http://2014.igem.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&feed=atom&limit=50&target=T.Su2014.igem.org - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T06:46:20ZFrom 2014.igem.orgMediaWiki 1.16.5http://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/team/biosTeam:Cornell/team/bios2014-10-18T03:57:44Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1 style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Bios</h1><br />
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<li class="active"><a href="#team">Team Members</a></li><br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Team Members</h1><br />
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<h3>Eric Holmes</h3><br />
Beware of Eric Holmes, the fearless leader of CUGEM who grew up in the hood. His disturbing character is immediately evident by his love for dead fish, as his latest kill is proudly displayed on his phone case. He relentlessly pursues these innocent creatures in the hope of wiping them off the face of the earth. Some call it fishing. Watch out for his killer jokes; you may shoot yourself after hearing them ten times. These also usually involve fish. In addition, he seems to enjoy trekking for days through miles of monotonous forest in order to …end up where he started. He occasionally drags innocent freshmen along for the ride. Despite all this, no one can dispute that Eric is a brilliant bioengineer, and so his curious hobbies have gone unquestioned. <br />
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<h3>Arun Chakravorty</h3><br />
Arun Chakravorty was found on the sandy shores of California, fully grown, in fetal position, borne from the sea foam of the great pacific. No one is sure how Arun came to be, but they have attributed his bubbly personality to the sea foam from whence he came, and his rich color to the sun, which he laid in for many days before he was discovered, giving him a tan that makes pale white girls cringe with jealousy. Arun, after rising from the gold sand on which he was found, then travelled the world, learning invaluable skills like cloning, a Capella, and FIFA. He needed strikers for his exclusively Argentinian FIFA team, so he travelled to Argentina and persuaded two men named Palacio and Milito to train and become world class soccer players. He then realized he could combine his three skills of cloning, singing, and FIFA, and become one of the most unique people to walk the face of the earth. He travelled to Ithaca, New York, and joined Cornell iGEM. Now, Arun spends his days cloning while simultaneously playing FIFA and singing songs of both praise and loathing (depending on the situation) for Milito and Palacio, with whom he plays as. Arun hates Palacio for growing a rat tail, but still enjoys his superior soccer capabilities. Arun’s hobbies include long walks on the beach and base jumping. He was also the inspiration for Tom Haverford, a character in the hit series, Parks and Recreation. <br />
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<h3>Samah Hoque</h3><br />
At first, Samah Hoque might seem like your ordinary iGem wet lab minion. But don’t be fooled by her innocent smile and kind demeanor. After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Samah turned down a job from the Ministry of Magic and came to Cornell University, where the eternal frozen tundra and endless days without sunlight constantly remind her of London. She spends plenty of time down in the basement lab space of Weill because it brings back her fondest childhood memories of living in a cramped cupboard under the stairs. With a single spell, Samah is able to bring bacteria to life by tricking them into thinking LB is delicious butterbeer. In dire lab situations, Samah must conjure her patronus, a rare form of Escherichia coli to ward away all evils from her precious bacterial colonies. When not in lab, Samah can be found dominating Quidditch games on the Arts Quad or reading about the dark arts in the library. 100 points to Samah Hoque for being iGem’s secret weapon. <br />
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<h3>Casey Zhang</h3><br />
Casey toils away in lab night and day, but only to feign a hardworking nature, as few are aware that this is because she prefers to remain discreet about her dwelling in the legendary interstitial space. (It has been heard that she unlocks it with a special pattern of light reflected by her carefully painted nails.) There is little known about the contents of this mysterious corner of our building, though we do suspect that it is filled with a surplus of baked goods, based on the delicious aroma wafting into the basement from a crack in its door. It is only fitting that the creator of these fine fragrances is none other than Casey, whose cream puffs will send you into the heaven of all food comas. But you must also be wary, for no one is quite certain of her recipes. The last iGEMer that recklessly wandered into the interstitial space reappeared weeks later as a half-eaten bag of dorito chips, so we are forced to wait for Casey to approach us with her offerings. Yet those, too, may be bewitched – any who cannot resist the goodness should fear transformation into a cuddly puppy. Unless you’re into that. Never fear, this adorable witch definitely won’t be able to eat you alive, though, because you would be long gone before she could finish chewing her first bite. <br />
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<h3>Kevin Hui</h3><br />
Entering Kevin Hui's kitchen is a life changing experience. Whether it's an oven-roasted chicken, apple-crumb pie, or fancy biscotti served with ginger cheesecake that you desire, Kevin can make it, and he will leave you craving for more. His discerning tongue makes team socials far more savory. <br />
That said, this foodie from Long Island is also an aspiring assassin. If he's not busy cooking you dinner or wiping the floor in a Dota 2 match, he's probably plotting your murder. Each of his targets receives a uniquely catered ending. You better not get on his wrong side or the rice noodles you're enjoying may well be the end of you. <br />
One way to hold on to your precious life is to never mess with this man's pizza. He will eat only the finest NYC thin crust pies and will find anything below his standards offensive. Anyone from Chicago would be well advised to keep their distance from this conniver. <br />
If you are special enough to earn a spot on his hit list, instrumental music and Steam sales are known to pacify him. And if you somehow manage to survive, you'll find that this master chef, pizza connoisseur, and hobbyist assassin is an indispensable member of the Cornell iGEM team. <br />
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<h3>Gargi Ratnaparkhi</h3><br />
Gargi, standing at 3’7” and originally from the Shire, now resides exclusively in lab. She journeyed to Ithaca all the way from Middle Earth for the sole purpose of aiding Cornell iGEM. On any given day or time, you can find her staring angrily at the centrifuge while waiting for her minipreps or staring angrily at cells, trying to force them to transform with her mind. Although infamous for her skills in Ice Ball (patent pending) and her delicious cake, Gargi is less known for her not too terrible saxophone playing and her ability to crack boulders over her swimmer’s shoulders as though they were eggs. Although there is so much more to be said about Gargi Ratnaparki, this direct quote sums her up pretty well: “Five minipreps? I eat five minipreps for breakfast.” <br />
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<h3>Aaron Gittelman</h3><br />
In a land far, far away, where the grass stayed green and the water crystal blue, where minipreps worked and all was good, lived a young dragon-rider who soared the sky as carefree and lighthearted as the breeze that took him. Everywhere he flew over, music followed. The timbre and vibrancy of his voice, interwoven with the depth and complexity of his bass, spun even the simplest tunes into enchanting melodies. Oh how smooth and sweet they were! Everyone swooned at the mere echoes -- and did I mention his good looks? In the air, he and his dragon were one. But one day, his dragon fell ill. The deep emerald scales gave in to a pale sickly orange. For years, the rider searched for an answer, but what could it have been? Then, whispers came. "Look within." Hoping to hone his skills in the molecular world, he decided to join iGEM to first master the techniques of synthetic biology. Interviewers tried to stump him, but unbeknownst to the community, riders grew up around the art. The yellow tint in his eyes glowed as his intent gaze pierced through the dense air. His replies were as accurate as poised. By the end, he was not just any other newcomer. He was Aaron Gittelman – his name said it all. <br />
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<h3>Sharlene Dong</h3><br />
N Vrou van die raaisel, 'n vrou van raaisel.<br />
Ek sien jy dit durf waag om hierdie bio te vertaal haar donkerste geheime te<br />
ontsluit. Jy is gewaarsku. <br />
<br><br><br />
Haar status: dodelik. Die P100 is haar wapen van<br />
keuse. Op 'n skaal van 1-4, Sharlene is Biosafety Vlak 10 Sy kan etanol<br />
steriliseer jou tenderest druk punte voor spuit haar vrag van dodelike<br />
gifstowwe. Wat deur die manier, is gesintetiseer gebruik om kennis oorgedra van<br />
antieke 5000-jarige Chinese alchemicy. Sy vlieg, nooit loop, het sy horlosies,<br />
nooit slaap. Jou enigste hoop op oorlewing is om haar te lei met 'n boeiende<br />
episode van Game of Thrones. Dit of blink voorwerpe.<br />
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Jy het dit so ver, jy is dapper.<br />
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Afrikaans filler text (or is it...), because Latin is too mainstream. Sharlene’s a fan. <br />
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<h3>Neema Patel</h3><br />
Neema Patel...how do I begin to explain Neema Patel? Neema Patel is magical. It's said that her legs are insured for $10,000. People say that she does bubble tea commercials in Taiwan. Her favorite movie is Mean Girls. Once she met Chris Pratt at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He told her to stop hoarding all the cupcakes. One time during Ice Ball (many times actually), she threw ice at me...it was not awesome. <br />
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<h3>Olya Spassibojko</h3><br />
No person is ever what they appear to be, and Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas is certainly no exception. Look under those perfectly placed spectacles and you’ll find an avid Anberlin advocate fluent in Ubbi Dubbi and prone to turning anything and everything turquoise. No one really knows how to spell her name, and people have learned it is better not to try. The brave souls who did were stripped of their sanity, never to recover. She has made a home out of the grand trees of Ithaca, and if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of her masterfully navigating them. It is rumoured that from her birth in the distant Russian mountains, she attained her nimble skills during her tutalage under the continent's most notorious ninja. She will purr if you pet her, but petters beware – stay too long and you too will find yourself infected with a deep love of domestic felines and working with yeast. She climbs, she meows, she takes her bunny out on walks. She is Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas: resident cat lover and professional monkey. <br />
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<h3>Sara Gregg</h3><br />
SaraGregg is Cornell iGEM’s resident celebrity power couple rivaling the firepower of Brangelina and the sheer intrigue of Kimye. When she’s not using her gazelle-like endurance prowess to ski across Ithaca or run to dry lab meetings on Sunday mornings (a little extra sleep never hurts, right?) she’s using it to put in late night hours at the machine shop or to swoon over Korean dramas until 4am. A master of the 3D printer, she’ll print a plastic cake and simply stare at it, willing the tasty morsel she’s been craving into existence. This girl from small-town Ohio is a true city girl at heart, and all you Gregory Sarah’s out there better watch out for her; Sara is ready to produce her very own SynBio drama and the first SaraGreggGregSarah power couple to rule them all. <br />
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<h3>Steven Li</h3><br />
Steven Li is a super hero. His power of course, is: ________. Despite being quite elusive to even his closest of team members, who haven't seen him in months, Super-Stealthy-Steven can be recognized by his iconic wooden cross necklace, from which he draws his power. Rumored to be a demigod born from the Western God Franisco-San Francisco to you- He has decided to leave his home, many leagues away, to solve the many crimes of current Eastern society the main one being: selfies. In a private interview, to which he never appeared, it is documented that Steven is diligently working on destroying the power of selfies by photo-bombing each and every one. Because of the plethera of selfies being taken in our day and age, Steven is rather busy and doesn't stay in one place for very long. So if you haven't seen Steven in awhile, don't worry he is off being the grand super hero that he is! <br />
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<h3>Joseph Fridman</h3><br />
The year was 1989. Even as the Cold War raged on, the USSR and the ideology it represented were in their death throes. In an act of desperation, the Politburo sought to develop a new propaganda apparatus, hoping that by effectively spreading pro-Soviet sentiment worldwide support for the enfeebled superpower would increase, and the tides would turn. To that end, Joseph Fridman was created. With a disarming kindness and an extraordinary intellect, he was capable of convincing anyone whom he spoke to that the path to prosperity was painted red. After a battery of evaluations, Fridman was sent to America with the goal of neutralizing it as an adversary to communism. However, upon arrival in the US, he was staggered by the wealth and majesty of the republic. After thinking it through, he decided to defect to the capitalist West. Without his assistance, the Soviet empire soon collapsed. Now an American citizen, the former sleeper agent has settled down, studying psychology at Cornell University (with the obvious purpose of honing his power of persuasion) and working to convince the population of Ithaca of the preeminence of CUGEM. <br />
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<h3>Ryan Ashley</h3><br />
There are rumors. People say things – see things – around our labs. Blonde-haired apparitions float in and out of the corners of our eyes. Visions of a gentle smile flash through team members’ minds. Perfect gels appear on the countertop, and despite the immaculate labeling, no one knows who ran them. One team member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that on one quiet lonely afternoon as he walked by one of the sinks, he noticed it was dirty, caked with mud and beakers strewn about. Since he was the only one in the lab at the time, he decided to clean it up, but when he turned to look at the sink again, it was completely cleaned! There is agreement among the team that something … else lurks in our workspace. We’ve taken to calling our mysterious helper “Ryan” (the name just seemed to fit). We don’t know what it is or what it wants, but we do know our project wouldn’t be half as well done without it. <br />
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<h3>Rishabh Singh</h3><br />
They speak of a man learned beyond all others, unbound by mortal flesh. For eons, he wandered this plane, seeking new pleasures to satisfy his ageless conscience. Nothing was outside his grasp. In his wake, nations fell, civilizations flourished, and as always, the women swooned. Gradually, through the thousands of millennia, this man’s true name of power was lost to the shifting sands of time. But, word among the people speak of a him currently residing in Cornell University, assuming the identity of “Rishabh”, though veterans of the field know this is simply one of the many guises he has chosen. He currently dedicates himself to the Cornell iGEM team, lending an eternity of knowledge to this humble project team. When he is not gracing his presence in the iGEM lab space, he prefers the quiet sanctity of the indoors, proving himself among the best in the FPS gaming, his years as a skilled military tactician rendering his enemies little more than a mob of confused toddlers. Legend also speaks of his legendary pie making skills, though few live to tell the tale of a pie of such high caliber, as the sheer ecstasy of tasting one of these legendary morsels causes the human body to permanently cease function (in some parts of the world, death in such a way is considered an honorable one). <br />
This biography serves as more than just a record, it is a herald, a warning for times to come. The one named Rishabh is powerful beyond measure, though his current form may be unassuming. Woe to those that stand in his way, as he is not known to be merciful. The last recorded time his wrath was incurred, the Black Death occurred. Not even the very best of heroes can even dream of facing his final form, which is also known to be incredible sassy. So beware, beware to all those who hope to undermine his efforts. In even the most secretive of moments, do not forget. <br />
He won’t. <br />
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<h3>Ritvik Sarkar</h3><br />
What is the Ritvik? I'm glad you asked. Ritvik used to be our team's secret secret nonlethal weapon, until a series of not completely unrelated explosions and earthquakes alerted national media to its existence. Ritvik is the original prototype for our project, with its 20 micron filter hair outperforming all competition. We are still struggling to develop a successor that has even half the ability to make wet things into dry things. Capable of building models to ensure our team's success as well as other smaller ventures such as hostile takeover of midwestern states, Ritvik is an essential component of our team. Without its capabilities as a replacement pump system, we would be incapable of surmounting the one foot of head that stalls our team's inevitable victory. <br />
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<h3>Swati Sureka</h3><br />
You'd remember when you first met her, in lab. It's pretty striking at first: She [Swati] sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and she knows well every quiver of each of them. Beakers, notebooks, laptops, disembodied voices, bits and pieces of cardboard, flora and fauna of the like that have never been seen before on Planet Earth - all circle her in the air, flying around like so many transporters, enzymes, and cellular automata. She does little herself. She only plans. But her agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there research to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a block of DNA to be characterized, a project to be undertaken - the word is passed to the SWATi Team, the matter is organised and carried out. And if that all sounds a little intimidating, have no fear: Swati is sworn by oath to the Old Gods and the New to defend, advance, and justify through feats of meaningful scientific accomplishment the existence of human life. Just make sure you don't forget to pay your social dues... <br />
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<h3>George Danias</h3><br />
George Danias? <br><br />
Many have dreamt and heard his name<br><br />
<br />
Only to find themselves shocked and maimed<br><br />
<br />
By his unputdownable creativity,<br><br />
<br />
Ingenuity and alacrity,<br><br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
His inventions rise from ground<br><br />
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Like his infinite wisdom that always astounds<br><br />
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His mechanical chess pieces guard his palace<br><br />
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Where he makes cells as radiant as the aurora borealis<br><br />
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<br><br />
<br />
Although only a part of the team since this year<br><br />
<br />
Everyone seems to notice when he disappears<br><br />
<br />
So treasure his presence, for he’s only nice<br><br />
<br />
When you’re not one of his lab mice<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Many wonder why he has chosen to impact our lives,<br><br />
But to that question, he chooses to derive<br><br />
A massive differential equation<br><br />
Showcasing why it is the best and most valuable occasion<br><br />
<br><br />
He often is staring at the sky<br><br />
Not pondering when, where, or why,<br><br />
But deciding the fate of planets and stars<br><br />
Like a couple billion years ago, he decided on mars.<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
So in fact he didn’t apply to the team<br><br />
But decided it would be good for our self-esteem<br> <br />
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<h3>Tina Su</h3><br />
Date a girl who reads. Find her in a cozy coffee shop, Stella's, tucked behind the fall foliage in the bustle of Cornell Collegetown. Wherever you find her, she'll be smiling, making sure it lingers even when people talking to her look away. Kiss her in the rain under the glow of a streetlamp because you saw it in a film. Remark at its huge significance. Date a girl who reads because she is a storyteller. You with Hemingway, Nabokov and Austen, in the library, on the metro platform at nine and three-quarters, in the corner cafe, perched on the window of your room. You, who makes my life so difficult. <br />
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<h3>Neil Chitrao</h3><br />
Deep beneath the Alamogordo testing range, the United States planned their most ambitious project yet. So shrouded in secrecy was this project, not even the President of the United States was aware of its undertaking. It was to be a grand culmination of centuries of research, dwarfing even the scale of the Manhattan Project. The premise was simple: to create a humanoid embodiment of the spirit of American patriotism. Nicknamed the N.E.I.L., or Nationalistically Empowered Intelligent Lifeform, he was to be an exemplar of the American standard and ingenuity. Unfortunately he was too modern for his time, and the team of scientists, fearing for another “Cold War” style confrontation, locked N.E.I.L. in stasis until the time was right to reintroduce him to American society. <br />
<br><br><br />
That time is now.<br />
<br><br><br />
Numerous field reports have triangulated his position at Cornell University, where he has subtly placed himself within Cornell’s iGEM team. Though he tries to mask his identity, his designs are unmistakable. He is fueled by twin-powered nuclear fission reactors, rendering sleep unnecessary, explaining the numerous hours he has been sighted in the lab working on inhuman hours of sleep. It is also nigh impossible to be in his presence without the word “America” being uttered at least once, a remnant of his circuitry from the highly patriotic wartime years. Delving further into conversation, you will find a vast database of knowledge of weaponry and military aircraft, an unsurprising find due to his production during the 1940s. Despite his advanced systems, he bides his time, remaining in his low-profile state until the time arises to take up arms to defend the American ideal once more. <br />
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<h3>Michelle Zhang</h3><br />
Now for Michelle there’s little I can say:<br><br />
Her skill is matched by none; her scheming eyes<br><br />
Do always flit betwixt pipettes, with ne’er <br><br />
A microliter out of place. Oh my! <br><br><br />
<br />
Above the busy humming of our lair, <br><br />
Amidst the bustling team, her focus grows; <br><br />
Her data gathers, as if out of air. <br><br />
Graphs pop on screen; a smile begins to show.<br><br><br />
<br />
Fluorescent lights now flicker, silence falls<br><br />
Upon the lab… we just make out the clicks<br><br />
Of Eppendorf tubes popping. Softly call,<br><br />
“Who’s there?” Ms. Zhang emerges, oh so slick. <br><br><br />
<br />
What more can I say of this wondrous fiend?<br><br />
Her mysteries abound; ‘tis all I’ve gleaned.<br />
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<h3>Jonlin Chen</h3><br />
The shining light of the grand Lighthouse of Alexandria pierced through the ebony Arabian night, guiding the royal ships of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus to the safety of the Pharos shore. After departing the Eastern Desert with crates of spices, linen, and gold, Egyptian sailors bowed to the mercy of the Great Sea and endured Her thrashing waves and whipping rain on their way home. The darkness often consumed faith in reaching Great Alexandria, that is until the fire-burning Lighthouse parted the night sky and illuminated the secure Nile Delta and familiar shores. Jonlin Chen, although human and not 120 meters tall, is Cornell iGEM's guiding light and source of all hope during times of darkness. While we, less-skilled iGEM members, are literally drowning in incomplete minipreps and restriction digests and utterly clueless on where to begin, Jonlin is the one person we can count on to show us the way. Whether it is a frantic phone call in the morning before class or a 2am Groupme message of desperation, Jonlin is always ready to help. Her fire-burning passion for bioengineering and iGEM fuels our team and shines through the often gloomy labspace during exam weeks and consecutive weeks of unsuccessful transformations, and is an inspiration to us all.<br />
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<h3>Grace Livermore</h3><br />
Beyond the isles of man, in the shaded grove where the heavens gently caress the Earth sits the very heart of nature itself. It is here that the land retains its pristine landscape, unfettered and untainted by the influences of mankind’s expansion. The very natural order was under siege, and Mother Nature required a vanguard to fight on her behalf. Using primitive arcane energies that shaped the Earth itself, the very essence of nature was harnessed, coalescing into a single being. Thus, Grace came into being, so aptly named to be the saving grace of nature’s purity. <br />
<br> <br><br />
But where to start? The damage done is great, but like all great heroes, small steps come before giant bounds, and Grace knew the perfect place to start. She now works tirelessly on Cornell’s iGEM team, conducting research that can rectify the contamination that grips this planet. Despite all her continuing dedication to the team, she never fails to forget the roots from which she came. An avid rock climber, she enjoys scaling the formidable walls to attune herself with the Earth. She is also learned in song and dance, particularly the style of Bhangra, for which she has joined Cornell’s Bhangra team and has had much success. But above all, she is a defender of nature; a hero to us all. <br />
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<h3>Jeffrey Ly</h3><br />
Future billionaire playboy philanthropist, Jeffrey can do it all. An acting virtuoso, it was said that he once challenged Batman to the lead in Les Miserables and the loser had to wear their underwear on the outside for the rest of time. Indeed, Jeffrey is the reason that Leonardo Dicaprio has never won an Oscar. Once, when counseling Dicaprio after not winning the Oscars again, Jeffrey told Dicaprio a joke about the Oscars to cheer him up… needless to say, he didn’t get it. When he’s not off fundamentally transforming our perceptions of superheroes for the better or the worse, Jeffrey is the life of the party at Cornell iGEM, forever cheering up people in those late night cram sessions. <br />
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<h3>Tim Abbott</h3><br />
Tim Abbott was the original cybernetic organism from which James Cameron based the terminator upon. He was sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future in an effort to protect members of the Cornell iGEM team which would go on to design a novel metal sequestration fiber reactor. Once the war would break out between artificially intelligent machines and humans, humans would hold their own for a surprising amount of time. But their greatest downfall would come when the machines contaminated all the world’s water supplies with heavy metals. By successfully aiding the 2014 iGEM team in completing their metal sequestration fiber reactor, Tim effectively has ensured the future of all of mankind.<br />
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<h3>Prashant Sharma</h3><br />
In a spectacular laboratory experiment (similar to the one that created the Powerpuff girls), researchers managed to combine the wisdom of a great redwood tree with the humor and wit of Kanye West to produce the artist formerly known as Prince, currently known as Prashant “Shawn” Sharma. As a senior member of Cornell iGEM, Shawn imparts his vast stores of worldly knowledge onto the ‘youngins, sometimes dropping some advice on a sick double clutch fadeaway he saw Kobe perform once, other times, schooling teammates on the intricacies of synthetic biology. As a chemistry/biology double major, Shawn is clearly a mad-man and should not be approached under any circumstances, unless you come bearing naval oranges, his favorite fruit. Perhaps one of the more intriguing facts about Shawn is that every car model with an “S” in the name is named in honor of Shawn, including the Toyota Corolla S, the Tesla Model S, and obviously the Mercedes S Class.<br />
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<h3>Rebecca Chew</h3><br />
She's no bird, not an airplane...she's Rebecca Chew, the super ChemE that dabbles in modeling, dry lab, and wet lab! One day she's in goggles, another creating insane models, either way, nothing can move forward without her. How does she do all this? Two words: BUBBLE TEA. The consumption of glucose and caffeine molecules is her secret potion. One sip of this delightful beverage is enough for her to become a machine.<br />
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<h3>Nupur Bhatt</h3><br />
Thousands of years ago, nature spirits and humans coexisted as one. They walked the ground we walked on. They lived in the valleys we lived in. Until humans began harming their homes, their families. That was when gods split their world with ours. The Night of Crystal Rift. We only know about Karuna from ancient scriptures, this alternate dimension on Earth. It is said the spirits still walk the ground we walk on, but we don't see them. We don't hear them. Then two decades ago, the gods decided to give humans a second chance. Scyllarus. That's what they call her. When she was born into Karuna, sages on Earth saw the dark night glow. An orange aurora streaked the sky. She is the daughter of the wild, destined to synthesize the bridge between the human world and the spiritual world. The day she stepped into the human world, she took the name of Nupur. Her spiritual powers took form in tangible human abilities. Her strong base notes. Her swift coding skills. Her quiet demeanor hides her true powers, but she is observing...finding ways to mend the past.<br />
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<h3>Mac Sennett</h3><br />
He doesn’t always operate heavy machinery, but when he does, the finger of God once again touches the earth through his work. He once purposefully maligned one of his creations, just to see what failure felt like. After he drove his car off the lot, the value increased. He once got a compliment on his appearance from his reflection. Raw materials he uses and BioBricks assemble themselves for him. Police frequently pull him over to ask for his autograph. He makes all cloning strategies succeed, even GoldenGate. The “College of Sennett” was founded at Cornell because he asked them to. He has taught old dogs every trick in the book, even the ones that aren’t written. Each night, the Sandman dreams of Mac. <br />
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<h3>Christine Soong</h3><br />
Having retired from saving the world as the country’s top CIA agent, Christine returned to scout for potential successors. While not training her prodigies, she casually works on the circuitry to control our top secret fiber reactor. Her ultimate goal in life is to adopt 101 Dalmatians to accompany her on her long runs and kayaking trips! <br />
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<h3>Rafael Martinez</h3><br />
Now this is a story all about how Rafa’s life got flipped – turned upside down<br />
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there<br />
I’ll tell you how he became a prince and a billionaire<br />
A town called Ithaca’s where he stayed<br />
Inside Milstein is where he spent most of his days<br />
Drawin’ and plottin’ relaxin’ all cool<br />
And all Building some dragons outside of the school<br />
When a couple of guys, who were up to some good<br />
Started building towers in the neighborhood<br />
He got a great little job and a title with flair<br />
Now he’s master architect he makes his projects with care <br />
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<h3>Erica Alonzo</h3><br />
In a world oppressed by the bland and mundane, where creativity is stifled in the wink of an eye. Where uniqueness is punishable by death. Societies have all devolved into nothing but brainless servants of The Man, and there is only one person who can stop them. Join Erica, an unlikely heroine, as she utilizes her wit, charm and sass to bring an end to The Legion of Tropes and their dastardly (albeit trite) plans of enslaving the human race. One woman will help bring the light of excitement back into this dismal planet. This Fall, prepare to get your creative juices flowing in 'Dee Zine: And The Legion of Tropes.' This film is not yet rated.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Faculty Advisors</h1><br />
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<h3>Dr. Shivaun Archer - Biomedical Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Shivaun Archer is a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories. She designs and teaches undergraduate instructional labs for five biomedical engineering courses: BME 131, BME 301, BME 302, BME 401, and BME 402. The labs are designed to illustrate the course material and bring research to undergraduate education whilst exposing students to cutting edge technology and research methodology. A significant emphasis in all the labs is biomedical nanotechnology. Each of the five courses has a hands-on lab module that focuses specifically on nanobiotechnology. Overall, the lab modules enhance the hands-on training of Cornell students in the areas of microfabrication, microfluidics, biosensors, nano/microbiotechnology, and drug delivery. In recognition of her efforts in undergraduate education, Dr. Archer has received a prestigious College of Engineering Teaching award. <br />
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Before coming to Cornell, Dr. Archer worked for five years at Lynntech, Inc. a small research company specializing in biotechnology, biomaterials, chemical and biological sensors, medical biotechnology, and environmental remediation. Her work on wastewater treatment for long term space missions resulted in her receiving two NASA Inventions Space Act Awards. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Associate in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research interests include nanobiotechnology and tissue engineering. <br />
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<h3>Dr. Matthew DeLisa - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Matthew DeLisa received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University as an assistant professor in 2003 and was promoted to associate professor in 2009. He recently served as a Gastprofessur at ETH Zürich in the Institut für Mikrobiologie. <br />
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Professor DeLisa's research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis -- folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications -- in the complex environment of a living cell. His contributions to science and engineering include the invention of numerous commercially important technologies for facilitating the discovery, design and manufacturing of human drugs and seminal discoveries in the areas of cellular protein folding and protein translocation. DeLisa has received several awards for his work including an NSF CAREER award, a NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator award, a Beckman Foundation Young Investigator award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and a NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award. He was also named one of the top 35 young innovators (TR35) by MIT's Technology Review in 2005 and was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Wiley-Blackwell Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang award, which honors a distinguished young researcher in this field. Most recently, he was honored with a Cornell Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship and was the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society's BIOT division.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Bruce Land - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Bruce Land is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell. He teaches three courses in ECE and advises masters of engineering projects in ECE and Biomedical Engineering. When time allows, he does some neural modeling and spike train analysis. He has been in this position since 1998. <br />
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Land received a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1968 and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Cornell University in 1976 . He was a Muscular Dystrophy Association postdoc in NBB at Cornell for three years, then a lecturer in NBB for seven years. During this time he worked with Miriam Salpeter on the coupling of activity at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction, both experimentally and by computer modeling. In 1987 he moved to the Cornell Theory Center as a computational research associate, then started supporting graphics and animation. He was visualization project leader at the CTC from 1989 to 1998. From 1992 to 1998 he taught an introductory computer graphics course in Computer Science at Cornell. From 1998 to 2007 he taught computer programming and electronics courses in NBB and was a Senior Research Associate in Neurobiology and Behavior.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Julius B. Lucks - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Julius B. Lucks is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, and a James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. After attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for high school, he became an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he performed research in organic synthesis and the application of density functional theory to studying the electronic properties of atoms and molecules as a Goldwater Scholar. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry, he spent a summer working with Robert Parr before obtaining an M. Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. As a Hertz Fellow at Harvard University, he researched problems in theoretical biophysics including RNA folding and translocation, viral capsid structure and viral genome organization, under David R. Nelson. As a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Adam P. Arkin, he engineered versatile RNA-sensing transcriptional regulators that can be easily reconfigured to independently regulate multiple genes, logically control gene expression, and propagate signals as RNA molecules in gene networks. He also lead the team that developed SHAPE-Seq, an experimental technique that utilizes next generation sequencing for probing RNA secondary and tertiary structures of hundreds of RNAs in a single experiment. <br />
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Professor Lucks’ research combines both experiment and theory to ask fundamental questions about the design principles that govern how RNAs fold and function in living organisms, and how these principles can be used to engineer biomolecular systems, and open doors to new medical therapeutics.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Xiling Shen - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Xiling Shen has been an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University since August 2009. <br />
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Born in Shanghai, China, Dr. Xiling Shen went on to receive his BS and MS degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University in 2001. He then worked at Barcelona Design Inc. for two years, specializing in analog circuit design and optimization, before joining Professor Mark Horowtiz' research group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford in 2003. In the first two years of his PhD, he collaborated with Professor Joseph Kahn on using adaptive spatial equalization to compensate modal dispersion in multimode fibers. From 2005 to 2008, he worked with Professor Harley McAdams, Professor Lucy Shapiro, and Professor David Dill on modeling and analyzing the asymmetric division of Caulobacter crescentus. Xiling’s postdoctoral work focused on synthetic biology with Dr. Adam Arkin in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley prior to joining the faculty at Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.<br />
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<h3>Dr. David Wilson - Molecular Biology and Genetics</h3><br />
David Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) at Cornell. He is a member of the MBG, Microbiology, and Toxicology fields and serves on the graduate committees of students who minor in Biochemistry of Microbiology. <br />
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He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1961, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford Medical School in 1966, and did postdoctoral work at the Department of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1966-67 before coming to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 1967. He is a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society of Microbiologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and is director of the Cornell Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology.<br />
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The Wilson laboratory studies the enzymology of plant cell wall degradation with a major focus on cellulases, which are important industrial enzymes and have potential in the production of renewable, non-polluting fuels and chemicals. Members of the Wilson Lab use a combination of genomics, protein engineering, and molecular biology their research.<br />
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<h4>Nathan Kruer-Zerhusen</h4><br />
Wilson Lab<br />
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<h4>Aravind Natarajan</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Jason Kahn</h4><br />
Luo Lab<br />
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<h4>Taylor Stevenson</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Aljosa Trmcic</h4><br />
PhD, Food Science Lab<br />
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<h4>Devin Doud</h4><br />
Angenent Lab<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Team Members</h1><br />
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<h3>Eric Holmes</h3><br />
Beware of Eric Holmes, the fearless leader of CUGEM who grew up in the hood. His disturbing character is immediately evident by his love for dead fish, as his latest kill is proudly displayed on his phone case. He relentlessly pursues these innocent creatures in the hope of wiping them off the face of the earth. Some call it fishing. Watch out for his killer jokes; you may shoot yourself after hearing them ten times. These also usually involve fish. In addition, he seems to enjoy trekking for days through miles of monotonous forest in order to …end up where he started. He occasionally drags innocent freshmen along for the ride. Despite all this, no one can dispute that Eric is a brilliant bioengineer, and so his curious hobbies have gone unquestioned. <br />
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<h3>Arun Chakravorty</h3><br />
Arun Chakravorty was found on the sandy shores of California, fully grown, in fetal position, borne from the sea foam of the great pacific. No one is sure how Arun came to be, but they have attributed his bubbly personality to the sea foam from whence he came, and his rich color to the sun, which he laid in for many days before he was discovered, giving him a tan that makes pale white girls cringe with jealousy. Arun, after rising from the gold sand on which he was found, then travelled the world, learning invaluable skills like cloning, a Capella, and FIFA. He needed strikers for his exclusively Argentinian FIFA team, so he travelled to Argentina and persuaded two men named Palacio and Milito to train and become world class soccer players. He then realized he could combine his three skills of cloning, singing, and FIFA, and become one of the most unique people to walk the face of the earth. He travelled to Ithaca, New York, and joined Cornell iGEM. Now, Arun spends his days cloning while simultaneously playing FIFA and singing songs of both praise and loathing (depending on the situation) for Milito and Palacio, with whom he plays as. Arun hates Palacio for growing a rat tail, but still enjoys his superior soccer capabilities. Arun’s hobbies include long walks on the beach and base jumping. He was also the inspiration for Tom Haverford, a character in the hit series, Parks and Recreation. <br />
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<h3>Samah Hoque</h3><br />
At first, Samah Hoque might seem like your ordinary iGem wet lab minion. But don’t be fooled by her innocent smile and kind demeanor. After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Samah turned down a job from the Ministry of Magic and came to Cornell University, where the eternal frozen tundra and endless days without sunlight constantly remind her of London. She spends plenty of time down in the basement lab space of Weill because it brings back her fondest childhood memories of living in a cramped cupboard under the stairs. With a single spell, Samah is able to bring bacteria to life by tricking them into thinking LB is delicious butterbeer. In dire lab situations, Samah must conjure her patronus, a rare form of Escherichia coli to ward away all evils from her precious bacterial colonies. When not in lab, Samah can be found dominating Quidditch games on the Arts Quad or reading about the dark arts in the library. 100 points to Samah Hoque for being iGem’s secret weapon. <br />
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<h3>Casey Zhang</h3><br />
Casey toils away in lab night and day, but only to feign a hardworking nature, as few are aware that this is because she prefers to remain discreet about her dwelling in the legendary interstitial space. (It has been heard that she unlocks it with a special pattern of light reflected by her carefully painted nails.) There is little known about the contents of this mysterious corner of our building, though we do suspect that it is filled with a surplus of baked goods, based on the delicious aroma wafting into the basement from a crack in its door. It is only fitting that the creator of these fine fragrances is none other than Casey, whose cream puffs will send you into the heaven of all food comas. But you must also be wary, for no one is quite certain of her recipes. The last iGEMer that recklessly wandered into the interstitial space reappeared weeks later as a half-eaten bag of dorito chips, so we are forced to wait for Casey to approach us with her offerings. Yet those, too, may be bewitched – any who cannot resist the goodness should fear transformation into a cuddly puppy. Unless you’re into that. Never fear, this adorable witch definitely won’t be able to eat you alive, though, because you would be long gone before she could finish chewing her first bite. <br />
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<h3>Kevin Hui</h3><br />
Entering Kevin Hui's kitchen is a life changing experience. Whether it's an oven-roasted chicken, apple-crumb pie, or fancy biscotti served with ginger cheesecake that you desire, Kevin can make it, and he will leave you craving for more. His discerning tongue makes team socials far more savory. <br />
That said, this foodie from Long Island is also an aspiring assassin. If he's not busy cooking you dinner or wiping the floor in a Dota 2 match, he's probably plotting your murder. Each of his targets receives a uniquely catered ending. You better not get on his wrong side or the rice noodles you're enjoying may well be the end of you. <br />
One way to hold on to your precious life is to never mess with this man's pizza. He will eat only the finest NYC thin crust pies and will find anything below his standards offensive. Anyone from Chicago would be well advised to keep their distance from this conniver. <br />
If you are special enough to earn a spot on his hit list, instrumental music and Steam sales are known to pacify him. And if you somehow manage to survive, you'll find that this master chef, pizza connoisseur, and hobbyist assassin is an indispensable member of the Cornell iGEM team. <br />
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<h3>Gargi Ratnaparkhi</h3><br />
