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We thank the 7 RPI faculty donors who supported our newly formed student team in April by contributing the cost of our iGEM registration fee.
Dr. Joel Plawsky, Professor & Department Head in Chemical and Biological Engineering
Dr. Juergen Hahn, Professor & Department Head in Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Jonathan Dordick, Professor & Vice President for Research
Dr. Curt Breneman, Professor & Dean of the School of Science
Dr. Susan Gilbert, Professor & Department Head of Biological Sciences
Dr. Shekhar Garde, Professor & Dean of Engineering
Dr. Deepak Vashishth, Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
In May and June, Ms. Christine Theophel helped our team set up a crowdfunding webpage to solicit donations for our team. We thank the 12 individual donors, ranging from relatives to teachers and professors, who contributed via our online campaign: Jennifer Burns, Rebecca Baggett, Professor Chris Bystroff, Carl Hanke (in honor of Dr. Sydney Ross, RPI Department of Chemistry), Katherine Baggett, Breanna Korsman-Thomas, Reed Doten, Professor Peter Wayner, Jr., Elizabeth Martin, Elizabeth Coxen, and William Meadow. We also thank the 2 additional donors who sent their financial contribution by mail, Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Coxen.
Our team thanks Team Düsseldorf-Cologne for organizing the iGEM postcard exchange collaboration involving 28 teams worldwide. Team Düsseldorf-Cologne generously provided for the printing and distribution costs of the postcard designed by our team. We also thank Team Franconia for incorporating the sophorolipids card designed by our team into their educational "biological themed card game" collaboration.
Mr. Michael Bivens met with a member of our team’s finance committee, Ian Fralen, as well as one of our donors, Mr. William Meadow, to discuss fundraising options and details for our iGEM team.
Our advisor Dr. Jian Zha provided useful assistance with the use of SnapGene in the design of primer DNA sequences for the microbial genetics portions of our experiments.
Our de facto advisor Fei Liu, while not added to our team roster before the freeze, generously provided her expertise concerning sophorolipids and relevant laboratory procedures.
Our de facto advisor Shekar Mekala, while not added to our team roster before the freeze, assisted our team with the chemical extraction process. Shekhar Mekala gave us details on how to complete procedures such as obtaining dry cell weight, in addition to assistance on how to use laboratory tools such as separatory funnels and processes such as rotary evaporation.
Our iGEM HQ contact Maria Bartolini served as our point of contact with the iGEM Foundation. She was able to answer our questions and address our concerns involving iGEM rules, procedures, and timelines. This guidance was especially valuable given that our university and student team members had not participated in iGEM before this year.
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