Difference between revisions of "Team:AshesiGhana/Notebook"

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<p>
 
<p>
 
<ul>
 
<ul>
<li>Met up for the first time and were introduced to the project. Started to do some research on the project</li>
+
<li>Met up for the first time and were introduced to the IGEM and what it was all about. Started to do some research about what we can do as our project.</li>
</ul></p>
+
</ul>
 +
</p>
  
 
</div>
 
</div>
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<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 2: 18 April - 24 April</a>
 
<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 2: 18 April - 24 April</a>
 
<div class="exp">
 
<div class="exp">
 
+
<p>
 
+
  <ul>
 
+
      <h1>
 
+
        <b>Adrenaline Start</b>
 +
      </h1>
 +
      <li>
 +
        The Ashesi iGEM started work about two weeks after their end of semester exams on the 22nd of May 2017. The first session was on bio-safety and general lab precautions. This lasted for about an hour and half. There was a mixture of anxiety and readiness amongst the team members to start engineering bacteria and change Africa!
 +
      </li>
 +
  </ul>
 +
</p>
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
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<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 3: 25 April - 1 May</a>
 
<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 3: 25 April - 1 May</a>
 
<div class="exp">
 
<div class="exp">
 
+
<p>
 
+
  <ul>
 
+
      <h1>
 
+
        <b>The Journey Begins</b>
 +
      </h1>
 +
      <li>
 +
          Based on the series of meetings which took place last semester to research on problems identifiable in the environment, the team finally settled on a problem of regarding galamsey -illegal mining in Ghana. The process of illegal mining utilized mercury to coagulate gold elements from the gold ore. However these mercury elements are released as waste into water bodies after the gold element is separated from mercury upon heating. Mercury, a naturally toxic element enters aquatic organisms in the food chain and accumulates into more toxic forms which in turn poisons humans as well as other organisms in the ecosystem.
 +
        The solution to this problem was to engineer a plasmid that senses mercury, binds to it and converts it into a less toxic form. This solution of sensing and detoxifying mercury seemed novel and a hopeful answer to Ghana's plea to save our water bodies from mercury contamination.
 +
      </li>
 +
  </ul>
 +
</p>
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
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<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 4: 2 May - 8 May</a>
 
<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 4: 2 May - 8 May</a>
 
<div class="exp">
 
<div class="exp">
<h1>Wet Lab </h1>
+
<p>
 +
  <ul>
 +
      <h1>
 +
        <b>
 +
            The Struggles and Dissapointments
 +
        </b>
 +
      </h1>
 +
      <li>
 +
        After two weeks of research and discussions, almost close to the peak of the design for our 'novel' idea, Nana Oye, a member of the team, discovered that our exact idea and design had already been worked on by an iGEM team in Brazil in 2015. This was a major blow to the team: enough to suck up all the adrenaline that existed in the beginning. It was surprising how we had not come across a mercury sensing and purification part in the iGEM parts throughout our research.
 +
      </li>
 +
  </ul>
 +
</p>
  
  
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<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 5: 9 May - 15 May</a>
 
<a class="exp" href="#url" tabindex="1">Week 5: 9 May - 15 May</a>
 
<div class="exp">
 
<div class="exp">
 
+
<p>
 +
  <ul>
 +
      <h1>
 +
        <b>
 +
            The restless anticipation and crippling fear
 +
        </b>
 +
      </h1>
 +
      <li>
 +
        So we had to go home and start from scratch….thinking and dreaming new ideas to problems we could identify around us. Nonetheless, the clock was still ticking.
 +
      </li>
 +
  </ul>
 +
</p>
 
</div>
 
</div>
  

Revision as of 00:04, 3 October 2017

Week 1: 11 April - 17 April

  • Met up for the first time and were introduced to the IGEM and what it was all about. Started to do some research about what we can do as our project.

Week 2: 18 April - 24 April

    Adrenaline Start

  • The Ashesi iGEM started work about two weeks after their end of semester exams on the 22nd of May 2017. The first session was on bio-safety and general lab precautions. This lasted for about an hour and half. There was a mixture of anxiety and readiness amongst the team members to start engineering bacteria and change Africa!

Week 3: 25 April - 1 May

    The Journey Begins

  • Based on the series of meetings which took place last semester to research on problems identifiable in the environment, the team finally settled on a problem of regarding galamsey -illegal mining in Ghana. The process of illegal mining utilized mercury to coagulate gold elements from the gold ore. However these mercury elements are released as waste into water bodies after the gold element is separated from mercury upon heating. Mercury, a naturally toxic element enters aquatic organisms in the food chain and accumulates into more toxic forms which in turn poisons humans as well as other organisms in the ecosystem. The solution to this problem was to engineer a plasmid that senses mercury, binds to it and converts it into a less toxic form. This solution of sensing and detoxifying mercury seemed novel and a hopeful answer to Ghana's plea to save our water bodies from mercury contamination.

Week 4: 2 May - 8 May

    The Struggles and Dissapointments

  • After two weeks of research and discussions, almost close to the peak of the design for our 'novel' idea, Nana Oye, a member of the team, discovered that our exact idea and design had already been worked on by an iGEM team in Brazil in 2015. This was a major blow to the team: enough to suck up all the adrenaline that existed in the beginning. It was surprising how we had not come across a mercury sensing and purification part in the iGEM parts throughout our research.

Week 5: 9 May - 15 May

    The restless anticipation and crippling fear

  • So we had to go home and start from scratch….thinking and dreaming new ideas to problems we could identify around us. Nonetheless, the clock was still ticking.

Week 6: 16 May - 22 May
Week 7: 23 May - 29 May
Week 8: 30 May - 5 June
Week 9: 6 June - 12 June
Week 10: 13 June - 19 June
Week 11: 20 June - 26 June
Week 12: 27 June - 3 July
Week 13: 4 July - 10 July
Week 14: 11 July - 17 July
Week 15: 18 July - 24 July
Week 16: 25 July - 31 July
Week 17: 1 August - 7 August
Week 18: 8 August - 14 August
Week 19: 15 August - 21 August
Week 20: 22 August - 28 August
Week 21: 21 August - 4 September
Week 22: 5 September - 11 September
Week 23: 12 September - 18 September
Week 24: 19 September - 25 September