Gargi, standing at 3’7” and originally from the Shire, now resides exclusively in lab. She journeyed to Ithaca all the way from Middle Earth for the sole purpose of aiding Cornell iGEM. On any given day or time, you can find her staring angrily at the centrifuge while waiting for her minipreps or staring angrily at cells, trying to force them to transform with her mind. Although infamous for her skills in Ice Ball (patent pending) and her delicious cake, Gargi is less known for her not too terrible saxophone playing and her ability to crack boulders over her swimmer’s shoulders as though they were eggs. Although there is so much more to be said about Gargi Ratnaparki, this direct quote sums her up pretty well: “Five minipreps? I eat five minipreps for breakfast.” <br />
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<h3>Aaron Gittelman</h3><br />
In a land far, far away, where the grass stayed green and the water crystal blue, where minipreps worked and all was good, lived a young dragon-rider who soared the sky as carefree and lighthearted as the breeze that took him. Everywhere he flew over, music followed. The timbre and vibrancy of his voice, interwoven with the depth and complexity of his bass, spun even the simplest tunes into enchanting melodies. Oh how smooth and sweet they were! Everyone swooned at the mere echoes -- and did I mention his good looks? In the air, he and his dragon were one. But one day, his dragon fell ill. The deep emerald scales gave in to a pale sickly orange. For years, the rider searched for an answer, but what could it have been? Then, whispers came. "Look within." Hoping to hone his skills in the molecular world, he decided to join iGEM to first master the techniques of synthetic biology. Interviewers tried to stump him, but unbeknownst to the community, riders grew up around the art. The yellow tint in his eyes glowed as his intent gaze pierced through the dense air. His replies were as accurate as poised. By the end, he was not just any other newcomer. He was Aaron Gittelman – his name said it all. <br />
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<h3>Sharlene Dong</h3><br />
N Vrou van die raaisel, 'n vrou van raaisel.<br />
Ek sien jy dit durf waag om hierdie bio te vertaal haar donkerste geheime te<br />
ontsluit. Jy is gewaarsku. <br />
<br><br><br />
Haar status: dodelik. Die P100 is haar wapen van<br />
keuse. Op 'n skaal van 1-4, Sharlene is Biosafety Vlak 10 Sy kan etanol<br />
steriliseer jou tenderest druk punte voor spuit haar vrag van dodelike<br />
gifstowwe. Wat deur die manier, is gesintetiseer gebruik om kennis oorgedra van<br />
antieke 5000-jarige Chinese alchemicy. Sy vlieg, nooit loop, het sy horlosies,<br />
nooit slaap. Jou enigste hoop op oorlewing is om haar te lei met 'n boeiende<br />
episode van Game of Thrones. Dit of blink voorwerpe.<br />
<br><br><br />
Jy het dit so ver, jy is dapper.<br />
<br><br><br />
<br />
Afrikaans filler text (or is it...), because Latin is too mainstream. Sharlene’s a fan. <br />
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<h3>Neema Patel</h3><br />
Neema Patel...how do I begin to explain Neema Patel? Neema Patel is magical. It's said that her legs are insured for $10,000. People say that she does bubble tea commercials in Taiwan. Her favorite movie is Mean Girls. Once she met Chris Pratt at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He told her to stop hoarding all the cupcakes. One time during Ice Ball (many times actually), she threw ice at me...it was not awesome. <br />
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<h3>Olya Spassibojko</h3><br />
No person is ever what they appear to be, and Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas is certainly no exception. Look under those perfectly placed spectacles and you’ll find an avid Anberlin advocate fluent in Ubbi Dubbi and prone to turning anything and everything turquoise. No one really knows how to spell her name, and people have learned it is better not to try. The brave souls who did were stripped of their sanity, never to recover. She has made a home out of the grand trees of Ithaca, and if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of her masterfully navigating them. It is rumoured that from her birth in the distant Russian mountains, she attained her nimble skills during her tutalage under the continent's most notorious ninja. She will purr if you pet her, but petters beware – stay too long and you too will find yourself infected with a deep love of domestic felines and working with yeast. She climbs, she meows, she takes her bunny out on walks. She is Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas: resident cat lover and professional monkey. <br />
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<h3>Sara Gregg</h3><br />
SaraGregg is Cornell iGEM’s resident celebrity power couple rivaling the firepower of Brangelina and the sheer intrigue of Kimye. When she’s not using her gazelle-like endurance prowess to ski across Ithaca or run to dry lab meetings on Sunday mornings (a little extra sleep never hurts, right?) she’s using it to put in late night hours at the machine shop or to swoon over Korean dramas until 4am. A master of the 3D printer, she’ll print a plastic cake and simply stare at it, willing the tasty morsel she’s been craving into existence. This girl from small-town Ohio is a true city girl at heart, and all you Gregory Sarah’s out there better watch out for her; Sara is ready to produce her very own SynBio drama and the first SaraGreggGregSarah power couple to rule them all. <br />
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<h3>Steven Li</h3><br />
Steven Li is a super hero. His power of course, is: ________. Despite being quite elusive to even his closest of team members, who haven't seen him in months, Super-Stealthy-Steven can be recognized by his iconic wooden cross necklace, from which he draws his power. Rumored to be a demigod born from the Western God Franisco-San Francisco to you- He has decided to leave his home, many leagues away, to solve the many crimes of current Eastern society the main one being: selfies. In a private interview, to which he never appeared, it is documented that Steven is diligently working on destroying the power of selfies by photo-bombing each and every one. Because of the plethera of selfies being taken in our day and age, Steven is rather busy and doesn't stay in one place for very long. So if you haven't seen Steven in awhile, don't worry he is off being the grand super hero that he is! <br />
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<h3>Joseph Fridman</h3><br />
The year was 1989. Even as the Cold War raged on, the USSR and the ideology it represented were in their death throes. In an act of desperation, the Politburo sought to develop a new propaganda apparatus, hoping that by effectively spreading pro-Soviet sentiment worldwide support for the enfeebled superpower would increase, and the tides would turn. To that end, Joseph Fridman was created. With a disarming kindness and an extraordinary intellect, he was capable of convincing anyone whom he spoke to that the path to prosperity was painted red. After a battery of evaluations, Fridman was sent to America with the goal of neutralizing it as an adversary to communism. However, upon arrival in the US, he was staggered by the wealth and majesty of the republic. After thinking it through, he decided to defect to the capitalist West. Without his assistance, the Soviet empire soon collapsed. Now an American citizen, the former sleeper agent has settled down, studying psychology at Cornell University (with the obvious purpose of honing his power of persuasion) and working to convince the population of Ithaca of the preeminence of CUGEM. <br />
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<h3>Ryan Ashley</h3><br />
There are rumors. People say things – see things – around our labs. Blonde-haired apparitions float in and out of the corners of our eyes. Visions of a gentle smile flash through team members’ minds. Perfect gels appear on the countertop, and despite the immaculate labeling, no one knows who ran them. One team member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that on one quiet lonely afternoon as he walked by one of the sinks, he noticed it was dirty, caked with mud and beakers strewn about. Since he was the only one in the lab at the time, he decided to clean it up, but when he turned to look at the sink again, it was completely cleaned! There is agreement among the team that something … else lurks in our workspace. We’ve taken to calling our mysterious helper “Ryan” (the name just seemed to fit). We don’t know what it is or what it wants, but we do know our project wouldn’t be half as well done without it. <br />
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<h3>Rishabh Singh</h3><br />
They speak of a man learned beyond all others, unbound by mortal flesh. For eons, he wandered this plane, seeking new pleasures to satisfy his ageless conscience. Nothing was outside his grasp. In his wake, nations fell, civilizations flourished, and as always, the women swooned. Gradually, through the thousands of millennia, this man’s true name of power was lost to the shifting sands of time. But, word among the people speak of a him currently residing in Cornell University, assuming the identity of “Rishabh”, though veterans of the field know this is simply one of the many guises he has chosen. He currently dedicates himself to the Cornell iGEM team, lending an eternity of knowledge to this humble project team. When he is not gracing his presence in the iGEM lab space, he prefers the quiet sanctity of the indoors, proving himself among the best in the FPS gaming, his years as a skilled military tactician rendering his enemies little more than a mob of confused toddlers. Legend also speaks of his legendary pie making skills, though few live to tell the tale of a pie of such high caliber, as the sheer ecstasy of tasting one of these legendary morsels causes the human body to permanently cease function (in some parts of the world, death in such a way is considered an honorable one). <br />
This biography serves as more than just a record, it is a herald, a warning for times to come. The one named Rishabh is powerful beyond measure, though his current form may be unassuming. Woe to those that stand in his way, as he is not known to be merciful. The last recorded time his wrath was incurred, the Black Death occurred. Not even the very best of heroes can even dream of facing his final form, which is also known to be incredible sassy. So beware, beware to all those who hope to undermine his efforts. In even the most secretive of moments, do not forget. <br />
He won’t. <br />
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<h3>Ritvik Sarkar</h3><br />
What is the Ritvik? I'm glad you asked. Ritvik used to be our team's secret secret nonlethal weapon, until a series of not completely unrelated explosions and earthquakes alerted national media to its existence. Ritvik is the original prototype for our project, with its 20 micron filter hair outperforming all competition. We are still struggling to develop a successor that has even half the ability to make wet things into dry things. Capable of building models to ensure our team's success as well as other smaller ventures such as hostile takeover of midwestern states, Ritvik is an essential component of our team. Without its capabilities as a replacement pump system, we would be incapable of surmounting the one foot of head that stalls our team's inevitable victory. <br />
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<h3>Swati Sureka</h3><br />
You'd remember when you first met her, in lab. It's pretty striking at first: She [Swati] sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and she knows well every quiver of each of them. Beakers, notebooks, laptops, disembodied voices, bits and pieces of cardboard, flora and fauna of the like that have never been seen before on Planet Earth - all circle her in the air, flying around like so many transporters, enzymes, and cellular automata. She does little herself. She only plans. But her agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there research to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a block of DNA to be characterized, a project to be undertaken - the word is passed to the SWATi Team, the matter is organised and carried out. And if that all sounds a little intimidating, have no fear: Swati is sworn by oath to the Old Gods and the New to defend, advance, and justify through feats of meaningful scientific accomplishment the existence of human life. Just make sure you don't forget to pay your social dues... <br />
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<h3>George Danias</h3><br />
George Danias? <br><br />
Many have dreamt and heard his name<br><br />
<br />
Only to find themselves shocked and maimed<br><br />
<br />
By his unputdownable creativity,<br><br />
<br />
Ingenuity and alacrity,<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
His inventions rise from ground<br><br />
<br />
Like his infinite wisdom that always astounds<br><br />
<br />
His mechanical chess pieces guard his palace<br><br />
<br />
Where he makes cells as radiant as the aurora borealis<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Although only a part of the team since this year<br><br />
<br />
Everyone seems to notice when he disappears<br><br />
<br />
So treasure his presence, for he’s only nice<br><br />
<br />
When you’re not one of his lab mice<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Many wonder why he has chosen to impact our lives,<br><br />
But to that question, he chooses to derive<br><br />
A massive differential equation<br><br />
Showcasing why it is the best and most valuable occasion<br><br />
<br><br />
He often is staring at the sky<br><br />
Not pondering when, where, or why,<br><br />
But deciding the fate of planets and stars<br><br />
Like a couple billion years ago, he decided on mars.<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
So in fact he didn’t apply to the team<br><br />
But decided it would be good for our self-esteem<br> <br />
<br><br />
<br />
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<h3>Tina Su</h3><br />
Date a girl who reads. Find her in a cozy coffee shop, Stella's, tucked behind the fall foliage in the bustle of Cornell Collegetown. Wherever you find her, she'll be smiling, making sure it lingers even when people talking to her look away. Kiss her in the rain under the glow of a streetlamp because you saw it in a film. Remark at its huge significance. Date a girl who reads because she is a storyteller. You with Hemingway, Nabokov and Austen, in the library, on the metro platform at nine and three-quarters, in the corner cafe, perched on the window of your room. You, who makes my life so difficult. <br />
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<h3>Neil Chitrao</h3><br />
Deep beneath the Alamogordo testing range, the United States planned their most ambitious project yet. So shrouded in secrecy was this project, not even the President of the United States was aware of its undertaking. It was to be a grand culmination of centuries of research, dwarfing even the scale of the Manhattan Project. The premise was simple: to create a humanoid embodiment of the spirit of American patriotism. Nicknamed the N.E.I.L., or Nationalistically Empowered Intelligent Lifeform, he was to be an exemplar of the American standard and ingenuity. Unfortunately he was too modern for his time, and the team of scientists, fearing for another “Cold War” style confrontation, locked N.E.I.L. in stasis until the time was right to reintroduce him to American society. <br />
<br><br><br />
That time is now.<br />
<br><br><br />
Numerous field reports have triangulated his position at Cornell University, where he has subtly placed himself within Cornell’s iGEM team. Though he tries to mask his identity, his designs are unmistakable. He is fueled by twin-powered nuclear fission reactors, rendering sleep unnecessary, explaining the numerous hours he has been sighted in the lab working on inhuman hours of sleep. It is also nigh impossible to be in his presence without the word “America” being uttered at least once, a remnant of his circuitry from the highly patriotic wartime years. Delving further into conversation, you will find a vast database of knowledge of weaponry and military aircraft, an unsurprising find due to his production during the 1940s. Despite his advanced systems, he bides his time, remaining in his low-profile state until the time arises to take up arms to defend the American ideal once more. <br />
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<h3>Michelle Zhang</h3><br />
Now for Michelle there’s little I can say:<br><br />
Her skill is matched by none; her scheming eyes<br><br />
Do always flit betwixt pipettes, with ne’er <br><br />
A microliter out of place. Oh my! <br><br><br />
<br />
Above the busy humming of our lair, <br><br />
Amidst the bustling team, her focus grows; <br><br />
Her data gathers, as if out of air. <br><br />
Graphs pop on screen; a smile begins to show.<br><br><br />
<br />
Fluorescent lights now flicker, silence falls<br><br />
Upon the lab… we just make out the clicks<br><br />
Of Eppendorf tubes popping. Softly call,<br><br />
“Who’s there?” Ms. Zhang emerges, oh so slick. <br><br><br />
<br />
What more can I say of this wondrous fiend?<br><br />
Her mysteries abound; ‘tis all I’ve gleaned.<br />
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<h3>Jonlin Chen</h3><br />
The shining light of the grand Lighthouse of Alexandria pierced through the ebony Arabian night, guiding the royal ships of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus to the safety of the Pharos shore. After departing the Eastern Desert with crates of spices, linen, and gold, Egyptian sailors bowed to the mercy of the Great Sea and endured Her thrashing waves and whipping rain on their way home. The darkness often consumed faith in reaching Great Alexandria, that is until the fire-burning Lighthouse parted the night sky and illuminated the secure Nile Delta and familiar shores. Jonlin Chen, although human and not 120 meters tall, is Cornell iGEM's guiding light and source of all hope during times of darkness. While we, less-skilled iGEM members, are literally drowning in incomplete minipreps and restriction digests and utterly clueless on where to begin, Jonlin is the one person we can count on to show us the way. Whether it is a frantic phone call in the morning before class or a 2am Groupme message of desperation, Jonlin is always ready to help. Her fire-burning passion for bioengineering and iGEM fuels our team and shines through the often gloomy labspace during exam weeks and consecutive weeks of unsuccessful transformations, and is an inspiration to us all.<br />
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<h3>Grace Livermore</h3><br />
Beyond the isles of man, in the shaded grove where the heavens gently caress the Earth sits the very heart of nature itself. It is here that the land retains its pristine landscape, unfettered and untainted by the influences of mankind’s expansion. The very natural order was under siege, and Mother Nature required a vanguard to fight on her behalf. Using primitive arcane energies that shaped the Earth itself, the very essence of nature was harnessed, coalescing into a single being. Thus, Grace came into being, so aptly named to be the saving grace of nature’s purity. <br />
<br> <br><br />
But where to start? The damage done is great, but like all great heroes, small steps come before giant bounds, and Grace knew the perfect place to start. She now works tirelessly on Cornell’s iGEM team, conducting research that can rectify the contamination that grips this planet. Despite all her continuing dedication to the team, she never fails to forget the roots from which she came. An avid rock climber, she enjoys scaling the formidable walls to attune herself with the Earth. She is also learned in song and dance, particularly the style of Bhangra, for which she has joined Cornell’s Bhangra team and has had much success. But above all, she is a defender of nature; a hero to us all. <br />
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<h3>Jeffrey Ly</h3><br />
Future billionaire playboy philanthropist, Jeffrey can do it all. An acting virtuoso, it was said that he once challenged Batman to the lead in Les Miserables and the loser had to wear their underwear on the outside for the rest of time. Indeed, Jeffrey is the reason that Leonardo Dicaprio has never won an Oscar. Once, when counseling Dicaprio after not winning the Oscars again, Jeffrey told Dicaprio a joke about the Oscars to cheer him up… needless to say, he didn’t get it. When he’s not off fundamentally transforming our perceptions of superheroes for the better or the worse, Jeffrey is the life of the party at Cornell iGEM, forever cheering up people in those late night cram sessions. <br />
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<h3>Tim Abbott</h3><br />
Tim Abbott was the original cybernetic organism from which James Cameron based the terminator upon. He was sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future in an effort to protect members of the Cornell iGEM team which would go on to design a novel metal sequestration fiber reactor. Once the war would break out between artificially intelligent machines and humans, humans would hold their own for a surprising amount of time. But their greatest downfall would come when the machines contaminated all the world’s water supplies with heavy metals. By successfully aiding the 2014 iGEM team in completing their metal sequestration fiber reactor, Tim effectively has ensured the future of all of mankind.<br />
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<h3>Prashant Sharma</h3><br />
In a spectacular laboratory experiment (similar to the one that created the Powerpuff girls), researchers managed to combine the wisdom of a great redwood tree with the humor and wit of Kanye West to produce the artist formerly known as Prince, currently known as Prashant “Shawn” Sharma. As a senior member of Cornell iGEM, Shawn imparts his vast stores of worldly knowledge onto the ‘youngins, sometimes dropping some advice on a sick double clutch fadeaway he saw Kobe perform once, other times, schooling teammates on the intricacies of synthetic biology. As a chemistry/biology double major, Shawn is clearly a mad-man and should not be approached under any circumstances, unless you come bearing naval oranges, his favorite fruit. Perhaps one of the more intriguing facts about Shawn is that every car model with an “S” in the name is named in honor of Shawn, including the Toyota Corolla S, the Tesla Model S, and obviously the Mercedes S Class.<br />
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<h3>Rebecca Chew</h3><br />
She's no bird, not an airplane...she's Rebecca Chew, the super ChemE that dabbles in modeling, dry lab, and wet lab! One day she's in goggles, another creating insane models, either way, nothing can move forward without her. How does she do all this? Two words: BUBBLE TEA. The consumption of glucose and caffeine molecules is her secret potion. One sip of this delightful beverage is enough for her to become a machine.<br />
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<h3>Nupur Bhatt</h3><br />
Thousands of years ago, nature spirits and humans coexisted as one. They walked the ground we walked on. They lived in the valleys we lived in. Until humans began harming their homes, their families. That was when gods split their world with ours. The Night of Crystal Rift. We only know about Karuna from ancient scriptures, this alternate dimension on Earth. It is said the spirits still walk the ground we walk on, but we don't see them. We don't hear them. Then two decades ago, the gods decided to give humans a second chance. Scyllarus. That's what they call her. When she was born into Karuna, sages on Earth saw the dark night glow. An orange aurora streaked the sky. She is the daughter of the wild, destined to synthesize the bridge between the human world and the spiritual world. The day she stepped into the human world, she took the name of Nupur. Her spiritual powers took form in tangible human abilities. Her strong base notes. Her swift coding skills. Her quiet demeanor hides her true powers, but she is observing...finding ways to mend the past.<br />
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<h3>Mac Sennett</h3><br />
He doesn’t always operate heavy machinery, but when he does, the finger of God once again touches the earth through his work. He once purposefully maligned one of his creations, just to see what failure felt like. After he drove his car off the lot, the value increased. He once got a compliment on his appearance from his reflection. Raw materials he uses and BioBricks assemble themselves for him. Police frequently pull him over to ask for his autograph. He makes all cloning strategies succeed, even GoldenGate. The “College of Sennett” was founded at Cornell because he asked them to. He has taught old dogs every trick in the book, even the ones that aren’t written. Each night, the Sandman dreams of Mac. <br />
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<h3>Christine Soong</h3><br />
Having retired from saving the world as the country’s top CIA agent, Christine returned to scout for potential successors. While not training her prodigies, she casually works on the circuitry to control our top secret fiber reactor. Her ultimate goal in life is to adopt 101 Dalmatians to accompany her on her long runs and kayaking trips! <br />
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<h3>Rafael Martinez</h3><br />
Now this is a story all about how Rafa’s life got flipped – turned upside down<br />
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there<br />
I’ll tell you how he became a prince and a billionaire<br />
A town called Ithaca’s where he stayed<br />
Inside Milstein is where he spent most of his days<br />
Drawin’ and plottin’ relaxin’ all cool<br />
And all Building some dragons outside of the school<br />
When a couple of guys, who were up to some good<br />
Started building towers in the neighborhood<br />
He got a great little job and a title with flair<br />
Now he’s master architect he makes his projects with care <br />
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<h3>Erica Alonzo</h3><br />
In a world oppressed by the bland and mundane, where creativity is stifled in the wink of an eye. Where uniqueness is punishable by death. Societies have all devolved into nothing but brainless servants of The Man, and there is only one person who can stop them. Join Erica, an unlikely heroine, as she utilizes her wit, charm and sass to bring an end to The Legion of Tropes and their dastardly (albeit trite) plans of enslaving the human race. One woman will help bring the light of excitement back into this dismal planet. This Fall, prepare to get your creative juices flowing in 'Dee Zine: And The Legion of Tropes.' This film is not yet rated.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Faculty Advisors</h1><br />
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<h3>Dr. Shivaun Archer - Biomedical Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Shivaun Archer is a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories. She designs and teaches undergraduate instructional labs for five biomedical engineering courses: BME 131, BME 301, BME 302, BME 401, and BME 402. The labs are designed to illustrate the course material and bring research to undergraduate education whilst exposing students to cutting edge technology and research methodology. A significant emphasis in all the labs is biomedical nanotechnology. Each of the five courses has a hands-on lab module that focuses specifically on nanobiotechnology. Overall, the lab modules enhance the hands-on training of Cornell students in the areas of microfabrication, microfluidics, biosensors, nano/microbiotechnology, and drug delivery. In recognition of her efforts in undergraduate education, Dr. Archer has received a prestigious College of Engineering Teaching award. <br />
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Before coming to Cornell, Dr. Archer worked for five years at Lynntech, Inc. a small research company specializing in biotechnology, biomaterials, chemical and biological sensors, medical biotechnology, and environmental remediation. Her work on wastewater treatment for long term space missions resulted in her receiving two NASA Inventions Space Act Awards. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Associate in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research interests include nanobiotechnology and tissue engineering. <br />
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<h3>Dr. Matthew DeLisa - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Matthew DeLisa received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University as an assistant professor in 2003 and was promoted to associate professor in 2009. He recently served as a Gastprofessur at ETH Zürich in the Institut für Mikrobiologie. <br />
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Professor DeLisa's research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis -- folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications -- in the complex environment of a living cell. His contributions to science and engineering include the invention of numerous commercially important technologies for facilitating the discovery, design and manufacturing of human drugs and seminal discoveries in the areas of cellular protein folding and protein translocation. DeLisa has received several awards for his work including an NSF CAREER award, a NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator award, a Beckman Foundation Young Investigator award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and a NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award. He was also named one of the top 35 young innovators (TR35) by MIT's Technology Review in 2005 and was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Wiley-Blackwell Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang award, which honors a distinguished young researcher in this field. Most recently, he was honored with a Cornell Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship and was the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society's BIOT division.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Bruce Land - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Bruce Land is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell. He teaches three courses in ECE and advises masters of engineering projects in ECE and Biomedical Engineering. When time allows, he does some neural modeling and spike train analysis. He has been in this position since 1998. <br />
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Land received a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1968 and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Cornell University in 1976 . He was a Muscular Dystrophy Association postdoc in NBB at Cornell for three years, then a lecturer in NBB for seven years. During this time he worked with Miriam Salpeter on the coupling of activity at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction, both experimentally and by computer modeling. In 1987 he moved to the Cornell Theory Center as a computational research associate, then started supporting graphics and animation. He was visualization project leader at the CTC from 1989 to 1998. From 1992 to 1998 he taught an introductory computer graphics course in Computer Science at Cornell. From 1998 to 2007 he taught computer programming and electronics courses in NBB and was a Senior Research Associate in Neurobiology and Behavior.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Julius B. Lucks - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Julius B. Lucks is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, and a James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. After attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for high school, he became an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he performed research in organic synthesis and the application of density functional theory to studying the electronic properties of atoms and molecules as a Goldwater Scholar. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry, he spent a summer working with Robert Parr before obtaining an M. Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. As a Hertz Fellow at Harvard University, he researched problems in theoretical biophysics including RNA folding and translocation, viral capsid structure and viral genome organization, under David R. Nelson. As a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Adam P. Arkin, he engineered versatile RNA-sensing transcriptional regulators that can be easily reconfigured to independently regulate multiple genes, logically control gene expression, and propagate signals as RNA molecules in gene networks. He also lead the team that developed SHAPE-Seq, an experimental technique that utilizes next generation sequencing for probing RNA secondary and tertiary structures of hundreds of RNAs in a single experiment. <br />
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Professor Lucks’ research combines both experiment and theory to ask fundamental questions about the design principles that govern how RNAs fold and function in living organisms, and how these principles can be used to engineer biomolecular systems, and open doors to new medical therapeutics.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Xiling Shen - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Xiling Shen has been an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University since August 2009. <br />
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Born in Shanghai, China, Dr. Xiling Shen went on to receive his BS and MS degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University in 2001. He then worked at Barcelona Design Inc. for two years, specializing in analog circuit design and optimization, before joining Professor Mark Horowtiz' research group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford in 2003. In the first two years of his PhD, he collaborated with Professor Joseph Kahn on using adaptive spatial equalization to compensate modal dispersion in multimode fibers. From 2005 to 2008, he worked with Professor Harley McAdams, Professor Lucy Shapiro, and Professor David Dill on modeling and analyzing the asymmetric division of Caulobacter crescentus. Xiling’s postdoctoral work focused on synthetic biology with Dr. Adam Arkin in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley prior to joining the faculty at Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.<br />
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<h3>Dr. David Wilson - Molecular Biology and Genetics</h3><br />
David Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) at Cornell. He is a member of the MBG, Microbiology, and Toxicology fields and serves on the graduate committees of students who minor in Biochemistry of Microbiology. <br />
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He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1961, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford Medical School in 1966, and did postdoctoral work at the Department of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1966-67 before coming to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 1967. He is a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society of Microbiologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and is director of the Cornell Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology.<br />
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The Wilson laboratory studies the enzymology of plant cell wall degradation with a major focus on cellulases, which are important industrial enzymes and have potential in the production of renewable, non-polluting fuels and chemicals. Members of the Wilson Lab use a combination of genomics, protein engineering, and molecular biology their research.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Graduate Advisors</h1><br />
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<h4>Nathan Kruer-Zerhusen</h4><br />
Wilson Lab<br />
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<h4>Aravind Natarajan</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Jason Kahn</h4><br />
Luo Lab<br />
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<h4>Taylor Stevenson</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Aljosa Trmcic</h4><br />
PhD, Food Science Lab<br />
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<h4>Devin Doud</h4><br />
Angenent Lab<br />
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</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/team/biosTeam:Cornell/team/bios2014-10-18T03:56:59Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h3>Eric Holmes</h3><br />
Beware of Eric Holmes, the fearless leader of CUGEM who grew up in the hood. His disturbing character is immediately evident by his love for dead fish, as his latest kill is proudly displayed on his phone case. He relentlessly pursues these innocent creatures in the hope of wiping them off the face of the earth. Some call it fishing. Watch out for his killer jokes; you may shoot yourself after hearing them ten times. These also usually involve fish. In addition, he seems to enjoy trekking for days through miles of monotonous forest in order to …end up where he started. He occasionally drags innocent freshmen along for the ride. Despite all this, no one can dispute that Eric is a brilliant bioengineer, and so his curious hobbies have gone unquestioned. <br />
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<h3>Arun Chakravorty</h3><br />
Arun Chakravorty was found on the sandy shores of California, fully grown, in fetal position, borne from the sea foam of the great pacific. No one is sure how Arun came to be, but they have attributed his bubbly personality to the sea foam from whence he came, and his rich color to the sun, which he laid in for many days before he was discovered, giving him a tan that makes pale white girls cringe with jealousy. Arun, after rising from the gold sand on which he was found, then travelled the world, learning invaluable skills like cloning, a Capella, and FIFA. He needed strikers for his exclusively Argentinian FIFA team, so he travelled to Argentina and persuaded two men named Palacio and Milito to train and become world class soccer players. He then realized he could combine his three skills of cloning, singing, and FIFA, and become one of the most unique people to walk the face of the earth. He travelled to Ithaca, New York, and joined Cornell iGEM. Now, Arun spends his days cloning while simultaneously playing FIFA and singing songs of both praise and loathing (depending on the situation) for Milito and Palacio, with whom he plays as. Arun hates Palacio for growing a rat tail, but still enjoys his superior soccer capabilities. Arun’s hobbies include long walks on the beach and base jumping. He was also the inspiration for Tom Haverford, a character in the hit series, Parks and Recreation. <br />
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<h3>Samah Hoque</h3><br />
At first, Samah Hoque might seem like your ordinary iGem wet lab minion. But don’t be fooled by her innocent smile and kind demeanor. After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Samah turned down a job from the Ministry of Magic and came to Cornell University, where the eternal frozen tundra and endless days without sunlight constantly remind her of London. She spends plenty of time down in the basement lab space of Weill because it brings back her fondest childhood memories of living in a cramped cupboard under the stairs. With a single spell, Samah is able to bring bacteria to life by tricking them into thinking LB is delicious butterbeer. In dire lab situations, Samah must conjure her patronus, a rare form of Escherichia coli to ward away all evils from her precious bacterial colonies. When not in lab, Samah can be found dominating Quidditch games on the Arts Quad or reading about the dark arts in the library. 100 points to Samah Hoque for being iGem’s secret weapon. <br />
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<h3>Casey Zhang</h3><br />
Casey toils away in lab night and day, but only to feign a hardworking nature, as few are aware that this is because she prefers to remain discreet about her dwelling in the legendary interstitial space. (It has been heard that she unlocks it with a special pattern of light reflected by her carefully painted nails.) There is little known about the contents of this mysterious corner of our building, though we do suspect that it is filled with a surplus of baked goods, based on the delicious aroma wafting into the basement from a crack in its door. It is only fitting that the creator of these fine fragrances is none other than Casey, whose cream puffs will send you into the heaven of all food comas. But you must also be wary, for no one is quite certain of her recipes. The last iGEMer that recklessly wandered into the interstitial space reappeared weeks later as a half-eaten bag of dorito chips, so we are forced to wait for Casey to approach us with her offerings. Yet those, too, may be bewitched – any who cannot resist the goodness should fear transformation into a cuddly puppy. Unless you’re into that. Never fear, this adorable witch definitely won’t be able to eat you alive, though, because you would be long gone before she could finish chewing her first bite. <br />
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<h3>Kevin Hui</h3><br />
Entering Kevin Hui's kitchen is a life changing experience. Whether it's an oven-roasted chicken, apple-crumb pie, or fancy biscotti served with ginger cheesecake that you desire, Kevin can make it, and he will leave you craving for more. His discerning tongue makes team socials far more savory. <br />
That said, this foodie from Long Island is also an aspiring assassin. If he's not busy cooking you dinner or wiping the floor in a Dota 2 match, he's probably plotting your murder. Each of his targets receives a uniquely catered ending. You better not get on his wrong side or the rice noodles you're enjoying may well be the end of you. <br />
One way to hold on to your precious life is to never mess with this man's pizza. He will eat only the finest NYC thin crust pies and will find anything below his standards offensive. Anyone from Chicago would be well advised to keep their distance from this conniver. <br />
If you are special enough to earn a spot on his hit list, instrumental music and Steam sales are known to pacify him. And if you somehow manage to survive, you'll find that this master chef, pizza connoisseur, and hobbyist assassin is an indispensable member of the Cornell iGEM team. <br />
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<h3>Gargi Ratnaparkhi</h3><br />
Gargi, standing at 3’7” and originally from the Shire, now resides exclusively in lab. She journeyed to Ithaca all the way from Middle Earth for the sole purpose of aiding Cornell iGEM. On any given day or time, you can find her staring angrily at the centrifuge while waiting for her minipreps or staring angrily at cells, trying to force them to transform with her mind. Although infamous for her skills in Ice Ball (patent pending) and her delicious cake, Gargi is less known for her not too terrible saxophone playing and her ability to crack boulders over her swimmer’s shoulders as though they were eggs. Although there is so much more to be said about Gargi Ratnaparki, this direct quote sums her up pretty well: “Five minipreps? I eat five minipreps for breakfast.” <br />
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<h3>Aaron Gittelman</h3><br />
In a land far, far away, where the grass stayed green and the water crystal blue, where minipreps worked and all was good, lived a young dragon-rider who soared the sky as carefree and lighthearted as the breeze that took him. Everywhere he flew over, music followed. The timbre and vibrancy of his voice, interwoven with the depth and complexity of his bass, spun even the simplest tunes into enchanting melodies. Oh how smooth and sweet they were! Everyone swooned at the mere echoes -- and did I mention his good looks? In the air, he and his dragon were one. But one day, his dragon fell ill. The deep emerald scales gave in to a pale sickly orange. For years, the rider searched for an answer, but what could it have been? Then, whispers came. "Look within." Hoping to hone his skills in the molecular world, he decided to join iGEM to first master the techniques of synthetic biology. Interviewers tried to stump him, but unbeknownst to the community, riders grew up around the art. The yellow tint in his eyes glowed as his intent gaze pierced through the dense air. His replies were as accurate as poised. By the end, he was not just any other newcomer. He was Aaron Gittelman – his name said it all. <br />
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<h3>Sharlene Dong</h3><br />
N Vrou van die raaisel, 'n vrou van raaisel.<br />
Ek sien jy dit durf waag om hierdie bio te vertaal haar donkerste geheime te<br />
ontsluit. Jy is gewaarsku. <br />
<br><br><br />
Haar status: dodelik. Die P100 is haar wapen van<br />
keuse. Op 'n skaal van 1-4, Sharlene is Biosafety Vlak 10 Sy kan etanol<br />
steriliseer jou tenderest druk punte voor spuit haar vrag van dodelike<br />
gifstowwe. Wat deur die manier, is gesintetiseer gebruik om kennis oorgedra van<br />
antieke 5000-jarige Chinese alchemicy. Sy vlieg, nooit loop, het sy horlosies,<br />
nooit slaap. Jou enigste hoop op oorlewing is om haar te lei met 'n boeiende<br />
episode van Game of Thrones. Dit of blink voorwerpe.<br />
<br><br><br />
Jy het dit so ver, jy is dapper.<br />
<br><br><br />
<br />
Afrikaans filler text (or is it...), because Latin is too mainstream. Sharlene’s a fan. <br />
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<h3>Neema Patel</h3><br />
Neema Patel...how do I begin to explain Neema Patel? Neema Patel is magical. It's said that her legs are insured for $10,000. People say that she does bubble tea commercials in Taiwan. Her favorite movie is Mean Girls. Once she met Chris Pratt at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He told her to stop hoarding all the cupcakes. One time during Ice Ball (many times actually), she threw ice at me...it was not awesome. <br />
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<div class="col-md-9 col-xs-12"><br />
<h3>Olya Spassibojko</h3><br />
No person is ever what they appear to be, and Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas is certainly no exception. Look under those perfectly placed spectacles and you’ll find an avid Anberlin advocate fluent in Ubbi Dubbi and prone to turning anything and everything turquoise. No one really knows how to spell her name, and people have learned it is better not to try. The brave souls who did were stripped of their sanity, never to recover. She has made a home out of the grand trees of Ithaca, and if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of her masterfully navigating them. It is rumoured that from her birth in the distant Russian mountains, she attained her nimble skills during her tutalage under the continent's most notorious ninja. She will purr if you pet her, but petters beware – stay too long and you too will find yourself infected with a deep love of domestic felines and working with yeast. She climbs, she meows, she takes her bunny out on walks. She is Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas: resident cat lover and professional monkey. <br />
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<h3>Sara Gregg</h3><br />
SaraGregg is Cornell iGEM’s resident celebrity power couple rivaling the firepower of Brangelina and the sheer intrigue of Kimye. When she’s not using her gazelle-like endurance prowess to ski across Ithaca or run to dry lab meetings on Sunday mornings (a little extra sleep never hurts, right?) she’s using it to put in late night hours at the machine shop or to swoon over Korean dramas until 4am. A master of the 3D printer, she’ll print a plastic cake and simply stare at it, willing the tasty morsel she’s been craving into existence. This girl from small-town Ohio is a true city girl at heart, and all you Gregory Sarah’s out there better watch out for her; Sara is ready to produce her very own SynBio drama and the first SaraGreggGregSarah power couple to rule them all. <br />
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<h3>Steven Li</h3><br />
Steven Li is a super hero. His power of course, is: ________. Despite being quite elusive to even his closest of team members, who haven't seen him in months, Super-Stealthy-Steven can be recognized by his iconic wooden cross necklace, from which he draws his power. Rumored to be a demigod born from the Western God Franisco-San Francisco to you- He has decided to leave his home, many leagues away, to solve the many crimes of current Eastern society the main one being: selfies. In a private interview, to which he never appeared, it is documented that Steven is diligently working on destroying the power of selfies by photo-bombing each and every one. Because of the plethera of selfies being taken in our day and age, Steven is rather busy and doesn't stay in one place for very long. So if you haven't seen Steven in awhile, don't worry he is off being the grand super hero that he is! <br />
</div><br />
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<h3>Joseph Fridman</h3><br />
