At the start of our project, we undertook a week of boot camp – yes, it was as intense as it sounds! With all team members coming from a range of backgrounds with different abilities, we thought that this would be a good idea to allow everyone to be on the same page with the same basic level of understanding in each component of the project. This week was very useful as it allowed us to become familiar with all aspects of the project. As well as this, it was a great icebreaker that helped our team of students, advisors and supervisors to get to know each other better! Following on from this, we officially began our work over the summer.
BOOTCAMP
MONDAY 16th JUNE
Laboratory Orientation and Safety Training
Laboratory Techniques 1
- Pipetting, LB Broth, LB agar and Overnight Cultures
Project Expectations Discussion
- Medal criteria, weekly meetings to discuss objectives and results, personal logs of what and how things have been done
TUESDAY 17th JUNE
Introduction of Policy and Practices
Discussion of Social Implications of Synthetic Biology
Genome 101
Laboratory Techniques 2
- Plasmid DNA extraction, PCR and Chemical Transformation
WEDNESDAY 18th JUNE
Introduction to Modelling
BioBricks and the Registry
Methodology in Social Science and Data Collection
THURSDAY 19th JUNE
Oxford Meet Up
Wiki and Team Identity Discussion
FRIDAY 20th JUNE
Project Presentation to the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Sheffield
Weekly Report and Feedback
WEEK 1
MONDAY 23rd JUNE
Collated contact details of potential sponsors
Drafter sponsorship request letters for money, equipment and expertise
TUESDAY 24th JUNE
Continued working towards producing a sponsorship package
Reading published papers relating to synthetic biology and iGEM regarding awareness and impressions
Set up two meetings: marketing and industry expertise
WEDNESDAY 25th JUNE
Mathematica – 4 of our student team members went on a course to learn Mathematica for the modelling aspect of the project
Further reading of policy and practices papers
Worked on team identity in preparation for the marketing meeting
Sponsorship package completed – this can be found here
Translated written protocols into the lab notation
THURSDAY 26th JUNE
Started planning our Meet Up and contacted teams for potential collaboration
Continued work on the lab notation
Discussed potential research questions to carry out a study within the University
Meeting with industry expert within the University of Sheffield; this provided us with new contacts and a better understanding of the UK sewage system and how it functions. It was also very useful as we began to consider the applications of our project and what we may need to consider
Mathematica
FRIDAY 27th JUNE
Used XML and PYTHON to try to produce a computer language for the lab notation
Mathematica
Weekly meeting and report
WEEK 2
MONDAY 30th JUNE
Weekly meeting to set objectives Weekly meeting to set objectives
Worked on the interview questions to be used for the University of Sheffield case study
Further research on potential sponsors
Mathematica
TUESDAY 1st JULY
Meeting with advisors to discuss suitability of research question and interviews
Began to consider the ethics needed to go alongside this
Mathematica
WEDNESDAY 2nd JULY
Finalised research questions and sent off ethics approval
Began learning HTML and other mark up languages for the Wiki
THURSDAY 3rd JULY
Team identity discussion on potential project names and logo
Researched assays
Wrote COSHH forms
Sent out sponsorship packages
ERASynBio research and application draft
FRIDAY 4th JULY
Sent out invitations for the meet up
Organised speakers and planned the remainder of the meet up
Continued research on assays and writing COSHH forms
WEEK 3
MONDAY 7th JULY
Weekly meeting to set objectives
Write up policy and practices project outline
Emailed Sheffield 2010 iGEM Team regarding their lab notation work
Collated more contacts for sponsors
Contacted modelling expert within the University to set up a meeting
Wiki development meeting
TUESDAY 8th JULY
Project implementation discussion and potential designs drawn on CAD
Assay research
Researched GMO approval requirements for the safety form
WEDNESDAY 9th JULY
Wiki development
Sponsorship requests
THURSDAY 10th JULY
Sponsorship requests
Arranged catering for the meet up
Wiki development
Discussed the improvement of the lab notation
Assay database idea discussed
FRIDAY 11th JULY
Weekly meeting and report
Reading research papers regarding FOGs and whey they are caused
Lab notation development
Collected assays for the database
ERASynBio application sent
WEEK 4
MONDAY 14thJULY
Weekly meeting to set objectives
Finalised logo design
Made contact with experts at Northumbrian Water and Anglian Water
Wiki development meeting
TUESDAY 15th JULY
Modelling meeting – use of Mathematica to analyse the FadR characterisation, use of CFD to model fluid flow and also control system analysis
Meeting with industry expert from the University regarding product development
