Team:Carnegie Mellon/Achievements

From 2014.igem.org

We accomplished many things this summer...

• Formed and registered the team.
  • Obtained a Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG)
• Submitted 35 parts to the Registry
  • Documented new photosensitizers, an estrogen biosensor and a robust T7 RNA Polymerase reporter system
  • Validated a new photosensitizer and improved another
  • Improved the characterization of fluorescent proteins and a T7 RNA Polymerase reporter system
• Modeled our sensor and the influence of estrogen on a fish population

We collaborated extensively:

• Participated in the iGEM Interlab Study
• Worked with Pitt iGEM Team on modeling
• Made a CMU iGEM Twitter
• Had a really great iGEM Meetup (September 6)
• Worked with Ivy Tech to improve the DNA Extraction Kit

We spent lots of time with our community.

• Reached 531 students, ages 10-18, total of 243 hours and 32 teachers
• Created Beyond the Bench[mark], an international iGEM initiative for improving scientific literacy
• Designed synthetic biology kits for lending to middle school teachers through DNAzone
• Tested SynBio kits for DNA Extraction and Creature Feature with students
• Children of CMU Faculty and Staff at Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day (April 24)
• Environmental Charter School Outreach (June 11)
• SAMS (July 3)
• TechBio and SysBio presentation with Pitt iGEM (July 11)
• SRI presentation at CMU (July 11)
• Science Scavenger Hunt (July 18)
• Sciencepalooza (July 31)
• Pittsburgh Public School Professional Development (August 20)
• Interviews with experts
• Considered ethics and policies
• Investigated microfluidic chamber design, production and implementation