The year was 1989. Even as the Cold War raged on, the USSR and the ideology it represented were in their death throes. In an act of desperation, the Politburo sought to develop a new propaganda apparatus, hoping that by effectively spreading pro-Soviet sentiment worldwide support for the enfeebled superpower would increase, and the tides would turn. To that end, Joseph Fridman was created. With a disarming kindness and an extraordinary intellect, he was capable of convincing anyone whom he spoke to that the path to prosperity was painted red. After a battery of evaluations, Fridman was sent to America with the goal of neutralizing it as an adversary to communism. However, upon arrival in the US, he was staggered by the wealth and majesty of the republic. After thinking it through, he decided to defect to the capitalist West. Without his assistance, the Soviet empire soon collapsed. Now an American citizen, the former sleeper agent has settled down, studying psychology at Cornell University (with the obvious purpose of honing his power of persuasion) and working to convince the population of Ithaca of the preeminence of CUGEM. <br />
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<h3>Ryan Ashley</h3><br />
There are rumors. People say things – see things – around our labs. Blonde-haired apparitions float in and out of the corners of our eyes. Visions of a gentle smile flash through team members’ minds. Perfect gels appear on the countertop, and despite the immaculate labeling, no one knows who ran them. One team member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that on one quiet lonely afternoon as he walked by one of the sinks, he noticed it was dirty, caked with mud and beakers strewn about. Since he was the only one in the lab at the time, he decided to clean it up, but when he turned to look at the sink again, it was completely cleaned! There is agreement among the team that something … else lurks in our workspace. We’ve taken to calling our mysterious helper “Ryan” (the name just seemed to fit). We don’t know what it is or what it wants, but we do know our project wouldn’t be half as well done without it. <br />
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<h3>Rishabh Singh</h3><br />
They speak of a man learned beyond all others, unbound by mortal flesh. For eons, he wandered this plane, seeking new pleasures to satisfy his ageless conscience. Nothing was outside his grasp. In his wake, nations fell, civilizations flourished, and as always, the women swooned. Gradually, through the thousands of millennia, this man’s true name of power was lost to the shifting sands of time. But, word among the people speak of a him currently residing in Cornell University, assuming the identity of “Rishabh”, though veterans of the field know this is simply one of the many guises he has chosen. He currently dedicates himself to the Cornell iGEM team, lending an eternity of knowledge to this humble project team. When he is not gracing his presence in the iGEM lab space, he prefers the quiet sanctity of the indoors, proving himself among the best in the FPS gaming, his years as a skilled military tactician rendering his enemies little more than a mob of confused toddlers. Legend also speaks of his legendary pie making skills, though few live to tell the tale of a pie of such high caliber, as the sheer ecstasy of tasting one of these legendary morsels causes the human body to permanently cease function (in some parts of the world, death in such a way is considered an honorable one). <br />
This biography serves as more than just a record, it is a herald, a warning for times to come. The one named Rishabh is powerful beyond measure, though his current form may be unassuming. Woe to those that stand in his way, as he is not known to be merciful. The last recorded time his wrath was incurred, the Black Death occurred. Not even the very best of heroes can even dream of facing his final form, which is also known to be incredible sassy. So beware, beware to all those who hope to undermine his efforts. In even the most secretive of moments, do not forget. <br />
He won’t. <br />
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<h3>Ritvik Sarkar</h3><br />
What is the Ritvik? I'm glad you asked. Ritvik used to be our team's secret secret nonlethal weapon, until a series of not completely unrelated explosions and earthquakes alerted national media to its existence. Ritvik is the original prototype for our project, with its 20 micron filter hair outperforming all competition. We are still struggling to develop a successor that has even half the ability to make wet things into dry things. Capable of building models to ensure our team's success as well as other smaller ventures such as hostile takeover of midwestern states, Ritvik is an essential component of our team. Without its capabilities as a replacement pump system, we would be incapable of surmounting the one foot of head that stalls our team's inevitable victory. <br />
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<h3>Swati Sureka</h3><br />
You'd remember when you first met her, in lab. It's pretty striking at first: She [Swati] sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and she knows well every quiver of each of them. Beakers, notebooks, laptops, disembodied voices, bits and pieces of cardboard, flora and fauna of the like that have never been seen before on Planet Earth - all circle her in the air, flying around like so many transporters, enzymes, and cellular automata. She does little herself. She only plans. But her agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there research to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a block of DNA to be characterized, a project to be undertaken - the word is passed to the SWATi Team, the matter is organised and carried out. And if that all sounds a little intimidating, have no fear: Swati is sworn by oath to the Old Gods and the New to defend, advance, and justify through feats of meaningful scientific accomplishment the existence of human life. Just make sure you don't forget to pay your social dues... <br />
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<h3>George Danias</h3><br />
George Danias? <br><br />
Many have dreamt and heard his name<br><br />
<br />
Only to find themselves shocked and maimed<br><br />
<br />
By his unputdownable creativity,<br><br />
<br />
Ingenuity and alacrity,<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
His inventions rise from ground<br><br />
<br />
Like his infinite wisdom that always astounds<br><br />
<br />
His mechanical chess pieces guard his palace<br><br />
<br />
Where he makes cells as radiant as the aurora borealis<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Although only a part of the team since this year<br><br />
<br />
Everyone seems to notice when he disappears<br><br />
<br />
So treasure his presence, for he’s only nice<br><br />
<br />
When you’re not one of his lab mice<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Many wonder why he has chosen to impact our lives,<br><br />
But to that question, he chooses to derive<br><br />
A massive differential equation<br><br />
Showcasing why it is the best and most valuable occasion<br><br />
<br><br />
He often is staring at the sky<br><br />
Not pondering when, where, or why,<br><br />
But deciding the fate of planets and stars<br><br />
Like a couple billion years ago, he decided on mars.<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
So in fact he didn’t apply to the team<br><br />
But decided it would be good for our self-esteem<br> <br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
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<h3>Tina Su</h3><br />
Date a girl who reads. Find her in a cozy coffee shop, Stella's, tucked behind the fall foliage in the bustle of Cornell Collegetown. Wherever you find her, she'll be smiling. Making sure it lingers even when people talking to her look away. Kiss her in the rain under the glow of a streetlamp because you saw it in a film. Remark at its huge significance. Date a girl who reads because she is a storyteller. You with Hemingway, Nabokov and Austen, in the library, on the metro platform at nine and three-quarters, in the corner cafe, perched on the window of your room. You, who makes my life so difficult. <br />
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<h3>Neil Chitrao</h3><br />
Deep beneath the Alamogordo testing range, the United States planned their most ambitious project yet. So shrouded in secrecy was this project, not even the President of the United States was aware of its undertaking. It was to be a grand culmination of centuries of research, dwarfing even the scale of the Manhattan Project. The premise was simple: to create a humanoid embodiment of the spirit of American patriotism. Nicknamed the N.E.I.L., or Nationalistically Empowered Intelligent Lifeform, he was to be an exemplar of the American standard and ingenuity. Unfortunately he was too modern for his time, and the team of scientists, fearing for another “Cold War” style confrontation, locked N.E.I.L. in stasis until the time was right to reintroduce him to American society. <br />
<br><br><br />
That time is now.<br />
<br><br><br />
Numerous field reports have triangulated his position at Cornell University, where he has subtly placed himself within Cornell’s iGEM team. Though he tries to mask his identity, his designs are unmistakable. He is fueled by twin-powered nuclear fission reactors, rendering sleep unnecessary, explaining the numerous hours he has been sighted in the lab working on inhuman hours of sleep. It is also nigh impossible to be in his presence without the word “America” being uttered at least once, a remnant of his circuitry from the highly patriotic wartime years. Delving further into conversation, you will find a vast database of knowledge of weaponry and military aircraft, an unsurprising find due to his production during the 1940s. Despite his advanced systems, he bides his time, remaining in his low-profile state until the time arises to take up arms to defend the American ideal once more. <br />
<br />
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<h3>Michelle Zhang</h3><br />
Now for Michelle there’s little I can say:<br><br />
Her skill is matched by none; her scheming eyes<br><br />
Do always flit betwixt pipettes, with ne’er <br><br />
A microliter out of place. Oh my! <br><br><br />
<br />
Above the busy humming of our lair, <br><br />
Amidst the bustling team, her focus grows; <br><br />
Her data gathers, as if out of air. <br><br />
Graphs pop on screen; a smile begins to show.<br><br><br />
<br />
Fluorescent lights now flicker, silence falls<br><br />
Upon the lab… we just make out the clicks<br><br />
Of Eppendorf tubes popping. Softly call,<br><br />
“Who’s there?” Ms. Zhang emerges, oh so slick. <br><br><br />
<br />
What more can I say of this wondrous fiend?<br><br />
Her mysteries abound; ‘tis all I’ve gleaned.<br />
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<h3>Jonlin Chen</h3><br />
The shining light of the grand Lighthouse of Alexandria pierced through the ebony Arabian night, guiding the royal ships of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus to the safety of the Pharos shore. After departing the Eastern Desert with crates of spices, linen, and gold, Egyptian sailors bowed to the mercy of the Great Sea and endured Her thrashing waves and whipping rain on their way home. The darkness often consumed faith in reaching Great Alexandria, that is until the fire-burning Lighthouse parted the night sky and illuminated the secure Nile Delta and familiar shores. Jonlin Chen, although human and not 120 meters tall, is Cornell iGEM's guiding light and source of all hope during times of darkness. While we, less-skilled iGEM members, are literally drowning in incomplete minipreps and restriction digests and utterly clueless on where to begin, Jonlin is the one person we can count on to show us the way. Whether it is a frantic phone call in the morning before class or a 2am Groupme message of desperation, Jonlin is always ready to help. Her fire-burning passion for bioengineering and iGEM fuels our team and shines through the often gloomy labspace during exam weeks and consecutive weeks of unsuccessful transformations, and is an inspiration to us all.<br />
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<h3>Grace Livermore</h3><br />
Beyond the isles of man, in the shaded grove where the heavens gently caress the Earth sits the very heart of nature itself. It is here that the land retains its pristine landscape, unfettered and untainted by the influences of mankind’s expansion. The very natural order was under siege, and Mother Nature required a vanguard to fight on her behalf. Using primitive arcane energies that shaped the Earth itself, the very essence of nature was harnessed, coalescing into a single being. Thus, Grace came into being, so aptly named to be the saving grace of nature’s purity. <br />
<br> <br><br />
But where to start? The damage done is great, but like all great heroes, small steps come before giant bounds, and Grace knew the perfect place to start. She now works tirelessly on Cornell’s iGEM team, conducting research that can rectify the contamination that grips this planet. Despite all her continuing dedication to the team, she never fails to forget the roots from which she came. An avid rock climber, she enjoys scaling the formidable walls to attune herself with the Earth. She is also learned in song and dance, particularly the style of Bhangra, for which she has joined Cornell’s Bhangra team and has had much success. But above all, she is a defender of nature; a hero to us all. <br />
<br />
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<h3>Jeffrey Ly</h3><br />
Future billionaire playboy philanthropist, Jeffrey can do it all. An acting virtuoso, it was said that he once challenged Batman to the lead in Les Miserables and the loser had to wear their underwear on the outside for the rest of time. Indeed, Jeffrey is the reason that Leonardo Dicaprio has never won an Oscar. Once, when counseling Dicaprio after not winning the Oscars again, Jeffrey told Dicaprio a joke about the Oscars to cheer him up… needless to say, he didn’t get it. When he’s not off fundamentally transforming our perceptions of superheroes for the better or the worse, Jeffrey is the life of the party at Cornell iGEM, forever cheering up people in those late night cram sessions. <br />
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<h3>Tim Abbott</h3><br />
Tim Abbott was the original cybernetic organism from which James Cameron based the terminator upon. He was sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future in an effort to protect members of the Cornell iGEM team which would go on to design a novel metal sequestration fiber reactor. Once the war would break out between artificially intelligent machines and humans, humans would hold their own for a surprising amount of time. But their greatest downfall would come when the machines contaminated all the world’s water supplies with heavy metals. By successfully aiding the 2014 iGEM team in completing their metal sequestration fiber reactor, Tim effectively has ensured the future of all of mankind.<br />
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<h3>Prashant Sharma</h3><br />
In a spectacular laboratory experiment (similar to the one that created the Powerpuff girls), researchers managed to combine the wisdom of a great redwood tree with the humor and wit of Kanye West to produce the artist formerly known as Prince, currently known as Prashant “Shawn” Sharma. As a senior member of Cornell iGEM, Shawn imparts his vast stores of worldly knowledge onto the ‘youngins, sometimes dropping some advice on a sick double clutch fadeaway he saw Kobe perform once, other times, schooling teammates on the intricacies of synthetic biology. As a chemistry/biology double major, Shawn is clearly a mad-man and should not be approached under any circumstances, unless you come bearing naval oranges, his favorite fruit. Perhaps one of the more intriguing facts about Shawn is that every car model with an “S” in the name is named in honor of Shawn, including the Toyota Corolla S, the Tesla Model S, and obviously the Mercedes S Class.<br />
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<h3>Rebecca Chew</h3><br />
She's no bird, not an airplane...she's Rebecca Chew, the super ChemE that dabbles in modeling, dry lab, and wet lab! One day she's in goggles, another creating insane models, either way, nothing can move forward without her. How does she do all this? Two words: BUBBLE TEA. The consumption of glucose and caffeine molecules is her secret potion. One sip of this delightful beverage is enough for her to become a machine.<br />
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<h3>Nupur Bhatt</h3><br />
Thousands of years ago, nature spirits and humans coexisted as one. They walked the ground we walked on. They lived in the valleys we lived in. Until humans began harming their homes, their families. That was when gods split their world with ours. The Night of Crystal Rift. We only know about Karuna from ancient scriptures, this alternate dimension on Earth. It is said the spirits still walk the ground we walk on, but we don't see them. We don't hear them. Then two decades ago, the gods decided to give humans a second chance. Scyllarus. That's what they call her. When she was born into Karuna, sages on Earth saw the dark night glow. An orange aurora streaked the sky. She is the daughter of the wild, destined to synthesize the bridge between the human world and the spiritual world. The day she stepped into the human world, she took the name of Nupur. Her spiritual powers took form in tangible human abilities. Her strong base notes. Her swift coding skills. Her quiet demeanor hides her true powers, but she is observing...finding ways to mend the past.<br />
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<h3>Mac Sennett</h3><br />
He doesn’t always operate heavy machinery, but when he does, the finger of God once again touches the earth through his work. He once purposefully maligned one of his creations, just to see what failure felt like. After he drove his car off the lot, the value increased. He once got a compliment on his appearance from his reflection. Raw materials he uses and BioBricks assemble themselves for him. Police frequently pull him over to ask for his autograph. He makes all cloning strategies succeed, even GoldenGate. The “College of Sennett” was founded at Cornell because he asked them to. He has taught old dogs every trick in the book, even the ones that aren’t written. Each night, the Sandman dreams of Mac. <br />
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<h3>Christine Soong</h3><br />
Having retired from saving the world as the country’s top CIA agent, Christine returned to scout for potential successors. While not training her prodigies, she casually works on the circuitry to control our top secret fiber reactor. Her ultimate goal in life is to adopt 101 Dalmatians to accompany her on her long runs and kayaking trips! <br />
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<h3>Rafael Martinez</h3><br />
Now this is a story all about how Rafa’s life got flipped – turned upside down<br />
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there<br />
I’ll tell you how he became a prince and a billionaire<br />
A town called Ithaca’s where he stayed<br />
Inside Milstein is where he spent most of his days<br />
Drawin’ and plottin’ relaxin’ all cool<br />
And all Building some dragons outside of the school<br />
When a couple of guys, who were up to some good<br />
Started building towers in the neighborhood<br />
He got a great little job and a title with flair<br />
Now he’s master architect he makes his projects with care <br />
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<h3>Erica Alonzo</h3><br />
In a world oppressed by the bland and mundane, where creativity is stifled in the wink of an eye. Where uniqueness is punishable by death. Societies have all devolved into nothing but brainless servants of The Man, and there is only one person who can stop them. Join Erica, an unlikely heroine, as she utilizes her wit, charm and sass to bring an end to The Legion of Tropes and their dastardly (albeit trite) plans of enslaving the human race. One woman will help bring the light of excitement back into this dismal planet. This Fall, prepare to get your creative juices flowing in 'Dee Zine: And The Legion of Tropes.' This film is not yet rated.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Faculty Advisors</h1><br />
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<h3>Dr. Shivaun Archer - Biomedical Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Shivaun Archer is a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories. She designs and teaches undergraduate instructional labs for five biomedical engineering courses: BME 131, BME 301, BME 302, BME 401, and BME 402. The labs are designed to illustrate the course material and bring research to undergraduate education whilst exposing students to cutting edge technology and research methodology. A significant emphasis in all the labs is biomedical nanotechnology. Each of the five courses has a hands-on lab module that focuses specifically on nanobiotechnology. Overall, the lab modules enhance the hands-on training of Cornell students in the areas of microfabrication, microfluidics, biosensors, nano/microbiotechnology, and drug delivery. In recognition of her efforts in undergraduate education, Dr. Archer has received a prestigious College of Engineering Teaching award. <br />
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Before coming to Cornell, Dr. Archer worked for five years at Lynntech, Inc. a small research company specializing in biotechnology, biomaterials, chemical and biological sensors, medical biotechnology, and environmental remediation. Her work on wastewater treatment for long term space missions resulted in her receiving two NASA Inventions Space Act Awards. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Associate in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research interests include nanobiotechnology and tissue engineering. <br />
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<h3>Dr. Matthew DeLisa - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Matthew DeLisa received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University as an assistant professor in 2003 and was promoted to associate professor in 2009. He recently served as a Gastprofessur at ETH Zürich in the Institut für Mikrobiologie. <br />
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Professor DeLisa's research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis -- folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications -- in the complex environment of a living cell. His contributions to science and engineering include the invention of numerous commercially important technologies for facilitating the discovery, design and manufacturing of human drugs and seminal discoveries in the areas of cellular protein folding and protein translocation. DeLisa has received several awards for his work including an NSF CAREER award, a NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator award, a Beckman Foundation Young Investigator award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and a NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award. He was also named one of the top 35 young innovators (TR35) by MIT's Technology Review in 2005 and was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Wiley-Blackwell Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang award, which honors a distinguished young researcher in this field. Most recently, he was honored with a Cornell Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship and was the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society's BIOT division.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Bruce Land - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Bruce Land is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell. He teaches three courses in ECE and advises masters of engineering projects in ECE and Biomedical Engineering. When time allows, he does some neural modeling and spike train analysis. He has been in this position since 1998. <br />
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Land received a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1968 and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Cornell University in 1976 . He was a Muscular Dystrophy Association postdoc in NBB at Cornell for three years, then a lecturer in NBB for seven years. During this time he worked with Miriam Salpeter on the coupling of activity at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction, both experimentally and by computer modeling. In 1987 he moved to the Cornell Theory Center as a computational research associate, then started supporting graphics and animation. He was visualization project leader at the CTC from 1989 to 1998. From 1992 to 1998 he taught an introductory computer graphics course in Computer Science at Cornell. From 1998 to 2007 he taught computer programming and electronics courses in NBB and was a Senior Research Associate in Neurobiology and Behavior.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Julius B. Lucks - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Julius B. Lucks is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, and a James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. After attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for high school, he became an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he performed research in organic synthesis and the application of density functional theory to studying the electronic properties of atoms and molecules as a Goldwater Scholar. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry, he spent a summer working with Robert Parr before obtaining an M. Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. As a Hertz Fellow at Harvard University, he researched problems in theoretical biophysics including RNA folding and translocation, viral capsid structure and viral genome organization, under David R. Nelson. As a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Adam P. Arkin, he engineered versatile RNA-sensing transcriptional regulators that can be easily reconfigured to independently regulate multiple genes, logically control gene expression, and propagate signals as RNA molecules in gene networks. He also lead the team that developed SHAPE-Seq, an experimental technique that utilizes next generation sequencing for probing RNA secondary and tertiary structures of hundreds of RNAs in a single experiment. <br />
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Professor Lucks’ research combines both experiment and theory to ask fundamental questions about the design principles that govern how RNAs fold and function in living organisms, and how these principles can be used to engineer biomolecular systems, and open doors to new medical therapeutics.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Xiling Shen - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Xiling Shen has been an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University since August 2009. <br />
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Born in Shanghai, China, Dr. Xiling Shen went on to receive his BS and MS degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University in 2001. He then worked at Barcelona Design Inc. for two years, specializing in analog circuit design and optimization, before joining Professor Mark Horowtiz' research group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford in 2003. In the first two years of his PhD, he collaborated with Professor Joseph Kahn on using adaptive spatial equalization to compensate modal dispersion in multimode fibers. From 2005 to 2008, he worked with Professor Harley McAdams, Professor Lucy Shapiro, and Professor David Dill on modeling and analyzing the asymmetric division of Caulobacter crescentus. Xiling’s postdoctoral work focused on synthetic biology with Dr. Adam Arkin in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley prior to joining the faculty at Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.<br />
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<h3>Dr. David Wilson - Molecular Biology and Genetics</h3><br />
David Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) at Cornell. He is a member of the MBG, Microbiology, and Toxicology fields and serves on the graduate committees of students who minor in Biochemistry of Microbiology. <br />
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He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1961, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford Medical School in 1966, and did postdoctoral work at the Department of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1966-67 before coming to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 1967. He is a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society of Microbiologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and is director of the Cornell Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology.<br />
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The Wilson laboratory studies the enzymology of plant cell wall degradation with a major focus on cellulases, which are important industrial enzymes and have potential in the production of renewable, non-polluting fuels and chemicals. Members of the Wilson Lab use a combination of genomics, protein engineering, and molecular biology their research.<br />
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<h4>Nathan Kruer-Zerhusen</h4><br />
Wilson Lab<br />
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<h4>Aravind Natarajan</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Jason Kahn</h4><br />
Luo Lab<br />
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<h4>Taylor Stevenson</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Aljosa Trmcic</h4><br />
PhD, Food Science Lab<br />
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<h4>Devin Doud</h4><br />
Angenent Lab<br />
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<h3>Eric Holmes</h3><br />
Beware of Eric Holmes, the fearless leader of CUGEM who grew up in the hood. His disturbing character is immediately evident by his love for dead fish, as his latest kill is proudly displayed on his phone case. He relentlessly pursues these innocent creatures in the hope of wiping them off the face of the earth. Some call it fishing. Watch out for his killer jokes; you may shoot yourself after hearing them ten times. These also usually involve fish. In addition, he seems to enjoy trekking for days through miles of monotonous forest in order to …end up where he started. He occasionally drags innocent freshmen along for the ride. Despite all this, no one can dispute that Eric is a brilliant bioengineer, and so his curious hobbies have gone unquestioned. <br />
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<h3>Arun Chakravorty</h3><br />
Arun Chakravorty was found on the sandy shores of California, fully grown, in fetal position, borne from the sea foam of the great pacific. No one is sure how Arun came to be, but they have attributed his bubbly personality to the sea foam from whence he came, and his rich color to the sun, which he laid in for many days before he was discovered, giving him a tan that makes pale white girls cringe with jealousy. Arun, after rising from the gold sand on which he was found, then travelled the world, learning invaluable skills like cloning, a Capella, and FIFA. He needed strikers for his exclusively Argentinian FIFA team, so he travelled to Argentina and persuaded two men named Palacio and Milito to train and become world class soccer players. He then realized he could combine his three skills of cloning, singing, and FIFA, and become one of the most unique people to walk the face of the earth. He travelled to Ithaca, New York, and joined Cornell iGEM. Now, Arun spends his days cloning while simultaneously playing FIFA and singing songs of both praise and loathing (depending on the situation) for Milito and Palacio, with whom he plays as. Arun hates Palacio for growing a rat tail, but still enjoys his superior soccer capabilities. Arun’s hobbies include long walks on the beach and base jumping. He was also the inspiration for Tom Haverford, a character in the hit series, Parks and Recreation. <br />
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<h3>Samah Hoque</h3><br />
At first, Samah Hoque might seem like your ordinary iGem wet lab minion. But don’t be fooled by her innocent smile and kind demeanor. After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Samah turned down a job from the Ministry of Magic and came to Cornell University, where the eternal frozen tundra and endless days without sunlight constantly remind her of London. She spends plenty of time down in the basement lab space of Weill because it brings back her fondest childhood memories of living in a cramped cupboard under the stairs. With a single spell, Samah is able to bring bacteria to life by tricking them into thinking LB is delicious butterbeer. In dire lab situations, Samah must conjure her patronus, a rare form of Escherichia coli to ward away all evils from her precious bacterial colonies. When not in lab, Samah can be found dominating Quidditch games on the Arts Quad or reading about the dark arts in the library. 100 points to Samah Hoque for being iGem’s secret weapon. <br />
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<h3>Casey Zhang</h3><br />
Casey toils away in lab night and day, but only to feign a hardworking nature, as few are aware that this is because she prefers to remain discreet about her dwelling in the legendary interstitial space. (It has been heard that she unlocks it with a special pattern of light reflected by her carefully painted nails.) There is little known about the contents of this mysterious corner of our building, though we do suspect that it is filled with a surplus of baked goods, based on the delicious aroma wafting into the basement from a crack in its door. It is only fitting that the creator of these fine fragrances is none other than Casey, whose cream puffs will send you into the heaven of all food comas. But you must also be wary, for no one is quite certain of her recipes. The last iGEMer that recklessly wandered into the interstitial space reappeared weeks later as a half-eaten bag of dorito chips, so we are forced to wait for Casey to approach us with her offerings. Yet those, too, may be bewitched – any who cannot resist the goodness should fear transformation into a cuddly puppy. Unless you’re into that. Never fear, this adorable witch definitely won’t be able to eat you alive, though, because you would be long gone before she could finish chewing her first bite. <br />
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<h3>Kevin Hui</h3><br />
Entering Kevin Hui's kitchen is a life changing experience. Whether it's an oven-roasted chicken, apple-crumb pie, or fancy biscotti served with ginger cheesecake that you desire, Kevin can make it, and he will leave you craving for more. His discerning tongue makes team socials far more savory. <br />
That said, this foodie from Long Island is also an aspiring assassin. If he's not busy cooking you dinner or wiping the floor in a Dota 2 match, he's probably plotting your murder. Each of his targets receives a uniquely catered ending. You better not get on his wrong side or the rice noodles you're enjoying may well be the end of you. <br />
One way to hold on to your precious life is to never mess with this man's pizza. He will eat only the finest NYC thin crust pies and will find anything below his standards offensive. Anyone from Chicago would be well advised to keep their distance from this conniver. <br />
If you are special enough to earn a spot on his hit list, instrumental music and Steam sales are known to pacify him. And if you somehow manage to survive, you'll find that this master chef, pizza connoisseur, and hobbyist assassin is an indispensable member of the Cornell iGEM team. <br />
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<h3>Gargi Ratnaparkhi</h3><br />
Gargi, standing at 3’7” and originally from the Shire, now resides exclusively in lab. She journeyed to Ithaca all the way from Middle Earth for the sole purpose of aiding Cornell iGEM. On any given day or time, you can find her staring angrily at the centrifuge while waiting for her minipreps or staring angrily at cells, trying to force them to transform with her mind. Although infamous for her skills in Ice Ball (patent pending) and her delicious cake, Gargi is less known for her not too terrible saxophone playing and her ability to crack boulders over her swimmer’s shoulders as though they were eggs. Although there is so much more to be said about Gargi Ratnaparki, this direct quote sums her up pretty well: “Five minipreps? I eat five minipreps for breakfast.” <br />
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<h3>Aaron Gittelman</h3><br />
In a land far, far away, where the grass stayed green and the water crystal blue, where minipreps worked and all was good, lived a young dragon-rider who soared the sky as carefree and lighthearted as the breeze that took him. Everywhere he flew over, music followed. The timbre and vibrancy of his voice, interwoven with the depth and complexity of his bass, spun even the simplest tunes into enchanting melodies. Oh how smooth and sweet they were! Everyone swooned at the mere echoes -- and did I mention his good looks? In the air, he and his dragon were one. But one day, his dragon fell ill. The deep emerald scales gave in to a pale sickly orange. For years, the rider searched for an answer, but what could it have been? Then, whispers came. "Look within." Hoping to hone his skills in the molecular world, he decided to join iGEM to first master the techniques of synthetic biology. Interviewers tried to stump him, but unbeknownst to the community, riders grew up around the art. The yellow tint in his eyes glowed as his intent gaze pierced through the dense air. His replies were as accurate as poised. By the end, he was not just any other newcomer. He was Aaron Gittelman – his name said it all. <br />
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<h3>Sharlene Dong</h3><br />
N Vrou van die raaisel, 'n vrou van raaisel.<br />
Ek sien jy dit durf waag om hierdie bio te vertaal haar donkerste geheime te<br />
ontsluit. Jy is gewaarsku. <br />
<br><br><br />
Haar status: dodelik. Die P100 is haar wapen van<br />
keuse. Op 'n skaal van 1-4, Sharlene is Biosafety Vlak 10 Sy kan etanol<br />
steriliseer jou tenderest druk punte voor spuit haar vrag van dodelike<br />
gifstowwe. Wat deur die manier, is gesintetiseer gebruik om kennis oorgedra van<br />
antieke 5000-jarige Chinese alchemicy. Sy vlieg, nooit loop, het sy horlosies,<br />
nooit slaap. Jou enigste hoop op oorlewing is om haar te lei met 'n boeiende<br />
episode van Game of Thrones. Dit of blink voorwerpe.<br />
<br><br><br />
Jy het dit so ver, jy is dapper.<br />
<br><br><br />
<br />
Afrikaans filler text (or is it...), because Latin is too mainstream. Sharlene’s a fan. <br />
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<h3>Neema Patel</h3><br />
Neema Patel...how do I begin to explain Neema Patel? Neema Patel is magical. It's said that her legs are insured for $10,000. People say that she does bubble tea commercials in Taiwan. Her favorite movie is Mean Girls. Once she met Chris Pratt at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He told her to stop hoarding all the cupcakes. One time during Ice Ball (many times actually), she threw ice at me...it was not awesome. <br />
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<h3>Olya Spassibojko</h3><br />
No person is ever what they appear to be, and Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas is certainly no exception. Look under those perfectly placed spectacles and you’ll find an avid Anberlin advocate fluent in Ubbi Dubbi and prone to turning anything and everything turquoise. No one really knows how to spell her name, and people have learned it is better not to try. The brave souls who did were stripped of their sanity, never to recover. She has made a home out of the grand trees of Ithaca, and if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of her masterfully navigating them. It is rumoured that from her birth in the distant Russian mountains, she attained her nimble skills during her tutalage under the continent's most notorious ninja. She will purr if you pet her, but petters beware – stay too long and you too will find yourself infected with a deep love of domestic felines and working with yeast. She climbs, she meows, she takes her bunny out on walks. She is Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas: resident cat lover and professional monkey. <br />
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<h3>Sara Gregg</h3><br />
SaraGregg is Cornell iGEM’s resident celebrity power couple rivaling the firepower of Brangelina and the sheer intrigue of Kimye. When she’s not using her gazelle-like endurance prowess to ski across Ithaca or run to dry lab meetings on Sunday mornings (a little extra sleep never hurts, right?) she’s using it to put in late night hours at the machine shop or to swoon over Korean dramas until 4am. A master of the 3D printer, she’ll print a plastic cake and simply stare at it, willing the tasty morsel she’s been craving into existence. This girl from small-town Ohio is a true city girl at heart, and all you Gregory Sarah’s out there better watch out for her; Sara is ready to produce her very own SynBio drama and the first SaraGreggGregSarah power couple to rule them all. <br />
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<h3>Steven Li</h3><br />
Steven Li is a super hero. His power of course, is: ________. Despite being quite elusive to even his closest of team members, who haven't seen him in months, Super-Stealthy-Steven can be recognized by his iconic wooden cross necklace, from which he draws his power. Rumored to be a demigod born from the Western God Franisco-San Francisco to you- He has decided to leave his home, many leagues away, to solve the many crimes of current Eastern society the main one being: selfies. In a private interview, to which he never appeared, it is documented that Steven is diligently working on destroying the power of selfies by photo-bombing each and every one. Because of the plethera of selfies being taken in our day and age, Steven is rather busy and doesn't stay in one place for very long. So if you haven't seen Steven in awhile, don't worry he is off being the grand super hero that he is! <br />
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<h3>Joseph Fridman</h3><br />
The year was 1989. Even as the Cold War raged on, the USSR and the ideology it represented were in their death throes. In an act of desperation, the Politburo sought to develop a new propaganda apparatus, hoping that by effectively spreading pro-Soviet sentiment worldwide support for the enfeebled superpower would increase, and the tides would turn. To that end, Joseph Fridman was created. With a disarming kindness and an extraordinary intellect, he was capable of convincing anyone whom he spoke to that the path to prosperity was painted red. After a battery of evaluations, Fridman was sent to America with the goal of neutralizing it as an adversary to communism. However, upon arrival in the US, he was staggered by the wealth and majesty of the republic. After thinking it through, he decided to defect to the capitalist West. Without his assistance, the Soviet empire soon collapsed. Now an American citizen, the former sleeper agent has settled down, studying psychology at Cornell University (with the obvious purpose of honing his power of persuasion) and working to convince the population of Ithaca of the preeminence of CUGEM. <br />
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<h3>Ryan Ashley</h3><br />
There are rumors. People say things – see things – around our labs. Blonde-haired apparitions float in and out of the corners of our eyes. Visions of a gentle smile flash through team members’ minds. Perfect gels appear on the countertop, and despite the immaculate labeling, no one knows who ran them. One team member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that on one quiet lonely afternoon as he walked by one of the sinks, he noticed it was dirty, caked with mud and beakers strewn about. Since he was the only one in the lab at the time, he decided to clean it up, but when he turned to look at the sink again, it was completely cleaned! There is agreement among the team that something … else lurks in our workspace. We’ve taken to calling our mysterious helper “Ryan” (the name just seemed to fit). We don’t know what it is or what it wants, but we do know our project wouldn’t be half as well done without it. <br />
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<h3>Rishabh Singh</h3><br />
They speak of a man learned beyond all others, unbound by mortal flesh. For eons, he wandered this plane, seeking new pleasures to satisfy his ageless conscience. Nothing was outside his grasp. In his wake, nations fell, civilizations flourished, and as always, the women swooned. Gradually, through the thousands of millennia, this man’s true name of power was lost to the shifting sands of time. But, word among the people speak of a him currently residing in Cornell University, assuming the identity of “Rishabh”, though veterans of the field know this is simply one of the many guises he has chosen. He currently dedicates himself to the Cornell iGEM team, lending an eternity of knowledge to this humble project team. When he is not gracing his presence in the iGEM lab space, he prefers the quiet sanctity of the indoors, proving himself among the best in the FPS gaming, his years as a skilled military tactician rendering his enemies little more than a mob of confused toddlers. Legend also speaks of his legendary pie making skills, though few live to tell the tale of a pie of such high caliber, as the sheer ecstasy of tasting one of these legendary morsels causes the human body to permanently cease function (in some parts of the world, death in such a way is considered an honorable one). <br />
This biography serves as more than just a record, it is a herald, a warning for times to come. The one named Rishabh is powerful beyond measure, though his current form may be unassuming. Woe to those that stand in his way, as he is not known to be merciful. The last recorded time his wrath was incurred, the Black Death occurred. Not even the very best of heroes can even dream of facing his final form, which is also known to be incredible sassy. So beware, beware to all those who hope to undermine his efforts. In even the most secretive of moments, do not forget. <br />
He won’t. <br />
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<h3>Ritvik Sarkar</h3><br />
What is the Ritvik? I'm glad you asked. Ritvik used to be our team's secret secret nonlethal weapon, until a series of not completely unrelated explosions and earthquakes alerted national media to its existence. Ritvik is the original prototype for our project, with its 20 micron filter hair outperforming all competition. We are still struggling to develop a successor that has even half the ability to make wet things into dry things. Capable of building models to ensure our team's success as well as other smaller ventures such as hostile takeover of midwestern states, Ritvik is an essential component of our team. Without its capabilities as a replacement pump system, we would be incapable of surmounting the one foot of head that stalls our team's inevitable victory. <br />
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<h3>Swati Sureka</h3><br />
You'd remember when you first met her, in lab. It's pretty striking at first: She [Swati] sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and she knows well every quiver of each of them. Beakers, notebooks, laptops, disembodied voices, bits and pieces of cardboard, flora and fauna of the like that have never been seen before on Planet Earth - all circle her in the air, flying around like so many transporters, enzymes, and cellular automata. She does little herself. She only plans. But her agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there research to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a block of DNA to be characterized, a project to be undertaken - the word is passed to the SWATi Team, the matter is organised and carried out. And if that all sounds a little intimidating, have no fear: Swati is sworn by oath to the Old Gods and the New to defend, advance, and justify through feats of meaningful scientific accomplishment the existence of human life. Just make sure you don't forget to pay your social dues... <br />
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<h3>George Danias</h3><br />
George Danias? <br><br />
Many have dreamt and heard his name<br><br />
<br />
Only to find themselves shocked and maimed<br><br />
<br />
By his unputdownable creativity,<br><br />
<br />
Ingenuity and alacrity,<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
His inventions rise from ground<br><br />
<br />
Like his infinite wisdom that always astounds<br><br />
<br />
His mechanical chess pieces guard his palace<br><br />
<br />
Where he makes cells as radiant as the aurora borealis<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Although only a part of the team since this year<br><br />
<br />
Everyone seems to notice when he disappears<br><br />
<br />
So treasure his presence, for he’s only nice<br><br />
<br />
When you’re not one of his lab mice<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Many wonder why he has chosen to impact our lives,<br><br />
But to that question, he chooses to derive<br><br />
A massive differential equation<br><br />
