Team:Tyngsboro MA Tigers/Notebook

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NOTEBOOK

Finding Our Idea

Our Team meets every Thursday from 2-4pm. Below you will find summaries of our meetings, as well as links to the agenda lists.

October- We were introduced to and learned about the principles of synthetic biology, and completed and analyzed the results of the Eau d'Coli lab. We also elected different officers (Liaison, Secretary, Media Specialist, etc)and began looking at the purpose of the club and what our goals were.

November- This month, we began brainstorming ideas for our project. We looked through the Party Registry, and individuals were given specific assignments in different categories (ie synthetic bio presentations, a newspaper article, fundraising, etc).

December- Looking for grants for lab supplies/fundraising opportunities and coming up with new methods of outreach were a consistent undercurrent during this month and through many of the proceeding months. We input our data so far into the BioBuilder site and became even more serious about finding ideas for our topic. We narrowed our ideas down to a top three (desalinization, a home strep test, and a converter to make car exhaust not harmful to the environment) and worked our first fundraiser.

January- We began more research on our top three project ideas, focusing on finding parts in the Registry that could be useful in our projects. However, upon further research we found that most of our ideas either had already been done or were impractical given our circumstances, and ended up sticking with an idea of creating a bacteria that detects carbon monoxide and has some kind of output. We also looked into older iGEM wikis to prepare for ours, and did further preparation in anticipation of receiving our wiki, such as researching carbon monoxide, its affects on humans, and related parts in the wiki.

February- We shared our findings on CO, and did a significant amount of further research on the topic. The team members were officially registered on the iGEM site, began using TinkerCell to create diagrams of possible cell part setups, and started on our project description. We also made a 'commercial' about iGEM and synthetic biology to be aired on our school news.

March- The wiki was finally open!!! We started on our thesis statement and explored the possibilities of the R. rubrum bacteria and it's parts. We held more fundraisers, and planned for even more in the future. We worked on the E. chromi lab, and thought of our project title, finally deciding on "E. COLfactory: A smell test for the detection of carbon monoxide." Spring sports began this month, and we started Tuesday morning meetings as a supplement to Thursday afternoons to accommodate the spring athletes. We also received a generous donation of $150 from Granite Ridge Energy and looked into the possibility of safe production and storage of CO.

April-

4/5/12- We began to have two meeting dates to accommodate members who also participate in spring sports, and updated our genetic circuit. We looked through parts and decided more formally on what we want our cell to do, hoping to use scent but also a green florescent protein attached to the part, so we could safely test the effectiveness of our circuit and if our presentations worked. We also looked into contstraints we needed to work within, such as safe production and storage of carbon monoxide, how we'd safely test our device, and how long our device would work/last in a household environment, and what temperatures our cell would work best at.

4/12/12- Today we worked on making our wiki look pretty, researching our genetic circuit, and determining the safety and practicality of using CO in the school. We found an online site NorLab which sold calibration gases and equipment. They sold various quantities of 200ppm and 50ppm CO. According to an online representative, both of these quantities are safe to use and would require no special chamber to use it. They sent us a File:MSDS for CO. We found that when CO detectors are exposed to low concentrations of CO (100ppm)the detector will not sound for 10s of minutes. When the ppm is 400 or greater, the detector will sound in a few minutes. The purpose of this is to mimic the uptake of CO in the body while preventing false alarms due to natural fluctuation.

4/19/12- APRIL Vacation

4/26/12- We worked on our iGEM commercial, and looked at the progress on an iGEM app (game). We moved the actual CO detecting device more into a theoretical idea and a path forward for next year. We won't be able to test our real detecting device, but we could still transform it. We looked into how carbon monoxide detector making companies test their devices, and updated and added information to the wiki. We also have experimental (proof of concept) and actual circuits in the works, and we got into groups to look into different smells that our circuit could produce, circuit parts we could use, how our circuit would work, and experimental protocols we could use.

