Team:Nevada/Team

Back: Dr. Shintani, J, Alex, Tyler. Middle: Janice, Leigh, Joey, Chris. Front: Nick and Dr. Howard

Who we are

What we did

Nick Tschernia
-Entered the Nevada Team into the iGEM Competition a week before the submission date.
-Organized weekly meetings for project brainstorming and timeline.
-Recruited the iGEM Team through a highly selective process (whoever was left at the end of the brainstorming sessions).
-Organized the source plate distribution and transformation of the basic parts.
-Sequence analysis of the Biobrick parts formed.
-Primer design for adding Biobrick restriction sites for formation of Biobrick parts

Janice Cho
-Formulated the original idea of using cinnamaldehyde as a mosquito larvicide.
-Performed initial research on the use of cinnamaldehyde. - Helped perform a three-way ligation with part BBa_R0011 (lacI promoter), part BBa_B0034 (ribsome-binding site), and part pSB3C5 (chloromphenicol resistant backbone) to create part BBa_K262000.
- Helped conduct a three-way ligation to create final construct with the parts: BBa_K262000 and BBa_K262002.

Leigh Armijo
- Helped perform a three-way ligation with part BBa_R0011 (lacI promoter), part BBa_B0034 (ribsome-binding site), and part pSB3C5 (chloromphenicol resistant backbone) to create part BBa_K262000.
- Helped conduct a three-way ligation to create a construct with BBa_K262000, 4-coumarate:CoA ligase, and BBa_B0014.

Sheena Jones
-In charge of maintaining and propagating Wolffia and Lemna plant species.
-Generated callus culture in preparation for gene transformation.

Tony Moschetti
-Topo-cloned cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (gene 3)for preparation of a Biobrick part.
-Made Biobrick part containing cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (gene 3) and double terminator (BBa_K262002)
-Transformed 4-coumarate-CoA ligase (gene 2) and cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (gene 3 - BBa_K262001) into Biobrick backbones.

J Malikowski
-Induced expression in non-biobrick expression vector containing 4-coumarate-CoA ligase (gene 2). Detection of product formation at 311 nm. Further studies will be conducted in the near future.
-Helped to troubleshoot minipreps and other protocols. Resident expert on minipreps.
-Trained Tyler to be an excellent Molecular Biologist.
-Advisory role at lab meetings (How does the Harper lab do it?)

Tyler Peterson
-Major player in media preparation, agarose gels, stock solutions
-Helped with minipreps and E. coli transformation.

Chris Martinez
-Made db3.1 and NEB10 competent cells.
-Overall goal was to upregulate the cinnamaldehyde pathway in plants Wolffia and various Lemna species
-Transformation of cinnamoyl-CoA Reductase (Gene 3) into TOPO D Vector
-Used LR CLonase Protocal to move cinnamoyl-CoA Reductase (Gene 3) into pK7WG2D.1 Binary Vector which will be used to grow up Agrobacterium, which will be used to infect the plants Wolffia and Lemna species

Joey Khwaja
-Made db3.1 and NEB10 competent cells.
-Researched into making a Biobrick plant part.
-Designed the iGEM Nevada Team shirts.

Where we're from

Nick Tschernia

I am a senior biochemistry major at UNR. I like spending every minute in my research lab and picking up girls in my dance class.

Tony Moschetti

I am Tony. I used to have a mullet.

Janice Cho

Leigh Armijo

Joey Khwaja

Sheena Jones

Chris Martinez

Tyler Peterson

J Malikowski

Alex Dussaq

Chad Sanada

Dr. Christie Howard

Dr. Dave Shintani

Dr. Trish Ellison