Showcasing why it is the best and most valuable occasion<br><br />
<br><br />
He often is staring at the sky<br><br />
Not pondering when, where, or why,<br><br />
But deciding the fate of planets and stars<br><br />
Like a couple billion years ago, he decided on mars.<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
So in fact he didn’t apply to the team<br><br />
But decided it would be good for our self-esteem<br> <br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
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<h3>Tina Su</h3><br />
Date a girl who reads. Find her in a cozy coffee shop, Stella's, tucked behind the fall foliage in the bustle of Cornell Collegetown. Wherever you find her, she'll be smiling, making sure it lingers even when people talking to her look away. Kiss her in the rain under the glow of a streetlamp because you saw it in a film. Remark at its huge significance. Date a girl who reads because she is a storyteller. You with Hemingway, Nabokov and Austen, in the library, on the metro platform at nine and three-quarters, in the corner cafe, perched on the window of your room. You, who makes my life so difficult. <br />
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<h3>Neil Chitrao</h3><br />
Deep beneath the Alamogordo testing range, the United States planned their most ambitious project yet. So shrouded in secrecy was this project, not even the President of the United States was aware of its undertaking. It was to be a grand culmination of centuries of research, dwarfing even the scale of the Manhattan Project. The premise was simple: to create a humanoid embodiment of the spirit of American patriotism. Nicknamed the N.E.I.L., or Nationalistically Empowered Intelligent Lifeform, he was to be an exemplar of the American standard and ingenuity. Unfortunately he was too modern for his time, and the team of scientists, fearing for another “Cold War” style confrontation, locked N.E.I.L. in stasis until the time was right to reintroduce him to American society. <br />
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That time is now.<br />
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Numerous field reports have triangulated his position at Cornell University, where he has subtly placed himself within Cornell’s iGEM team. Though he tries to mask his identity, his designs are unmistakable. He is fueled by twin-powered nuclear fission reactors, rendering sleep unnecessary, explaining the numerous hours he has been sighted in the lab working on inhuman hours of sleep. It is also nigh impossible to be in his presence without the word “America” being uttered at least once, a remnant of his circuitry from the highly patriotic wartime years. Delving further into conversation, you will find a vast database of knowledge of weaponry and military aircraft, an unsurprising find due to his production during the 1940s. Despite his advanced systems, he bides his time, remaining in his low-profile state until the time arises to take up arms to defend the American ideal once more. <br />
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<h3>Michelle Zhang</h3><br />
Now for Michelle there’s little I can say:<br><br />
Her skill is matched by none; her scheming eyes<br><br />
Do always flit betwixt pipettes, with ne’er <br><br />
A microliter out of place. Oh my! <br><br><br />
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Above the busy humming of our lair, <br><br />
Amidst the bustling team, her focus grows; <br><br />
Her data gathers, as if out of air. <br><br />
Graphs pop on screen; a smile begins to show.<br><br><br />
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Fluorescent lights now flicker, silence falls<br><br />
Upon the lab… we just make out the clicks<br><br />
Of Eppendorf tubes popping. Softly call,<br><br />
“Who’s there?” Ms. Zhang emerges, oh so slick. <br><br><br />
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What more can I say of this wondrous fiend?<br><br />
Her mysteries abound; ‘tis all I’ve gleaned.<br />
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<h3>Jonlin Chen</h3><br />
The shining light of the grand Lighthouse of Alexandria pierced through the ebony Arabian night, guiding the royal ships of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus to the safety of the Pharos shore. After departing the Eastern Desert with crates of spices, linen, and gold, Egyptian sailors bowed to the mercy of the Great Sea and endured Her thrashing waves and whipping rain on their way home. The darkness often consumed faith in reaching Great Alexandria, that is until the fire-burning Lighthouse parted the night sky and illuminated the secure Nile Delta and familiar shores. Jonlin Chen, although human and not 120 meters tall, is Cornell iGEM's guiding light and source of all hope during times of darkness. While we, less-skilled iGEM members, are literally drowning in incomplete minipreps and restriction digests and utterly clueless on where to begin, Jonlin is the one person we can count on to show us the way. Whether it is a frantic phone call in the morning before class or a 2am Groupme message of desperation, Jonlin is always ready to help. Her fire-burning passion for bioengineering and iGEM fuels our team and shines through the often gloomy labspace during exam weeks and consecutive weeks of unsuccessful transformations, and is an inspiration to us all.<br />
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<h3>Grace Livermore</h3><br />
Beyond the isles of man, in the shaded grove where the heavens gently caress the Earth sits the very heart of nature itself. It is here that the land retains its pristine landscape, unfettered and untainted by the influences of mankind’s expansion. The very natural order was under siege, and Mother Nature required a vanguard to fight on her behalf. Using primitive arcane energies that shaped the Earth itself, the very essence of nature was harnessed, coalescing into a single being. Thus, Grace came into being, so aptly named to be the saving grace of nature’s purity. <br />
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But where to start? The damage done is great, but like all great heroes, small steps come before giant bounds, and Grace knew the perfect place to start. She now works tirelessly on Cornell’s iGEM team, conducting research that can rectify the contamination that grips this planet. Despite all her continuing dedication to the team, she never fails to forget the roots from which she came. An avid rock climber, she enjoys scaling the formidable walls to attune herself with the Earth. She is also learned in song and dance, particularly the style of Bhangra, for which she has joined Cornell’s Bhangra team and has had much success. But above all, she is a defender of nature; a hero to us all. <br />
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<h3>Jeffrey Ly</h3><br />
Future billionaire playboy philanthropist, Jeffrey can do it all. An acting virtuoso, it was said that he once challenged Batman to the lead in Les Miserables and the loser had to wear their underwear on the outside for the rest of time. Indeed, Jeffrey is the reason that Leonardo Dicaprio has never won an Oscar. Once, when counseling Dicaprio after not winning the Oscars again, Jeffrey told Dicaprio a joke about the Oscars to cheer him up… needless to say, he didn’t get it. When he’s not off fundamentally transforming our perceptions of superheroes for the better or the worse, Jeffrey is the life of the party at Cornell iGEM, forever cheering up people in those late night cram sessions. <br />
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<h3>Tim Abbott</h3><br />
Tim Abbott was the original cybernetic organism from which James Cameron based the terminator upon. He was sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future in an effort to protect members of the Cornell iGEM team which would go on to design a novel metal sequestration fiber reactor. Once the war would break out between artificially intelligent machines and humans, humans would hold their own for a surprising amount of time. But their greatest downfall would come when the machines contaminated all the world’s water supplies with heavy metals. By successfully aiding the 2014 iGEM team in completing their metal sequestration fiber reactor, Tim effectively has ensured the future of all of mankind.<br />
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<h3>Prashant Sharma</h3><br />
In a spectacular laboratory experiment (similar to the one that created the Powerpuff girls), researchers managed to combine the wisdom of a great redwood tree with the humor and wit of Kanye West to produce the artist formerly known as Prince, currently known as Prashant “Shawn” Sharma. As a senior member of Cornell iGEM, Shawn imparts his vast stores of worldly knowledge onto the ‘youngins, sometimes dropping some advice on a sick double clutch fadeaway he saw Kobe perform once, other times, schooling teammates on the intricacies of synthetic biology. As a chemistry/biology double major, Shawn is clearly a mad-man and should not be approached under any circumstances, unless you come bearing naval oranges, his favorite fruit. Perhaps one of the more intriguing facts about Shawn is that every car model with an “S” in the name is named in honor of Shawn, including the Toyota Corolla S, the Tesla Model S, and obviously the Mercedes S Class.<br />
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<h3>Rebecca Chew</h3><br />
She's no bird, not an airplane...she's Rebecca Chew, the super ChemE that dabbles in modeling, dry lab, and wet lab! One day she's in goggles, another creating insane models, either way, nothing can move forward without her. How does she do all this? Two words: BUBBLE TEA. The consumption of glucose and caffeine molecules is her secret potion. One sip of this delightful beverage is enough for her to become a machine.<br />
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<h3>Nupur Bhatt</h3><br />
Thousands of years ago, nature spirits and humans coexisted as one. They walked the ground we walked on. They lived in the valleys we lived in. Until humans began harming their homes, their families. That was when gods split their world with ours. The Night of Crystal Rift. We only know about Karuna from ancient scriptures, this alternate dimension on Earth. It is said the spirits still walk the ground we walk on, but we don't see them. We don't hear them. Then two decades ago, the gods decided to give humans a second chance. Scyllarus. That's what they call her. When she was born into Karuna, sages on Earth saw the dark night glow. An orange aurora streaked the sky. She is the daughter of the wild, destined to synthesize the bridge between the human world and the spiritual world. The day she stepped into the human world, she took the name of Nupur. Her spiritual powers took form in tangible human abilities. Her strong base notes. Her swift coding skills. Her quiet demeanor hides her true powers, but she is observing...finding ways to mend the past.<br />
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<h3>Mac Sennett</h3><br />
He doesn’t always operate heavy machinery, but when he does, the finger of God once again touches the earth through his work. He once purposefully maligned one of his creations, just to see what failure felt like. After he drove his car off the lot, the value increased. He once got a compliment on his appearance from his reflection. Raw materials he uses and BioBricks assemble themselves for him. Police frequently pull him over to ask for his autograph. He makes all cloning strategies succeed, even GoldenGate. The “College of Sennett” was founded at Cornell because he asked them to. He has taught old dogs every trick in the book, even the ones that aren’t written. Each night, the Sandman dreams of Mac. <br />
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<h3>Christine Soong</h3><br />
Having retired from saving the world as the country’s top CIA agent, Christine returned to scout for potential successors. While not training her prodigies, she casually works on the circuitry to control our top secret fiber reactor. Her ultimate goal in life is to adopt 101 Dalmatians to accompany her on her long runs and kayaking trips! <br />
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<h3>Rafael Martinez</h3><br />
Now this is a story all about how Rafa’s life got flipped – turned upside down<br />
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there<br />
I’ll tell you how he became a prince and a billionaire<br />
A town called Ithaca’s where he stayed<br />
Inside Milstein is where he spent most of his days<br />
Drawin’ and plottin’ relaxin’ all cool<br />
And all Building some dragons outside of the school<br />
When a couple of guys, who were up to some good<br />
Started building towers in the neighborhood<br />
He got a great little job and a title with flair<br />
Now he’s master architect he makes his projects with care <br />
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<h3>Erica Alonzo</h3><br />
In a world oppressed by the bland and mundane, where creativity is stifled in the wink of an eye. Where uniqueness is punishable by death. Societies have all devolved into nothing but brainless servants of The Man, and there is only one person who can stop them. Join Erica, an unlikely heroine, as she utilizes her wit, charm and sass to bring an end to The Legion of Tropes and their dastardly (albeit trite) plans of enslaving the human race. One woman will help bring the light of excitement back into this dismal planet. This Fall, prepare to get your creative juices flowing in 'Dee Zine: And The Legion of Tropes.' This film is not yet rated.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Faculty Advisors</h1><br />
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<h3>Dr. Shivaun Archer - Biomedical Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Shivaun Archer is a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories. She designs and teaches undergraduate instructional labs for five biomedical engineering courses: BME 131, BME 301, BME 302, BME 401, and BME 402. The labs are designed to illustrate the course material and bring research to undergraduate education whilst exposing students to cutting edge technology and research methodology. A significant emphasis in all the labs is biomedical nanotechnology. Each of the five courses has a hands-on lab module that focuses specifically on nanobiotechnology. Overall, the lab modules enhance the hands-on training of Cornell students in the areas of microfabrication, microfluidics, biosensors, nano/microbiotechnology, and drug delivery. In recognition of her efforts in undergraduate education, Dr. Archer has received a prestigious College of Engineering Teaching award. <br />
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Before coming to Cornell, Dr. Archer worked for five years at Lynntech, Inc. a small research company specializing in biotechnology, biomaterials, chemical and biological sensors, medical biotechnology, and environmental remediation. Her work on wastewater treatment for long term space missions resulted in her receiving two NASA Inventions Space Act Awards. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Associate in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research interests include nanobiotechnology and tissue engineering. <br />
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<h3>Dr. Matthew DeLisa - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Matthew DeLisa received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University as an assistant professor in 2003 and was promoted to associate professor in 2009. He recently served as a Gastprofessur at ETH Zürich in the Institut für Mikrobiologie. <br />
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Professor DeLisa's research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis -- folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications -- in the complex environment of a living cell. His contributions to science and engineering include the invention of numerous commercially important technologies for facilitating the discovery, design and manufacturing of human drugs and seminal discoveries in the areas of cellular protein folding and protein translocation. DeLisa has received several awards for his work including an NSF CAREER award, a NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator award, a Beckman Foundation Young Investigator award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and a NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award. He was also named one of the top 35 young innovators (TR35) by MIT's Technology Review in 2005 and was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Wiley-Blackwell Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang award, which honors a distinguished young researcher in this field. Most recently, he was honored with a Cornell Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship and was the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society's BIOT division.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Bruce Land - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Bruce Land is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell. He teaches three courses in ECE and advises masters of engineering projects in ECE and Biomedical Engineering. When time allows, he does some neural modeling and spike train analysis. He has been in this position since 1998. <br />
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Land received a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1968 and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Cornell University in 1976 . He was a Muscular Dystrophy Association postdoc in NBB at Cornell for three years, then a lecturer in NBB for seven years. During this time he worked with Miriam Salpeter on the coupling of activity at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction, both experimentally and by computer modeling. In 1987 he moved to the Cornell Theory Center as a computational research associate, then started supporting graphics and animation. He was visualization project leader at the CTC from 1989 to 1998. From 1992 to 1998 he taught an introductory computer graphics course in Computer Science at Cornell. From 1998 to 2007 he taught computer programming and electronics courses in NBB and was a Senior Research Associate in Neurobiology and Behavior.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Julius B. Lucks - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Julius B. Lucks is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, and a James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. After attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for high school, he became an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he performed research in organic synthesis and the application of density functional theory to studying the electronic properties of atoms and molecules as a Goldwater Scholar. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry, he spent a summer working with Robert Parr before obtaining an M. Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. As a Hertz Fellow at Harvard University, he researched problems in theoretical biophysics including RNA folding and translocation, viral capsid structure and viral genome organization, under David R. Nelson. As a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Adam P. Arkin, he engineered versatile RNA-sensing transcriptional regulators that can be easily reconfigured to independently regulate multiple genes, logically control gene expression, and propagate signals as RNA molecules in gene networks. He also lead the team that developed SHAPE-Seq, an experimental technique that utilizes next generation sequencing for probing RNA secondary and tertiary structures of hundreds of RNAs in a single experiment. <br />
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Professor Lucks’ research combines both experiment and theory to ask fundamental questions about the design principles that govern how RNAs fold and function in living organisms, and how these principles can be used to engineer biomolecular systems, and open doors to new medical therapeutics.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Xiling Shen - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Xiling Shen has been an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University since August 2009. <br />
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Born in Shanghai, China, Dr. Xiling Shen went on to receive his BS and MS degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University in 2001. He then worked at Barcelona Design Inc. for two years, specializing in analog circuit design and optimization, before joining Professor Mark Horowtiz' research group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford in 2003. In the first two years of his PhD, he collaborated with Professor Joseph Kahn on using adaptive spatial equalization to compensate modal dispersion in multimode fibers. From 2005 to 2008, he worked with Professor Harley McAdams, Professor Lucy Shapiro, and Professor David Dill on modeling and analyzing the asymmetric division of Caulobacter crescentus. Xiling’s postdoctoral work focused on synthetic biology with Dr. Adam Arkin in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley prior to joining the faculty at Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.<br />
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<h3>Dr. David Wilson - Molecular Biology and Genetics</h3><br />
David Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) at Cornell. He is a member of the MBG, Microbiology, and Toxicology fields and serves on the graduate committees of students who minor in Biochemistry of Microbiology. <br />
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He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1961, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford Medical School in 1966, and did postdoctoral work at the Department of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1966-67 before coming to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 1967. He is a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society of Microbiologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and is director of the Cornell Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology.<br />
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The Wilson laboratory studies the enzymology of plant cell wall degradation with a major focus on cellulases, which are important industrial enzymes and have potential in the production of renewable, non-polluting fuels and chemicals. Members of the Wilson Lab use a combination of genomics, protein engineering, and molecular biology their research.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Graduate Advisors</h1><br />
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<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/6/6f/Cornell_NathanKruer.jpg" data-toggle="lightbox" data-gallery="bios" class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/6/6f/Cornell_NathanKruer.jpg" class="img-responsive grad_bio"><br />
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<h4>Nathan Kruer-Zerhusen</h4><br />
Wilson Lab<br />
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</div><br />
<div class="col-md-4 col-xs-6 center"><br />
<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/1/1a/Cornell_aravind.png" data-toggle="lightbox" data-gallery="bios" class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/1/1a/Cornell_aravind.png" class="img-responsive grad_bio"><br />
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<h4>Aravind Natarajan</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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</div><br />
<div class="col-md-4 col-xs-6 center"><br />
<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/7/70/Cornell_jason.jpg" data-toggle="lightbox" data-gallery="bios" class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/7/70/Cornell_jason.jpg" class="img-responsive grad_bio"><br />
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</a><br />
<div class="caption"><br />
<h4>Jason Kahn</h4><br />
Luo Lab<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-4 col-xs-6 center"><br />
<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f6/Cornell_taylor.jpg" data-toggle="lightbox" data-gallery="bios" class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/f/f6/Cornell_taylor.jpg" class="img-responsive grad_bio"><br />
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</a><br />
<div class="caption"><br />
<h4>Taylor Stevenson</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="col-md-4 col-xs-6 center"><br />
<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/b/ba/Cornell_Adviors_Aljosa.jpg" data-toggle="lightbox" data-gallery="bios" class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/b/ba/Cornell_Adviors_Aljosa.jpg" class="img-responsive grad_bio"><br />
</a><br />
<div class="caption"><br />
<h4>Aljosa Trmcic</h4><br />
PhD, Food Science Lab<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="col-md-4 col-xs-6 center"><br />
<a href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/5/50/Cornell_devin.jpg" data-toggle="lightbox" data-gallery="bios" class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/5/50/Cornell_devin.jpg" class="img-responsive grad_bio"><br />
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</a><br />
<div class="caption"><br />
<h4>Devin Doud</h4><br />
Angenent Lab<br />
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</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
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</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:47:04Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the protein product of the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we have implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project called Humans & SynBio. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology and uncovering their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well, consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project. The ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology, as many people are not fully aware of this field. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
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<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
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</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:43:00Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the protein product of the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we have implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project called Humans & SynBio. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology and uncovering their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:41:47Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the protein product of the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we have implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project called Humans & SynBio. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology to see their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:41:19Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the protein product of the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we have implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project, called Humans & SynBio. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology to see their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:39:07Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the protein product of the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we have implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology to see their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:30:21Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we’ve implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology to see their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:29:01Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and death of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we’ve implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology to see their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:28:02Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow fiber reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we’ve implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology to see their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
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</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ethicsTeam:Cornell/project/hprac/ethics2014-10-18T03:26:57Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Overview</h1><br />
It is tempting as scientists to think that we can treat risk assessment as we would treat any scientific protocols - that with a few key steps and critical considerations, we will always end up with the right answer. However, assessing risk, particularly for environmental projects, is not that simple. Thinking about potential impacts and risks often turns up more questions than answers, and it is difficult to know where to start. For this reason, we have employed three approaches to risk assessment. The first was developed by Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department, pertaining specifically to work with recombinant organisms. The next was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a general environmental risk assessment and modified by both the Woodrow Wilson Center and our team for use on our synthetic biology project. Finally, we strived to embody the design principles set forth by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Each approach has its limitations, but all of them have helped to inform our project design, research practices, and considerations for further development of our project.<br />
<br />
<h1>Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)</h1><br />
Cornell’s Environmental Health & Safety Department lays the groundwork for determining safe research practices on campus, and greatly informed our own <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/safety">safety protocols</a>. They specifically suggested the following risk assessment criteria for researchers working with recombinant organisms. <br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Formation</b> – <i>The creation of a genetically-altered micro-organism through deliberate or accidental means. </i><br>For our purposes, our modified organism was altered intentionally, thus we know all of the donor organisms (T7 bacteriophage, <i>H. pylori</i>, <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, <i>N. tabacum</i>) and the recipient organism (<i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha;) are not hazardous. <br />
</li><br />
<li><b>Release</b> – <i>The deliberate release or accidental escape of some of these micro-organisms in the workplace and/or into the environment.</i> <br> Our filtration device includes a hollow filter reactor, which is specifically designed to hold cells inside, yet let water and other materials pass through it. The hollow fiber reactor is made of high flux polysulfone and has a molecular weight cut off at 5 kilodaltons, retaining about half of any molecule that is of that weight. It is highly unlikely that our cells would be capable of escaping the filter device. </li><br />
<li><b>Proliferation/Competition</b> – <i>The subsequent multiplication, genetic reconstruction, growth, transport, modification and die-off of these micro-organisms in the environment, including possible transfer of genetic material to other micro-organisms. </i><br> The inclusion of the metallothionein gene in our organism severely impedes growth, thus other cells in the environment will outcompete our genetically engineered strain.</li><br />
<li><b>Establishment </b>– <i>The establishment of these micro-organisms within an ecosystem niche, including possible colonization of humans or other biota.</i> <br>Since our cells are both slow-growing and highly unlikely to escape from the filtration device, it is improbable that the organism will be able to create a niche and outcompete healthy cells within the ecosystem. </li><br />
<li><b>Effect </b>– <i>The subsequent occurrence of human or ecological effects due to interaction of the organism with some host or environmental factor.</i><br>Ideally, our project would not have an effect on the environment or any other host. However, if there were to be a leak somewhere in our system, the largest concern would be if another organism were to somehow take up DNA lost from our cells. This would require a naturally competent bacterial strain to come across a leak in our system that yields an intact plasmid, and the plasmid would have to be able to replicate. In all likelihood, in the absence of selective pressure, the plasmid would actually be deleterious to the cell due to the increased metabolic load and would therefore probably be expelled.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h1><br />
The EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) is a tool to allow scientists to broaden their perspectives by incorporating the experiences, expertise, and concerns of diverse stakeholders. CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged in transparent dialogue. The goal is to evaluate limitations and trade-offs to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should be addressing in their research planning. <br />
<br><br><br />
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., recently launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach’s relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer. In the past, using this framework has helped to uncover its limitations and the ways in which we could improve our own approach to environmental risk assessment. Therefore, we have decided to incorporate a more in-depth cost-benefit analysis, information on existing water treatment practices, and public perspectives through our Humans & SynBio project.<sup>[2,3,5]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<ul><br />
<li><b>Altered Physiology:</b><br />
Our modified <i>E. coli</i> cells differ from their <i>E. coli</i> BL21-AI and <i>E. coli</i> DH5&alpha; predecessors in that our modified strains contain the <i>T7</i> promoter with a GST-<i>crs5</i> gene, which codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, a metal-binding protein. Our <i>E. coli</i> have three different overexpressed transport proteins that work with the metallothioneins to uptake and sequester lead, mercury, and nickel heavy metal ions. We are using the lead transporter gene <i>CPB4</i>, originally from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>, under control by the Anderson promoter. The mercury sequestration system is composed of <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>, genes originally found in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. MerP is a periplasmic mercury ion scavenging protein. MerT is an integrated membrane protein that works to transport mercury ions into the cell’s cytoplasm. Finally, the nickel transporter is the <i>nixA</i> gene found in <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.<br><br><br />
In addition to the three aforementioned strains, we constructed a fourth strain of <i>E. coli</i>, the reporter strain. We inserted <i>amilCP</i> behind both a nickel/cobalt activated promoter, Prcn, and a mercury activated promoter, PmerT. This functioned as a sign of when the above mentioned cells were metal saturated. Basically, when metal ions enter the reporter cell, the AmilCP is engaged, turning the cell blue, indicating that the other cells are saturated. <br><br><br />
Given these changes, we would expect that there would be a change in cell growth because the production of metallothioneins renders the strain slow-growing. We tested our theory through various growth assays, detailed in <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>. We found that the growth rate of our engineered cells was severely impaired, such that over a period of one day, the total cell concentration was roughly half that of a wild-type cell.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Competition and Biodiversity:</b><br><br />
In the extremely unlikely event of release from our device, our cells would likely be outcompeted very quickly by native environmental strains due to their decreased growth rate. Other cells would multiply much more quickly and overwhelm the engineered cells in most environments. However, in environments with exceptionally high metal concentrations, our engineered cells would actually have higher fitness than the wild-type cells due to their ability to sequester the metals (see <A href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#Results">Metallothionein Results</A>). These conditions would presumably never be reached; it would take a massive quantity of concentrated metal solution, coupled with the physical destruction of our device, for this to ever be a matter of concern. The only other circumstance in which our cells would be expected to grow more rapidly than the wild-type would be under conditions of strong antibiotic selection. Our cells currently do contain antibiotic resistance genes, but further development of our strains could remove this by a well-designed chromosomal integration process.<br><br> <br />
However, to avoid the possibility of release, we’ve implemented sturdy physical barriers between our cells and the environment. Within the filtration device, the genetically modified cells are held within a hollow fiber reactor, which seriously restricts the movement of particles above 20 kD, meaning that most individual proteins would be unable to escape, much less entire cells.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Evolutionary Prediction:</b><br> <br />
The only potentially dangerous component of our cells is once again antibiotic resistance, which would be eliminated in the development of a field-deployable product. A more difficult and therefore more interesting question is that of whether the cells would evolve away from their original function. The original induction of metallothionein production would saturate the cells with proteins, and in the absence of growth medium, the growth rate of the cells would be extremely slow. The proteins themselves would also be unable to escape from the reactor, so the total metallothionein concentration would in theory remain constant (barring degradation with time), even as cell concentration might very slowly increase. This then becomes an issue of timescale, and it seems that the bacterial cartridge would likely be replaced before this would become an issue.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Gene Transfer:</b><br><br />
The issue of most concern would probably be the transfer of our antibiotic resistance genes from the <i>E. coli</i> to other organisms if the cells were to escape, but as mentioned earlier, this problem could be avoided entirely. It is also true that neither plasmid nor chromosomal DNA would be able to escape the fiber reactor, so engineered DNA would never have contact with the environment in the first place.<br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b>Impact:</b><br><br />
This year Cornell iGEM surveyed a variety of people to get a better understanding of the general public’s opinion about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the bioethics of the various applications. Not only did we create a survey and get hundreds of responses to pool data from, but we also did a general social networking project. Similar to Humans of New York, Humans & SynBio features individual interviews urging people to think deeper about synthetic biology to see their various opinions about it. Interestingly, we discovered that many people are unclear about the definition and purpose of synthetic biology. In addition, we noticed general hesitence towards acceptance of synthetic biology within food and animal products, but acceptance and curiosity about integrating synthetic biology in human life quality improvement. In our case, an overwhelming number of people thought that our project was an ethical use of synthetic biology. Albeit, it is important to consider the limitations of our survey, which are discussed later on. <br><br><br />
So how do people’s opinions about synthetic biology affect the risk assessment of our project? Well consider this: a project that people know very little about will generate fear. In our study, we found that a lot of people find genetically modified organisms to be a “risky” topic, but if we explained to them our project in more detail, they were more willing to accept it. Thus, there is a need for a broader education about synthetic biology to the public, and a need for transparent communication between scientists and the community. <br />
</li><br><br />
<li><b><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modeling">Cost-Benefit Analysis</a></b><br><br />
<br />
<br />
</li><br />
</ul><br />
<br />
<h1>Bioethics</h1><br />
We designed our project in accordance with the ethical principles identified by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2010). Our primary motive is public beneficence: to improve global environmental and public health by remediating metal contamination in water. We have also demonstrated responsible stewardship by considering the environmental implications of our project; the ecological impact of placing our genetically modified strain in water would be minimal because our filtration system will not allow bacteria to escape, and we have structured our future directions around risk management for the future. In addition, our project is an intellectually responsible pursuit: it cannot foreseeably be used to cause people harm. In the spirit of democratic deliberation, we launched our Humans & SynBio campaign, to get people thinking and talking about the ethics of synthetic biology. Our proposed system would be easy, cost-effective, and potentially usable on a global scale, demonstrating justice and fairness in its intended implementation. Additionally, the modularity of our platform allows it to be adapted to the needs of different communities, in order to best serve global populations and environments.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
<br />
<h1>Limitations and Future Directions</h1><br />
We have learned from our studies that there needs to be more education about synthetic biology. Too few people know about the field for there to be educated opinions about it. In addition, it would be helpful to have a comparison of opinions before and after we discuss what synthetic biology is. In order to make our human practices assessments more effective, we would need to have a broader sample size of people taking surveys and answering our questions. Because we live on a fairly liberal university campus with a constituency that socioeconomically slants towards the upper-middle class, our answers may be biased. However, if we were to interview a much larger and diverse sample size, our survey results would be more informative. <br><br>Risk assessment can constantly be improved upon. It would be interesting to know what versions of our project, within our portfolio of future ideas and applications, would be the most widely used and accepted. What scale filter would be most effective? Which ones would be more efficient to produce and to market? Which ones would impact the most lives? The ideal implementation of our project will occur when the technological development is made to match the exact needs of the community.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. (2014). Biological Safety Levels 1 and 2 Written Program. Available from https://securepublish.ehs.cornell.edu:8499/LabSafety/biological-safety/biosafety-manuals/Biological_Safety_Levels_1_and_2_Manual.pdf</li><br />
<li>Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a</li><br />
<li>Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</li><br />
<li>Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010). New directions: The ethics of synthetic biology and emerging technologies. Washington, D.C.: Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
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</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/modelingTeam:Cornell/project/modeling2014-10-18T03:15:49Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1 style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Modeling</h1><br />
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<h1>Effectiveness and economic feasibility of our hollow fiber bioreactor system</h1><br />
To determine the effectiveness and economic feasibility of our hollow fiber bioreactor with <br />
<i> E. coli</i> which has been engineered to express a mercury transport system and metallothionein, we modeled its impact when applied to a current real situation: mercury pollution in Onondaga Lake, Syracuse, NY.<br />
<br> <br><br />
It has been shown that similar hollow fiber bioreactors are able to reduce the concentration of mercury from 2mg/L to about 5 µg/L.<sup>[1]</sup> This corresponds to a promising 99.8% reduction in mercury levels. Furthermore as discussed in our case study, Onondaga Lake has a capacity of 35 billion gallons and about 165,000 lbs of mercury has been dumped into the lake over the years.<sup>[2]</sup> This corresponds to an approximate mercury concentration of 0.56 mg/L. Thus, the mercury concentration is Onondaga Lake is within the limits that the engineered <i> E. coli</i> is able to sequester. <br />
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/e0/Cornell_Onondaga_Lake_Park.jpg" alt="Onondaga Lake Park: Syracuse, NY"><br />
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Onondaga Lake Park: Syracuse, NY<br />
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Hollow fiber bioreactor system<br />
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In Nov 2004, the estimated cost of dredging to remove the mercury contaminated mud in the lake was determined to be $451 million.<sup>[3]</sup> Currently the cost of our hollow fiber bioreactor system is about $560 with the cost being largely due to the reactor itself ($490) and the remainder of the cost was for the pump and filters. <br />
<br> <br><br />
However, it should be noted that the scale of the hollow fiber bioreactor system is much smaller as its volume is about 1L. Hence, the hollow fiber bioreactor would have to be scaled up significantly (by about 10<sup>11</sup> times!) in order to have any impact. To give a better idea of the scale, if the lake were the size of an Olympic swimming pool, the volume of the hollow fiber bioreactor would be equivalent to a drop of water. While we would need to scale up the volume of our hollow fiber bioreactor, it should also be noted that by placing the bioreactors in series, better mercury sequestration is achieved.<sup>[1]</sup> <br />
Therefore, even though it has been shown that the hollow fiber bioreactor is successful on a pilot scale, more tests would be required to determine if it is as effective on a larger scale. As there are several variables that might change e.g. flow rates and membrane area, the performance of the engineered <i>E. coli</i> might not simply scale up as expected. Nevertheless, given the environmental costs associated with existing remediation methods such as dredging, it is important to look into how biological systems are able to complement these solutions and solve the problem of mercury contamination in an effective, safe and cost efficient manner. <br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Chen, S., Kim, E., Shuler, M., & Wilson, D. (1998). Hg2+ Removal by Genetically Engineered Escherichia coli in a Hollow Fiber Bioreactor. Biotechnology Progress, 667-671.</li><br />
<li>Moriarty, Rick. "Discovering What Lies at the Bottom of Onondaga Lake." Syracuse.com. Syracuse.com, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.</li><br />
<li>Collin, Glen. "Onondaga Lake Dredging Begins for Season; Could End a Year Early (video)." Syracuse.com. N.p., 7 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.</li><br />
</ol><br />
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<h1>Functional Requirements</h1><br />
<ol><br />
<li><br />
<b>Filter Out Heavy Metals</b><br />
Our system needed to allow diffusion of heavy metal ions across a filter boundary without letting the genetically engineered cells out into the environment. To satisfy this requirement, we bought a hollow fiber reactor with a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 20 kd @ 50%, effectively isolating the E.coli cells (0.7-1.4 micrometers) from the outlet,<sup>[1]</sup> while allowing diffusion of smaller molecules such as ions across the membrane of the fibers.<br />
</li><br />
<br />
<li> <br />
<b>Isolated System</b><br />
The entire filter system is housed in a watertight box to prevent contaminants from entering. To filter out debris that could enter via the collection bucket, a carbon filter is placed in the system before the fiber reactor. This ensures that only water with microscopic contaminants enters the fiber reactor. Thus, the system is as isolated from the outside environment as possible. <br />
</li><br />
<li><br />
<b>Effective Flow Rates</b> <br />
A carbon water filter was added before the hollow fiber reactor in order to filter out large particles and debris that would clog the hollow fiber reactor and to purify the water of certain compounds which would harm the cells. Entering water needed to have an initial flow rate that would allow it to pass through both filters while still allowing time for heavy metal diffusion across the fiber reactor membrane and uptake by the cells. The pump was placed before the carbon fiber in order to move it effectively through the carbon fiber and still have a slow flow rate through the fiber reactor. <br />