May-

June- Preparation for Jamboree (through Skype), finalizing wiki before the freeze, and finishing our cell. Then the Jamboree itself!!!

Agenda List

Click here to see our CREATING THE GENETIC CIRCUIT page

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 Our Team meets every Thursday from 2-4pm.  Below you will find summaries of our meetings, as well as links to the agenda lists.
-/4/11- We are introduced to the concept of iGEM, and set up a relative calender of when we would have meetings.  We received a packet on synthetic biology, the Eau d'coli lab procedure, and our Lab Safety contacts to be returned the next week.
+October- We were introduced to and learned about the principles of synthetic biology, and completed and analyzed the results of the Eau d'Coli lab.  We also elected different officers (Liaison, Secretary, Media Specialist, etc)and began looking at the purpose of the club and what our goals were.
-/11/11 - Sign ups were held for positions within the team (Liaison, Secretary, Media Specialist, Lab Manager, Public Relations,and Treasurer.  We also went over past iGEM projects, explored the iGEM website, and went over the Eau d'coli lab notes in preparation for the lab next week.
+November- This month, we began brainstorming ideas for our project.  We looked through the Party Registry, and individuals were given specific assignments in different categories (ie synthetic bio presentations, a newspaper article, fundraising, etc).
-/18/11- We collected data for the Eau d'coli lab using our spectrophotometer (Spec 20) and began analysis of our data.
+December- Looking for grants for lab supplies/fundraising opportunities and coming up with new methods of outreach were a consistent undercurrent during this month and through many of the proceeding months.  We input our data so far into the BioBuilder site and became even more serious about finding ideas for our topic.  We narrowed our ideas down to a top three (desalinization, a home strep test, and a converter to make car exhaust not harmful to the environment) and worked our first fundraiser.
-/25/11- More analysis of Eau d'coli lab results and data, and exploring the meaning of the results.
+January- We began more research on our top three project ideas, focusing on finding parts in the Registry that could be useful in our projects.  However, upon further research we found that most of our ideas either had already been done or were impractical given our circumstances, and ended up sticking with an idea of creating a bacteria that detects carbon monoxide and has some kind of output.  We also looked into older iGEM wikis to prepare for ours, and did further preparation in anticipation of receiving our wiki, such as researching carbon monoxide, its affects on humans, and related parts in the wiki.
-/10/11- Individual positions given assignments (such as a newspaper article, fundraising ideas, etc).  Smell tests were done on samples of Eau d'coli cells at different growth phases and from different samples, translated our data, and viewed a student-made PowerPoint on the meaning of our results so far.  We also explored the BioBuilder site and Parts Registry.
+February- We shared our findings on CO, and did a significant amount of further research on the topic.  The team members were officially registered on the iGEM site, began using TinkerCell to create diagrams of possible cell part setups, and started on our project description.  We also made a 'commercial' about iGEM and synthetic biology to be aired on our school news.
-/17/11- Positions reported on their findings in their assignments, and we received and went over the iTunes lab handout.
+March- The wiki was finally open!!! We started on our thesis statement and explored the possibilities of the R. rubrum bacteria and it's parts.  We held more fundraisers, and planned for even more in the future.  We worked on the E. chromi lab, and thought of our project title, finally deciding on "E. COLfactory: A smell test for the detection of carbon monoxide." Spring sports began this month, and we started Tuesday morning meetings as a supplement to Thursday afternoons to accommodate the spring athletes.  We also received a generous donation of $150 from Granite Ridge Energy and looked into the possibility of safe production and storage of CO.
-/1/11- Looked into grants for funding lab supplies and brainstormed different methods of public outreach.  We began to think of a design for our initial t-shirts.  We input our previous data into the BioBuilder site, and began brainstorming what our cell idea would be.
+April-
