Team:Newcastle/Meetings/9 March 2009

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Contents

11/03/2009 - iGEM Meeting

Agenda of the Meeting

  • Discuss previous meeting’s action points
  • Storyboard explaination of 3 ideas.
  • Generate the vote result, make the final project.
  • Ask about tutorial time.
  • Wiki presentation

Team Members in Meeting

  • Chair - Hanny
  • Minutes - Mathew R
  • Present - Neil, Craig, Mathew R, Arun, Jane, Jan-Willem Veening, Leendert Hamoen, James, Morgan, Goksel and Hanny
  • Apologies - Jen, Matthew, Jessica, Dan

Minutes of the Meeting

  • Brought new recruits and 2 new advisors up to date on the project details to date, i.e. introduced team members, talked about the shortlisted ideas, the competition itself, etc.
  • Reviewed last meeting’s action points
    • Correct the address details at IGEM web site – Done
    • Jess apply for funding – Application forms handed in
    • Arun apply for funding – Currently in Progress
    • Setup file upload permissions to the internal wiki – E-mail sent out round to iGem team members with username and password
    • Setup security to access to the internal wiki - E-mail sent out round to iGem team members with username and password
    • Populate internal wiki – Ongoing
    • iGem projects finalised next week – Currently in progress
    • Specify a date for tutorial – Must negotiate a date sometime next week
    • Every student should pick a simple BioBrick from the repository and try to understand what it does, which genes it uses etc - Ongoing
    • Add references to Wiki – Not fulfilled as yet but as we read papers, we need to place references on wiki
    • Setup laboratory notebook – Must prepare a laboratory notebook
    • Populate main wiki – Some work done; more work needed
    • Give some history to the new team members about ideas – E-mails sent to new iGem team members with summaries of ideas however the presentation of ideas today shall provide more information
    • Aim for awards – Ongoing
    • Watch top six presentations from last year’s iGem competition – Ongoing
    • Investigate previous iGem projects for similarities – Currently in progress but some team members have already found things
    • For each shortlisted idea, create 15 min storyboards – Done; presenting the storyboards in today’s meeting
    • Invite new team members – Done! They are present in today’s meeting
    • Bio Memory - Do a research on how to get the data into the bacteria and out again - Will be discussed today
    • Bio Memory - Is it possible to make coloured spores? – Will be discussed today
    • Sequester metals - Do a research on if it is ok to leave the spores in the environment after all - Will be discussed today
    • Sequester metals - Can termites be used to eat spores? – Will be discussed today
  • Storyboards explaining for ideas – Questions/challenges raised for each
    • 1st Idea – Trapping Metals by Mathew R and Craig
      • Does Bacillus subtilis have a lot of space in periplasm?
      • Why 90% and 10%?
      • We don’t need to make a Biobrick for sporulation. B.subtilis already have sporulation mutants, therefore those mutants could be used for population growth.
      • How do we get the metal into the spore?
      • Where is the opportunity for modelling?
    • 2nd Idea – Skin Repairer by Hanny and Jessica
      • Why do you need a GFP reporter? (Answer – to make itself known)
      • Does the production of these compounds (hyaluron synthase) require a cascade of enzymes?
      • Is there any data collected/research done on collagen and HS levels in Bacillus subtilis?
      • Do you know the threshold level of collagen for wound healing?
      • Are there any antibiotics involved here? What about Quorum Sensing Molecules?
      • Why don’t you just put a plaster in hyaluronic acid and stick it on the patient? (I.e. what advantages does this idea have?)
      • Don’t see many advantages here
    • 3rd Idea – Bio Memory by Arun and Goksel
      • Has somebody already a similar idea to this one?
      • How much information can you store with a simple on/off signal in spores?
      • How are you going to store the bacteria in serial fashion?
      • This idea is very simple – where is the novelty?
      • Could you do something with concentrations of protein within a cell?
      • Can you integrate some of the first idea with this one, especially the sporulation signal idea?
      • The main issue is sequence! How do we get sequential order in bacteria?
      • Could we use the biosensor application featured here for detection purposes in the heavy metal idea?

These questions were posed by the presenters:

      • Can we have biostability inside spores without any DNA rearrangements?
      • Can we store colour-giving properties inside the outer layer of the spores?
      • Is it possible to control DNA rearrangement?
  • Vote Result
    • Not everybody has voted yet
    • However today’s meeting has showed that the first and third ideas can be amalgamated – everyone present was in favour of this suggestion. The idea – maybe use Bacillus subtilis to detect heavy metals in soil and then give a signal for them!
  • Wiki Tutorial/Presentation
    • Yet to arrange meeting with Morgan sometime next week however James has already done a short tutorial online which gets people familiar with the internal wiki. MediaWiki tutorial to come…

NEW Action Points For Next Meeting

  • Review the questions and challenges put forward for each idea
  • Do additional reading/research into ideas but more of an emphasis on the first and third ideas
  • Finalise an idea and write a paragraph on the idea to be posted in the main wiki
  • Reschedule wiki tutorial with Morgan.



News

Events

Social Net

  • Newcastle iGEM Twitter
  • [http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=131709337641 Newcastle on Facebook]
  • [http://www.youtube.com/user/newcastle2009igem Newcastle Youtube Channel]
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