</li><br />
<li> <br />
<b>Saturation Detection</b><br />
A subsystem of reporter constructs was set up inside the box in order to detect when the metallothionein in the fiber reactor is saturated with heavy metals and the cells need replacing. The constructs consisted of a chromoprotein, amilCP, downstream from a specific heavy metal inducible promoter. When the metallothioneins became concentrated, the cells turn visibly blue, indicating that the cells need to be replaced.<br />
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<li> <br />
<b>Maintenance</b> <br />
Our system is powered by a high capacity car battery that is recharged by a compact solar panel. Since our flow requirements are not high, the system can last for up to 2 weeks without any sunlight at all. With several hours of sunlight a day, the system can retain charge for months at a time. Combined with the tough, weatherproof design, this allows our system to purify water fully autonomously for very long periods. <br />
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<h1>References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Nelson DE, Young KD. Penicillin binding protein 5 affects cell diameter, contour, and morphology of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 2000 Mar182(6):1714-21 p.1719.</li><br />
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</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothioneinTeam:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein2014-10-18T03:14:27Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Construct Design</h1><br />
Metallothioneins are a low molecular weight, cysteine-rich family of proteins that provides protection against metal toxicity to a wide range of taxonomic groups. The thiols clustered at the core of the protein tightly chelate the metal ions by forming strong coordinate bonds.<sup>[1]</sup> Cloned and overexpressed metallothioneins can sequester metal ions transported by a metal transport system, but simultaneously inhibit growth in microorganisms. A number of metallothioneins expressed in <i>E. coli</i> had problems with stability, leading to studies conducted with stabilizing systems.<sup>[2]</sup> The system we ultimately cloned into a BioBrick was <i>crs5</i>, a gene that codes for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> metallothionein, with a glutathione <i>S</i>-transferase carboxy-terminal fusion system (GST-<i>crs5</i>). In previous research, this fusion protein was proven to have higher stability and was approximated to be about 25% by mass of the total expressed protein of transformed <i>E. coli</i>.<sup>[3]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
Our first metallothionein BioBrick <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460001"> (BBa_K1460001)</a> consists of GST-<i>crs5</i> synthesized with a <i>T7</i> promoter in pSC1C3. This is part of an inducible system consisting of an arabinose-activating pathway in which the araBAD promoter turns on the highly active T7 polymerase that in turn reads the metallothionein gene. Our second metallothionein BioBrick <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460002">(BBa_K1460002)</a> consists of GST-<i>crs5</i> without the <i>T7</i> promoter for other promoters to clone into the backbone and better interweave the metallothionein’s functions with novel systems.<br />
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<h1>Results</h1><br />
Because successfully expressed metallothionein inhibits growth in microorganisms, we can use growth tests as a tool for determining successful expression of our metallothionein constructs. We transformed BBa_K1460001 into <i>E.coli</i> BL21-AI and grew it and unmodified BL21-AI in LB+.1% L-Arabinose for 24 hours in an incubated plate reader at 37 degrees Celsius. Plotted below is the average OD for three biological triplicates of BL21 and BL21 BBa_K1460001. Plotted OD is corrected for OD of media.<br />
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This graph displays statistically significant (student’s two-tailed t-test, p<.05) differences between unengineered BL21 and BL21 engineered to express metallothionein. This data suggests that GST-<i>crs5</i> is being successfully expressed in this engineered strain. Additionally, when working with these cultures for subsequent metal sequestration tests, final culture OD's were consistently observed to be less than those of wild type cells. <br />
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When expressed, GST-<i>crs5</i> should confer resistance to heavy metal toxicity. To test whether the construct BBa_K1460001 did in fact confer resistance to engineered cells, we grew engineered and non-engineered cells in different concentrations of mercury that we found allowed normal growth, slightly inhibited growth, and completely inhibited growth in wild type <i>E.coli</i> BL21. These concentrations corresponded to 0.05 uM Hg, 0.5 uM Hg, and 5 uM Hg respectively. Besides the respective heavy metal concentrations, all media contained LB and .1% L-Arabinose for induction. For convenience, BL21 curves are graphed in pastels and BBa_K1460001 curves are graphed in dark. <br />
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For concentrations of Hg that are not completely toxic to cells, we see very similar results as above for growth in no metal. Cells engineered to express metallothionein have growth inhibition when compared to wild type. What is interesting in this experiment, however is the 5 uM concentration of Hg. While we do see that growth is inhibited when compared to the 0.5 uM and 0.05 uM Hg concentrations for the same strain, <b>there is growth</b>. In non-engineered BL21 there is none. This suggests that, in fact, our construct is conferring resistance to metal toxicity to engineered cells.<br />
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<h4>Combination with other BioBricks:</h4><br />
<br><br />
BBa_K1460001 was combined with the BioBricks BBa_K1460003, BBa_K1460004, and BBa_K1460005 to create strains that should sequester nickel, mercury, and lead. Results from these experiments can be found on the <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/nickel">nickel</a>, <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/mercury">mercury</a>, and <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/lead">lead</a> pages. <br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Peterson, C., Narula, S., & Armitage, I. (1996). 3D solution structure of copper and silver-substituted yeast metallothioneins. FEBS Letters, 85-93.</li><br />
<li>Davis, Stephanie R., "Characterizing the role of the bacterial metallothionein, SmtA, in mammalian infection" (2011). Honors Scholar Theses. University of Connecticut. Paper 178.</li><br />
<li>Chen, S., & Wilson, D. (1997). Construction and characterization of <i>Escherichia coli</i> genetically engineered for bioremediation of Hg(2+)-contaminated environments. <i>Applied and Environmental Microbiology</i>, 63(6), 2442-2445.</li><br />
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<h1>Construct Design</h1> <br />
In order to introduce heavy metal ions into our bacteria and allow the metallothionein proteins to bind and sequester these contaminants, we created BioBricks for the expression of heavy metal membrane transporters. The gene <i>cpb4</i> codes for a membrane transporter that has a high capacity for the uptake of lead as well as a reduced affinity for other heavy metals, notably cadmium and cobalt. This gene was originally isolated from a resistant strain of <i>Bacillus spp.</i> found in heavy metal contaminated soil in Korea, although our plasmids utilize the gene from the plant <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>. It has been found in previous research that bacterial strains possessing this gene have the capacity to remove lead from water and soil and could be useful in bioremediation applications.<sup>[1]</sup><br />
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Our first lead transporter construct <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460005">(BBa_K1460005)</a> consists of the constitutive Anderson promoter and the <i>cbp4</i> gene for constitutive expression of the heavy metal membrane transporter and uptake of lead. The primary construct for lead sequestration <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460008">(BBa_K1460008)</a> consists of this first lead transporter construct put upstream of our metallothionein construct with the <i>T7</i> promoter and <i>GST-crs5</i>. This construct allows for the constitutive expression of the lead transporter as well as the inducible expression of the metallothionein in <i>BL21</i> by arabinose activating the <i>araBAD</i> promoter and allowing expression of the highly active T7 polymerase. This allows for our bacterial strains to grow to stationary phase before being induced to produce metallothioneins and being used to sequester lead.<br />
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<h3>BBa_K1460008</h3><br />
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<h1>Results</h1><br />
Cells successfully expressing <i>cbp4</i> should be transporting more lead ions past the cell wall. This would lead to increased lead sensitivity. To test for lead sensitivity, <i>E.coli</i> BL21 and engineered BL21 with part BBa_K1460005 in the amp<sup>r</sup> plasmid pUC57 were grown for a 24 hour period in LB with 1 mM Pb.<br />
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What we see after 24 hours of growth is no significant difference in growth between the two strains (figure 1). However, what we consistently observed is that there is no inhibition of growth of BL21 at high concentrations of lead (figure 2). Even if <i>cpb4</i> is expressed and is actively transporting lead ions into cells, it is possible that the concentration of lead is still not high enough to be toxic to the organisms. We were, unfortunately, unable to test lead concentrations higher than those shown above because these working concentrations are approaching the maximum solubility of the lead nitrate that we were using for testing. <br />
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Part BBa_K1460005 in pUC57 was co-transformed with part <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein">BBa_K1460001</a> (GST-<i>crs5</i>) in pSB1C3 and selected for with both ampicillin and chloramphenicol to effectively create the lead sequestration part BBa_K1460008. To test for sequestration efficiency, both BL21 and BL21 engineered with BBa_K1460001 and BBa_K1460005 were grown with LB + 0.1% Arabinose for 8 hours and then diluted in half with LB + 2 mM Pb for a final lead concentration of 1 mM. These cultures were grown for 8 more hours. The cells were then removed and supernatant was tested for lead concentration using Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) with the help of Cornell's Nutrient Analysis Lab. Error bars in chart represent standard deviation of three biological replicates. <br />
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The chart on the left shows the average final concentration of lead in the cultures. There was no statistically significant difference between BL21 and BL21 engineered with BBa_K1460001 and BBa_K1460005 (figure 3). However, when we consider cell density and plot the amount of metal removed per OD (figure 4) there is a statistically significant difference between the two strains. This data suggests that cells engineered with <i>cbp4</i> and GST-<i>crs5</i> are in fact able to remove lead ions from water, and to the best of our knowledge this is the <b>first</b> successful bacterial lead sequestration system involving transport proteins and metallothioneins. <br />
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Ideally, this experiment would be run with the OD of both strains remaining the same to prevent changes in metabolite concentrations. This is difficult in this experiment as, <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/metallothionein#MTresults">as we have shown</a>, cells expressing metallothionein have inhibited growth. <br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. <i>The Plant Journal</i>, 171-182.</li><br />
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</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlabTeam:Cornell/project/wetlab2014-10-18T03:13:03Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1>Idea</h1><br />
We sought to create genetically engineered strains of <i>E.coli</i> that could sequester the nickel, mercury, and lead from water sources. Each strain included a metal transport protein specific to the respective metal as well as a metallothionein to bind metal ions intracellularly. We first generated basic, functional BioBricks containing: a glutathione-s-transferase gene and yeast metallothionein (<i>crs5</i>) gene fusion for metal binding <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460001">(BBa_K1460001)</a>;<sup>[1]</sup> the nickel transport gene <i>nixA</i> for selective nickel uptake <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460003">(BBa_K1460003)</a>;<sup>[2]</sup> the mercury transporter genes <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i> for selective mercury uptake <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460004">(BBa_K1460004)</a>;<sup>[3]</sup> and a putative lead transport gene <i>cbp4</i> for selective lead uptake <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460005">(BBa_K1460005)</a>.<sup>[4]</sup> <br />
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To test for sequestration ability of the combined systems, each transport protein in the amp<sup>r</sup> vector pUC57 was co-transformed with the metallothionein fusion in the cm<sup>r</sup> plasmid pSB1C3 and selected for using both markers. These strains are functional equivalents of the BioBricks <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460006">BBa_K1460006</a>, <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460007">BBa_K1460007</a>, and <a href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1460008">BBa_K1460008</a> and were tested for sequestration ability of nickel, mercury, and lead respectively. <br />
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In addition, the sequestering strains can placed into fiber reactors to develop functional sequestering filters (see <a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/drylab">dry lab)</a>.The idea of utilizing metallothioneins in parallel with metal transporters for sequestration has been studied for mercury and nickel but has never been explored for lead.<br />
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<h1>Components</h1><br />
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<h1>Experiments</h1><br />
The growth rates of the sequestering strain were measured using spectrophotometry. In addition, two methods were used to determine heavy metal sequestration efficiency. <br><br><br />
<ol><br />
<li> Spectrophotometer was used to analyze and compare the kinetic growth rates of <i>E. coli</i> cultures expressing only the metallothionein protein, only the transporter proteins, both metallothionein and transporter proteins, and just the vector backbone as a control. </li><br />
<ul><br />
<li>We hypothesized that the control culture would be mildly sensitive to growth in metal-containing media, while the cultures with the transport protein would be more sensitive to growth in metal-containing media due to increased access of the heavy metal to cellular machinery. Finally, bacteria transformed with both the metal transporter and metallothionein protein would be the least sensitive in metal-containing media. Each strain was grown in different heavy metal concentrations.</li><br />
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<li>Sequestration efficiency was measured by growing both the wild type strains as well as sequestering strains in different concentrations of heavy metals. The concentration of heavy metals after growth was measured in two ways: </li><br />
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<li> Nutrient Analysis Lab at Cornell University using ICP-AES</li><br />
<li> Using green-fluorescent heavy metal indicator Phen Green</li><br />
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<h1>Results</h1><br />
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<li>BL21 strains with the <i>merT/merP</i> transporters showed increased sensitivity to mercury concentrations as expected. In addition, in high mercury concentrations, wild type strain growth was inhibited more than sequestration strain growths were inhibited. However, there was no inhibition of growth with wild type BL21 or strains with transporters for lead and nickel even at very high metal concentrations. </li> <br />
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<li>When considering cell density, both lead and nickel sequestering strains removed significantly more metal compared to the wild type BL21 strain. The mercury sequestering strain did not remove significantly more metal compared to the wild type strain.</li><br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Huang, J. et al. Fission yeast HMT1 lowers seed cadmium through phytochelatin-dependent vacuolar sequestration in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 158, 1779–88 (2012).</li><br />
<li>Krishnaswamy, R. & Wilson, D. B. Construction and characterization of an Escherichia coli strain genetically engineered for Ni(II) bioaccumulation. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 66, 5383–6 (2000).</li><br />
<li>Wilson, D. B. Construction and characterization of Escherichia coli genetically engineered for Construction and Characterization of Escherichia coli Genetically Engineered for Bioremediation of Hg 2 ϩ -Contaminated Environments. 2–6 (1997).</li><br />
<li>Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. The Plant Journal, 171-182.</li><br />
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<h1>Health Risks</h1><br />
Nickel is a natural element that constitutes approximately 0.009% of the earth's crust. Nickel sulfides, silicates and oxides are commonly used in mining and natural resources.<sup>[1]</sup> The most common nickel sulfide mineral is pentlandite (NiFe)<sub>9</sub>S<sub>8</sub> accounts for the majority of nickel produced globally.<sup>[2,3]</sup> Domestic nickel production comes from the smelting of natural nickel ores, refining nickel matte, an impure metallic sulfide product from smelting of sulfides of metal ores, reclamation of nickel metal from nickel based or non-nickel based scrap metal, including salvaged machinery, sheet metal, aircraft and other vehicular parts and discarded consumer goods such as batteries. <br />
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Nickel compounds are used in construction, mining, smelting, electrical equipment manufacturing, and battery and fuel cell production, among numerous other materials. During construction, there is a high risk for nickel contamination. They can also make their way into the household through ceramics since they often form the bond between enamel and iron. <br />
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Nickel compounds are so toxic because they are highly resistant to corrosion and oxidation in air and aqueous environments; they are resistant to corrosion by organic acids and exposure to chlorine, fluorine, hydrogen chloride and molten salts.<br />
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Estimated average daily dietary intake is 0.1-0.3 mg/day.<sup>[4,5]</sup> Less than 0.2 mg/day of which is consumed via food and 5-25 ug/day from water.<sup>[2]</sup> Dermal exposure is one of the most common routes of exposure and even low levels of exposure may cause nickel allergic dermatitis.<sup>[6-8]</sup><br />
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<b>Common Effects</b>:<sup>[1]</sup><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress like: nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea</li><br />
<li>Dermatitis (eczema like effects: rash, itchiness)</li><br />
<li>Neurological effects</li><br />
<li>Nickel specific asthma</li><br />
</ul><br />
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<b>Extreme Cases:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li> Coma </li><br />
<li> Death </li><br />
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<h1>Case Study</h1><br />
<b>New South Wales, Australia:</b> In 2004, New South Wales, Australia observed a huge spike in nickel concentration in their drinking water. (See graph) Although scientists don't know the exact reasons for how nickel concentrations increased so dramatically, as shown in figure 1, they hypothesize that it could be the result of a natural reduction of flow rate during a period of drought and the subsequent introduction of mine water into the drinking water supply. Overall fluctuations of nickel concentrations over the three years were attributed to natural dilution and changes in demands of water.<br />
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The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines mandates a safety threshold of 0.02 mg Ni/L water, a value that is based on 70 kg (154 lbs) average body weight, 2 L water consumed daily and 1000 as the safety factor to account for uncertainty of extending animal study results to humans. The residents of New South Wales are assumed to have a similar diet to the rest of Australia's population so that the results of the study can be extended to the whole country. The study also assumed that the entire population of New South Wales was nickel-sensitive. This would lead to a lower Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level (LOAEL) and set stricter limit for tolerable mean nickel concentrations. The result of the study showed that the mean nickel concentration, 0.03 mg/L with a 95% confidence interval of 0.02-0.04 mg/L, is only approximately 7% of the LOAEL. Thus the mean nickel concentration in drinking water in New South Wales appears to have no health risks.<br />
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Although no real risks were detected, the town implemented increased surveillance of nickel concentrations and made plans to use alternative sources to supplement drinking water supplies during droughts. This study shows the importance of continued vigilance in maintaining high water quality standards at all times, had the concentration of nickel increased past the LOAEL, health effects could have been more drastic.<sup>[9]</sup><br />
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<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
<b>Cyclic electrowinning/precipitation (CEP) :</b> use of electrical current to transform positively charged metal cations into a stable, solid state where they can be easily separated from water and removed. <br>Drawback: concentration of cations must be high (threshold of 100 ppm)<br />
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<b>Chemical precipitation:</b> use of hydroxides and sulfides to precipitate cations.<br> Advantages:<ol><li>Well-established, many available chemicals and equipment</li><li>Convenient, self-operating and low-maintenance due to closed system nature</li></ol>Disadvantages:<ol><li>Formation of toxic sludge from precipitate, which is environmentally and economically costly to remove</li><li>Requires extra flocculation/coagulation due to precipitation</li><li>Each metal has a distinct pH for optimum precipitation</li><li>Corrosive chemicals increases safety concerns</li></ol><br />
<b>Ion exchange:</b> reversible chemical reaction where ions from water or wastewater solution are exchanged for similarly charged ions attached to a stationary solid particle that are usually inorganic zeolites or resins.<br />
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<b>Reverse osmosis:</b> effective molecular filter to remove dissolved solutes through a membrane <br>Advantages:<ol><li>Reduces concentration of all ionic contaminants, not just the heavy metal in question</li><li>Can be scaled up easily</li></ol>Disadvantages:<ol><li>Expensive</li><li>Requires high pressure</li><li>Too sensitive to operating conditions</li></ol><br />
<b>Phytoremediation:</b> use of plants to remediate heavy metals in contaminated soil, sludge, water etc.<br />
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<b>Microbial remediation:</b> use of microorganisms to degrade hazardous contaminants<br />
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<h1><i>nixA</i></h1><br />
The transport protein being utilized for this project is <i>nixA</i> from <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>. This protein resembles many eukaryotic integral membrane proteins and represents a high-affinity nickel transport system when expressed in <i>E. coli</i>.<sup>[10]</sup> The <i>nixA</i> gene has been introduced into <i>E. coli</i> previously to sequester Ni<sup>2+</sup> from water at 4 times the level of wild type cells.<sup>[11]</sup> We hope to improve upon this system by combining the <i>nixA</i> gene with a different metallothionein than previously used, utilizing a different regulatory system, and creating modular genetic parts. <br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>Sullivan, R. J. (Litton Systems, Inc.) Air Pollution Aspects of Nickel and Its Compounds. NTIS No. PB188070. September 1969. p.18.</li><br />
<li>Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. Third Edition. Volume 15. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York. 1980. pp.787-797.</li><br />
<li>Nriagu, J. O. ed. Nickel in the Environment. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. 1980. p. 55.</li><br />
<li>Christensen OB, Lagesson V. Nickel concentration of blood and urine after oral administration. Ann Clin Lab Sci 1981; 11: 119–25.</li><br />
<li>Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food Consumer Products and the Environment. Nickel leaching from kettle elements into boiled water. London: Committee onToxicity; 2003. Available from: http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/2003-02.pdf (Cited 24 October 2008.)</li><br />
<li>Beattie PE, Green C, Lowe G, Lewis-Jones MS. Which children should we patch test? Clin Exp Dermatol 2006; 32: 6–11.</li><br />
<li>Militello G, Jacob SE, Crawford GH. Allergic contact dermatitis in children. Curr Opin Pediatr 2006; 18: 385–90. doi:10.1097/01.mop.0000236387.56709.6d</li><br />
<li>Silverberg NB, Licht J, Friedler S et al. Nickel contact hypersensitivity in children. Pediatr Dermatol 2002; 19: 110–3. doi:10.1046/j.1525-1470.2002.00057.x</li><br />
<li>Alam, Noore, Stephen J. Corbett, and Helen C. Ptolemy. "Environmental Health Risk Assessment of Nickel Contamination of Drinking Water in a County Town in NSW." <i>NSW Public Health Bulletin</i> (2008): n. pag. Web. http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=NB97043.pdf</li><br />
<li>Mobley, H., Garner, R., & Bauerfeind, P. (1995). Helicobacter pylori nickel-transport gene nixA: Synthesis of catalytically active urease in <i>Escherichia coli</i> independent of growth conditions. <i>Molecular Microbiology</i>, 97-109.<br />
</li><br />
<li>Krishnaswamy, R., & Wilson, D. (2000). Construction and Characterization of an <i>Escherichia coli</i> Strain Genetically Engineered for Ni(II) Bioaccumulation. <i>Applied and Environmental Microbiology</i>, 5383-5386.<br />
</li><br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Health Risks</h1><br />
Lead has no known biological function, and therefore no place in the human body.<sup>[1]</sup> The lack of any robust, evolved system to deal with lead means that when it enters the organism, it will not be filtered naturally, and instead act as a disruptive, persistent, and often unnoticed antagonist to normal function. What makes lead so insidious? As it accumulates, lead will begin to take the place of other metals in biochemical reactions, replacing zinc or calcium when it is available for chemical reactions. In fact, “Lead binds to calcium-activated proteins with much higher (105 times) affinity than calcium.”<sup>[2]</sup> As a result, 75-90% of lead body load is in mineralizing tissues such as teeth and bones.<br />
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Because of these issues, the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked to set safe levels of chemicals in drinking water by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, has set 0 as the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal for lead. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum allowable lead concentration at .015 mg/L (74.8 nM).<sup>[3]</sup> Any concentration above the set maximum requires additional treatment for removal of lead. On January 4th, 2014 a new provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act requires that any pipe used for the transport of potable water must contain less than 0.25% lead--a reduction from 8% under the previous law. Lowering levels of lead in piping will help to reduce lead in drinking water - especially since lead piping is the greatest cause of consumed lead in the US - but environmental routes of pollution still exist.<br />
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Lead is especially dangerous for children, as their porous GI tracts and the increased vulnerability and volatility of their developing body systems make them highly susceptible to the disruptive effects of even small amounts of lead. It also takes them much more time to purge it from the body: the half-life of lead in the adult human body is 1 month, but 10 months in a child’s.<sup>[4]</sup> Low-level exposure can be quite harmful: an increase in blood lead level from 10μg/dL to 20μg/dL is associated with an almost 3-point drop in IQ.<sup>[5]</sup> Lead has also been shown to inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation, a neural mechanism required for learning.<sup>[5]</sup><br />
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<b><font size=3>Side Effects of Lead Poisoning:</font></b><br />
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<b>For infants and children:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Impaired neurological development</li><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Anemia</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
<li>Irritability</li><br />
<li>Lethargy</li><br />
<li>Learning disabilities</li><br />
<li>Erratic behavior.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>For adults:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Weakness</li><br />
<li>Pins and needles</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>Extreme cases of high lead poisoning</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Neurological damage</li><br />
<li>Death</li><br />
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<h1>Case Studies</h1><br />
According to the Blacksmith Institute’s 2010 report on the world’s worst pollution problems, lead is the world’s number one toxic threat with an estimated global impact of 18 to 22 million people, more than the population of Syria.<sup>[6]</sup> Lead has long been in use in numerous industries that manufacture products intended for consumption by average families. Famously, tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline (hence leaded gasoline) to improve its octane rating and to increase longevity of motor vehicle components, a practice that began in the United States in 1923, continued through until regulations saw implementation in the 1970s, finally ending with a zero-tolerance ban through the Clear Air Act in 1996.<sup>[7]</sup> A 1988 report to Congress by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry estimated that 68 million children had toxic exposure to lead from lead gasoline between 1927-1987.<sup>[7]</sup><br />
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Other sources of lead include leaded paint, dust that gathers on lead products, contaminated soil, and others. Since lead cannot be absorbed through contact with skin, the metal must be consumed in some form for it to be toxic. Unfortunately, lead tastes sweet. This means that flaking lead paint or the dust that forms on vinyl blinds imported before 1997 might be consumed repeatedly. In fact, the United States Consumer Product Safety Condition found that if a child ingested dust from less than one square inch of blind a day for about 15 to 30 days they could have blood lead levels at or above 10μg/dL.<sup>[8]</sup> <br />
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Lead can usually only enter the body through ingestion, which is why pollution of drinking water supplies is of primary concern. When ingested at high enough concentrations, lead can be acutely toxic causing neurological damage and death. In 2008, 18 children in Dakar, Senegal died of acute lead poisoning associated with the recycling of lead car batteries.<sup>[9]</sup> Others associated with the recycling facility displayed symptoms ranging from an upset stomach to involuntary convulsions.<sup>[9]</sup><br />
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<h4>Ithaca Gun Factory:</h4> <br />
<br><br />
Originally founded in 1883 by Henry Baker, a towering brick smokestack stands as the only remnant of a once-bustling production facility. The Ithaca Gun Company was famous across the world for its shotguns used by Annie Oakley and John Philip Sousa. Throughout its history of production, the factory emitted immense amounts of lead into the surrounding ground. In fact, a 2003 EPA assessment found the need for the removal of 2370 tons of the heavy metal. This mass is roughly equivalent to that of a space shuttle before launch.<sup>[6]</sup> As a result, the Ithaca Gun Company area underwent a lead cleanup project in 2004. However, two years later, surface levels of lead were tested and contamination was as high as 184,000 ppm--460 times the goal set by the EPA for the 2004 cleanup. <br />
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The lead pollution seeped into the Cayuga Watershed and has been a common issue ever since.<sup>[10]</sup> Even more disturbing, this lead contamination is currently located directly next to Ithaca Falls, a popular swimming and fishing site for locals and Cornell students alike. Cornell University, which use to own this property, sold it to the town from $1, so that the EPA could declare it a national Superfunds site, and pay for the cleanup necessary in the years to come. <br />
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<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
<b>Water Filters:</b><br />
The main method currently employed in limiting our consumption of lead via drinking water is through the installation of reverse osmosis, distillation, or chemical (carbon, activated alumina) water filters,<sup>[11]</sup> at scales ranging from industrial to in-home implementation. In homes with lead components in water piping systems, if water has been relatively stagnant for up to 6 hours, it should be flushed through the system to avoid ingesting built-up lead.<sup>[12]</sup> Increased water corrosivity, influenced by pH,<sup>[13]</sup> generally results in a higher lead content. <br />
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<b>Redox media, non-chemical water treatment:</b><br />
This fluid treatment passes the lead through a proprietary filter, causing a redox reaction in which “soluble lead cations are reduced to insoluble lead atoms, which are electroplated onto the surface of the media.”<sup>[14]</sup> <br />
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<b>Guar Gum:</b> Adsorption by this unique compound,<sup>[15]</sup> produced from the ground seeds of guar beans, was sufficient to remove 56.7% of lead from water at a gum concentration of 1,000 parts per million.<br />
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<h1><i>cbp4</i></h1><br />
The transport protein being utilized for our project is the calmodulin-binding protein <i>CBP4</i> from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>. This protein is structurally similar to non-selective membrane channel proteins from other eukaryotes and has been shown to confer nickel tolerance and lead hypersensitivity.<sup>[10]</sup> Transgenic plants overexpressing <i>NtCBP4</i> were found to have increased uptake of Pb<sup>2+</sup> ions into cells, likely leading to the increased toxicity.<sup>[10]</sup> While it has been suggested that <i>NtCBP4</i> could possibly be used for bioremediation purposes and other attempts have been made at lead removal from water using genetically engineered organisms, to the best of our knowledge no attempt has been made at utilizing <i>NtCBP4</i> for precisely this purpose.<sup>[9],[10],[16]</sup> We believe that the specificity of this transport protein for lead and its readily available sequence make it an ideal candidate for bioremediation.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>"Public Health - Seattle & King County." Lead and Its Human Effects. King County Government, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. </li><br />
<li>"Lead Induced Encephalopathy: An Overview." International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences 2.1 (2011): 70-86. Web. http://ijpbs.net/volume2/issue1/pharma/_6.pdf </li><br />
<li>"Consumer Factsheet on Lead in Drinking Water." Home. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity ." Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity. Medscape, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li> Schwartz, Joel. "Low-level lead exposure and children′ s IQ: a metaanalysis and search for a threshold." Environmental research 65.1 (1994): 42-55.</li><br />
<li> McCartor, A., & Becker, D. (2010). Blacksmith Institute's World's Worst Pollution Problems 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.worstpolluted.org/files/FileUpload/files/2010/WWPP-2010-Report-Web.pdf</li><br />
<li>"Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline." Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"CPSC Finds Lead Poisoning Hazard for Young Children in Imported Vinyl Miniblinds." U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. </li><br />
<li> Song, W., Sohn, E., Martinoia, E., Lee, Y., Yang, Y., Jasinski, M., Forestier, C., Hwang, I., & Lee, Y. (2003). Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants. Nature Biotechnology, 914-919. </li><br />
<li> Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. <i>The Plant Journal</i>, 171-182. </li><br />
<li> Center for Disease Control. (n.d.). Lead and Drinking Water from Private Wells. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/disease/lead.html</li><br />
<li> United State Environmental Protection Agency. (1993, June). Actions You Can Take To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/lead1.cfm </li><br />
<li> Penn State Extension. (2014). Lead in Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water </li><br />
<li> KDF Fluid Treatment, Inc. (2014). Removing Lead from Water and Heavy Metal Removal from Water. Retrieved from http://www.kdfft.com/success_metal.htm</li><br />
<li> Pal, A. et al. Polyelectrolytic aqueous guar gum for adsorptive separation of soluble Pb(II) from contaminated water. Carbohydr. Polymer. 110, 224–230 (2014). </li><br />
<li> Eapen, S., & Dsouza, S. (2004). Prospects Of Genetic Engineering Of Plants For Phytoremediation Of Toxic Metals. Biotechnology Advances, 97-114. </li><br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Health Risks</h1><br />
Mercury is usually released into the environment by factories as emissions or waste. Eventually this mercury is discharged into the water bodies and then is converted by bacteria living in the sediment into methyl mercury. Methyl mercury can be ingested by smaller aquatic plants and animals. The danger here is that, through biomagnification, animals higher in the food chain will have larger concentrations of methyl mercury in their systems. This is dangerous especially for large fish, birds, and humans. Additionally, through bioaccumulation, small amounts of consumed toxins can build up within one’s system over time, leading to mercury poisoning. The most common form of mercury poisoning comes from methyl mercury. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, almost everyone in the world has trace amounts of methyl mercury in their bodies because of its abundance in our environment, but in larger concentrations, it can be dangerous.<br />
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<b><font size=3>Side Effects of Mercury Poisoning:</font></b><br />
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<b>For infants and children:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Impaired neurological development</li><br />
<li>Impaired cognitive thinking, memory, attention, and language skills</li><br />
<li>Impaired fine motor and spatial visual skills</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>For adults:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>"Pins and needles” in the hands, feet, and around the mouth</li><br />
<li>Impairment of the peripheral vision</li><br />
<li>Lack of coordination of movements</li><br />
<li>Impairment of speech and hearing</li><br />
<li>Muscle weakness</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>Extreme cases of high mercury poisoning:</b><sup>[3]</sup><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Kidney and respiratory failure</li><br />
<li>Death</li><br />
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Onondaga Lake Park: Syracuse, NY<br />
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<h1>Case Study</h1><br />
<b>Onondaga Lake:</b><br />
Commonly known as the “Most Polluted Lake in America”, Onondaga Lake suffers from industrial waste and sewage pollution (i.e. ammonia and phosphorus which cause high algal blooms and suffocation of other organisms in the Lake).<br />
<br><br><br />
Since the 1800s Allied Chemical, recently succeeded by Honeywell International, is credited for dumping a total of 165,000 lbs of mercury into the lake, resulting in the contamination of about 7 million cubic yards of lake-bottom sediments.<sup>[4]</sup> Their continuous polluting only ceased in the last few decades and has fomented tragic damage to the environment.<sup>[4]</sup><br />
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Mercury contamination usually is caused by industrial emissions. The mercury enters the environment as an industrial emission and then moves through the water system before entering the lake. Once in the lake, the mercury is transformed by sediment-dwelling bacteria into methyl mercury, which has a high tendency to bioacculumate in aquatic life.<sup>[5]</sup> Even now, the State Health Department advises staying clear of eating any fish that come out of the Lake. In addition, through biomagnification, the methyl mercury has made its way up the food chain and has been found in bats and birds surrounding the Onondaga Lake area. Researchers found that the Spotted-Sand piper was the most affected bird.<sup>[6]</sup> The levels of mercury found in the animals is so high that only about 20% of all birds’ chicks survive. Furthermore, scientists have reasons to believe that the mercury poisoning will continue to work its way up the food chain unless direct action is taken.<br />
<br><br><br />
<b>Remediation Efforts:</b><br />
The Upstate Freshwater Institute has been working to prevent the mobilization of methyl mercury from the deep sediments of the Lake. To do so, they have been adding a common agricultural fertilizer, calcium nitrate, solution to the bottom on the lake, which has been successful in lowering the concentration of mercury in fish dramatically.<sup>[7]</sup> In addition, Honeywell International has been working since 2012, 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, between April and November on dredging the contaminated mud on the bottom of the lake. Earlier this summer, Honeywell attorneys said that there were 800,000 cubic yards of dredging to complete and they estimated being able to complete this amount by the end of the season in 2014. The cost of such efforts is estimated at $451 million.<sup>[8]</sup> The Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant, which dumps about 20% of the water that goes into Onondaga Lake, has spent millions of dollars on making sure that there is no further lake pollution. Although major progress has occurred on the mercury levels on Onondaga Lake. It takes millions of dollars of remediation efforts to fix the polluted ecosystem and years for the biomagnification effects to resolve themselves.<sup>[9]</sup> has been successful in lowering the concentration of mercury in fish dramatically.<sup>[10]</sup><br />
</div><br />
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<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
Although the EPA is working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to reduce mercury use and pollution, there are still a number of already contaminated areas that are being remediated now.<sup>[11]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<b>Nitrate Immobilization:</b><br />
The use of calcium nitrate to prevent methyl mercury from moving throughout bodies of water.<sup>[12]</sup><br />
<br><br />
<b>Dredging:</b><br />
Mercury containing sediments are removed or dug up from the lake bottom.<sup>[12]</sup><br />
<br><br />
<b>ISMS (In Situ Mercury Stabilization):</b><br />
Developed by Brookhaven researchers, the ISMS treats and removes mercury content from the soil, sludge, and other industrial waste; therefore stopping mercury from entering the water source.<sup>[13]</sup><br />
<br><br />
<b>Thermal desorption:</b><br />
This involves heating the contaminated soil to high temperatures so that the mercury will vaporize away and can be separated from the soil.<sup>[13]</sup><br />
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<h1><i>merT/merP</i></h1><br />
The transport system being utilized for this project is a combination of the <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i> genes from the transposon TN501 of <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. The genes <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i> are part of the <i>mer</i> operon which helps <i>P. aeruginosa</i> resist mercury toxicity.<sup>[14]</sup> These two membrane proteins work together to transport Hg<sup>2+</sup> ions into the cell.<sup>[1]</sup> Systems for sequestration of mercury have been successfully developed utilizing <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i>.<sup>[15,16,17]</sup> We hope to improve upon these systems by combining the <i>merT</i> and <i>merP</i> genes with a different regulatory system and by making all these genetic parts modular. <br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
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<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>United States of America. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.epa.gov/mercury/exposure.htm></li><br />
<li>United States of America. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.epa.gov/mercury/effects.htm>.</li><br />
<li> "Mercury Poisoning: Facts about the Symptoms of This Poison." MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://www.medicinenet.com/mercury_poisoning/article.htm#mercury_poisoning_facts>.</li><br />
<li>Moriarty, Rick. "Discovering What Lies at the Bottom of Onondaga Lake." Syracuse.com. Syracuse.com, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/08/onondaga_lake_story.html></li><br />
<li>Mattews, Dave A., David B. Babcock, John G. Nolan, Anthony R. Prestigiacomo, Steven W. Effler, Charles T. Driscoll, Svetoslava G. Todorova, and Kenneth M. Kuhr. "Whole-lake Nitrate Addition for Control of Methylmercury in Mercury-contaminated Onondaga Lake, NY." Elsevier (2013): n. pag. Print.</li><br />
<li>Collin, Glen. "High Levels of Toxic Mercury Found in Onondaga Lake Birds, Bats; Studies Show Web of Contamination." Syracuse.com. N.p., 18 May 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2014. <http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/high_levels_of_toxic_mercury_found_in_onondaga_lake_birds_bats_new_studies_revea.html></li><br />
<li>"Onondaga Lake Nitrate Addition and Monitoring." Recent and Current Water Quality Projects with Examples of Lake, Reservoirs and Tributaries Studied. Upstate Freshwater Institute, n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2014. <http://www.upstatefreshwater.org/Projects/projects.html>.</li><br />
<li>Collin, Glen. "Onondaga Lake Dredging Begins for Season; Could End a Year Early (video)." Syracuse.com. N.p., 7 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.</li><br />
<li>Collin, Glen. "Homegrown Onondaga Lake Cleanup Project Cuts Mercury Levels by 95 Percent." Syracuse.com. N.p., 13 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Aug. 2014. <http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/onondaga_lake_cleanup_mercury_honeywell_success_95_percent.html></li><br />
<li>"Onondaga Lake Nitrate Addition and Monitoring." Recent and Current Water Quality Projects with Examples of Lake, Reservoirs and Tributaries Studied. Upstate Freshwater Institute, n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2014. <http://www.upstatefreshwater.org/Projects/projects.html>.</li><br />
<li>United States of America. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.epa.gov/mercury/exposure.htm#epa>.</li><br />
<li>"Onondaga Lake - The Most Polluted Lake In America." Onondaga Nation. Onondaga Nation People of the Hills, n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2014. <http://www.onondaganation.org/land-rights/onondaga-lake/>.</li><br />