-/8/11- Reports from positions at the beginning of the meeting become standardized, and we begin most meetings now with this.  Most of the meeting was spent brainstorming topic and preparing presentations on our findings.  Our research categories were Health & Medicine, Food & Energy, and Environment.  After we brainstorm on ideas for our first fundraiser.
-/15/11- We narrow our cell ideas down to a top three (home step diagnostic, desalinization, and a converter to make exhaust not harmful to the environment).  We worked more on our t-shirt design, and did a sign-up for baked goods and working times for our first fundraiser.
-/5/12- Groups presented start-up data on our top three project ideas, and began to look into parts in the registry.  We started a letter to corporate sponsors, and looked into the 3A Assembly Method.
-/12/12- For our next project we each picked an iGEM wiki from 2008-2010, explored the wiki, and summarized what the group did.  We talked about and explored more options for project ideas.  We explored ideas involving a carbon monoxide detecting bacteria as we found that most of our other ideas had already been done.
-/26/12- Uploaded the information we had gathered so far onto a team Google Docs account in preparation for getting the iGEM wiki, and began preparing the setup of our wiki.  We explored more fundraising ideas, including a Darwin DAy fundraiser and how we'd get funds to travel to Indiana for the Jamboree.  We researched carbon monoxide stats (deaths, sensor information, etc), parts relating to CO in the registry, and the effects of CO on humans and why it's harmful.
-/2/12- Our groups of three presented what we'd found about carbon monoxide so far, summarized articles about CO, and gathered other information to put on the wiki once we received it.  We set up more wiki options and wiki setup preparation, and then looked more into our carbon monoxide findings.  We also received our official iGEM permission forms.
-/9/12- We returned iGEM permission forms, and began to register for iGEM accounts.  We looked into the idea of having an article about our iGEM team in a local newspaper, and started planning a 'commercial' video for our school morning newspaper.  We had more findings presentations, and reviewed more articles relating to synthetic biology and carbon monoxide.
-/16/12- We looked into the TinkerCell program to make a diagram of our cell, and worked more on different aspects of our carbon monoxide detector idea.  We began working on a project description.  More team members signed up on the iGEM site.
-/1/12- We could finally start on our official wiki!!!  We began with working on our thesis statement for the purpose of our project, and explored the idea of using R. rubrum, which can naturally use carbon monoxide.  We also looked more into possible genetic circuit designs, and had out second fundraiser this week!
-/8/12- We talked about our previous two fundraisers and planned for more future events.  We began looking at the procedure of the E. chromi lab and prepared to perform a transformation, and made plans to title our project and work on our project description.
-/15/12- Our project description was the focus of our meeting... What should be our project title? --should we be boring and say what it does-- what about "An olfactory system for the detection of carbon monoxide"-- should it start with " E. COLi factory:"-- Our final choice is.... "E. COLfactory: A smell test for the detection of carbon monoxide."
-/22/12- As Spring sports begin, we are experiencing a decline in team member attendance to our meetings.  Should we consider supplementing our after school meetings with early morning as well?  On a high note... we received a generous donation in the amount of $150 from Granite Ridge Energy to help supplement our fundraising efforts!  Thank you for your contribution!!!!
-/29/12- We are trying to find a way to safely produce a controlled amount of CO in a lab. We found an experiment online that produced CO using sulfuric acid and formic acid ( H2SO4(l) + HCOOH(l)   CO(g) + H2SO4.H2O(l) ) the lab procedure is found here: http://mattson.creighton.edu/CO/index.html
 /5/12- We began to have two meeting dates to accommodate members who also participate in spring sports, and updated our genetic circuit.  We looked through parts and decided more formally on what we want our cell to do, hoping to use scent but also a green florescent protein attached to the part, so we could safely test the effectiveness of our circuit and if our presentations worked.  We also looked into contstraints we needed to work within, such as safe production and storage of carbon monoxide, how we'd safely test our device, and how long our device would work/last in a household environment, and what temperatures our cell would work best at.