Team:WLC-Milwaukee/Notebook
Notebook
January: We started brainstorming for our project and began training new iGEMers
February: We decided on a project, came up with a potential plan of action and began investigating currently available safe water-testing methods.
March: We tested current methods for E. coli detection in water and obtained the pETail4 vector for sub cloning and protein purification. We verified this vector produced the protein of interest with an SDS-PAGE. Presented for Community leaders and Donors to our college before facilitating hands on lab activities with interested individuals.
April: We presented our project for the Milwaukee Area Undergraduate Research Conference. Our team also presented on the importance of clean water and biotechnology at our college’s Biotechnology info night (hosted by our iGEM team). Spoke with Dr. Sanjib Bhattacharyya of the Milwaukee Public Health Department on the practicality of our proposed system, and things we should consider when moving forward with our project.
May: We debated purification of the entire phage tail vs. using a HIS-tag and sub cloning small portions of the tail. Our team game-planned for the summer’s project goals.
June: We prepared for presenting our project at the Asia Pacific iGEM conference and designed primers for sub-cloning portions of the Lambda phage tail.
July: A team member presented at the Asia Pacific iGEM conference and gained valuable advice from other iGEMers while becoming inspired and motivated by other teams’ projects.
August: We began constructing our BioBricks and reunited as a team after a long summer break! We participated in our college’s Organizational Outreach day welcoming freshmen and interacting with other campus organizations.
September: We transformed our constructed plasmids and began purifying our phage tail protein with nickel-column purification. We began collaborations with our new connections from the Asia Pacific iGEM conference.
October: We presented a talk on GMO’s and importance of water quality to our community at the local library. Our team visited a water treatment plant to investigate current methods for water quality testing. Hosted an event for high school students where we discussed genetic modification and iGEM before they toured various lab spaces on campus.