<li>Greenberg, Diane. "And Then There's Mercury Pollution." Innovation: America's Journal of Technology Commercialization 9.6 (2011/2012): n. pag. Innovation America. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://www.innovation-america.org/and-then-there%E2%80%99s-mercury-pollution>.</li><br />
<li>Misra, T. (1984). Mercuric Ion-Resistance Operons of Plasmid R100 and Transposon Tn501: The Beginning of the Operon Including the Regulatory Region and the First Two Structural Genes. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i>, 5975-5979.</li><br />
<li>Chen, S., & Wilson, D. B. (1997). Genetic engineering of bacteria and their potential for Hg2+ bioremediation. <i>Biodegradation</i>, 8(2), 97–103. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9342882<br />
</li><br />
<li>Chen, S., & Wilson, D. (1997). Construction and characterization of <i>Escherichia coli</i> genetically engineered for bioremediation of Hg(2+)-contaminated environments. <i>Applied and Environmental Microbiology</i>, 63(6), 2442-2445.</li><br />
<li>Chen, S., Kim, E., Shuler, M., & Wilson, D. (1998). Hg<sup>2+</sup> Removal by Genetically Engineered <i>Escherichia coli</i> in a Hollow Fiber Bioreactor. <i>Biotechnology Progress</i>, 667-671.<br />
</li><br />
</ol><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Health Risks</h1><br />
Lead has no known biological function, and therefore no place in the human body.<sup>[1]</sup> The lack of any robust, evolved system to deal with lead means that when it enters the organism, it will not be filtered naturally, and instead act as a disruptive, persistent, and often unnoticed antagonist to normal function. What makes lead so insidious? As it accumulates, lead will begin to take the place of other metals in biochemical reactions, replacing zinc or calcium when it is available for chemical reactions. In fact, “Lead binds to calcium-activated proteins with much higher (105 times) affinity than calcium.”<sup>[2]</sup> As a result, 75-90% of lead body load is in mineralizing tissues such as teeth and bones.<br />
<br><br><br />
Because of these issues, the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked to set safe levels of chemicals in drinking water by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, has set 0 as the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal for lead. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum allowable lead concentration at .015 mg/L (74.8 nM).<sup>[3]</sup> Any concentration above the set maximum requires additional treatment for removal of lead. On January 4th, 2014 a new provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act requires that any pipe used for the transport of potable water must contain less than 0.25% lead--a reduction from 8% under the previous law. Lowering levels of lead in piping will help to reduce lead in drinking water - especially since lead piping is the greatest cause of consumed lead in the US - but environmental routes of pollution still exist.<br />
<br><br><br />
Lead is especially dangerous for children, as their porous GI tracts and the increased vulnerability and volatility of their developing body systems make them highly susceptible to the disruptive effects of even small amounts of lead. It also takes them much more time to purge it from the body: the half-life of lead in the adult human body is 1 month, but 10 months in a child’s.<sup>[4]</sup> Low-level exposure can be quite harmful: an increase in blood lead level from 10μg/dL to 20μg/dL is associated with an almost 3-point drop in IQ.<sup>[5]</sup> Lead has also been shown to inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation, a neural mechanism required for learning.<sup>[5]</sup><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<b><font size=3>Side Effects of Lead Poisoning:</font></b><br />
<br><br><br />
<b>For infants and children:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Impaired neurological development</li><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Anemia</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
<li>Irritability</li><br />
<li>Lethargy</li><br />
<li>Learning disabilities</li><br />
<li>Erratic behavior.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>For adults:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Weakness</li><br />
<li>Pins and needles</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>Extreme cases of high lead poisoning</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Neurological damage</li><br />
<li>Death</li><br />
</ul><br />
</div><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<div class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/b/bd/Screen_Shot_2014-10-15_at_11.42.29_PM.png"><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
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<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Case Studies</h1><br />
According to the Blacksmith Institute’s 2010 report on the world’s worst pollution problems, lead is the world’s number one toxic threat with an estimated global impact of 18 to 22 million people, more than the population of Syria.<sup>[6]</sup> Lead has long been in use in numerous industries that manufacture products intended for consumption by average families. Famously, tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline (hence leaded gasoline) to improve its octane rating and to increase longevity of motor vehicle components, a practice that began in the United States in 1923, continued through until regulations saw implementation in the 1970s, finally ending with a zero-tolerance ban through the Clear Air Act in 1996.<sup>[7]</sup> A 1988 report to Congress by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry estimated that 68 million children had toxic exposure to lead from lead gasoline between 1927-1987.<sup>[7]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
Other sources of lead include leaded paint, dust that gathers on lead products, contaminated soil, and others. Since lead cannot be absorbed through contact with skin, the metal must be consumed in some form for it to be toxic. Unfortunately, lead tastes sweet. This means that flaking lead paint or the dust that forms on vinyl blinds imported before 1997 might be consumed repeatedly. In fact, the United States Consumer Product Safety Condition found that if a child ingested dust from less than one square inch of blind a day for about 15 to 30 days they could have blood lead levels at or above 10μg/dL.<sup>[8]</sup> <br />
<br><br><br />
Lead can usually only enter the body through ingestion, which is why pollution of drinking water supplies is of primary concern. When ingested at high enough concentrations, lead can be acutely toxic causing neurological damage and death. In 2008, 18 children in Dakar, Senegal died of acute lead poisoning associated with the recycling of lead car batteries.<sup>[9]</sup> Others associated with the recycling facility displayed symptoms ranging from an upset stomach to involuntary convulsions.<sup>[9]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<h4>Ithaca Gun Factory:</h4> <br />
<br><br />
Originally founded in 1883 by Henry Baker, a towering brick smokestack stands as the only remnant of a once-bustling production facility. The Ithaca Gun Company was famous across the world for its shotguns used by Annie Oakley and John Philip Sousa. Throughout its history of production, the factory emitted immense amounts of lead into the surrounding ground. In fact, a 2003 EPA assessment found the need for the removal of 2370 tons of the heavy metal. This mass is roughly equivalent to that of a space shuttle before launch.<sup>[6]</sup> As a result, the Ithaca Gun Company area underwent a lead cleanup project in 2004. However, two years later, surface levels of lead were tested and contamination was as high as 184,000 ppm--460 times the goal set by the EPA for the 2004 cleanup. <br />
<br />
The lead pollution seeped into the Cayuga Watershed and has been a common issue ever since.<sup>[10]</sup> Even more disturbing, this lead contamination is currently located directly next to Ithaca Falls, a popular swimming and fishing site for locals and Cornell students alike. Cornell University, which use to own this property, sold it to the town from $1, so that the EPA could declare it a national Superfunds site, and pay for the cleanup necessary in the years to come. <br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
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<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
<b>Water Filters:</b><br />
The main method currently employed in limiting our consumption of lead via drinking water is through the installation of reverse osmosis, distillation, or chemical (carbon, activated alumina) water filters,<sup>[11]</sup> at scales ranging from industrial to in-home implementation. In homes with lead components in water piping systems, if water has been relatively stagnant for up to 6 hours, it should be flushed through the system to avoid ingesting built-up lead.<sup>[12]</sup> Increased water corrosivity, influenced by pH,<sup>[13]</sup> generally results in a higher lead content. <br />
<br><br />
<b>Redox media, non-chemical water treatment:</b><br />
This fluid treatment passes the lead through a proprietary filter, causing a redox reaction in which “soluble lead cations are reduced to insoluble lead atoms, which are electroplated onto the surface of the media.”<sup>[14]</sup> <br />
<br><br />
<b>Guar Gum:</b> Adsorption by this unique compound,<sup>[15]</sup> produced from the ground seeds of guar beans, was sufficient to remove 56.7% of lead from water at a gum concentration of 1,000 parts per million.<br />
<br />
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<div id="CBP4"><br />
<h1><i>cbp4</i></h1><br />
The transport protein being utilized for our project is the calmodulin-binding protein <i>CBP4</i> from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>. This protein is structurally similar to non-selective membrane channel proteins from other eukaryotes and has been shown to confer nickel tolerance and lead hypersensitivity.<sup>[10]</sup> Transgenic plants overexpressing <i>NtCBP4</i> were found to have increased uptake of Pb<sup>2+</sup> ions into cells, likely leading to the increased toxicity.<sup>[10]</sup> While it has been suggested that <i>NtCBP4</i> could possibly be used for bioremediation purposes and other attempts have been made at lead removal from water using genetically engineered organisms, to the best of our knowledge no attempt has been made at utilizing <i>NtCBP4</i> for precisely this purpose.<sup>[9],[10],[16]</sup> We believe that the specificity of this transport protein for lead and its readily available sequence make it an ideal candidate for bioremediation.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li>"Public Health - Seattle & King County." Lead and Its Human Effects. King County Government, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. </li><br />
<li>"Lead Induced Encephalopathy: An Overview." International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences 2.1 (2011): 70-86. Web. http://ijpbs.net/volume2/issue1/pharma/_6.pdf. </li><br />
<li>"Consumer Factsheet on Lead in Drinking Water." Home. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity ." Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity. Medscape, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li> Schwartz, Joel. "Low-level lead exposure and children′ s IQ: a metaanalysis and search for a threshold." Environmental research 65.1 (1994): 42-55.</li><br />
<li> McCartor, A., & Becker, D. (2010). Blacksmith Institute's World's Worst Pollution Problems 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.worstpolluted.org/files/FileUpload/files/2010/WWPP-2010-Report-Web.pdf</li><br />
<li>"Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline." Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"CPSC Finds Lead Poisoning Hazard for Young Children in Imported Vinyl Miniblinds." U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. </li><br />
<li> Song, W., Sohn, E., Martinoia, E., Lee, Y., Yang, Y., Jasinski, M., Forestier, C., Hwang, I., & Lee, Y. (2003). Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants. Nature Biotechnology, 914-919. </li><br />
<li> Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. <i>The Plant Journal</i>, 171-182. </li><br />
<li> Center for Disease Control. (n.d.). Lead and Drinking Water from Private Wells. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/disease/lead.html</li><br />
<li> United State Environmental Protection Agency. (1993, June). Actions You Can Take To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/lead1.cfm </li><br />
<li> Penn State Extension. (2014). Lead in Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water </li><br />
<li> KDF Fluid Treatment, Inc. (2014). Removing Lead from Water and Heavy Metal Removal from Water. Retrieved from http://www.kdfft.com/success_metal.htm</li><br />
<li> Pal, A. et al. Polyelectrolytic aqueous guar gum for adsorptive separation of soluble Pb(II) from contaminated water. Carbohydr. Polymer. 110, 224–230 (2014). </li><br />
<li> Eapen, S., & Dsouza, S. (2004). Prospects Of Genetic Engineering Of Plants For Phytoremediation Of Toxic Metals. Biotechnology Advances, 97-114. </li><br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Health Risks</h1><br />
Lead has no known biological function, and therefore no place in the human body.<sup>[1]</sup> The lack of any robust, evolved system to deal with lead means that when it enters the organism, it will not be filtered naturally, and instead act as a disruptive, persistent, and often unnoticed antagonist to normal function. What makes lead so insidious? As it accumulates, lead will begin to take the place of other metals in biochemical reactions, replacing zinc or calcium when it is available for chemical reactions. In fact, “Lead binds to calcium-activated proteins with much higher (105 times) affinity than calcium.”<sup>[2]</sup> As a result, 75-90% of lead body load is in mineralizing tissues such as teeth and bones.<br />
<br><br><br />
Because of these issues, the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked to set safe levels of chemicals in drinking water by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, has set 0 as the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal for lead. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum allowable lead concentration at .015 mg/L (74.8 nM).<sup>[3]</sup> Any concentration above the set maximum requires additional treatment for removal of lead. On January 4th, 2014 a new provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act requires that any pipe used for the transport of potable water must contain less than 0.25% lead--a reduction from 8% under the previous law. Lowering levels of lead in piping will help to reduce lead in drinking water - especially since lead piping is the greatest cause of consumed lead in the US - but environmental routes of pollution still exist.<br />
<br><br><br />
Lead is especially dangerous for children, as their porous GI tracts and the increased vulnerability and volatility of their developing body systems make them highly susceptible to the disruptive effects of even small amounts of lead. It also takes them much more time to purge it from the body: the half-life of lead in the adult human body is 1 month, but 10 months in a child’s.<sup>[4]</sup> Low-level exposure can be quite harmful: an increase in blood lead level from 10μg/dL to 20μg/dL is associated with an almost 3-point drop in IQ.<sup>[5]</sup> Lead has also been shown to inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation, a neural mechanism required for learning.<sup>[5]</sup><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<b><font size=3>Side Effects of Lead Poisoning:</font></b><br />
<br><br><br />
<b>For infants and children:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Impaired neurological development</li><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Anemia</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
<li>Irritability</li><br />
<li>Lethargy</li><br />
<li>Learning disabilities</li><br />
<li>Erratic behavior.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>For adults:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Weakness</li><br />
<li>Pins and needles</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>Extreme cases of high lead poisoning</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Neurological damage</li><br />
<li>Death</li><br />
</ul><br />
</div><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<div class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/b/bd/Screen_Shot_2014-10-15_at_11.42.29_PM.png"><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Case Studies</h1><br />
According to the Blacksmith Institute’s 2010 report on the world’s worst pollution problems, lead is the world’s number one toxic threat with an estimated global impact of 18 to 22 million people, more than the population of Syria.<sup>[6]</sup> Lead has long been in use in numerous industries that manufacture products intended for consumption by average families. Famously, tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline (hence leaded gasoline) to improve its octane rating and to increase longevity of motor vehicle components, a practice that began in the United States in 1923, continued through until regulations saw implementation in the 1970s, finally ending with a zero-tolerance ban through the Clear Air Act in 1996.<sup>[7]</sup> A 1988 report to Congress by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry estimated that 68 million children had toxic exposure to lead from lead gasoline between 1927-1987.<sup>[7]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
Other sources of lead include leaded paint, dust that gathers on lead products, contaminated soil, and others. Since lead cannot be absorbed through contact with skin, the metal must be consumed in some form for it to be toxic. Unfortunately, lead tastes sweet. This means that flaking lead paint or the dust that forms on vinyl blinds imported before 1997 might be consumed repeatedly. In fact, the United States Consumer Product Safety Condition found that if a child ingested dust from less than one square inch of blind a day for about 15 to 30 days they could have blood lead levels at or above 10μg/dL.<sup>[8]</sup> <br />
<br><br><br />
Lead can usually only enter the body through ingestion, which is why pollution of drinking water supplies is of primary concern. When ingested at high enough concentrations, lead can be acutely toxic causing neurological damage and death. In 2008, 18 children in Dakar, Senegal died of acute lead poisoning associated with the recycling of lead car batteries.<sup>[9]</sup> Others associated with the recycling facility displayed symptoms ranging from an upset stomach to involuntary convulsions.<sup>[9]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<h4>Ithaca Gun Factory:</h4> <br />
<br><br />
Originally founded in 1883 by Henry Baker, a towering brick smokestack stands as the only remnant of a once-bustling production facility. The Ithaca Gun Company was famous across the world for its shotguns used by Annie Oakley and John Philip Sousa. Throughout its history of production, the factory emitted immense amounts of lead into the surrounding ground. In fact, a 2003 EPA assessment found the need for the removal of 2370 tons of the heavy metal. This mass is roughly equivalent to that of a space shuttle before launch.<sup>[6]</sup> As a result, the Ithaca Gun Company area underwent a lead cleanup project in 2004. However, two years later, surface levels of lead were tested and contamination was as high as 184,000 ppm--460 times the goal set by the EPA for the 2004 cleanup. <br />
<br />
The lead pollution seeped into the Cayuga Watershed and has been a common issue ever since.<sup>[10]</sup> Even more disturbing, this lead contamination is currently located directly next to Ithaca Falls, a popular swimming and fishing site for locals and Cornell students alike. Cornell University, which use to own this property, sold it to the town from $1, so that the EPA could declare it a national Superfunds site, and pay for the cleanup necessary in the years to come. <br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
<b>Water Filters:</b><br />
The main method currently employed in limiting our consumption of lead via drinking water is through the installation of reverse osmosis, distillation, or chemical (carbon, activated alumina) water filters,<sup>[11]</sup> at scales ranging from industrial to in-home implementation. In homes with lead components in water piping systems, if water has been relatively stagnant for up to 6 hours, it should be flushed through the system to avoid ingesting built-up lead.<sup>[12]</sup> Increased water corrosivity, influenced by pH,<sup>[13]</sup> generally results in a higher lead content. <br />
<br><br />
<b>Redox media, non-chemical water treatment:</b><br />
This fluid treatment passes the lead through a proprietary filter, causing a redox reaction in which “soluble lead cations are reduced to insoluble lead atoms, which are electroplated onto the surface of the media.”<sup>[14]</sup> <br />
<br><br />
<b>Guar Gum:</b> Adsorption by this unique compound,<sup>[15]</sup> produced from the ground seeds of guar beans, was sufficient to remove 56.7% of lead from water at a gum concentration of 1,000 parts per million.<br />
<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<div id="CBP4"><br />
<h1><i>cbp4</i></h1><br />
The transport protein being utilized for our project is the calmodulin-binding protein <i>CBP4</i> from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>. This protein is structurally similar to non-selective membrane channel proteins from other eukaryotes and has been shown to confer nickel tolerance and lead hypersensitivity.<sup>[10]</sup> Transgenic plants overexpressing <i>NtCBP4</i> were found to have increased uptake of Pb<sup>2+</sup> ions into cells, likely leading to the increased toxicity.<sup>[10]</sup> While it has been suggested that <i>NtCBP4</i> could possibly be used for bioremediation purposes and other attempts have been made at lead removal from water using genetically engineered organisms, to the best of our knowledge no attempt has been made at utilizing <i>NtCBP4</i> for precisely this purpose.<sup>[9],[10],[16]</sup> We believe that the specificity of this transport protein for lead and its readily available sequence make it an ideal candidate for bioremediation.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li> Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. <i>The Plant Journal</i>, 171-182</li><br />
<li>Song, W., Sohn, E., Martinoia, E., Lee, Y., Yang, Y., Jasinski, M., Forestier, C., Hwang, I., & Lee, Y. (2003). Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants. Nature Biotechnology, 914-919.</li><br />
<li>Eapen, S., & Dsouza, S. (2004). Prospects Of Genetic Engineering Of Plants For Phytoremediation Of Toxic Metals. Biotechnology Advances, 97-114.</li><br />
<li>"Public Health - Seattle & King County." Lead and Its Human Effects. King County Government, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity ." Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity. Medscape, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Consumer Factsheet on Lead in Drinking Water." Home. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline." Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>Schwartz, Joel. "Low-level lead exposure and children′ s IQ: a metaanalysis and search for a threshold." Environmental research 65.1 (1994): 42-55.</li><br />
<li>"CPSC Finds Lead Poisoning Hazard for Young Children in Imported Vinyl Miniblinds." U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li> "Lead Induced Encephalopathy: An Overview." International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences 2.1 (2011): 70-86. Web. http://ijpbs.net/volume2/issue1/pharma/_6.pdf.</li><br />
<li> McCartor, A., & Becker, D. (2010). Blacksmith Institute's World's Worst Pollution Problems 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.worstpolluted.org/files/FileUpload/files/2010/WWPP-2010-Report-Web.pdf </li><br />
<li>Center for Disease Control. (n.d.). Lead and Drinking Water from Private Wells. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/disease/lead.html</li><br />
<li>United State Environmental Protection Agency. (1993, June). Actions You Can Take To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/lead1.cfm</li><br />
<li>Penn State Extension. (2014). Lead in Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water</li><br />
<li>KDF Fluid Treatment, Inc. (2014). Removing Lead from Water and Heavy Metal Removal from Water. Retrieved from http://www.kdfft.com/success_metal.htm</li><br />
<li>Pal, A. et al. Polyelectrolytic aqueous guar gum for adsorptive separation of soluble Pb(II) from contaminated water. Carbohydr. Polymer. 110, 224–230 (2014)</li><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/background/leadTeam:Cornell/project/background/lead2014-10-18T02:58:06Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Health Risks</h1><br />
Lead has no known biological function, and therefore no place in the human body. <sup>[1]</sup> The lack of any robust, evolved system to deal with lead means that when it enters the organism, it will not be filtered naturally, and instead act as a disruptive, persistent, and often unnoticed antagonist to normal function. What makes lead so insidious? As it accumulates, lead will begin to take the place of other metals in biochemical reactions, replacing zinc or calcium when it is available for chemical reactions. In fact, “Lead binds to calcium-activated proteins with much higher (105 times) affinity than calcium.” <sup>[2]</sup> As a result, 75-90% of lead body load is in mineralizing tissues such as teeth and bones.<br />
<br><br><br />
Because of these issues, the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked to set safe levels of chemicals in drinking water by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, has set 0 as the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal for lead. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum allowable lead concentration at .015 mg/L (74.8 nM). <sup>[3]</sup> Any concentration above the set maximum requires additional treatment for removal of lead. On January 4th, 2014 a new provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act requires that any pipe used for the transport of potable water must contain less than 0.25% lead--a reduction from 8% under the previous law. Lowering levels of lead in piping will help to reduce lead in drinking water - especially since lead piping is the greatest cause of consumed lead in the US - but environmental routes of pollution still exist.<br />
<br><br><br />
Lead is especially dangerous for children, as their porous GI tracts and the increased vulnerability and volatility of their developing body systems make them highly susceptible to the disruptive effects of even small amounts of lead. It also takes them much more time to purge it from the body: the half-life of lead in the adult human body is 1 month, but 10 months in a child’s. <sup>[4]</sup> Low-level exposure can be quite harmful: an increase in blood lead level from 10μg/dL to 20μg/dL is associated with an almost 3-point drop in IQ. <sup>[5]</sup> Lead has also been shown to inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation, a neural mechanism required for learning. <sup>[5]</sup><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<b><font size=3>Side Effects of Lead Poisoning:</font></b><br />
<br><br><br />
<b>For infants and children:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Impaired neurological development</li><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Anemia</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
<li>Irritability</li><br />
<li>Lethargy</li><br />
<li>Learning disabilities</li><br />
<li>Erratic behavior.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>For adults:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Weakness</li><br />
<li>Pins and needles</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>Extreme cases of high lead poisoning</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Neurological damage</li><br />
<li>Death</li><br />
</ul><br />
</div><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<div class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/b/bd/Screen_Shot_2014-10-15_at_11.42.29_PM.png"><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Case Studies</h1><br />
According to the Blacksmith Institute’s 2010 report on the world’s worst pollution problems, lead is the world’s number one toxic threat with an estimated global impact of 18 to 22 million people, more than the population of Syria. <sup>[6]</sup> Lead has long been in use in numerous industries that manufacture products intended for consumption by average families. Famously, tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline (hence leaded gasoline) to improve its octane rating and to increase longevity of motor vehicle components, a practice that began in the United States in 1923, continued through until regulations saw implementation in the 1970s, finally ending with a zero-tolerance ban through the Clear Air Act in 1996. <sup>[7]</sup> A 1988 report to Congress by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry estimated that 68 million children had toxic exposure to lead from lead gasoline between 1927-1987. <sup>[7]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
Other sources of lead include leaded paint, dust that gathers on lead products, contaminated soil, and others. Since lead cannot be absorbed through contact with skin, the metal must be consumed in some form for it to be toxic. Unfortunately, lead tastes sweet. This means that flaking lead paint or the dust that forms on vinyl blinds imported before 1997 might be consumed repeatedly. In fact, the United States Consumer Product Safety Condition found that if a child ingested dust from less than one square inch of blind a day for about 15 to 30 days they could have blood lead levels at or above 10μg/dL. <sup>[8]</sup> <br />
<br><br><br />
Lead can usually only enter the body through ingestion, which is why pollution of drinking water supplies is of primary concern. When ingested at high enough concentrations, lead can be acutely toxic causing neurological damage and death. In 2008, 18 children in Dakar, Senegal died of acute lead poisoning associated with the recycling of lead car batteries. <sup>[9]</sup> Others associated with the recycling facility displayed symptoms ranging from an upset stomach to involuntary convulsions. <sup>[9]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<h4>Ithaca Gun Factory:</h4> <br />
<br><br />
Originally founded in 1883 by Henry Baker, a towering brick smokestack stands as the only remnant of a once-bustling production facility. The Ithaca Gun Company was famous across the world for its shotguns used by Annie Oakley and John Philip Sousa. Throughout its history of production, the factory emitted immense amounts of lead into the surrounding ground. In fact, a 2003 EPA assessment found the need for the removal of 2370 tons of the heavy metal. This mass is roughly equivalent to that of a space shuttle before launch. <sup>[6]</sup> As a result, the Ithaca Gun Company area underwent a lead cleanup project in 2004. However, two years later, surface levels of lead were tested and contamination was as high as 184,000 ppm--460 times the goal set by the EPA for the 2004 cleanup. <br />
<br />
The lead pollution seeped into the Cayuga Watershed and has been a common issue ever since. <sup>[10]</sup> Even more disturbing, this lead contamination is currently located directly next to Ithaca Falls, a popular swimming and fishing site for locals and Cornell students alike. Cornell University, which use to own this property, sold it to the town from $1, so that the EPA could declare it a national Superfunds site, and pay for the cleanup necessary in the years to come. <br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
<b>Water Filters:</b><br />
The main method currently employed in limiting our consumption of lead via drinking water is through the installation of reverse osmosis, distillation, or chemical (carbon, activated alumina) water filters, <sup>[11]</sup> at scales ranging from industrial to in-home implementation. In homes with lead components in water piping systems, if water has been relatively stagnant for up to 6 hours, it should be flushed through the system to avoid ingesting built-up lead. <sup>[12]</sup> Increased water corrosivity, influenced by pH, <sup>[13]</sup> generally results in a higher lead content. <br />
<br><br />
<b>Redox media, non-chemical water treatment:</b><br />
This fluid treatment passes the lead through a proprietary filter, causing a redox reaction in which “soluble lead cations are reduced to insoluble lead atoms, which are electroplated onto the surface of the media.” <sup>[14]</sup> <br />
<br><br />
<b>Guar Gum:</b> Adsorption by this unique compound, <sup>[15]</sup> produced from the ground seeds of guar beans, was sufficient to remove 56.7% of lead from water at a gum concentration of 1,000 parts per million.<br />
<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<div id="CBP4"><br />
<h1><i>cbp4</i></h1><br />
The transport protein being utilized for our project is the calmodulin-binding protein <i>CBP4</i> from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>. This protein is structurally similar to non-selective membrane channel proteins from other eukaryotes and has been shown to confer nickel tolerance and lead hypersensitivity. <sup>[10]</sup> Transgenic plants overexpressing <i>NtCBP4</i> were found to have increased uptake of Pb<sup>2+</sup> ions into cells, likely leading to the increased toxicity. <sup>[10]</sup> While it has been suggested that <i>NtCBP4</i> could possibly be used for bioremediation purposes and other attempts have been made at lead removal from water using genetically engineered organisms, to the best of our knowledge no attempt has been made at utilizing <i>NtCBP4</i> for precisely this purpose. <sup>[9],[10],[16]</sup> We believe that the specificity of this transport protein for lead and its readily available sequence make it an ideal candidate for bioremediation.<br />
<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li> Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. <i>The Plant Journal</i>, 171-182</li><br />
<li>Song, W., Sohn, E., Martinoia, E., Lee, Y., Yang, Y., Jasinski, M., Forestier, C., Hwang, I., & Lee, Y. (2003). Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants. Nature Biotechnology, 914-919.</li><br />
<li>Eapen, S., & Dsouza, S. (2004). Prospects Of Genetic Engineering Of Plants For Phytoremediation Of Toxic Metals. Biotechnology Advances, 97-114.</li><br />
<li>"Public Health - Seattle & King County." Lead and Its Human Effects. King County Government, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity ." Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity. Medscape, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Consumer Factsheet on Lead in Drinking Water." Home. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline." Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>Schwartz, Joel. "Low-level lead exposure and children′ s IQ: a metaanalysis and search for a threshold." Environmental research 65.1 (1994): 42-55.</li><br />
<li>"CPSC Finds Lead Poisoning Hazard for Young Children in Imported Vinyl Miniblinds." U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li> "Lead Induced Encephalopathy: An Overview." International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences 2.1 (2011): 70-86. Web. http://ijpbs.net/volume2/issue1/pharma/_6.pdf.</li><br />
<li> McCartor, A., & Becker, D. (2010). Blacksmith Institute's World's Worst Pollution Problems 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.worstpolluted.org/files/FileUpload/files/2010/WWPP-2010-Report-Web.pdf </li><br />
<li>Center for Disease Control. (n.d.). Lead and Drinking Water from Private Wells. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/disease/lead.html</li><br />
<li>United State Environmental Protection Agency. (1993, June). Actions You Can Take To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/lead1.cfm</li><br />
<li>Penn State Extension. (2014). Lead in Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water</li><br />
<li>KDF Fluid Treatment, Inc. (2014). Removing Lead from Water and Heavy Metal Removal from Water. Retrieved from http://www.kdfft.com/success_metal.htm</li><br />
<li>Pal, A. et al. Polyelectrolytic aqueous guar gum for adsorptive separation of soluble Pb(II) from contaminated water. Carbohydr. Polymer. 110, 224–230 (2014)</li><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</body><br />
</html></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/background/leadTeam:Cornell/project/background/lead2014-10-18T02:52:08Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Health Risks</h1><br />
Lead has no known biological function, and therefore no place in the human body<sup>[1]</sup>. The lack of any robust, evolved system to deal with lead means that when it enters the organism, it will not be filtered naturally, and instead act as a disruptive, persistent, and often unnoticed antagonist to normal function. What makes lead so insidious? As it accumulates, lead will begin to take the place of other metals in biochemical reactions, replacing zinc or calcium when it is available for chemical reactions. In fact, “Lead binds to calcium-activated proteins with much higher (105 times) affinity than calcium.<sup>[2]</sup>” As a result, 75-90% of lead body load is in mineralizing tissues such as teeth and bones.<br />
<br><br><br />
Because of these issues, the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked to set safe levels of chemicals in drinking water by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, has set 0 as the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal for lead. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum allowable lead concentration at .015 mg/L (74.8 nM)<sup>[3]</sup>. Any concentration above the set maximum requires additional treatment for removal of lead. On January 4th, 2014 a new provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act requires that any pipe used for the transport of potable water must contain less than 0.25% lead--a reduction from 8% under the previous law. Lowering levels of lead in piping will help to reduce lead in drinking water - especially since lead piping is the greatest cause of consumed lead in the US - but environmental routes of pollution still exist.<br />
<br><br><br />
Lead is especially dangerous for children, as their porous GI tracts and the increased vulnerability and volatility of their developing body systems make them highly susceptible to the disruptive effects of even small amounts of lead. It also takes them much more time to purge it from the body: the half-life of lead in the adult human body is 1 month, but 10 months in a child’s <sup>[4]</sup>. Low-level exposure can be quite harmful: an increase in blood lead level from 10μg/dL to 20μg/dL is associated with an almost 3-point drop in IQ<sup>[5]</sup>. Lead has also been shown to inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation, a neural mechanism required for learning<sup>[5]</sup>.<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<b><font size=3>Side Effects of Lead Poisoning:</font></b><br />
<br><br><br />
<b>For infants and children:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Impaired neurological development</li><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Anemia</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
<li>Irritability</li><br />
<li>Lethargy</li><br />
<li>Learning disabilities</li><br />
<li>Erratic behavior.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>For adults:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Weakness</li><br />
<li>Pins and needles</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>Extreme cases of high lead poisoning</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Neurological damage</li><br />
<li>Death</li><br />
</ul><br />
</div><br />
<div class="col-md-6 col-xs-9"><br />
<div class="thumbnail"><br />
<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/b/bd/Screen_Shot_2014-10-15_at_11.42.29_PM.png"><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Case Studies</h1><br />
According to the Blacksmith Institute’s 2010 report on the world’s worst pollution problems, lead is the world’s number one toxic threat with an estimated global impact of 18 to 22 million people, more than the population of Syria<sup>[6]</sup>. Lead has long been in use in numerous industries that manufacture products intended for consumption by average families. Famously, tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline (hence leaded gasoline) to improve its octane rating and to increase longevity of motor vehicle components, a practice that began in the United States in 1923, continued through until regulations saw implementation in the 1970s, finally ending with a zero-tolerance ban through the Clear Air Act in 1996<sup>[7]</sup>. A 1988 report to Congress by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry estimated that 68 million children had toxic exposure to lead from lead gasoline between 1927-1987.<sup>[7]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
Other sources of lead include leaded paint, dust that gathers on lead products, contaminated soil, and others. Since lead cannot be absorbed through contact with skin, the metal must be consumed in some form for it to be toxic. Unfortunately, lead tastes sweet. This means that flaking lead paint or the dust that forms on vinyl blinds imported before 1997 might be consumed repeatedly. In fact, the United States Consumer Product Safety Condition found that if a child ingested dust from less than one square inch of blind a day for about 15 to 30 days they could have blood lead levels at or above 10μg/dL <sup>[8]</sup>. <br />
<br><br><br />
Lead can usually only enter the body through ingestion, which is why pollution of drinking water supplies is of primary concern. When ingested at high enough concentrations, lead can be acutely toxic causing neurological damage and death. In 2008, 18 children in Dakar, Senegal died of acute lead poisoning associated with the recycling of lead car batteries.<sup>[9]</sup> Others associated with the recycling facility displayed symptoms ranging from an upset stomach to involuntary convulsions.<sup>[9]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<h4>Ithaca Gun Factory:</h4> <br />
<br><br />
Originally founded in 1883 by Henry Baker, a towering brick smokestack stands as the only remnant of a once-bustling production facility. The Ithaca Gun Company was famous across the world for its shotguns used by Annie Oakley and John Philip Sousa. Throughout its history of production, the factory emitted immense amounts of lead into the surrounding ground. In fact, a 2003 EPA assessment found the need for the removal of 2370 tons of the heavy metal. This mass is roughly equivalent to that of a space shuttle before launch. <sup>[6]</sup> As a result, the Ithaca Gun Company area underwent a lead cleanup project in 2004. However, two years later, surface levels of lead were tested and contamination was as high as 184,000 ppm--460 times the goal set by the EPA for the 2004 cleanup. <br />
<br />
The lead pollution seeped into the Cayuga Watershed and has been a common issue ever since <sup>[10]</sup>. Even more disturbing, this lead contamination is currently located directly next to Ithaca Falls, a popular swimming and fishing site for locals and Cornell students alike. Cornell University, which use to own this property, sold it to the town from $1, so that the EPA could declare it a national Superfunds site, and pay for the cleanup necessary in the years to come. <br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
<b>Water Filters:</b><br />
The main method currently employed in limiting our consumption of lead via drinking water is through the installation of reverse osmosis, distillation, or chemical (carbon, activated alumina) water filters<sup>[11]</sup>, at scales ranging from industrial to in-home implementation. In homes with lead components in water piping systems, if water has been relatively stagnant for up to 6 hours, it should be flushed through the system to avoid ingesting built-up lead<sup>[12]</sup>. Increased water corrosivity, influenced by pH<sup>[13]</sup>, generally results in a higher lead content. <br />
<br><br />
<b>Redox media, non-chemical water treatment:</b><br />
This fluid treatment passes the lead through a proprietary filter, causing a redox reaction in which “soluble lead cations are reduced to insoluble lead atoms, which are electroplated onto the surface of the media”<sup>[14]</sup>. <br />
<br><br />
<b>Guar Gum:</b> Adsorption by this unique compound<sup>[15]</sup>, produced from the ground seeds of guar beans, was sufficient to remove 56.7% of lead from water at a gum concentration of 1,000 parts per million.<br />
<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
<div class="col-md-12 col-xs-18"><br />
<div id="CBP4"><br />
<h1><i>cbp4</i></h1><br />
The transport protein being utilized for our project is the calmodulin-binding protein <i>CBP4</i> from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>. This protein is structurally similar to non-selective membrane channel proteins from other eukaryotes and has been shown to confer nickel tolerance and lead hypersensitivity.<sup>[10]</sup> Transgenic plants overexpressing <i>NtCBP4</i> were found to have increased uptake of Pb<sup>2+</sup> ions into cells, likely leading to the increased toxicity.<sup>[10]</sup> While it has been suggested that <i>NtCBP4</i> could possibly be used for bioremediation purposes and other attempts have been made at lead removal from water using genetically engineered organisms, to the best of our knowledge no attempt has been made at utilizing <i>NtCBP4</i> for precisely this purpose.<sup>[9],[10],[16]</sup>. We believe that the specificity of this transport protein for lead and its readily available sequence make it an ideal candidate for bioremediation.<br />
<br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
</div><br />
<div class="row"><br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li> Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. <i>The Plant Journal</i>, 171-182</li><br />
<li>Song, W., Sohn, E., Martinoia, E., Lee, Y., Yang, Y., Jasinski, M., Forestier, C., Hwang, I., & Lee, Y. (2003). Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants. Nature Biotechnology, 914-919.</li><br />
<li>Eapen, S., & Dsouza, S. (2004). Prospects Of Genetic Engineering Of Plants For Phytoremediation Of Toxic Metals. Biotechnology Advances, 97-114.</li><br />
<li>"Public Health - Seattle & King County." Lead and Its Human Effects. King County Government, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity ." Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity. Medscape, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Consumer Factsheet on Lead in Drinking Water." Home. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline." Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>Schwartz, Joel. "Low-level lead exposure and children′ s IQ: a metaanalysis and search for a threshold." Environmental research 65.1 (1994): 42-55.</li><br />
<li>"CPSC Finds Lead Poisoning Hazard for Young Children in Imported Vinyl Miniblinds." U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li> "Lead Induced Encephalopathy: An Overview." International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences 2.1 (2011): 70-86. Web. http://ijpbs.net/volume2/issue1/pharma/_6.pdf.</li><br />
<li> McCartor, A., & Becker, D. (2010). Blacksmith Institute's World's Worst Pollution Problems 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.worstpolluted.org/files/FileUpload/files/2010/WWPP-2010-Report-Web.pdf </li><br />
<li>Center for Disease Control. (n.d.). Lead and Drinking Water from Private Wells. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/disease/lead.html</li><br />
<li>United State Environmental Protection Agency. (1993, June). Actions You Can Take To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/lead1.cfm</li><br />
<li>Penn State Extension. (2014). Lead in Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water</li><br />
<li>KDF Fluid Treatment, Inc. (2014). Removing Lead from Water and Heavy Metal Removal from Water. Retrieved from http://www.kdfft.com/success_metal.htm</li><br />
<li>Pal, A. et al. Polyelectrolytic aqueous guar gum for adsorptive separation of soluble Pb(II) from contaminated water. Carbohydr. Polymer. 110, 224–230 (2014)</li><br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Health Risks</h1><br />
Lead has no known biological function, and therefore no place in the human body<sup>[1]</sup>. The lack of any robust, evolved system to deal with lead means that when it enters the organism, it will not be filtered naturally, and instead act as a disruptive, persistent, and often unnoticed antagonist to normal function. What makes lead so insidious? As it accumulates, lead will begin to take the place of other metals in biochemical reactions, replacing zinc or calcium when it is available for chemical reactions. In fact, “Lead binds to calcium-activated proteins with much higher (105 times) affinity than calcium.<sup>[10]</sup>” As a result, 75-90% of lead body load is in mineralizing tissues such as teeth and bones.<br />
<br><br><br />
