to see if any other
+teams are going to be pursuing it. If so, then we will try to collaborate with that
+university’s team.
+Asha, Secretary:
+- Please email me your powerpoint presentations for your proposals! Also, post
+them to poptab.
+- Cara and Asha will be attending another Engineering Council meeting this
+week. We will be voting for Engineering Council positions. You have all received an
+email with information on the candidates, so please send your opinions and feedback to
+both Cara and Asha
+Angela, President:
+- Everyone needs to go officially sign up for the UIUC-Illinois iGEM team.
+Courntey has sent everyone an email with directions on how to do this.
+- In April, we will be working on finalizing our idea. So work on your proposal
+further! Review more literature and refine the proposal in order to make it
+even better.
+- If you have yet to present, send Angela a title and a summary of your
+proposal.
+- Overview of the Parts Registry:
+o Where all the biobricks are
+o At the beginning of the summer we will get a kit with about 500
+biobricks that we can use in our parts.
+o The parts registry shows the parts by type with information about each
+type of part. Green W’s means the part works!
+o Upper right hand “get this part” is where you can order the part. Be
+sure to note the part name, the plasmid backbone, and what kind of
+antibiotic resistance it has. Ordering any part is free!
+o Computer modeling: perform a scratch where we put the sequences
+together to check them before we got to the lab
+o Before summer, spend some quality time learning what all the different
+types of parts are and how to put them together. But don’t memorize
+everything – it’s just not possible! Also review iGEM standard cloning
+protocol. Angela will take an hour next meeting to give an introduction
+to cloning and standard protocol.
+- Next week’s meeting: Will be sometime Sunday NIGHT due to Easter. Check
+the facebook group for more details. There will be no journal club. Still bring
+ideas and develop our existing ones! Develop further proposals.
+Proposal presentations:
+- Divya – Transplastomic antibacterials
+o Plant derived antimicrobials: traditional antibiotics, MDR inhibitors,
+Compounds that target bacterial virulence
+o Genetically modified plants have new genes inserted into the chloroplast
+DNA.
+o We create transgenic plants that make drugs.
+o We need to find someone on campus with a gene gun.
+- Cara – A Privy Understanding of E. Coli
+o After natural disasters or in underdeveloped areas sanitation and
+uncontained sewage is often an issue. We need a quick, inexpensive,
+simple solution.
+o Create packages of freeze dried bacteria that will be able to handle high
+volumes of human sewage. But the bac in a bucket with water or direct
+sewage, and a color indicator shows when the sewage had been purified
+and it is safe to dispose of the remainer of the waste. Color goes from blue
+-> colorless.
+o The kill mechanism is sunlight. When you throw the newly processed
+waste water out, the bacteria die in the sun.
+o Good project for human practices and for entrepreneurship; need to
+target/focus the pathway more.
 </textarea>
 </div>