Team:Carnegie Mellon/Talks

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Revision as of 08:46, 17 October 2014

TecBio iGEM Presentation

On July 11th, the Pitt and CMU iGEM teams went to give project presentations at Pitt with the TecBio group. Training and Experimentation in Computational Biology (TecBio): "Simulation and Visualization of Biological Systems at Multiple Scales" REU program is a 10-week summer program that provides a challenging and fulfilling graduate-level research experience to undergraduate students. Students receive classroom training in topics pertinent to the emerging field of computational biology, such as computational structural biology, cell and systems modeling, computational genomics, and bioimage informatics. For CMU and Pitt iGEM, this provided a wonderful audience for giving our first presentations of iGEM, biology, modeling, and outreach being worked on by the teams. A heavy emphasis was placed on the modeling aspect because of the nature of the program being more related to computational biology than anything else. Once the two presentations were done, we took questions and socialized over pizza and drinks. It was a good group to give our first presentations to and helped us tighten up our public speaking skills.

July 11, 2014; 21 undergraduates

Also on July 11th, the CMU iGEM Team presented to the Summer Research Institute (SRI) participants. In this summer program, students spend ten weeks working on a research project with a faculty member. Research projects involve recombinant DNA techniques and biochemical methods directed towards the functional analysis of proteins and enzymes. In addition to wet laboratory techniques, students use software for DNA analysis and experimental design. This provided another platform for the CMU iGEM team to practice their project presentation and receive feedback along with the questions.

The SAMS girls that we experimented Creature Feature with were working on different projects on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Using newly acquired laboratory techniques and skills, they were tasked to analyze a favorite food or snack across different brands and test for labeling “truths.” For example, labels such as “organic” or “non-GMO project certified” were tested for validity against the same product with no label, and therefore assumed to be genetically modified. Using gel electrophoresis, the girls were able to tell whether or not the product had been genetically modified in comparison to a control and had to present their results. The CMU iGEM Team were asked to come in as a panel and audience to ask questions and further help them analyze the results. Since these projects were individual, each SAMS girl had to confidently present what the results were and any error that may have occurred in the procedure. Knowing the nature of laboratory techniques and mistakes made, the CMU iGEM team learned from the presentations, gave feedback, and gained insight on how complex the food biotech world really is. Overall, it was a great experience to be apart of and helped both the SAMS girls and the CMU iGEM team to foster intellectual conversation on the topics of label definitions and genetically modified organisms.

Carnegie Mellon University hosted a round robin of workshops for Take Your Child To Work Day. Children of university faculty and staff were able to visit different campus groups to learn, work, or experiment. iGEM team members helped Genoa Warner and Taylor Canady, grad students in chemistry, facilitate a workshop called “Genetically Engineered Machines” for 35 participants ages 12-15. The main objective of the workshop was to introduce the participants to what the building blocks of genetically engineered machines: DNA. They did a simple, yet informative DNA extraction from frozen strawberries in the first session, and the same DNA extraction methods with a variety of fruits in the second session. A discussion after the extractions discussed the science behind materials used and how DNA manipulation can create new devices and advance biological processes for specific goals. While we spent time crushing strawberries, tomatoes, and kiwi, it was fun to interact with the participants and talk about how we are currently involved in a synthetic biology project for the summer. CARD RECEIVED FROM KIDS

The CMU iGEM outreach team was invited to the Environmental Charter School in order to give three presentations for the seventh grade science classes. Courtney and Nicole received notice on Friday afternoon and put together a two-part presentation that included a streamlined strawberry DNA extraction and “Creature Feature,” an adapted visual model of genetic engineering applications. The 60 teens had been taught about DNA, and were able isolate strawberry DNA using a streamlined kit designed by the iGEM team. With this new version of the strawberry DNA extraction, it took approximately 15 minutes of lab time, along with 20 minutes of an accompanying lecture that discussed the science behind a DNA extraction and how the extraction is useful for genetic engineering. This activity transitioned into the second lab, which focused on demonstrating how genetic engineering can help in situations where “creatures” may not have the characteristics to survive in a new environment. Students were given construction materials based on the genetic sequence they created out of beads, and tasked with the creation of a creature. This creature had to undergo a survival test due to an external force placing too much pressure on its evolutionary adaptations and so synthetic biology concepts came up as a way to help their creatures out by giving it a new feature. At the end of the lesson (and the dunk test), we had a discussion on real-world applications of synthetic biology, DNA extractions, and genetic engineering.