Produced poster and presentation for the meet up on Friday
Debugged temporary wiki
WEDNESDAY 16th JULY
Discussed second research question further; concluded it would focus on responsibility
Jamboree meeting
THURSDAY 17th JULY
Set up interviews with Sheffield City Council
Sent reminder to all teams attending Friday’s meet up
Finalised meet up details
FRIDAY 18th JULY
Meet up
WEEK 5
MONDAY 21st JULY
Weekly meeting to set objectives
Discussed interview questions for the responsibility question
Modelling meeting – biological modelling may be limited; product design may be better to focus on
FadR characterisation meeting – decided to continue characterising this but not use it in the final construct of our product
CAD drawings of current designs
Interview with University lecturer from Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
TUESDAY 22nd JULY
Researched current enzyme dosing systems to help develop product further
Interview with a food outlet regarding responsibility
Started transcribing lab book protocols into HTML code
Researched the law and legislation regarding fat disposal by the public
WEDNESDAY 23rd JULY
Meeting with expert from Anglian Water
Set up interviews within the University for the faculty wide study
Skype meeting with Manchester iGEM Team for potential collaboration; found that projects were quite different
THURSDAY 24th JULY
Used SolidWorks for new product designs
Contacts schools regarding outreach
Spoke to Oxford iGEM Team regarding collaboration
FRIDAY 25th JULY
Weekly meeting and report
Decided to pursue the Manufacturing track
WEEK 6
MONDAY 28 JULY
Weekly meeting to set objectives
Reading FOG papers
Began writing up parts of the project we have completed so far
Collaborative links established with Valencia iGEM Team
TUESDAY 29 JULY
Interview with expert from Northumbrian Water
Organised lab notation testing sessions and carried these out
Collaborative links with Oxford iGEM Team
Interview with University lecturer in Landscape
WEDNESDAY 30 JULY
Analysed feedback from lab notation testing and made suggested improvements
Interviews with University lecturers from the Medical School and Geography
Began SocioBrick development and discussion
THURSDAY 31 JULY
Contacted Paris Bettencourt iGEM Team to be featured in their newsletter
FRIDAY 1 AUGUST
Weekly meeting and report
Interviews with University lecturers from Civil Engineering and Biomedical Science
SocioBrick development
WEEK 7
MONDAY 4th AUGUST
Weekly meeting to set objectives
Finished improved lab protocols
Skype meetings with Oxford iGEM and Paris Bettencourt iGEM Teams
Interview with a food outlet for the responsibility study
TUESDAY 5th AUGUST
Started writing up SocioBrick descriptions
Wiki development
Product design
WEDNESDAY 6th AUGUST
Interview with University lecturer from Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
Wiki development
Product design
THURSDAY 7th AUGUST
Interviews with University lecturers from Music and Biblical Studies
Product design
Analysis of interviews conducted over the past few weeks
FRIDAY 8th AUGUST
Weekly meeting and report
Skype meeting with Oxford iGEM Team
Added to the wiki write ups
WEEK 8
MONDAY 11th AUGUST
Weekly meeting to set objectives
Interview analysis
TUESDAY 12th AUGUST
Write up of the interviews conducted within the University
Product development
SocioBrick development
WEDNESDAY 13th AUGUST
Interview with a representative from the Labour party
Wiki development
Product development
THURSDAY 14th AUGUST
SocioBrick development
Product development
FRIDAY 15th AUGUST
Weekly meeting and report
Wrote project abstract for the iGEM official team page
WEEK 9
MONDAY 18th AUGUST
Weekly meeting to set objectives
Researched more analysis SocioBricks as these were lacking
TUESDAY 19th AUGUST
Product design
Interview analysis for responsibility report
Wiki development
WEDNESDAY 20th AUGUST
Wiki team meeting to set up deadlines for the next few weeks
Designs for the wiki layout made
Writing up responsibility report
THURSDAY 21st AUGUST
Writing up responsibility report
Interviewed more food outlets and analysed the results
Contacted more water companies
Set up a trip to Veolia for late September
FRIDAY 22nd AUGUST
Weekly meeting and report
Collaborative link with Valencia_UPV iGEM Team – agreed to test our lab notation
Interview with a Labour councillor
WEEK 10
MONDAY 25th AUGUST
Bank Holiday
TUESDAY 26th AUGUST
Planned outreach events for schools
Made poster for YSB/UCL meet up
Sent improved lab notation to Edinburgh iGEM Team for collaboration
Writing up responsibility report
WEDNESDAY 27th AUGUST
Made presentation for YSB/UCL meet up
Product development
Safety form
THURSDAY 28th AUGUST
Treatment plant visit and interviews with the workers there
Product development
FRIDAY 29th AUGUST
Weekly meeting and report – everyone given specific deadlines to meet over the next month
Finalised poster and presentation for YSB/UCL meet up
Wiki development
Uploaded project title and abstract to the official iGEM team page
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