Because of these issues, the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked to set safe levels of chemicals in drinking water by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, has set 0 as the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal for lead. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum allowable lead concentration at .015 mg/L (74.8 nM)<sup>[6]</sup>. Any concentration above the set maximum requires additional treatment for removal of lead. On January 4th, 2014 a new provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act requires that any pipe used for the transport of potable water must contain less than 0.25% lead--a reduction from 8% under the previous law. Lowering levels of lead in piping will help to reduce lead in drinking water - especially since lead piping is the greatest cause of consumed lead in the US - but environmental routes of pollution still exist.<br />
<br><br><br />
Lead is especially dangerous for children, as their porous GI tracts and the increased vulnerability and volatility of their developing body systems make them highly susceptible to the disruptive effects of even small amounts of lead. It also takes them much more time to purge it from the body: the half-life of lead in the adult human body is 1 month, but 10 months in a child’s <sup>[5]</sup>. Low-level exposure can be quite harmful: an increase in blood lead level from 10μg/dL to 20μg/dL is associated with an almost 3-point drop in IQ<sup>[8]</sup>. Lead has also been shown to inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation, a neural mechanism required for learning<sup>[8]</sup>.<br />
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<b><font size=3>Side Effects of Lead Poisoning:</font></b><br />
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<b>For infants and children:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Impaired neurological development</li><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Anemia</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
<li>Irritability</li><br />
<li>Lethargy</li><br />
<li>Learning disabilities</li><br />
<li>Erratic behavior.</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>For adults:</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Gastrointestinal distress</li><br />
<li>Weakness</li><br />
<li>Pins and needles</li><br />
<li>Kidney failure</li><br />
</ul><br />
<b>Extreme cases of high lead poisoning</b><br />
<ul><br />
<li>Neurological damage</li><br />
<li>Death</li><br />
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<h1>Case Studies</h1><br />
According to the Blacksmith Institute’s 2010 report on the world’s worst pollution problems, lead is the world’s number one toxic threat with an estimated global impact of 18 to 22 million people, more than the population of Syria<sup>[11]</sup>. Lead has long been in use in numerous industries that manufacture products intended for consumption by average families. Famously, tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline (hence leaded gasoline) to improve its octane rating and to increase longevity of motor vehicle components, a practice that began in the United States in 1923, continued through until regulations saw implementation in the 1970s, finally ending with a zero-tolerance ban through the Clear Air Act in 1996<sup>[7]</sup>. A 1988 report to Congress by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry estimated that 68 million children had toxic exposure to lead from lead gasoline between 1927-1987.<sup>[7]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
Other sources of lead include leaded paint, dust that gathers on lead products, contaminated soil, and others. Since lead cannot be absorbed through contact with skin, the metal must be consumed in some form for it to be toxic. Unfortunately, lead tastes sweet. This means that flaking lead paint or the dust that forms on vinyl blinds imported before 1997 might be consumed repeatedly. In fact, the United States Consumer Product Safety Condition found that if a child ingested dust from less than one square inch of blind a day for about 15 to 30 days they could have blood lead levels at or above 10μg/dL <sup>[9]</sup>. <br />
<br><br><br />
Lead can usually only enter the body through ingestion, which is why pollution of drinking water supplies is of primary concern. When ingested at high enough concentrations, lead can be acutely toxic causing neurological damage and death. In 2008, 18 children in Dakar, Senegal died of acute lead poisoning associated with the recycling of lead car batteries.<sup>[2]</sup> Others associated with the recycling facility displayed symptoms ranging from an upset stomach to involuntary convulsions.<sup>[2]</sup><br />
<br><br><br />
<h4>Ithaca Gun Factory:</h4> <br />
<br><br />
Originally founded in 1883 by Henry Baker, a towering brick smokestack stands as the only remnant of a once-bustling production facility. The Ithaca Gun Company was famous across the world for its shotguns used by Annie Oakley and John Philip Sousa. Throughout its history of production, the factory emitted immense amounts of lead into the surrounding ground. In fact, a 2003 EPA assessment found the need for the removal of 2370 tons of the heavy metal. This mass is roughly equivalent to that of a space shuttle before launch [11]. As a result, the Ithaca Gun Company area underwent a lead cleanup project in 2004. However, two years later, surface levels of lead were tested and contamination was as high as 184,000 ppm--460 times the goal set by the EPA for the 2004 cleanup. <br />
<br />
The lead pollution seeped into the Cayuga Watershed and has been a common issue ever since [4]. Even more disturbing, this lead contamination is currently located directly next to Ithaca Falls, a popular swimming and fishing site for locals and Cornell students alike. Cornell University, which use to own this property, sold it to the town from $1, so that the EPA could declare it a national Superfunds site, and pay for the cleanup necessary in the years to come. <br />
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<h1>Current Remediation Techniques</h1><br />
<b>Water Filters:</b><br />
The main method currently employed in limiting our consumption of lead via drinking water is through the installation of reverse osmosis, distillation, or chemical (carbon, activated alumina) water filters<sup>[12]</sup>, at scales ranging from industrial to in-home implementation. In homes with lead components in water piping systems, if water has been relatively stagnant for up to 6 hours, it should be flushed through the system to avoid ingesting built-up lead<sup>[13]</sup>. Increased water corrosivity, influenced by pH<sup>[14]</sup>, generally results in a higher lead content. <br />
<br><br />
<b>Redox media, non-chemical water treatment:</b><br />
This fluid treatment passes the lead through a proprietary filter, causing a redox reaction in which “soluble lead cations are reduced to insoluble lead atoms, which are electroplated onto the surface of the media”<sup>[15]</sup>. <br />
<br><br />
<b>Guar Gum:</b> Adsorption by this unique compound<sup>[16]</sup>, produced from the ground seeds of guar beans, was sufficient to remove 56.7% of lead from water at a gum concentration of 1,000 parts per million.<br />
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<div id="CBP4"><br />
<h1><i>cbp4</i></h1><br />
The transport protein being utilized for our project is the calmodulin-binding protein <i>CBP4</i> from <i>Nicotiana tabacum</i>. This protein is structurally similar to non-selective membrane channel proteins from other eukaryotes and has been shown to confer nickel tolerance and lead hypersensitivity.<sup>[1]</sup> Transgenic plants overexpressing <i>NtCBP4</i> were found to have increased uptake of Pb<sup>2+</sup> ions into cells, likely leading to the increased toxicity.<sup>[1]</sup> While it has been suggested that <i>NtCBP4</i> could possibly be used for bioremediation purposes and other attempts have been made at lead removal from water using genetically engineered organisms, to the best of our knowledge no attempt has been made at utilizing <i>NtCBP4</i> for precisely this purpose.<sup>[1],[2],[3]</sup>. We believe that the specificity of this transport protein for lead and its readily available sequence make it an ideal candidate for bioremediation.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 0px">References</h1><br />
<hr><br />
<ol><br />
<li> Arazi, T., Sunkar, R., Kaplan, B., & Fromm, H. (1999). A tobacco plasma membrane calmodulin-binding transporter confers Ni2 tolerance and Pb2 hypersensitivity in transgenic plants. <i>The Plant Journal</i>, 171-182</li><br />
<li>Song, W., Sohn, E., Martinoia, E., Lee, Y., Yang, Y., Jasinski, M., Forestier, C., Hwang, I., & Lee, Y. (2003). Engineering tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium in transgenic plants. Nature Biotechnology, 914-919.</li><br />
<li>Eapen, S., & Dsouza, S. (2004). Prospects Of Genetic Engineering Of Plants For Phytoremediation Of Toxic Metals. Biotechnology Advances, 97-114.</li><br />
<li>"Public Health - Seattle & King County." Lead and Its Human Effects. King County Government, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity ." Pathophysiology and Etiology of Lead Toxicity. Medscape, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Consumer Factsheet on Lead in Drinking Water." Home. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>"Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline." Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li>Schwartz, Joel. "Low-level lead exposure and children′ s IQ: a metaanalysis and search for a threshold." Environmental research 65.1 (1994): 42-55.</li><br />
<li>"CPSC Finds Lead Poisoning Hazard for Young Children in Imported Vinyl Miniblinds." U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.</li><br />
<li> "Lead Induced Encephalopathy: An Overview." International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences 2.1 (2011): 70-86. Web. http://ijpbs.net/volume2/issue1/pharma/_6.pdf.</li><br />
<li> McCartor, A., & Becker, D. (2010). Blacksmith Institute's World's Worst Pollution Problems 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.worstpolluted.org/files/FileUpload/files/2010/WWPP-2010-Report-Web.pdf </li><br />
<li>Center for Disease Control. (n.d.). Lead and Drinking Water from Private Wells. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/disease/lead.html</li><br />
<li>United State Environmental Protection Agency. (1993, June). Actions You Can Take To Reduce Lead In Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/lead1.cfm</li><br />
<li>Penn State Extension. (2014). Lead in Drinking Water. Retrieved from http://extension.psu.edu/natural-resources/water/drinking-water/water-testing/pollutants/lead-in-drinking-water</li><br />
<li>KDF Fluid Treatment, Inc. (2014). Removing Lead from Water and Heavy Metal Removal from Water. Retrieved from http://www.kdfft.com/success_metal.htm</li><br />
<li>Pal, A. et al. Polyelectrolytic aqueous guar gum for adsorptive separation of soluble Pb(II) from contaminated water. Carbohydr. Polymer. 110, 224–230 (2014)</li><br />
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<h1 style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Bios</h1><br />
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<h3>Eric Holmes</h3><br />
Beware of Eric Holmes, the fearless leader of CUGEM who grew up in the hood. His disturbing character is immediately evident by his love for dead fish, as his latest kill is proudly displayed on his phone case. He relentlessly pursues these innocent creatures in the hope of wiping them off the face of the earth. Some call it fishing. Watch out for his killer jokes; you may shoot yourself after hearing them ten times. These also usually involve fish. In addition, he seems to enjoy trekking for days through miles of monotonous forest in order to …end up where he started. He occasionally drags innocent freshmen along for the ride. Despite all this, no one can dispute that Eric is a brilliant bioengineer, and so his curious hobbies have gone unquestioned. <br />
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<h3>Arun Chakravorty</h3><br />
Arun Chakravorty was found on the sandy shores of California, fully grown, in fetal position, borne from the sea foam of the great pacific. No one is sure how Arun came to be, but they have attributed his bubbly personality to the sea foam from whence he came, and his rich color to the sun, which he laid in for many days before he was discovered, giving him a tan that makes pale white girls cringe with jealousy. Arun, after rising from the gold sand on which he was found, then travelled the world, learning invaluable skills like cloning, a Capella, and FIFA. He needed strikers for his exclusively Argentinian FIFA team, so he travelled to Argentina and persuaded two men named Palacio and Milito to train and become world class soccer players. He then realized he could combine his three skills of cloning, singing, and FIFA, and become one of the most unique people to walk the face of the earth. He travelled to Ithaca, New York, and joined Cornell iGEM. Now, Arun spends his days cloning while simultaneously playing FIFA and singing songs of both praise and loathing (depending on the situation) for Milito and Palacio, with whom he plays as. Arun hates Palacio for growing a rat tail, but still enjoys his superior soccer capabilities. Arun’s hobbies include long walks on the beach and base jumping. He was also the inspiration for Tom Haverford, a character in the hit series, Parks and Recreation. <br />
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<h3>Samah Hoque</h3><br />
At first, Samah Hoque might seem like your ordinary iGem wet lab minion. But don’t be fooled by her innocent smile and kind demeanor. After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Samah turned down a job from the Ministry of Magic and came to Cornell University, where the eternal frozen tundra and endless days without sunlight constantly remind her of London. She spends plenty of time down in the basement lab space of Weill because it brings back her fondest childhood memories of living in a cramped cupboard under the stairs. With a single spell, Samah is able to bring bacteria to life by tricking them into thinking LB is delicious butterbeer. In dire lab situations, Samah must conjure her patronus, a rare form of Escherichia coli to ward away all evils from her precious bacterial colonies. When not in lab, Samah can be found dominating Quidditch games on the Arts Quad or reading about the dark arts in the library. 100 points to Samah Hoque for being iGem’s secret weapon. <br />
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<h3>Casey Zhang</h3><br />
Casey toils away in lab night and day, but only to feign a hardworking nature, as few are aware that this is because she prefers to remain discreet about her dwelling in the legendary interstitial space. (It has been heard that she unlocks it with a special pattern of light reflected by her carefully painted nails.) There is little known about the contents of this mysterious corner of our building, though we do suspect that it is filled with a surplus of baked goods, based on the delicious aroma wafting into the basement from a crack in its door. It is only fitting that the creator of these fine fragrances is none other than Casey, whose cream puffs will send you into the heaven of all food comas. But you must also be wary, for no one is quite certain of her recipes. The last iGEMer that recklessly wandered into the interstitial space reappeared weeks later as a half-eaten bag of dorito chips, so we are forced to wait for Casey to approach us with her offerings. Yet those, too, may be bewitched – any who cannot resist the goodness should fear transformation into a cuddly puppy. Unless you’re into that. Never fear, this adorable witch definitely won’t be able to eat you alive, though, because you would be long gone before she could finish chewing her first bite. <br />
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<h3>Kevin Hui</h3><br />
Entering Kevin Hui's kitchen is a life changing experience. Whether it's an oven-roasted chicken, apple-crumb pie, or fancy biscotti served with ginger cheesecake that you desire, Kevin can make it, and he will leave you craving for more. His discerning tongue makes team socials far more savory. <br />
That said, this foodie from Long Island is also an aspiring assassin. If he's not busy cooking you dinner or wiping the floor in a Dota 2 match, he's probably plotting your murder. Each of his targets receives a uniquely catered ending. You better not get on his wrong side or the rice noodles you're enjoying may well be the end of you. <br />
One way to hold on to your precious life is to never mess with this man's pizza. He will eat only the finest NYC thin crust pies and will find anything below his standards offensive. Anyone from Chicago would be well advised to keep their distance from this conniver. <br />
If you are special enough to earn a spot on his hit list, instrumental music and Steam sales are known to pacify him. And if you somehow manage to survive, you'll find that this master chef, pizza connoisseur, and hobbyist assassin is an indispensable member of the Cornell iGEM team. <br />
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<h3>Gargi Ratnaparkhi</h3><br />
Gargi, standing at 3’7” and originally from the Shire, now resides exclusively in lab. She journeyed to Ithaca all the way from Middle Earth for the sole purpose of aiding Cornell iGEM. On any given day or time, you can find her staring angrily at the centrifuge while waiting for her minipreps or staring angrily at cells, trying to force them to transform with her mind. Although infamous for her skills in Ice Ball (patent pending) and her delicious cake, Gargi is less known for her not too terrible saxophone playing and her ability to crack boulders over her swimmer’s shoulders as though they were eggs. Although there is so much more to be said about Gargi Ratnaparki, this direct quote sums her up pretty well: “Five minipreps? I eat five minipreps for breakfast.” <br />
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<h3>Aaron Gittelman</h3><br />
In a land far, far away, where the grass stayed green and the water crystal blue, where minipreps worked and all was good, lived a young dragon-rider who soared the sky as carefree and lighthearted as the breeze that took him. Everywhere he flew over, music followed. The timbre and vibrancy of his voice, interwoven with the depth and complexity of his bass, spun even the simplest tunes into enchanting melodies. Oh how smooth and sweet they were! Everyone swooned at the mere echoes -- and did I mention his good looks? In the air, he and his dragon were one. But one day, his dragon fell ill. The deep emerald scales gave in to a pale sickly orange. For years, the rider searched for an answer, but what could it have been? Then, whispers came. "Look within." Hoping to hone his skills in the molecular world, he decided to join iGEM to first master the techniques of synthetic biology. Interviewers tried to stump him, but unbeknownst to the community, riders grew up around the art. The yellow tint in his eyes glowed as his intent gaze pierced through the dense air. His replies were as accurate as poised. By the end, he was not just any other newcomer. He was Aaron Gittelman – his name said it all. <br />
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<h3>Sharlene Dong</h3><br />
N Vrou van die raaisel, 'n vrou van raaisel.<br />
Ek sien jy dit durf waag om hierdie bio te vertaal haar donkerste geheime te<br />
ontsluit. Jy is gewaarsku. <br />
<br><br><br />
Haar status: dodelik. Die P100 is haar wapen van<br />
keuse. Op 'n skaal van 1-4, Sharlene is Biosafety Vlak 10 Sy kan etanol<br />
steriliseer jou tenderest druk punte voor spuit haar vrag van dodelike<br />
gifstowwe. Wat deur die manier, is gesintetiseer gebruik om kennis oorgedra van<br />
antieke 5000-jarige Chinese alchemicy. Sy vlieg, nooit loop, het sy horlosies,<br />
nooit slaap. Jou enigste hoop op oorlewing is om haar te lei met 'n boeiende<br />
episode van Game of Thrones. Dit of blink voorwerpe.<br />
<br><br><br />
Jy het dit so ver, jy is dapper.<br />
<br><br><br />
<br />
Afrikaans filler text (or is it...), because Latin is too mainstream. Sharlene’s a fan. <br />
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<h3>Neema Patel</h3><br />
Neema Patel...how do I begin to explain Neema Patel? Neema Patel is magical. It's said that her legs are insured for $10,000. People say that she does bubble tea commercials in Taiwan. Her favorite movie is Mean Girls. Once she met Chris Pratt at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He told her to stop hoarding all the cupcakes. One time during Ice Ball (many times actually), she threw ice at me...it was not awesome. <br />
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<h3>Olya Spassibojko</h3><br />
No person is ever what they appear to be, and Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas is certainly no exception. Look under those perfectly placed spectacles and you’ll find an avid Anberlin advocate fluent in Ubbi Dubbi and prone to turning anything and everything turquoise. No one really knows how to spell her name, and people have learned it is better not to try. The brave souls who did were stripped of their sanity, never to recover. She has made a home out of the grand trees of Ithaca, and if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of her masterfully navigating them. It is rumoured that from her birth in the distant Russian mountains, she attained her nimble skills during her tutalage under the continent's most notorious ninja. She will purr if you pet her, but petters beware – stay too long and you too will find yourself infected with a deep love of domestic felines and working with yeast. She climbs, she meows, she takes her bunny out on walks. She is Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas: resident cat lover and professional monkey. <br />
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<h3>Sara Gregg</h3><br />
SaraGregg is Cornell iGEM’s resident celebrity power couple rivaling the firepower of Brangelina and the sheer intrigue of Kimye. When she’s not using her gazelle-like endurance prowess to ski across Ithaca or run to dry lab meetings on Sunday mornings (a little extra sleep never hurts, right?) she’s using it to put in late night hours at the machine shop or to swoon over Korean dramas until 4am. A master of the 3D printer, she’ll print a plastic cake and simply stare at it, willing the tasty morsel she’s been craving into existence. This girl from small-town Ohio is a true city girl at heart, and all you Gregory Sarah’s out there better watch out for her; Sara is ready to produce her very own SynBio drama and the first SaraGreggGregSarah power couple to rule them all. <br />
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<h3>Steven Li</h3><br />
Steven Li is a super hero. His power of course, is: ________. Despite being quite elusive to even his closest of team members, who haven't seen him in months, Super-Stealthy-Steven can be recognized by his iconic wooden cross necklace, from which he draws his power. Rumored to be a demigod born from the Western God Franisco-San Francisco to you- He has decided to leave his home, many leagues away, to solve the many crimes of current Eastern society the main one being: selfies. In a private interview, to which he never appeared, it is documented that Steven is diligently working on destroying the power of selfies by photo-bombing each and every one. Because of the plethera of selfies being taken in our day and age, Steven is rather busy and doesn't stay in one place for very long. So if you haven't seen Steven in awhile, don't worry he is off being the grand super hero that he is! <br />
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<h3>Joseph Fridman</h3><br />
The year was 1989. Even as the Cold War raged on, the USSR and the ideology it represented were in their death throes. In an act of desperation, the Politburo sought to develop a new propaganda apparatus, hoping that by effectively spreading pro-Soviet sentiment worldwide support for the enfeebled superpower would increase, and the tides would turn. To that end, Joseph Fridman was created. With a disarming kindness and an extraordinary intellect, he was capable of convincing anyone whom he spoke to that the path to prosperity was painted red. After a battery of evaluations, Fridman was sent to America with the goal of neutralizing it as an adversary to communism. However, upon arrival in the US, he was staggered by the wealth and majesty of the republic. After thinking it through, he decided to defect to the capitalist West. Without his assistance, the Soviet empire soon collapsed. Now an American citizen, the former sleeper agent has settled down, studying psychology at Cornell University (with the obvious purpose of honing his power of persuasion) and working to convince the population of Ithaca of the preeminence of CUGEM. <br />
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<h3>Ryan Ashley</h3><br />
There are rumors. People say things – see things – around our labs. Blonde-haired apparitions float in and out of the corners of our eyes. Visions of a gentle smile flash through team members’ minds. Perfect gels appear on the countertop, and despite the immaculate labeling, no one knows who ran them. One team member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that on one quiet lonely afternoon as he walked by one of the sinks, he noticed it was dirty, caked with mud and beakers strewn about. Since he was the only one in the lab at the time, he decided to clean it up, but when he turned to look at the sink again, it was completely cleaned! There is agreement among the team that something … else lurks in our workspace. We’ve taken to calling our mysterious helper “Ryan” (the name just seemed to fit). We don’t know what it is or what it wants, but we do know our project wouldn’t be half as well done without it. <br />
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<h3>Rishabh Singh</h3><br />
They speak of a man learned beyond all others, unbound by mortal flesh. For eons, he wandered this plane, seeking new pleasures to satisfy his ageless conscience. Nothing was outside his grasp. In his wake, nations fell, civilizations flourished, and as always, the women swooned. Gradually, through the thousands of millennia, this man’s true name of power was lost to the shifting sands of time. But, word among the people speak of a him currently residing in Cornell University, assuming the identity of “Rishabh”, though veterans of the field know this is simply one of the many guises he has chosen. He currently dedicates himself to the Cornell iGEM team, lending an eternity of knowledge to this humble project team. When he is not gracing his presence in the iGEM lab space, he prefers the quiet sanctity of the indoors, proving himself among the best in the FPS gaming, his years as a skilled military tactician rendering his enemies little more than a mob of confused toddlers. Legend also speaks of his legendary pie making skills, though few live to tell the tale of a pie of such high caliber, as the sheer ecstasy of tasting one of these legendary morsels causes the human body to permanently cease function (in some parts of the world, death in such a way is considered an honorable one). <br />
This biography serves as more than just a record, it is a herald, a warning for times to come. The one named Rishabh is powerful beyond measure, though his current form may be unassuming. Woe to those that stand in his way, as he is not known to be merciful. The last recorded time his wrath was incurred, the Black Death occurred. Not even the very best of heroes can even dream of facing his final form, which is also known to be incredible sassy. So beware, beware to all those who hope to undermine his efforts. In even the most secretive of moments, do not forget. <br />
He won’t. <br />
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<h3>Ritvik Sarkar</h3><br />
What is the Ritvik? I'm glad you asked. Ritvik used to be our team's secret secret nonlethal weapon, until a series of not completely unrelated explosions and earthquakes alerted national media to its existence. Ritvik is the original prototype for our project, with its 20 micron filter hair outperforming all competition. We are still struggling to develop a successor that has even half the ability to make wet things into dry things. Capable of building models to ensure our team's success as well as other smaller ventures such as hostile takeover of midwestern states, Ritvik is an essential component of our team. Without its capabilities as a replacement pump system, we would be incapable of surmounting the one foot of head that stalls our team's inevitable victory. <br />
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<h3>Swati Sureka</h3><br />
You'd remember when you first met her, in lab. It's pretty striking at first: She [Swati] sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and she knows well every quiver of each of them. Beakers, notebooks, laptops, disembodied voices, bits and pieces of cardboard, flora and fauna of the like that have never been seen before on Planet Earth - all circle her in the air, flying around like so many transporters, enzymes, and cellular automata. She does little herself. She only plans. But her agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there research to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a block of DNA to be characterized, a project to be undertaken - the word is passed to the SWATi Team, the matter is organised and carried out. And if that all sounds a little intimidating, have no fear: Swati is sworn by oath to the Old Gods and the New to defend, advance, and justify through feats of meaningful scientific accomplishment the existence of human life. Just make sure you don't forget to pay your social dues... <br />
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<h3>George Danias</h3><br />
George Danias? <br><br />
Many have dreamt and heard his name<br><br />
<br />
Only to find themselves shocked and maimed<br><br />
<br />
By his unputdownable creativity,<br><br />
<br />
Ingenuity and alacrity,<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
His inventions rise from ground<br><br />
<br />
Like his infinite wisdom that always astounds<br><br />
<br />
His mechanical chess pieces guard his palace<br><br />
<br />
Where he makes cells as radiant as the aurora borealis<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Although only a part of the team since this year<br><br />
<br />
Everyone seems to notice when he disappears<br><br />
<br />
So treasure his presence, for he’s only nice<br><br />
<br />
When you’re not one of his lab mice<br><br />
<br />
<br><br />
<br />
Many wonder why he has chosen to impact our lives,<br><br />
But to that question, he chooses to derive<br><br />
A massive differential equation<br><br />
Showcasing why it is the best and most valuable occasion<br><br />
<br><br />
He often is staring at the sky<br><br />
Not pondering when, where, or why,<br><br />
But deciding the fate of planets and stars<br><br />
Like a couple billion years ago, he decided on mars.<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
So in fact he didn’t apply to the team<br><br />
But decided it would be good for our self-esteem<br> <br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
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<h3>Tina Su</h3><br />
Date a girl who reads. Find her in a cozy coffee shop, Stella's, tucked behind the fall foliage in the bustle of Cornell Collegetown. Wherever you find her, she'll be smiling. Making sure it lingers even when people talking to her look away. Kiss her in the rain under the glow of a streetlamp because you saw it in a film. Remark at its huge significance. Date a girl who reads because she is a storyteller. You with Hemingway, Nabokov and Austen, in the library, on the metro platform at nine and three-quarters, in the corner cafe, perched on the window of your room. You, who makes my life so difficult. <br />
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<h3>Neil Chitrao</h3><br />
Deep beneath the Alamogordo testing range, the United States planned their most ambitious project yet. So shrouded in secrecy was this project, not even the President of the United States was aware of its undertaking. It was to be a grand culmination of centuries of research, dwarfing even the scale of the Manhattan Project. The premise was simple: to create a humanoid embodiment of the spirit of American patriotism. Nicknamed the N.E.I.L., or Nationalistically Empowered Intelligent Lifeform, he was to be an exemplar of the American standard and ingenuity. Unfortunately he was too modern for his time, and the team of scientists, fearing for another “Cold War” style confrontation, locked N.E.I.L. in stasis until the time was right to reintroduce him to American society. <br />
<br><br><br />
That time is now.<br />
<br><br><br />
Numerous field reports have triangulated his position at Cornell University, where he has subtly placed himself within Cornell’s iGEM team. Though he tries to mask his identity, his designs are unmistakable. He is fueled by twin-powered nuclear fission reactors, rendering sleep unnecessary, explaining the numerous hours he has been sighted in the lab working on inhuman hours of sleep. It is also nigh impossible to be in his presence without the word “America” being uttered at least once, a remnant of his circuitry from the highly patriotic wartime years. Delving further into conversation, you will find a vast database of knowledge of weaponry and military aircraft, an unsurprising find due to his production during the 1940s. Despite his advanced systems, he bides his time, remaining in his low-profile state until the time arises to take up arms to defend the American ideal once more. <br />
<br />
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<h3>Michelle Zhang</h3><br />
Now for Michelle there’s little I can say:<br><br />
Her skill is matched by none; her scheming eyes<br><br />
Do always flit betwixt pipettes, with ne’er <br><br />
A microliter out of place. Oh my! <br><br><br />
<br />
Above the busy humming of our lair, <br><br />
Amidst the bustling team, her focus grows; <br><br />
Her data gathers, as if out of air. <br><br />
Graphs pop on screen; a smile begins to show.<br><br><br />
<br />
Fluorescent lights now flicker, silence falls<br><br />
Upon the lab… we just make out the clicks<br><br />
Of Eppendorf tubes popping. Softly call,<br><br />
“Who’s there?” Ms. Zhang emerges, oh so slick. <br><br><br />
<br />
What more can I say of this wondrous fiend?<br><br />
Her mysteries abound; ‘tis all I’ve gleaned.<br />
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<h3>Jonlin Chen</h3><br />
The shining light of the grand Lighthouse of Alexandria pierced through the ebony Arabian night, guiding the royal ships of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus to the safety of the Pharos shore. After departing the Eastern Desert with crates of spices, linen, and gold, Egyptian sailors bowed to the mercy of the Great Sea and endured Her thrashing waves and whipping rain on their way home. The darkness often consumed faith in reaching Great Alexandria, that is until the fire-burning Lighthouse parted the night sky and illuminated the secure Nile Delta and familiar shores. Jonlin Chen, although human and not 120 meters tall, is Cornell iGEM's guiding light and source of all hope during times of darkness. While we, less-skilled iGEM members, are literally drowning in incomplete minipreps and restriction digests and utterly clueless on where to begin, Jonlin is the one person we can count on to show us the way. Whether it is a frantic phone call in the morning before class or a 2am Groupme message of desperation, Jonlin is always ready to help. Her fire-burning passion for bioengineering and iGEM fuels our team and shines through the often gloomy labspace during exam weeks and consecutive weeks of unsuccessful transformations, and is an inspiration to us all.<br />
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<h3>Grace Livermore</h3><br />
Beyond the isles of man, in the shaded grove where the heavens gently caress the Earth sits the very heart of nature itself. It is here that the land retains its pristine landscape, unfettered and untainted by the influences of mankind’s expansion. The very natural order was under siege, and Mother Nature required a vanguard to fight on her behalf. Using primitive arcane energies that shaped the Earth itself, the very essence of nature was harnessed, coalescing into a single being. Thus, Grace came into being, so aptly named to be the saving grace of nature’s purity. <br />
<br> <br><br />
But where to start? The damage done is great, but like all great heroes, small steps come before giant bounds, and Grace knew the perfect place to start. She now works tirelessly on Cornell’s iGEM team, conducting research that can rectify the contamination that grips this planet. Despite all her continuing dedication to the team, she never fails to forget the roots from which she came. An avid rock climber, she enjoys scaling the formidable walls to attune herself with the Earth. She is also learned in song and dance, particularly the style of Bhangra, for which she has joined Cornell’s Bhangra team and has had much success. But above all, she is a defender of nature; a hero to us all. <br />
<br />
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<h3>Jeffrey Ly</h3><br />
Future billionaire playboy philanthropist, Jeffrey can do it all. An acting virtuoso, it was said that he once challenged Batman to the lead in Les Miserables and the loser had to wear their underwear on the outside for the rest of time. Indeed, Jeffrey is the reason that Leonardo Dicaprio has never won an Oscar. Once, when counseling Dicaprio after not winning the Oscars again, Jeffrey told Dicaprio a joke about the Oscars to cheer him up… needless to say, he didn’t get it. When he’s not off fundamentally transforming our perceptions of superheroes for the better or the worse, Jeffrey is the life of the party at Cornell iGEM, forever cheering up people in those late night cram sessions. <br />
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<h3>Tim Abbott</h3><br />
Tim Abbott was the original cybernetic organism from which James Cameron based the terminator upon. He was sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future in an effort to protect members of the Cornell iGEM team which would go on to design a novel metal sequestration fiber reactor. Once the war would break out between artificially intelligent machines and humans, humans would hold their own for a surprising amount of time. But their greatest downfall would come when the machines contaminated all the world’s water supplies with heavy metals. By successfully aiding the 2014 iGEM team in completing their metal sequestration fiber reactor, Tim effectively has ensured the future of all of mankind.<br />
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<h3>Prashant Sharma</h3><br />
In a spectacular laboratory experiment (similar to the one that created the Powerpuff girls), researchers managed to combine the wisdom of a great redwood tree with the humor and wit of Kanye West to produce the artist formerly known as Prince, currently known as Prashant “Shawn” Sharma. As a senior member of Cornell iGEM, Shawn imparts his vast stores of worldly knowledge onto the ‘youngins, sometimes dropping some advice on a sick double clutch fadeaway he saw Kobe perform once, other times, schooling teammates on the intricacies of synthetic biology. As a chemistry/biology double major, Shawn is clearly a mad-man and should not be approached under any circumstances, unless you come bearing naval oranges, his favorite fruit. Perhaps one of the more intriguing facts about Shawn is that every car model with an “S” in the name is named in honor of Shawn, including the Toyota Corolla S, the Tesla Model S, and obviously the Mercedes S Class.<br />
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<h3>Rebecca Chew</h3><br />
She's no bird, not an airplane...she's Rebecca Chew, the super ChemE that dabbles in modeling, dry lab, and wet lab! One day she's in goggles, another creating insane models, either way, nothing can move forward without her. How does she do all this? Two words: BUBBLE TEA. The consumption of glucose and caffeine molecules is her secret potion. One sip of this delightful beverage is enough for her to become a machine.<br />
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<h3>Nupur Bhatt</h3><br />
Thousands of years ago, nature spirits and humans coexisted as one. They walked the ground we walked on. They lived in the valleys we lived in. Until humans began harming their homes, their families. That was when gods split their world with ours. The Night of Crystal Rift. We only know about Karuna from ancient scriptures, this alternate dimension on Earth. It is said the spirits still walk the ground we walk on, but we don't see them. We don't hear them. Then two decades ago, the gods decided to give humans a second chance. Scyllarus. That's what they call her. When she was born into Karuna, sages on Earth saw the dark night glow. An orange aurora streaked the sky. She is the daughter of the wild, destined to synthesize the bridge between the human world and the spiritual world. The day she stepped into the human world, she took the name of Nupur. Her spiritual powers took form in tangible human abilities. Her strong base notes. Her swift coding skills. Her quiet demeanor hides her true powers, but she is observing...finding ways to mend the past.<br />
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<h3>Mac Sennett</h3><br />
He doesn’t always operate heavy machinery, but when he does, the finger of God once again touches the earth through his work. He once purposefully maligned one of his creations, just to see what failure felt like. After he drove his car off the lot, the value increased. He once got a compliment on his appearance from his reflection. Raw materials he uses and BioBricks assemble themselves for him. Police frequently pull him over to ask for his autograph. He makes all cloning strategies succeed, even GoldenGate. The “College of Sennett” was founded at Cornell because he asked them to. He has taught old dogs every trick in the book, even the ones that aren’t written. Each night, the Sandman dreams of Mac. <br />
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<h3>Christine Soong</h3><br />
Having retired from saving the world as the country’s top CIA agent, Christine returned to scout for potential successors. While not training her prodigies, she casually works on the circuitry to control our top secret fiber reactor. Her ultimate goal in life is to adopt 101 Dalmatians to accompany her on her long runs and kayaking trips! <br />
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<h3>Rafael Martinez</h3><br />
Now this is a story all about how Rafa’s life got flipped – turned upside down<br />
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there<br />
I’ll tell you how he became a prince and a billionaire<br />
A town called Ithaca’s where he stayed<br />
Inside Milstein is where he spent most of his days<br />
Drawin’ and plottin’ relaxin’ all cool<br />
And all Building some dragons outside of the school<br />
When a couple of guys, who were up to some good<br />
Started building towers in the neighborhood<br />
He got a great little job and a title with flair<br />
Now he’s master architect he makes his projects with care <br />
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<h3>Erica Alonzo</h3><br />
In a world oppressed by the bland and mundane, where creativity is stifled in the wink of an eye. Where uniqueness is punishable by death. Societies have all devolved into nothing but brainless servants of The Man, and there is only one person who can stop them. Join Erica, an unlikely heroine, as she utilizes her wit, charm and sass to bring an end to The Legion of Tropes and their dastardly (albeit trite) plans of enslaving the human race. One woman will help bring the light of excitement back into this dismal planet. This Fall, prepare to get your creative juices flowing in 'Dee Zine: And The Legion of Tropes.' This film is not yet rated.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Faculty Advisors</h1><br />
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<h3>Dr. Shivaun Archer - Biomedical Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Shivaun Archer is a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories. She designs and teaches undergraduate instructional labs for five biomedical engineering courses: BME 131, BME 301, BME 302, BME 401, and BME 402. The labs are designed to illustrate the course material and bring research to undergraduate education whilst exposing students to cutting edge technology and research methodology. A significant emphasis in all the labs is biomedical nanotechnology. Each of the five courses has a hands-on lab module that focuses specifically on nanobiotechnology. Overall, the lab modules enhance the hands-on training of Cornell students in the areas of microfabrication, microfluidics, biosensors, nano/microbiotechnology, and drug delivery. In recognition of her efforts in undergraduate education, Dr. Archer has received a prestigious College of Engineering Teaching award. <br />
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Before coming to Cornell, Dr. Archer worked for five years at Lynntech, Inc. a small research company specializing in biotechnology, biomaterials, chemical and biological sensors, medical biotechnology, and environmental remediation. Her work on wastewater treatment for long term space missions resulted in her receiving two NASA Inventions Space Act Awards. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Associate in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research interests include nanobiotechnology and tissue engineering. <br />
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<h3>Dr. Matthew DeLisa - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Matthew DeLisa received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University as an assistant professor in 2003 and was promoted to associate professor in 2009. He recently served as a Gastprofessur at ETH Zürich in the Institut für Mikrobiologie. <br />
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Professor DeLisa's research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis -- folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications -- in the complex environment of a living cell. His contributions to science and engineering include the invention of numerous commercially important technologies for facilitating the discovery, design and manufacturing of human drugs and seminal discoveries in the areas of cellular protein folding and protein translocation. DeLisa has received several awards for his work including an NSF CAREER award, a NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator award, a Beckman Foundation Young Investigator award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and a NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award. He was also named one of the top 35 young innovators (TR35) by MIT's Technology Review in 2005 and was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Wiley-Blackwell Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang award, which honors a distinguished young researcher in this field. Most recently, he was honored with a Cornell Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship and was the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society's BIOT division.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Bruce Land - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Bruce Land is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell. He teaches three courses in ECE and advises masters of engineering projects in ECE and Biomedical Engineering. When time allows, he does some neural modeling and spike train analysis. He has been in this position since 1998. <br />
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Land received a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1968 and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Cornell University in 1976 . He was a Muscular Dystrophy Association postdoc in NBB at Cornell for three years, then a lecturer in NBB for seven years. During this time he worked with Miriam Salpeter on the coupling of activity at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction, both experimentally and by computer modeling. In 1987 he moved to the Cornell Theory Center as a computational research associate, then started supporting graphics and animation. He was visualization project leader at the CTC from 1989 to 1998. From 1992 to 1998 he taught an introductory computer graphics course in Computer Science at Cornell. From 1998 to 2007 he taught computer programming and electronics courses in NBB and was a Senior Research Associate in Neurobiology and Behavior.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Julius B. Lucks - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Julius B. Lucks is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, and a James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. After attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for high school, he became an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he performed research in organic synthesis and the application of density functional theory to studying the electronic properties of atoms and molecules as a Goldwater Scholar. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry, he spent a summer working with Robert Parr before obtaining an M. Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. As a Hertz Fellow at Harvard University, he researched problems in theoretical biophysics including RNA folding and translocation, viral capsid structure and viral genome organization, under David R. Nelson. As a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Adam P. Arkin, he engineered versatile RNA-sensing transcriptional regulators that can be easily reconfigured to independently regulate multiple genes, logically control gene expression, and propagate signals as RNA molecules in gene networks. He also lead the team that developed SHAPE-Seq, an experimental technique that utilizes next generation sequencing for probing RNA secondary and tertiary structures of hundreds of RNAs in a single experiment. <br />
