Team:UCC Ireland/Attributions

UCC iGEM 2017

Principal Investigator: Mark Tangney

Principal Investigator, Cork Cancer Research Centre

Secondary Investigator: Dr. Cormac Gahan

Senior Lecturer, School of Microbiology & School of Pharmacy UCC

Secondary Investigator: Dr. Paul Young

Senior Lecturer, School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology UCC

Instructor: Yensi Flores Bueso

PhD candidate, Cork Cancer Research Centre

Instructor: Venkata Vamsi Bharadwaj Yallapragada

PhD candidate, Cork Cancer Research Centre

Instructor: Ciarán Devoy

PhD candidate, Cork Cancer Research Centre

Instructor: Dr. Amber Hilliard

Cork Cancer Research Centre

Hardware Developer: Chinna Devarapu

Post doc, CIT & Tyndall & St Andrews

Hardware Developer: Uday Bangavadi

PhD, CIT & Tyndall

Student Team leader: Brandon Malone

  • Project design
  • Worked with CELL EXPLORERS science outreach programme

Team member: Chloë Darragh-Hickey

  • Conducted laboratory work (cloning, PCR, ligation, digests etc)
  • Planned and developed subprojects
  • Constructed the constitutively producing AmilCP part
  • Carried out 3A and Standard Assemblies
  • Gave an informative talks about iGEM
  • Organised the collaboration with EFPL iGEM team
  • Worked with CELL EXPLORERS science outreach programme

Team member: Ellen Byrne

  • Conducted laboratory work
  • Outreach: Made contact with Farmers and Microbreweries
  • Carried out the Interlab study
  • Worked with CELL EXPLORERS science outreach programme
  • Gave an informative talk about iGEM

Team member: Sumitha Grace Pandiaraja

  • Conducted laboratory work
  • Presented at the Giant Jamboree in Boston
  • Protocol design
  • Brainstorming public engagement and outreach opportunities for team
  • Primer design

Team member: Daniel Moore

  • Conducted laboratory work
  • Plate reader experiments
  • Involved in DNA sequencing
  • Gave informative talks about iGEM
  • Primer design

Team member: Eoin Hurley

  • Conducted laboratory work
  • Poster design
  • Presented at the Giant Jamboree in Boston
  • Primer design
  • Gave informative talks about iGEM

Team member: Mark Breen

  • Mathematical modelling
  • Wiki and logo design
  • Hardware testing
  • Outreach: Made contact with Farmers and Microbreweries
  • Organised Skype with Exeter and Newcastle iGEM teams
  • Data analysis
  • Created the team banner

Team member: Ross Hill

  • App development
  • Mathematical modelling
  • Wiki design
  • Design of team merchandise
  • Data analysis

Wet Laboratory Training : Noreen Casey and Jenny Duane, Technical staff in the School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University College Cork

The UCC iGEM team embarked on a week-long training programme in June to gain proficiency in molecular biology techniques, especially those relevant to the production of recombinant DNA and protein in the laboratory. Learning from experienced laboratory technicians in the UCC Biochemistry Training Labs, and PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the Cork Cancer Research Institute, we learnt best practices used in biochemistry to generate high yields for successful design, cloning and validation of plasmids. Through practising techniques such as agarose gel electrophoresis, and SDS Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, we were able to astutely assess the success of various standard, 3A and Gibson assemblies

Presentation Coaching - Blackstone LaunchPad

UCC Blackstone Launchpad is an experiential entrepreneurship programme open to staff and students in UCC. They are specialists in aiding start-ups to build an effective business plan, overcome obstacles and grow their business. Our iGEM team identified Blackstone Launchpad as excellent potential mentors, to aid us with building out the idea of our biosensor project, effectively carrying out market research and aiding us in our presentation and outreach skills. This turned out to be the case as Peter, Alexis and Trish’s experience proved invaluable in each of these areas (pictures below). While our iGEM team was made up of multidisciplinary students, none of us were from a business background and we had very little experience in this area. Blackstone Launchpad’s expertise helped us more effectively gather and analyse the market research behind our project. Their help in building out our project idea and project plan was immensely useful and streamlined our work together as a team, making accomplishing tasks much more efficient. Their experience in aiding start-ups to build effective pitches and presentations, we found, proved to be one of their greatest contributions to our team. They gave us the confidence and skills to present clearly and effectively and this was a major bonus to our team. Additionally, the fact that they’re backgrounds were in business rather than science, helped us to avoid the pitfalls of using overcomplicated and scientific language when presenting, one of the key aspects when presenting a project to an audience that know nothing about it. UCC iGEM would like to thank Peter, Alexis and Trish for all their help throughout our iGEM project, without which our project would have run less smoothly

Acknowledgements

School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University College Cork

Providing a laboratory for the iGEM team to work during the summer

College of Medicine & Health, University College Cork

Generously supported the team financially

BMG Labtech

Provided the team with an Omega Star Plate Reader for the summer months

Cork Cancer Research Centre (CCRC)

Gave the iGEM team laboratory space over the summer

Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork

Generously provided financial support to the team

Blackstone LaunchPad UCC

Generously provided financial support to the team