• “I want to do that (genetic engineering) when I grow up!” –Student
• “We have more DNA!” –Student
• “My (strawberry) DNA looks like cotton-candy!” –Student
• “I’m gonna buy my creature an airline ticket so that it can survive the Great Flood” – Student
• “Please survive… please survive” -Student
• On a follow-up: “I'm excited about the new kits! The kids had a really good time with those activities and I thought the lessons were highly engaging. I'll pass on the information about the new kits to the rest of my science team.” – Hilary Buttenfield, Teacher at ECS

The Summer Academy of Mathematics and Science (SAMS) occurs every summer where high school juniors and seniors from across the nation come to Carnegie Mellon for a rigorous 6-week program. These students take the same CMU classes that other undergraduates take in order to understand concepts and build confidence in their skills. Dr. Carrie B. Doonan is the director of the undergraduate laboratories and taught the iGEM team basic lab skills in a weeklong program for the non-biologists. The CMU outreach team asked her about presenting Creature Feature to her seven SAMS girls in order to gauge how this lab would work with a more advanced group. Courtney and Nicole rewrote Creature Feature with a more advanced vocabulary, and then upped the difficulty of the rips in the “waterproofing” gene. With this lab, we worked on creating a relationship with the SAMS girls, discussing how synthetic biology was very current (an article was found in the New York Times that morning over Starbucks, and how to improve Creature Feature with a higher-level group, while having fun watching them figure out how to keep their creatures alive. The complexity of their creatures were at a higher skill level compared to the middle school groups and their questions a lot more discussion based on the ethics behind genetically modified organisms. They offered advice on how to increase difficulty, and complimented the design of the activity. The iGEM team was invited to be their audience at a later date for their Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMO) presentations.

• “I like how the vocabulary is on the page as you are reading the instructions. Nice wave design.”
• “ You can try ____________________________ to increase the difficulty.”

One week before the academic school year, all of the Pittsburgh Public School Science teachers gather at one central location for professional development workshops. The CMU iGEM outreach team went out to present Creature Feature and the NetLogo Environmental Simulation as available options for the upcoming year. Niteesh and Nicole went through two sessions having teachers be the students that are experimenting with Creature Feature. They went through all three phases of the lab, Construction-The Great Flood-Engineering for Survival, and were able to give us feedback on how this kit would do in a classroom setting. High school teachers were concerned about upping the level of the kit to include dominant and recessive traits, whereas middle school teachers were a lot more comfortable with the level the kit was already at. The AP Environmental teachers were very much interested in getting a copy of the NetLogo Environmental Simulation that Niteesh presented because it would help for their students to visualize an ecosystem over time when there is a basic food chain and when there is an external force that bottlenecks it. With this workshop, we were able to advertise the upcoming kits and really gain insight from those who would be teaching them.

The Greater Pittsburgh Younger Chemists Committee puts together a chemistry carnival annually for a day of chemistry experiments and demonstrations and this year, the CMU iGEM outreach team offered to set up a booth with strawberry DNA extractions for the kids. This was one of the first times that we were able use the strawberry DNA extraction kits as a way to find out how long it takes for quick demo settings. With 50 visitors at the booth, the average time was under 5 minutes and all of the kids were extremely excited about their “cotton-candy” DNA. Some even took a sample of it home with them and one teacher from Altoona, PA timed the outreach team in their strawberry DNA extraction. Our fastest time was 2 minutes and 16 seconds between Courtney and Nicole, and this video was shown to the principle of Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School. The CMU iGEM outreach team will be sending out the kits for beta testing in late October for this school to give us back more feedback. This event also solidified the idea that our strawberry DNA extraction labs were ready for the production line and classroom kit lending library!

DNAZone is the outreach center that is fostering our SynBio Educational Series in their classroom kit lending library for the educators within the Pittsburgh community. During Ceilidh (kay-lee) homecoming weekend at Carnegie Mellon University, a CMU iGEM team member volunteered at the Science is Fun: Hands-On Workshops for Kids Grs. 3-5 with Catalina Achim, one of the team members at DNAZone and a chemistry professor at CMU in order to understand what the implementation of one of the established kits would be like in a smaller classroom setting. The ten kids all came from different parts of the country since the workshop was open to any child visiting that weekend and were primarily in elementary school. Two color-related experiments were run for the younger crowd. The first involved using a spectrometer to distinguish visible color bands off a CD and in two different lightings. In a brighter setting, the bands were sharper and also brighter, while in a darker setting they were mainly dull. Using colored cellophane, the kids were able to isolate often one color band depending on the color chosen from the cellophane pieces. The second experiment involved solubility when it comes to water vs. shaving cream. Finding out that food coloring is not soluble in shaving cream gave the kids free reign to create color pictures using this property. Dropping different food coloring dyes on shaving cream and then mixing it with toothpicks and tongue depressors, the kids could make a colorful mosaic piece and then imprint it on an index card to take home. Overall, it was fun helped us realized how the kits would work (and would need improvement on) in a smaller setting, especially with elementary.

This year, Carnegie Mellon’s iGEM team decided to use Twitter to connect with other iGEM teams! We posted pictures of our progress throughout the summer and fall and gave frequent updates through our Twitter account. We found Twitter to be a great tool for connecting, and we plan on continuing using social media in the future! Follow us! @CMUiGEM

Our team was fortunate enough to be featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Western Pennsylvania's largest newspaper and the region's most visited website. The newspaper wrote a feature article on our team as well as the team from the University of Pittsburgh. The article brought attention to the iGEM competition, our project, the importance of synthetic biology, and the awesome diversity of our team! Check out the article here!