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Professor Lucks’ research combines both experiment and theory to ask fundamental questions about the design principles that govern how RNAs fold and function in living organisms, and how these principles can be used to engineer biomolecular systems, and open doors to new medical therapeutics.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Xiling Shen - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Xiling Shen has been an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University since August 2009. <br />
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Born in Shanghai, China, Dr. Xiling Shen went on to receive his BS and MS degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University in 2001. He then worked at Barcelona Design Inc. for two years, specializing in analog circuit design and optimization, before joining Professor Mark Horowtiz' research group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford in 2003. In the first two years of his PhD, he collaborated with Professor Joseph Kahn on using adaptive spatial equalization to compensate modal dispersion in multimode fibers. From 2005 to 2008, he worked with Professor Harley McAdams, Professor Lucy Shapiro, and Professor David Dill on modeling and analyzing the asymmetric division of Caulobacter crescentus. Xiling’s postdoctoral work focused on synthetic biology with Dr. Adam Arkin in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley prior to joining the faculty at Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.<br />
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<h3>Dr. David Wilson - Molecular Biology and Genetics</h3><br />
David Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) at Cornell. He is a member of the MBG, Microbiology, and Toxicology fields and serves on the graduate committees of students who minor in Biochemistry of Microbiology. <br />
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He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1961, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford Medical School in 1966, and did postdoctoral work at the Department of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1966-67 before coming to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 1967. He is a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society of Microbiologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and is director of the Cornell Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology.<br />
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The Wilson laboratory studies the enzymology of plant cell wall degradation with a major focus on cellulases, which are important industrial enzymes and have potential in the production of renewable, non-polluting fuels and chemicals. Members of the Wilson Lab use a combination of genomics, protein engineering, and molecular biology their research.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Graduate Advisors</h1><br />
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<h4>Nathan Kruer-Zerhusen</h4><br />
Wilson Lab<br />
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<h4>Aravind Natarajan</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Jason Kahn</h4><br />
Luo Lab<br />
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<h4>Taylor Stevenson</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Aljosa Trmcic</h4><br />
PhD, Food Science Lab<br />
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<h4>Devin Doud</h4><br />
Angenent Lab<br />
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<div></div>T.Suhttp://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/team/biosTeam:Cornell/team/bios2014-10-16T03:54:32Z<p>T.Su: </p>
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<h1 style="padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Bios</h1><br />
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<ul class="nav nav-pills nav-stacked" data-spy="affix" data-offset-top="287" style="max-width:165px;"><br />
<li class="active"><a href="#team">Team Members</a></li><br />
<li><a href="#fac">Faculty Advisors</a></li><br />
<li><a href="#grad">Graduate Advisors</a></li><br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Team Members</h1><br />
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<h3>Eric Holmes</h3><br />
Beware of Eric Holmes, the fearless leader of CUGEM who grew up in the hood. His disturbing character is immediately evident by his love for dead fish, as his latest kill is proudly displayed on his phone case. He relentlessly pursues these innocent creatures in the hope of wiping them off the face of the earth. Some call it fishing. Watch out for his killer jokes; you may shoot yourself after hearing them ten times. These also usually involve fish. In addition, he seems to enjoy trekking for days through miles of monotonous forest in order to …end up where he started. He occasionally drags innocent freshmen along for the ride. Despite all this, no one can dispute that Eric is a brilliant bioengineer, and so his curious hobbies have gone unquestioned. <br />
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<h3>Arun Chakravorty</h3><br />
Arun Chakravorty was found on the sandy shores of California, fully grown, in fetal position, borne from the sea foam of the great pacific. No one is sure how Arun came to be, but they have attributed his bubbly personality to the sea foam from whence he came, and his rich color to the sun, which he laid in for many days before he was discovered, giving him a tan that makes pale white girls cringe with jealousy. Arun, after rising from the gold sand on which he was found, then travelled the world, learning invaluable skills like cloning, a Capella, and FIFA. He needed strikers for his exclusively Argentinian FIFA team, so he travelled to Argentina and persuaded two men named Palacio and Milito to train and become world class soccer players. He then realized he could combine his three skills of cloning, singing, and FIFA, and become one of the most unique people to walk the face of the earth. He travelled to Ithaca, New York, and joined Cornell iGEM. Now, Arun spends his days cloning while simultaneously playing FIFA and singing songs of both praise and loathing (depending on the situation) for Milito and Palacio, with whom he plays as. Arun hates Palacio for growing a rat tail, but still enjoys his superior soccer capabilities. Arun’s hobbies include long walks on the beach and base jumping. He was also the inspiration for Tom Haverford, a character in the hit series, Parks and Recreation. <br />
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<h3>Samah Hoque</h3><br />
At first, Samah Hoque might seem like your ordinary iGem wetlab minion. But don’t be fooled by her innocent smile and kind demeanor. After graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Samah turned down a job from the Ministry of Magic and came to Cornell University, where the eternal frozen tundra and endless days without sunlight constantly remind her of London. She spends plenty of time down in the basement lab space of Weill because it brings back her fondest childhood memories of living in a cramped cupboard under the stairs. With a single spell, Samah is able to bring bacteria to life by tricking them into thinking LB is delicious butterbeer. In dire lab situations, Samah must conjure her patronus, a rare form of Escherichia coli to ward away all evils from her precious bacterial colonies. When not in lab, Samah can be found dominating Quidditch games on the Arts Quad or reading about the dark arts in the library. 100 points to Samah Hoque for being iGem’s secret weapon. <br />
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<h3>Casey Zhang</h3><br />
Casey toils away in lab night and day, but only to feign a hardworking nature, as few are aware that this is because she prefers to remain discreet about her dwelling in the legendary interstitial space. (It has been heard that she unlocks it with a special pattern of light reflected by her carefully painted nails.) There is little known about the contents of this mysterious corner of our building, though we do suspect that it is filled with a surplus of baked goods, based on the delicious aroma wafting into the basement from a crack in its door. It is only fitting that the creator of these fine fragrances is none other than Casey, whose cream puffs will send you into the heaven of all food comas. But you must also be wary, for no one is quite certain of her recipes. The last iGEMer that recklessly wandered into the interstitial space reappeared weeks later as a half-eaten bag of dorito chips, so we are forced to wait for Casey to approach us with her offerings. Yet those, too, may be bewitched – any who cannot resist the goodness should fear transformation into a cuddly puppy. Unless you’re into that. Never fear, this adorable witch definitely won’t be able to eat you alive, though, because you would be long gone before she could finish chewing her first bite. <br />
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<h3>Kevin Hui</h3><br />
Entering Kevin Hui's kitchen is a life changing experience. Whether it's an oven-roasted chicken, apple-crumb pie, or fancy biscotti served with ginger cheesecake that you desire, Kevin can make it, and he will leave you craving for more. His discerning tongue makes team socials far more savory. <br />
That said, this foodie from Long Island is also an aspiring assassin. If he's not busy cooking you dinner or wiping the floor in a Dota 2 match, he's probably plotting your murder. Each of his targets receives a uniquely catered ending. You better not get on his wrong side or the rice noodles you're enjoying may well be the end of you. <br />
One way to hold on to your precious life is to never mess with this man's pizza. He will eat only the finest NYC thin crust pies and will find anything below his standards offensive. Anyone from Chicago would be well advised to keep their distance from this conniver. <br />
If you are special enough to earn a spot on his hit list, instrumental music and Steam sales are known to pacify him. And if you somehow manage to survive, you'll find that this master chef, pizza connoisseur, and hobbyist assassin is an indispensable member of the Cornell iGEM team. <br />
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<h3>Gargi Ratnaparkhi</h3><br />
Gargi, standing at 3’7” and originally from the Shire, now resides exclusively in lab. She journeyed to Ithaca all the way from Middle Earth for the sole purpose of aiding Cornell iGEM. On any given day or time, you can find her staring angrily at the centrifuge while waiting for her minipreps or staring angrily at cells, trying to force them to transform with her mind. Although infamous for her skills in Ice Ball (patent pending) and her delicious cake, Gargi is less known for her not too terrible saxophone playing and her ability to crack boulders over her swimmer’s shoulders as though they were eggs. Although there is so much more to be said about Gargi Ratnaparki, this direct quote sums her up pretty well: “Five minipreps? I eat five minipreps for breakfast.” <br />
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<h3>Aaron Gittelman</h3><br />
In a land far, far away, where the grass stayed green and the water crystal blue, where minipreps worked and all was good, lived a young dragon-rider who soared the sky as carefree and lighthearted as the breeze that took him. Everywhere he flew over, music followed. The timbre and vibrancy of his voice, interwoven with the depth and complexity of his bass, spun even the simplest tunes into enchanting melodies. Oh how smooth and sweet they were! Everyone swooned at the mere echoes -- and did I mention his good looks? In the air, he and his dragon were one. But one day, his dragon fell ill. The deep emerald scales gave in to a pale sickly orange. For years, the rider searched for an answer, but what could it have been? Then, whispers came. "Look within." Hoping to hone his skills in the molecular world, he decided to join iGEM to first master the techniques of synthetic biology. Interviewers tried to stump him, but unbeknownst to the community, riders grew up around the art. The yellow tint in his eyes glowed as his intent gaze pierced through the dense air. His replies were as accurate as poised. By the end, he was not just any other newcomer. He was Aaron Gittelman – his name said it all. <br />
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<h3>Sharlene Dong</h3><br />
N Vrou van die raaisel, 'n vrou van raaisel.<br />
Ek sien jy dit durf waag om hierdie bio te vertaal haar donkerste geheime te<br />
ontsluit. Jy is gewaarsku. <br />
<br><br><br />
Haar status: dodelik. Die P100 is haar wapen van<br />
keuse. Op 'n skaal van 1-4, Sharlene is Biosafety Vlak 10 Sy kan etanol<br />
steriliseer jou tenderest druk punte voor spuit haar vrag van dodelike<br />
gifstowwe. Wat deur die manier, is gesintetiseer gebruik om kennis oorgedra van<br />
antieke 5000-jarige Chinese alchemicy. Sy vlieg, nooit loop, het sy horlosies,<br />
nooit slaap. Jou enigste hoop op oorlewing is om haar te lei met 'n boeiende<br />
episode van Game of Thrones. Dit of blink voorwerpe.<br />
<br><br><br />
Jy het dit so ver, jy is dapper.<br />
<br><br><br />
<br />
Afrikaans filler text, because Latin is too mainstream. Sharlene’s a fan. <br />
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<h3>Neema Patel</h3><br />
Neema Patel...how do I begin to explain Neema Patel? Neema Patel is magical. It's said that her legs are insured for $10,000. People say that she does bubble tea commercials in Taiwan. Her favorite movie is Mean Girls. Once she met Chris Pratt at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He told her to stop hoarding all the cupcakes. One time during Ice Ball (many times actually), she threw ice at me...it was not awesome. <br />
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<h3>Olya Spassibojko</h3><br />
No person is ever what they appear to be, and Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas is certainly no exception. Look under those perfectly placed spectacles and you’ll find an avid Anberlin advocate fluent in Ubbi Dubbi and prone to turning anything and everything turquoise. No one really knows how to spell her name, and people have learned it is better not to try. The brave souls who did were stripped of their sanity, never to recover. She has made a home out of the grand trees of Ithaca, and if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of her masterfully navigating them. It is rumoured that from her birth in the distant Russian mountains, she attained her nimble skills during her tutalage under the continent's most notorious ninja. She will purr if you pet her, but petters beware – stay too long and you too will find yourself infected with a deep love of domestic felines and working with yeast. She climbs, she meows, she takes her bunny out on walks. She is Olya Spazzabyolkajdksajfiodas: resident cat lover and professional monkey. <br />
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<h3>Sara Gregg</h3><br />
SaraGregg is Cornell iGEM’s resident celebrity power couple rivaling the firepower of Brangelina and the sheer intrigue of Kimye. When she’s not using her gazelle-like endurance prowess to ski across Ithaca or run to Drylab meetings on Sunday mornings (a little extra sleep never hurts, right?) she’s using it to put in late night hours at the machine shop or to swoon over Korean dramas until 4am. A master of the 3D printer, she’ll print a plastic cake and simply stare at it, willing the tasty morsel she’s been craving into existence. This girl from small-town Ohio is a true city girl at heart, and all you Gregory Sarah’s out there better watch out for her; Sara is ready to produce her very own SynBio drama and the first SaraGreggGregSarah power couple to rule them all. <br />
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<h3>Steven Li</h3><br />
Steven Li is a super hero. His power of course, is: ________. Despite being quite elusive to even his closest of team members, who haven't seen him in months, Super-Stealthy-Steven can be recognized by his iconic wooden cross necklace, from which he draws his power. Rumored to be a demigod born from the Western God Franisco-San Francisco to you- He has decided to leave his home, many leagues away, to solve the many crimes of current Eastern society the main one being: selfies. In a private interview, to which he never appeared, it is documented that Steven is diligently working on destroying the power of selfies by photo-bombing each and every one. Because of the plethera of selfies being taken in our day and age, Steven is rather busy and doesn't stay in one place for very long. So if you haven't seen Steven in awhile, don't worry he is off being the grand super hero that he is! <br />
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<h3>Joseph Fridman</h3><br />
The year was 1989. Even as the Cold War raged on, the USSR and the ideology it represented were in their death throes. In an act of desperation, the Politburo sought to develop a new propaganda apparatus, hoping that by effectively spreading pro-Soviet sentiment worldwide support for the enfeebled superpower would increase, and the tides would turn. To that end, Joseph Fridman was created. With a disarming kindness and an extraordinary intellect, he was capable of convincing anyone whom he spoke to that the path to prosperity was painted red. After a battery of evaluations, Fridman was sent to America with the goal of neutralizing it as an adversary to communism. However, upon arrival in the US, he was staggered by the wealth and majesty of the republic. After thinking it through, he decided to defect to the capitalist West. Without his assistance, the Soviet empire soon collapsed. Now an American citizen, the former sleeper agent has settled down, studying psychology at Cornell University (with the obvious purpose of honing his power of persuasion) and working to convince the population of Ithaca of the preeminence of CUGEM. <br />
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<h3>Ryan Ashley</h3><br />
There are rumors. People say things – see things – around our labs. Blonde-haired apparitions float in and out of the corners of our eyes. Visions of a gentle smile flash through team members’ minds. Perfect gels appear on the countertop, and despite the immaculate labeling, no one knows who ran them. One team member, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that on one quiet lonely afternoon as he walked by one of the sinks, he noticed it was dirty, caked with mud and beakers strewn about. Since he was the only one in the lab at the time, he decided to clean it up, but when he turned to look at the sink again, it was completely cleaned! There is agreement among the team that something … else lurks in our workspace. We’ve taken to calling our mysterious helper “Ryan” (the name just seemed to fit). We don’t know what it is or what it wants, but we do know our project wouldn’t be half as well done without it. <br />
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<h3>Rishabh Singh</h3><br />
They speak of a man learned beyond all others, unbound by mortal flesh. For eons, he wandered this plane, seeking new pleasures to satisfy his ageless conscience. Nothing was outside his grasp. In his wake, nations fell, civilizations flourished, and as always, the women swooned. Gradually, through the thousands of millennia, this man’s true name of power was lost to the shifting sands of time. But, word among the people speak of a him currently residing in Cornell University, assuming the identity of “Rishabh”, though veterans of the field know this is simply one of the many guises he has chosen. He currently dedicates himself to the Cornell iGEM team, lending an eternity of knowledge to this humble project team. When he is not gracing his presence in the iGEM lab space, he prefers the quiet sanctity of the indoors, proving himself among the best in the FPS gaming, his years as a skilled military tactician rendering his enemies little more than a mob of confused toddlers. Legend also speaks of his legendary pie making skills, though few live to tell the tale of a pie of such high caliber, as the sheer ecstasy of tasting one of these legendary morsels causes the human body to permanently cease function (in some parts of the world, death in such a way is considered an honorable one). <br />
This biography serves as more than just a record, it is a herald, a warning for times to come. The one named Rishabh is powerful beyond measure, though his current form may be unassuming. Woe to those that stand in his way, as he is not known to be merciful. The last recorded time his wrath was incurred, the Black Death occurred. Not even the very best of heroes can even dream of facing his final form, which is also known to be incredible sassy. So beware, beware to all those who hope to undermine his efforts. In even the most secretive of moments, do not forget. <br />
He won’t. <br />
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<h3>Ritvik Sarkar</h3><br />
What is the Ritvik? I'm glad you asked. Ritvik used to be our team's secret secret nonlethal weapon, until a series of not completely unrelated explosions and earthquakes alerted national media to its existence. Ritvik is the original prototype for our project, with its 20 micron filter hair outperforming all competition. We are still struggling to develop a successor that has even half the ability to make wet things into dry things. Capable of building models to ensure our team's success as well as other smaller ventures such as hostile takeover of midwestern states, Ritvik is an essential component of our team. Without its capabilities as a replacement pump system, we would be incapable of surmounting the one foot of head that stalls our team's inevitable victory. <br />
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<h3>Swati Sureka</h3><br />
You'd remember when you first met her, in lab. It's pretty striking at first: She [Swati] sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and she knows well every quiver of each of them. Beakers, notebooks, laptops, disembodied voices, bits and pieces of cardboard, flora and fauna of the like that have never been seen before on Planet Earth - all circle her in the air, flying around like so many transporters, enzymes, and cellular automata. She does little herself. She only plans. But her agents are numerous and splendidly organised. Is there research to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a block of DNA to be characterized, a project to be undertaken - the word is passed to the SWATi Team, the matter is organised and carried out. And if that all sounds a little intimidating, have no fear: Swati is sworn by oath to the Old Gods and the New to defend, advance, and justify through feats of meaningful scientific accomplishment the existence of human life. Just make sure you don't forget to pay your social dues... <br />
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<h3>George Danias</h3><br />
George Danias? <br><br />
Many have dreamt and heard his name<br><br />
<br />
Only to find themselves shocked and maimed<br><br />
<br />
By his unputdownable creativity,<br><br />
<br />
Ingenuity and alacrity,<br><br />
<br><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
His inventions rise from ground<br><br />
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Like his infinite wisdom that always astounds<br><br />
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His mechanical chess pieces guard his palace<br><br />
<br />
Where he makes cells as radiant as the aurora borealis<br><br />
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<br><br />
<br />
Although only a part of the team since this year<br><br />
<br />
Everyone seems to notice when he disappears<br><br />
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So treasure his presence, for he’s only nice<br><br />
<br />
When you’re not one of his lab mice<br><br />
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<h3>Tina Su</h3><br />
Date a girl who reads. Find her in a cozy coffee shop, Stella's, tucked behind the fall foliage in the bustle of Cornell Collegetown. Wherever you find her, she'll be smiling. Making sure it lingers even when people talking to her look away. Kiss her in the rain under the glow of a streetlamp because you saw it in a film. Remark at its huge significance. Date a girl who reads because she is a storyteller. You with Hemingway, Nabokov and Austen, in the library, on the metro platform at nine and three-quarters, in the corner cafe, perched on the window of your room. You, who makes my life so difficult. <br />
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<h3>Neil Chitrao</h3><br />
Deep beneath the Alamogordo testing range, the United States planned their most ambitious project yet. So shrouded in secrecy was this project, not even the President of the United States was aware of its undertaking. It was to be a grand culmination of centuries of research, dwarfing even the scale of the Manhattan Project. The premise was simple: to create a humanoid embodiment of the spirit of American patriotism. Nicknamed the N.E.I.L., or Nationalistically Empowered Intelligent Lifeform, he was to be an exemplar of the American standard and ingenuity. Unfortunately he was too modern for his time, and the team of scientists, fearing for another “Cold War” style confrontation, locked N.E.I.L. in stasis until the time was right to reintroduce him to American society. <br />
<br><br><br />
That time is now.<br />
<br><br><br />
Numerous field reports have triangulated his position at Cornell University, where he has subtly placed himself within Cornell’s iGEM team. Though he tries to mask his identity, his designs are unmistakable. He is fueled by twin-powered nuclear fission reactors, rendering sleep unnecessary, explaining the numerous hours he has been sighted in the lab working on inhuman hours of sleep. It is also nigh impossible to be in his presence without the word “America” being uttered at least once, a remnant of his circuitry from the highly patriotic wartime years. Delving further into conversation, you will find a vast database of knowledge of weaponry and military aircraft, an unsurprising find due to his production during the 1940s. Despite his advanced systems, he bides his time, remaining in his low-profile state until the time arises to take up arms to defend the American ideal once more. <br />
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<h3>Michelle Zhang</h3><br />
Now for Michelle there’s little I can say:<br><br />
Her skill is matched by none; her scheming eyes<br><br />
Do always flit betwixt pipettes, with ne’er <br><br />
A microliter out of place. Oh my! <br><br><br />
<br />
Above the busy humming of our lair, <br><br />
Amidst the bustling team, her focus grows; <br><br />
Her data gathers, as if out of air. <br><br />
Graphs pop on screen; a smile begins to show.<br><br><br />
<br />
Fluorescent lights now flicker, silence falls<br><br />
Upon the lab… we just make out the clicks<br><br />
Of Eppendorf tubes popping. Softly call,<br><br />
“Who’s there?” Ms. Zhang emerges, oh so slick. <br><br><br />
<br />
What more can I say of this wondrous fiend?<br><br />
Her mysteries abound; ‘tis all I’ve gleaned.<br />
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<h3>Jonlin Chen</h3><br />
The shining light of the grand Lighthouse of Alexandria pierced through the ebony Arabian night, guiding the royal ships of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus to the safety of the Pharos shore. After departing the Eastern Desert with crates of spices, linen, and gold, Egyptian sailors bowed to the mercy of the Great Sea and endured Her thrashing waves and whipping rain on their way home. The darkness often consumed faith in reaching Great Alexandria, that is until the fire-burning Lighthouse parted the night sky and illuminated the secure Nile Delta and familiar shores. Jonlin Chen, although human and not 120 meters tall, is Cornell iGEM's guiding light and source of all hope during times of darkness. While we, less-skilled iGEM members, are literally drowning in incomplete minipreps and restriction digests and utterly clueless on where to begin, Jonlin is the one person we can count on to show us the way. Whether it is a frantic phone call in the morning before class or a 2am Groupme message of desperation, Jonlin is always ready to help. Her fire-burning passion for bioengineering and iGEM fuels our team and shines through the often gloomy labspace during exam weeks and consecutive weeks of unsuccessful transformations, and is an inspiration to us all.<br />
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<h3>Grace Livermore</h3><br />
Beyond the isles of man, in the shaded grove where the heavens gently caress the Earth sits the very heart of nature itself. It is here that the land retains its pristine landscape, unfettered and untainted by the influences of mankind’s expansion. The very natural order was under siege, and Mother Nature required a vanguard to fight on her behalf. Using primitive arcane energies that shaped the Earth itself, the very essence of nature was harnessed, coalescing into a single being. Thus, Grace came into being, so aptly named to be the saving grace of nature’s purity. <br />
<br> <br><br />
But where to start? The damage done is great, but like all great heroes, small steps come before giant bounds, and Grace knew the perfect place to start. She now works tirelessly on Cornell’s iGEM team, conducting research that can rectify the contamination that grips this planet. Despite all her continuing dedication to the team, she never fails to forget the roots from which she came. An avid rock climber, she enjoys scaling the formidable walls to attune herself with the Earth. She is also learned in song and dance, particularly the style of Bhangra, for which she has joined Cornell’s Bhangra team and has had much success. But above all, she is a defender of nature; a hero to us all. <br />
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<h3>Jeffrey Ly</h3><br />
Future billionaire playboy philanthropist, Jeffrey can do it all. An acting virtuoso, it was said that he once challenged Batman to the lead in Les Miserables and the loser had to wear their underwear on the outside for the rest of time. Indeed, Jeffrey is the reason that Leonardo Dicaprio has never won an Oscar. Once, when counseling Dicaprio after not winning the Oscars again, Jeffrey told Dicaprio a joke about the Oscars to cheer him up… needless to say, he didn’t get it. When he’s not off fundamentally transforming our perceptions of superheroes for the better or the worse, Jeffrey is the life of the party at Cornell iGEM, forever cheering up people in those late night cram sessions. <br />
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<h3>Tim Abbott</h3><br />
Tim Abbott was the original cybernetic organism from which James Cameron based the terminator upon. He was sent back in time from a post-apocalyptic future in an effort to protect members of the Cornell iGEM team which would go on to design a novel metal sequestration fiber reactor. Once the war would break out between artificially intelligent machines and humans, humans would hold their own for a surprising amount of time. But their greatest downfall would come when the machines contaminated all the world’s water supplies with heavy metals. By successfully aiding the 2014 iGEM team in completing their metal sequestration fiber reactor, Tim effectively has ensured the future of all of mankind.<br />
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<h3>Prashant Sharma</h3><br />
In a spectacular laboratory experiment (similar to the one that created the Powerpuff girls), researchers managed to combine the wisdom of a great redwood tree with the humor and wit of Kanye West to produce the artist formerly known as Prince, currently known as Prashant “Shawn” Sharma. As a senior member of Cornell iGEM, Shawn imparts his vast stores of worldly knowledge onto the ‘youngins, sometimes dropping some advice on a sick double clutch fadeaway he saw Kobe perform once, other times, schooling teammates on the intricacies of synthetic biology. As a chemistry/biology double major, Shawn is clearly a mad-man and should not be approached under any circumstances, unless you come bearing naval oranges, his favorite fruit. Perhaps one of the more intriguing facts about Shawn is that every car model with an “S” in the name is named in honor of Shawn, including the Toyota Corolla S, the Tesla Model S, and obviously the Mercedes S Class.<br />
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<h3>Rebecca Chew</h3><br />
She's no bird, not an airplane...she's Rebecca Chew, the super ChemE that dabbles in modeling, dry lab, and wet lab! One day she's in goggles, another creating insane models, either way, nothing can move forward without her. How does she do all this? Two words: BUBBLE TEA. The consumption of glucose and caffeine molecules is her secret potion. One sip of this delightful beverage is enough for her to become a machine.<br />
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<h3>Nupur Bhatt</h3><br />
Thousands of years ago, nature spirits and humans coexisted as one. They walked the ground we walked on. They lived in the valleys we lived in. Until humans began harming their homes, their families. That was when gods split their world with ours. The Night of Crystal Rift. We only know about Karuna from ancient scriptures, this alternate dimension on Earth. It is said the spirits still walk the ground we walk on, but we don't see them. We don't hear them. Then two decades ago, the gods decided to give humans a second chance. Scyllarus. That's what they call her. When she was born into Karuna, sages on Earth saw the dark night glow. An orange aurora streaked the sky. She is the daughter of the wild, destined to synthesize the bridge between the human world and the spiritual world. The day she stepped into the human world, she took the name of Nupur. Her spiritual powers took form in tangible human abilities. Her strong base notes. Her swift coding skills. Her quiet demeanor hides her true powers, but she is observing...finding ways to mend the past.<br />
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<h3>Mac Sennett</h3><br />
He doesn’t always operate heavy machinery, but when he does, the finger of God once again touches the earth through his work. He once purposefully maligned one of his creations, just to see what failure felt like. After he drove his car off the lot, the value increased. He once got a compliment on his appearance from his reflection. Raw materials he uses and BioBricks assemble themselves for him. Police frequently pull him over to ask for his autograph. He makes all cloning strategies succeed, even GoldenGate. The “College of Sennett” was founded at Cornell because he asked them to. He has taught old dogs every trick in the book, even the ones that aren’t written. Each night, the Sandman dreams of Mac. <br />
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<h3>Christine Soong</h3><br />
Having retired from saving the world as the country’s top CIA agent, Christine returned to scout for potential successors. While not training her prodigies, she casually works on the circuitry to control our top secret fiber reactor. Her ultimate goal in life is to adopt 101 Dalmatians to accompany her on her long runs and kayaking trips! <br />
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<h3>Rafael Martinez</h3><br />
Now this is a story all about how Rafa’s life got flipped – turned upside down<br />
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there<br />
I’ll tell you how he became a prince and a billionaire<br />
A town called Ithaca’s where he stayed<br />
Inside Milstein is where he spent most of his days<br />
Drawin’ and plottin’ relaxin’ all cool<br />
And all Building some dragons outside of the school<br />
When a couple of guys, who were up to some good<br />
Started building towers in the neighborhood<br />
He got a great little job and a title with flair<br />
Now he’s master architect he makes his projects with care <br />
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<h3>Erica Alonzo</h3><br />
In a world oppressed by the bland and mundane, where creativity is stifled in the wink of an eye. Where uniqueness is punishable by death. Societies have all devolved into nothing but brainless servants of The Man, and there is only one person who can stop them. Join Erica, an unlikely heroine, as she utilizes her wit, charm and sass to bring an end to The Legion of Tropes and their dastardly (albeit trite) plans of enslaving the human race. One woman will help bring the light of excitement back into this dismal planet. This Fall, prepare to get your creative juices flowing in 'Dee Zine: And The Legion of Tropes.' This film is not yet rated.<br />
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<h1 style="margin-top: 0px;">Faculty Advisors</h1><br />
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<h3>Dr. Shivaun Archer - Biomedical Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Shivaun Archer is a Senior Lecturer in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories. She designs and teaches undergraduate instructional labs for five biomedical engineering courses: BME 131, BME 301, BME 302, BME 401, and BME 402. The labs are designed to illustrate the course material and bring research to undergraduate education whilst exposing students to cutting edge technology and research methodology. A significant emphasis in all the labs is biomedical nanotechnology. Each of the five courses has a hands-on lab module that focuses specifically on nanobiotechnology. Overall, the lab modules enhance the hands-on training of Cornell students in the areas of microfabrication, microfluidics, biosensors, nano/microbiotechnology, and drug delivery. In recognition of her efforts in undergraduate education, Dr. Archer has received a prestigious College of Engineering Teaching award. <br />
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Before coming to Cornell, Dr. Archer worked for five years at Lynntech, Inc. a small research company specializing in biotechnology, biomaterials, chemical and biological sensors, medical biotechnology, and environmental remediation. Her work on wastewater treatment for long term space missions resulted in her receiving two NASA Inventions Space Act Awards. She also holds a joint appointment as a Research Associate in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her research interests include nanobiotechnology and tissue engineering. <br />
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<h3>Dr. Matthew DeLisa - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Matthew DeLisa received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1996; his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2001; and did postdoctoral work at the University of Texas-Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering. DeLisa joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University as an assistant professor in 2003 and was promoted to associate professor in 2009. He recently served as a Gastprofessur at ETH Zürich in the Institut für Mikrobiologie. <br />
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Professor DeLisa's research focuses on understanding and controlling the molecular mechanisms underlying protein biogenesis -- folding and assembly, membrane translocation and post-translational modifications -- in the complex environment of a living cell. His contributions to science and engineering include the invention of numerous commercially important technologies for facilitating the discovery, design and manufacturing of human drugs and seminal discoveries in the areas of cellular protein folding and protein translocation. DeLisa has received several awards for his work including an NSF CAREER award, a NYSTAR Watson Young Investigator award, a Beckman Foundation Young Investigator award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and a NYSTAR Distinguished Faculty Award. He was also named one of the top 35 young innovators (TR35) by MIT's Technology Review in 2005 and was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Wiley-Blackwell Biotechnology and Bioengineering Daniel I.C. Wang award, which honors a distinguished young researcher in this field. Most recently, he was honored with a Cornell Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship and was the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society's BIOT division.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Bruce Land - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Bruce Land is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell. He teaches three courses in ECE and advises masters of engineering projects in ECE and Biomedical Engineering. When time allows, he does some neural modeling and spike train analysis. He has been in this position since 1998. <br />
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Land received a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1968 and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Cornell University in 1976 . He was a Muscular Dystrophy Association postdoc in NBB at Cornell for three years, then a lecturer in NBB for seven years. During this time he worked with Miriam Salpeter on the coupling of activity at the vertebrate neuromuscular junction, both experimentally and by computer modeling. In 1987 he moved to the Cornell Theory Center as a computational research associate, then started supporting graphics and animation. He was visualization project leader at the CTC from 1989 to 1998. From 1992 to 1998 he taught an introductory computer graphics course in Computer Science at Cornell. From 1998 to 2007 he taught computer programming and electronics courses in NBB and was a Senior Research Associate in Neurobiology and Behavior.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Julius B. Lucks - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering</h3><br />
Julius B. Lucks is Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, and a James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow. After attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for high school, he became an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he performed research in organic synthesis and the application of density functional theory to studying the electronic properties of atoms and molecules as a Goldwater Scholar. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry, he spent a summer working with Robert Parr before obtaining an M. Phil. in Theoretical Chemistry at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. As a Hertz Fellow at Harvard University, he researched problems in theoretical biophysics including RNA folding and translocation, viral capsid structure and viral genome organization, under David R. Nelson. As a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Adam P. Arkin, he engineered versatile RNA-sensing transcriptional regulators that can be easily reconfigured to independently regulate multiple genes, logically control gene expression, and propagate signals as RNA molecules in gene networks. He also lead the team that developed SHAPE-Seq, an experimental technique that utilizes next generation sequencing for probing RNA secondary and tertiary structures of hundreds of RNAs in a single experiment. <br />
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Professor Lucks’ research combines both experiment and theory to ask fundamental questions about the design principles that govern how RNAs fold and function in living organisms, and how these principles can be used to engineer biomolecular systems, and open doors to new medical therapeutics.<br />
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<h3>Dr. Xiling Shen - Electrical and Computer Engineering</h3><br />
Dr. Xiling Shen has been an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University since August 2009. <br />
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Born in Shanghai, China, Dr. Xiling Shen went on to receive his BS and MS degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University in 2001. He then worked at Barcelona Design Inc. for two years, specializing in analog circuit design and optimization, before joining Professor Mark Horowtiz' research group in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford in 2003. In the first two years of his PhD, he collaborated with Professor Joseph Kahn on using adaptive spatial equalization to compensate modal dispersion in multimode fibers. From 2005 to 2008, he worked with Professor Harley McAdams, Professor Lucy Shapiro, and Professor David Dill on modeling and analyzing the asymmetric division of Caulobacter crescentus. Xiling’s postdoctoral work focused on synthetic biology with Dr. Adam Arkin in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley prior to joining the faculty at Cornell University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.<br />
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<h3>Dr. David Wilson - Molecular Biology and Genetics</h3><br />
David Wilson is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG) at Cornell. He is a member of the MBG, Microbiology, and Toxicology fields and serves on the graduate committees of students who minor in Biochemistry of Microbiology. <br />
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He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1961, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford Medical School in 1966, and did postdoctoral work at the Department of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1966-67 before coming to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 1967. He is a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society of Microbiologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and is director of the Cornell Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology.<br />
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The Wilson laboratory studies the enzymology of plant cell wall degradation with a major focus on cellulases, which are important industrial enzymes and have potential in the production of renewable, non-polluting fuels and chemicals. Members of the Wilson Lab use a combination of genomics, protein engineering, and molecular biology their research.<br />
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<h4>Aravind Natarajan</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Devin Doud</h4><br />
Angenent Lab<br />
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<h4>Jason Kahn</h4><br />
Luo Lab<br />
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<h4>Taylor Stevenson</h4><br />
DeLisa Lab<br />
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<h4>Aljosa Trmcic</h4><br />
PhD, Food Science Lab<br />
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<h4>Nathan Kruer-Zerhusen</h4><br />
Wilson Lab<br />
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<p class="lead">Donec ullamcorper nulla non metus auctor fringilla. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper. Praesent commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo.</p><br />
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<p> Our official iGEM team information.</p><br />
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<p> Say hello to the team!</p><br />
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<p>See our team in action.</p><br />
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<h3>Sponsors</h3><br />
<p>See who has supported our research this year.</p><br />
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<p>Meet our advisors.</p><br />
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<h3>Profile</h3><br />
<p>More detail. Stuff stuff stuff stuff.</p><br />
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<p> Say hello to the team!</p><br />
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<h3>Gallery</h3><br />
<p>See our team in action.</p><br />
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/1/1a/Joseph_Bio.jpg"><br />
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<h3>Sponsors</h3><br />
<p>See who has supported our research this year.</p><br />
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</a><br />
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<a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:Cornell/team/attributions"><br />
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<p>More detail. Stuff stuff stuff stuff.</p><br />
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<p>More detail. Stuff stuff stuff stuff.</p><br />
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<p> Meet the team!</p><br />
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<h3>Gallery</h3><br />
<p>More detail. Stuff stuff stuff stuff.</p><br />
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<p>More detail. Stuff stuff stuff stuff.</p><br />
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<p>More detail. Stuff stuff stuff stuff.</p><br />
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