Team:William and Mary/Notebook
NOTEBOOK
Week 1 (May 29-June 4)
Wetlab Summary
Starting off the summer by cloning parts that will enable us to test the basic functionality of the mf-Lon for protein degradation. These parts consist of pBad and J231** parts for all of the sfGFP pdt tag variants, as well as mf-Lon. Currently we have confirmed versions of 3 of 6 J231** sfGFP variants, as well as an mf-Lon under the control of J231**.
Outreach Summary
We began to lay down the foundation for our big outreach project, which will become a searchable database of past outreach projects from award-winning teams. Project categories are being brainstormed in addition to tags for different audiences.
Week 2 (June 5-June 11)
Wetlab Summary
Continued to make progress towards functionally validating and testing our mf-Lon and pdt parts. While our pBad sfGFP pdt tags have been lagging behind, we moved ahead with making combination parts for our simple circuit (LacI pdt and pLac sfGFP pdt combos), and we have been validating our existing mf-Lon and pdt tagged sfGFPs. From the current data, it appears that some of our sequence confirmed pdts are working, while others are not. However, all of our mf-Lons are functional.
Outreach Summary
We entered information about 2016 and 2015 IHP/EPE award-winners and decided to move the database information to a spread sheet to make it easier to eventually create a website. Alyssa met with Professor Griffin, who specializes in community-based research and outreach. We worked on the PowerPoint and brochure for our Bioengineering Lab, and the PowerPoint is now playing and visible to anyone passing by our lab. GSCC got back in touch with Alyssa on possibly organizing a field trip for Girl Scouts to the BEL. In addition to that, Alyssa communicated with Kelley Clark from the STEM Education Alliance to organize education activities with AP Bio/9th Grade Bio students in the fall.
Week 3 (June 12-June 18)
Wetlab Summary
This week, we were held up a great deal due to not being able to send for sequencing. We are currently in experiments to confirm pdts are working, and cloning inducible sfGFP pdt parts to be able to measure speed. We are switching over to pLac instead of pBad, which entails additional concerns due to the need for a repressor.
Outreach Summary
Alyssa got in touch with Jacqueline from GSCC to discuss doing activities with the Girl Scouts. We will host about 50 girls on two Saturdays either in September or October. For the database, we've gone back to 2011 outreach projects but will likely end up going back to 2008. Alyssa started organizing a speaker series, and three professors have agreed to speak. Theresa and Alyssa started working on a video for our project. Sejal finished updating the K-5 and 6-8 activity booklets.
Week 4 (June 19-June 25)
Wetlab Summary
We finally confirmed an mf-Lon and pdt combo. We currently have characterization of J23100 tags along with a pBad mf-Lon. We are also trying to functionally confirm a J23116 mf-Lon, and characterize R0011 (pLac0-1) pdts with pBad mf-Lon. One issue we have been running into is with mf-lon causing toxicity/growth inhibition. We will aim to tune our parts around this.
Outreach Summary
We set up the dates for the GSCC visit in October. We have continued to enter entries into the database spreadsheet and have decided to house the database in the wiki so it will be accessible to other iGEM teams and iGEM leadership. We made and edited the script for the viedo describing our project. Alyssa recorded the voiceover and Theresa filmed the footage.