Team:University College London/Notebook/Week2

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= Notebook: Week 2 =
= Notebook: Week 2 =
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==Aims For This Week==
==Aims For This Week==
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.<br />  
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.<br />  
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...<br />
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...<br />
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Also, we will be creating our "project trailer" this week, which we'll use for a very exciting Kickstarter compaign...
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Also, we will be creating our "project trailer" this week, which we'll use for a very exciting Kickstarter campaign...
<div>
<div>
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==Monday==
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==Monday 18th June ==
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<div class="notebook-meeting"> '''Wiki Meeting''' Today we had a meeting to assess the progress on wiki.</div>
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<div class="notebook-wiki"> '''Wiki Meeting''' - Today we had a meeting to assess the progress on wiki.</div>
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<div class="notebook-sponsor"> '''Sponsorship''' - Also we continued applications for in-kind sponsorships. The good news of today is Mathworks and Autodesk companies confirmed their sponsorships!</div>
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<div class="notebook-sponsor"> '''Sponsorship''' - Bethan and Martina continued applications for in-kind sponsorships. The good news of today is Mathworks and Autodesk companies confirmed their sponsorships!</div>
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==Tuesday==
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==Tuesday 19th June ==
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We met early for a talk on the basics of synthetic biology, and for an introduction to Gibson Assembly, given by Ben Mackrow. Ben has a lot of personal experience of using this technique, and gave us a lot of useful advice about the benefits and limitations of such technique.
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<div class="notebook-meeting">'''Press Team Meeting – What Should a Press Kit Contain?''' The team met to discuss how we can convey our project to the Press – in particular whether it would be best to place the focus on the problem of microplastics, or the concept of an island as a solution for this problem. For the press release, and for our other forms of media, we have decided to focus on the island. Though an ‘island’ it is an illusory endpoint to our project – it is highly visible, and will foo idea that synthetic biology can be used to improve the state of the planet.  </div>
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<div class="notebook-sponsor"> '''Meeting - Fundraising'''. Philipp and Bethan met with Kate from Biochem Eng department about getting publicity for crowd fundraising </div>
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<div class="notebook-meeting">'''Construction Crew Meeting – Conjugation.''' The Construction Crew continued their search for a way to prevent conjugation. They discussed ‘geneageddon’ -  a theoretical biobrick enabling bacteria to secrete nucleases, which will digest any plasmids released during cell lysis. Also, they considered using the Imperial iGEM 2011 toxin/antitoxin system to prevent gene transfer by conjugation. Our GMO would carry a toxin gene on its plasmids and an antitoxin gene on its chromosomal DNA. Upon conjugation, only the toxin gene would be delivered to the wild-type recipient, and so any conjugation between GMO and wild-type would be lethal for the wild-type. Spread of genetically modified DNA would therefore be prevented. In particular, we aim to combine these genes on a single plasmid, and therefore improve the Imperial biobrick.</div>
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<div class="notebook-meeting"> '''Meeting - Human Engagement.''' Martina, Yeping, Philipp and Bethan met with Hilary from the Public Engagement Unit regarding our application for the Beacon Bursary. It will support us to put on the DIYbio project so we are very appreciative of her help. </div>
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In the afternoon, there was Wet Lab Training. We were trained to use various equipment around the lab, and how to make important solutions for our experiments. In particular, we were trained to carry out a restriction enzyme digest, and how to inoculate bacteria.
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<div class="notebook-training"> '''Training - Human Engagement''' - We arranged training with Steve Cross - Head of Public Engagement in UCL - to ask for advice about taking our project to a wider population. Outcome: It is much clearer that targeting the wider community involves tailoring how we present our project to particular groups.</div>
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== Wednesday ==
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== Wednesday 20th June ==
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Today we had a very informative presentation by Paola Gomez-Pereira regarding her research into marine microbiology.
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<div class="notebook-meeting">'''Modellers meeting - Using models to inform experimental design'''. This afternoon there was a meeting between computer Modellers, Advisors, and the Construction Crew to discuss specific variables required for modelling our experiments. </div>
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<div class="notebook-training"> '''Wet Lab Training''' - Today we proceeded to train other team members in restriction enzyme digest and transforming bacteria.</div>
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This afternoon we met for further wet lab training, particularly for the process of miniprep for transformed cells, and ‘nanodropping’.
+
<div class="notebook-sponsor"> '''Sponsorship''' - Biosilta and Lonza have agreed to sponsor us!</div>
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<div class="notebook-meeting">'''Wiki meeting – implementing the wiki'''. Prior to this meeting, the Wiki Team had discussed ways in which to make the wiki coherent, and had developed a number of new ideas and designed a number of layouts. This evening, we began writing the content of the wiki, and the process of creating the site.</div>
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<div class="notebook-modelling"> '''Modelling meeting''' – Talked through conceptual problems, outlined how the models should work, and made some decisions about how to proceed </div>
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'''Human Practice''' - This afternoon we undertook filming of the first episode of our documentary, with Jazz Croft interview each team member about their experience of iGEM so far.
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<div class="notebook-hackspace">  '''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. </div>
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==Thursday 21st June ==
 +
<div class="notebook-meeting"> '''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 </div>
 +
<div class="notebook-brainstorm"> '''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  </div>
 +
 +
==Friday 22nd June ==
 +
<div class="notebook-training"> '''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.</div>
 +
 +
<div class="notebook-brainstorm"> '''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 </div>
 +
 +
<div class="notebook-sponsor"> '''Sponsorship - CLCbio and Geneious''' - Thanks to Bethan's hard work, we have gained yet more sponsors - CLCbio and Geneious have kindly agreed to sponsor our project </div>
 +
 +
<div class="notebook-radio"> '''Meeting - Radio Show''' We are setting up a radio show where international iGEM teams will be interviewed along with key figures in Synbio. Meeting between Bethan and Bouran with staff at UCL radio studio to discuss equipment and how the show will be broadcasted.</div>
 +
 +
==Saturday & Sunday==
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 +
<div class="notebook-meeting"> '''Meeting - Crowdfunder''': Carina met with Philipp to discuss how the fund-raising site would take form and how we wanted people to interact. Philipp suggested the idea of using google map’s interface from which we could plant our plastic islands onto from which members of the public interested in donating could do so by purchasing ‘plastic’ land. So taking the colour scheme of google-maps I started drawing our islands. The shape of these islands took on the form of discard plastic bottles; keeping with our plastic theme! Thus, Plastic Republic is born: http://plasticrepublic.org/ </div>
 +
 +
<div class="notebook-sponsor"> '''Sponsorship - Creating the Crowdfunder Campaign''' - Numerous team members met over the weekend to put together the stop-motion video for our Crowdfunder Campaign. The created over 500 photos of various scenes, with different team members moving, and therefore 'animating' different parts of the scene. These were collated to form a a short film.''' Outcome:''' Our Crowdfunder Campaign </div>
 +
 +
== Reflection ==
 +
We are feeling optimistic after this week – many of the plans for construction and characterisation have been finalised, and we have a provisional schedule of completion dates for our modules. We are especially pleased with the progress made in human practice. After the training, we have a much better idea of how to engage certain audiences, and we have met with several parties about fundraising for our events. Now we are all really keen to complete training and preparation, and move forward with our plans.
 +
 +
<div class="notebook-success"> '''Success of the Week: Creating our Crowdfunder Video''' </div>
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 +
<div class="notebook-fail">'''Fail of the Week: The colony which we inoculated for training that produced no cells was due to the use of the wrong antibiotic. A mistake that certainly will not be repeated again!''' </div>
{{:Team:University_College_London/templates/foot}}
{{:Team:University_College_London/templates/foot}}

