We made sure we documented everything important. The summer was full of different experiences and a lot of hard work. You can browse through our work flow here.
We worked hard but it all paid off. We had fun, we made new friends. We did something new, we learned something new. It was an amazing journey.
We also have more details to share, if you have the interest to read it all (pdf files inc)!
A Scientist discovers that which exists; an Engineer creates that which never was. Theodore von Karmen
All members of our team, who work in the lab, have had a safety training as a part of their studies. The training covered the following topics:
In our iGEM work we have only worked with non-toxic E. coli (K12 derivatives) and all the protein coding sequences that we have used in our project are non-hazardous. We did not create new protein coding sequences but instead we used sequences that are already available as Biobricks.
We got to work in the Bioprocess Technology lab of Aalto University. We had our own table and we got to use all the instruments in the department. We also did some measurements in the labs of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
25.10.2014
Perfecting everything and admiring our wiki which is totally done at this point. All's well, we can just relax before the Jamboree.
28.8.2014
Testing the first DNA constructs.
26.8.2014
We plan to go to an escape the room thing, but when all the suitable times are booked, Minttu takes us bowling instead.
21.8.2014, 22.8.2014
We go visit the observatorium during the Night of the Arts event in Helsinki. There's also massive soap bubbles and a man with a whole band setup in a baby carriage.
The next day we go back to playing pinball and Crash Team Racing because it was so much fun last week.
19.8.2014
We build the first part of the prototype and start testing!
18.8.2014
After a long while, our genes finally arrive. Now we can take them and other parts we've assembled and the whole genetically engineered machine together.
18.8.2014
We meet the event manager and event organizer of Heureka and come up with a synthetic biology weekend workshop we could organize in Spring.
They were very excited about us and everything we had to show and tell. They said that this is a perfect match from them and all the simulations, games, pictures fit perfectly into the workshop.
We hope to inspire young people to study synthetic biology in the future and let the older people know it exists. This will also be a perfect opportunity for the next year's iGEM Team to get involved and organize something together.
14.8.2014
Lassi takes us to play pinball. It's surprisingly fun. We play a ton of Crash Team Racing too.
8.8.2014
We meet with The Academy of Finland's Center of Excellence HYBER 2014-2019. They want us to talk in their conference and support us.
In the evening Oskari takes us to play laser tag! He is way better at it than anyone else.
5.8.2014
We get our first sequencing results that are in confusing .ab1-files. Then it turns out that Geneious makes analysing them incredibly easy. Most of the sequences look good, some not so much.
1.8.2014
Instead of staying in our HQ and eating in the cafeteria next to it, Laura takes us to eat fancy sushi. It's delicious and fun.
SUSHIKUVA?
31.7.2014
We build the sequences to synthetize from scratch. They include the lambda repressor OR sites that we designed. We find out that the synthetisizing costs the same for 0-1000 nucleotides, so we include a few surrounding BioBricks to save on lab time. (The OR sites are fairly small.)
28.7.2014
We have a number of ligations ready for assembling and it turns out there's a sequencing place like 5 kilometers away.
We seal 16 samples into tubes and send them off. We are left eagerly waiting to see if the work this far has succeeded.
22.7.2014
We meet Tania, an ex-iGEMer from the one 2012 Amsterdam team. It's a great meeting and we finally get some validation that we're doing some things right.
In the evening Martina takes us geocaching! It is amazing what can be hidden in completely plain sight.
15.7.2014
We present our idea to hundreds of people and hold a booth for 6 hours.
14.7.2014
In the evening Mikko takes us to watch The Skin I Live In, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
14.7.2014
We have the lambda repressor figured out and integrated into our system. We start planning for the parts to be synthesized.
10-11.7.2014
Summer of Startups takes us to visit the Startup people of Tallinn. We decide this is a practice trip for Boston, so we planned to have as much fun as possible. It was a great success and an unforgettable experience.
