Team:UCSC/Attributions

Attributions

We would like to acknowledge and thank all of the people who have helped make this project possible. For the past four years, undergraduates at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) have participated in iGEM. This year, the team is composed of students studying Biomolecular Engineering, Bioinformatics, Bioelectronics, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental (MCD) Biology, and Chemical Engineering. This wide array of disciplines is crucial for the creative process behind using synthetic biology to advance solutions to problems. Modern engineering demands collaboration between individuals and pushes them to think critically and work efficiently. Through synthetic biology, the 2017 UCSC iGEM team is creating effective solutions and developing models for future success.

General Support

We would like to thank Dr. Hartzog for his work to help iGEM BME188 coursework satisfy the MCD disciplinary communication requirement.

Information about UCSC iGEM

Questions to answer
• Does your institution teach an iGEM or synthetic biology course?
• When did you start this course?
• Are the syllabus and course materials freely available online?
• When did you start your brainstorming? When did you start in the lab? When did you start working on your project?

At UCSC, participation in iGEM satisfies the senior design exit requirement for bioengineering majors and is given class credit by two 5-week classes, BME 188a BME188b, starting in late june (june 26th?) and running until early septemeber (exact date ? ). There is a paper due at the end of each summer class session describing the work that we have done. Brainstorming and discussion about potential projects started with the hard work of our co-captains in late Fall 2016 and early Winter 2017. We held weekly journal clubs to brainstorm ideas during Winter 2017 and picked team members in late Winter 2017 through early Spring 2017. After solidifyng team members, we held meetings once or twice a week to further discuss direction of the project. When the first summer session started (BME 188a), we had a change in direction from producing aspirin using lactobacillus to producing vitamins using spirulina. We soon realized it was very difficult to obtain a sequenced spirulina strain, and that genetic modification is very difficult, and not well documented. We went with a different photosynthetic organism, Synechococcus, to use as a model for spirulina, and obtained it by week 3 of BME188a. We started in the lab around this time.