Latest revision as of 21:19, 26 September 2012

Contents

Notebook: Week 2

Preparations | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16

loading facebook photos...

Aims For This Week

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 18th June

Wiki Meeting - Today we had a meeting to assess the progress on wiki.
Sponsorship - Bethan and Martina continued applications for in-kind sponsorships. The good news of today is Mathworks and Autodesk companies confirmed their sponsorships!

Tuesday 19th June

Meeting - Fundraising. Philipp and Bethan met with Kate from Biochem Eng department about getting publicity for crowd fundraising
Meeting - Human Engagement. Martina, Yeping, Philipp and Bethan met with Hilary from the Public Engagement Unit regarding our application for the Beacon Bursary. It will support us to put on the DIYbio project so we are very appreciative of her help.
Training - Human Engagement - We arranged training with Steve Cross - Head of Public Engagement in UCL - to ask for advice about taking our project to a wider population. Outcome: It is much clearer that targeting the wider community involves tailoring how we present our project to particular groups.

Wednesday 20th June

Wet Lab Training - Today we proceeded to train other team members in restriction enzyme digest and transforming bacteria.
Sponsorship - Biosilta and Lonza have agreed to sponsor us!
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 21st June

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 22nd June

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
Sponsorship - CLCbio and Geneious - Thanks to Bethan's hard work, we have gained yet more sponsors - CLCbio and Geneious have kindly agreed to sponsor our project
Meeting - Radio Show We are setting up a radio show where international iGEM teams will be interviewed along with key figures in Synbio. Meeting between Bethan and Bouran with staff at UCL radio studio to discuss equipment and how the show will be broadcasted.

Saturday & Sunday

Meeting - Crowdfunder: Carina met with Philipp to discuss how the fund-raising site would take form and how we wanted people to interact. Philipp suggested the idea of using google map’s interface from which we could plant our plastic islands onto from which members of the public interested in donating could do so by purchasing ‘plastic’ land. So taking the colour scheme of google-maps I started drawing our islands. The shape of these islands took on the form of discard plastic bottles; keeping with our plastic theme! Thus, Plastic Republic is born: http://plasticrepublic.org/
Sponsorship - Creating the Crowdfunder Campaign - Numerous team members met over the weekend to put together the stop-motion video for our Crowdfunder Campaign. The created over 500 photos of various scenes, with different team members moving, and therefore 'animating' different parts of the scene. These were collated to form a a short film. Outcome: Our Crowdfunder Campaign

Reflection

We are feeling optimistic after this week – many of the plans for construction and characterisation have been finalised, and we have a provisional schedule of completion dates for our modules. We are especially pleased with the progress made in human practice. After the training, we have a much better idea of how to engage certain audiences, and we have met with several parties about fundraising for our events. Now we are all really keen to complete training and preparation, and move forward with our plans.

Success of the Week: Creating our Crowdfunder Video
Fail of the Week: The colony which we inoculated for training that produced no cells was due to the use of the wrong antibiotic. A mistake that certainly will not be repeated again!


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