8.7.2014
We find out that the lambda repressor system would be perfect for our three-way switch idea. We figure out how it works and how to include it in our gene circuit.
4.7.2014
We decided that we should do something fun every week as a group that has nothing to do with iGEM. Every team member has their own week to plan an activity and pull the team to the mandatory weekly having-fun moment.
So, Otto surprised us with a fruit juicer and a ton of fresh fruit. We spent the early morning happily drinking smoothies while working intensely on our project.
2.7.2014
Because chimera is a term both in gene techonology and mythology, Laura decided (and others immediately agreed) that drawing a chimera for each member would be a cool idea. Everyone could decide three animals and a chimera would be drawn based on those.
//KOLLAASIKUVATÄHÄNTULEE/ tai linkki kimeera-tekstiin
1.7.2014, 2.7.2014
We get the idea of explaining synthetic biology as turning bacteria into superheroes from a meeting with ???. We start working on a new pitch based on that.
Pietu finishes the pitch the next day and presents it at Summer of Startups. It seems to go over very well. People finally understand what we are doing.
25.6.2014
Our BioBrick Seeker has been mentioned on the official help page for a while. We only noticed it now.
We also wrote a small advertisement text for the Community page and got the Seekers featured there.
24.6.2014
We even checked it with a gel.
KUVA??
10.6.2014
We're trying to advertise ourselves and get some kind of financial help and support for this project. It feels really difficult and time consuming. We also took some new pictures, a new group photo, for example.
8.6.2014
The backbones don't seem to be working right and the negative control keeps growing. Not good.
2.6.2014
We've received tons of mentions on Twitter. People really seem to like the tool.
30.5.2014
This process would be repeated about 50 times during the summer, but this was the first. Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI_EuzNIaPg.
30.5.2014
It started from the mild inconvenience of searching for BioBricks in the lab. Now we could search through this year's distribution effortlessly. Because it was so useful for us, we decided to share it to others, too.
26.5.2014
Cooool. Here it is!
23.5.2014
This time it does actually look cool! The actual website might still be available on http://aaltohelsinki.com/index_en.html: check it out!
20.5.2014
...by making plates. Not that mind-blowing, but very important.
19.5.2014
We get one desk from the laboratory. and there's still someone else's stuff on it, but it's ours and we are going to do amazing things there.
9.5.2014
The competition starts to feel real.
22.4.2014, 25.4.2014, 28.4.2014
We meet a few times to go over what we will say to the Summer of Startups panel, so that they will accept us to the program. This culminates on the 28th, when we have the interview. Our team leader tries to attend through Skype, but the panel doesn't like it. We manage to pull through anyway, and the panel is very excited about us at the end.
They accepted us in the program.
10.4.2014
We presented ourselves and our initial ideas to a panel of experts, mostly researchers from VTT and the Viikki biocampus. The occasion went very well and there was a lot of interesting discussion. We noticed that we really can do cool things as a group.
10.4.2014
We presented our initial ideas to our advisor, Markus, in preparation for the expert meet. We discussed what direction to go and what kind of idea to pick.
30.3.2014
We made an introduction video of us so we could apply to Summer of Startups. It turned out pretty good! Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJX21WthZQg.
23.3.2014
The first version of our website was built. We wanted it to look cool. It didn't.
18.3.2014, 25.3.2014
Some brainstorming. Wild ideas. Rating the ideas. Then an unbelievably cool post-it gradient of all the ideas.
14.3.2014
The first team meeting was held on a Friday afternoon. Some of us met each other for the first time ever, some had met before already. We talked about the project and got to know each other.
5.3.2014 - 12.3.2014
Oskari is in the first job interview in his life, as the interviewer. He holds 19 more interviews during the week. Nine people are chosen to be in the final team.
31.1.2014, 5.2.2014
It seems like the universities are into the idea.
28.8.2013
First e-mails about the idea are sent.
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