Attributions

Project idea

The idea for the conversion of blood types from A, B, or AB to O was drafted by the team members themselves, although research on this subject had been done before, the idea for the topic of our project emerged independently.

System design

The project idea - the conversion of blood types from A, B, or AB to O - and the overall system design were developed by the team members themselves without outside help. However, the feasibility of the project draft was then discussed with our instructors, Professor Dr. Ralf-Peter Jansen and Dr. Elisabeth Fuss.

Biosafety concerns for potential experiments with human blood were also discussed with Professor Dr. Jansen since the experiments would have taken place in his laboratory. Permission for working with tested blood conserves was granted by Dr. Michael Kittel from the office of biological safety at the university of Tübingen.

All part and primer design was performed by student team members. Plasmids were obtained from Dr. Fuss.

Lab supplies

We have ordered most consumables and reagents ourselves without the help or advice of instructors or other scientists. Some reagents like Bacto-Yeast Extract were obtained from Professor Dr. Jansen's stock. Consumables were also obtained from the stocks of Professor Dr. Doron Rapaport, Professor Dr. Thilo Stehle.

Lab and lab hardware

Most experiments were carried out at the team's laboratory at the IFIB (Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry) in Tübingen. The team's laboratory was kindly provided by Professor Ralf-Peter Jansen. For practical reasons one team member carried out plasmid preparations at Dr. Peter Pimpl's lab at University of Tübingen's ZMBP (Center for Plant Molecular Biology). MALDI was performed at the lab of Professor Dr. Hubert Kalbacher in Tübingen. Professor Dr. Stehle provided us with various lab hardwares like peristaltic pumps and a NanoDrop. Another NanoDrop we have used over the course of this summer was located at and provided by the lab of Professor Dr. Klaus Schulze-Osthoff. Peptide synthesis in conjunction with HPLC and ESI was performed at Professor Dr. Dirk Schwarzer's laboratory. All team members were introduced to the handling of complex instruments by the instructors of the team or (when necessary) by the host lab's workers. After this introduction all lab hardware was operated as autonomously as possible by team members.

DNA-sequencing

All DNA-sequencing was provided and performed by GATC-biotech. Sequencing results were evaluated by the team members themselves.

Lab work

All lab work was conducted by the team members themselves. Neither the team's instructors nor workers of our host lab have performed one single experiment described in this wiki. External influence on lab work was restricted to advice and (at most) practical demonstrations of methods and the operation of machines.