Team:Newcastle/Meetings/29 June 2009

From 2009.igem.org

Meetings Calendar

Internal Meeting 29 June 2009

Chair: Hanny
Students: James, Jane, Mathew, Goksel

Action Points of the Meeting

Assess action points from the last meetings and comment on progress
Discuss ideas and thoughts on the Edinburgh UK get-together
Raise any issues or questions.

Minutes of the Meeting

Assessment of Action Points
- Model of Metal Intake
  - James has done some of the work but needs more help from biologists!
  - It was discussed that we first of all need to model cadmium only and THEN we can consider other metals - start from the basics.
  - Need to find out how much cadmium binds to the promoter/protein per second
  - Need to measure how much protein is expressed by promoter activation
  - Using this data, work out how much cadmium is taken in by the metallothionein
  - It was decided that the whole team (students) should meet up after lab sessions to work together on getting relevant data and get this model working.
  - We need TWO models - 1) A model for Bacillus subtilis response to cadmium in different scenarios and 2) A model for cadmium influx in B. subtilis
- Model sinI operon
  - Goksel has made model based on a paper on stochastic switches without changing parameters.
  - Question: Should we leave the model sequence as it is?
- Model comK sequence
  - Jane has done model based on given equations on paper
  - Not quite sure on the layout of the model (in diagram structure)
  - Can now study CellML
- Promoter Library
  - Program and task carried out by Jen
- Prioritise BioBricks
  - Ongoing process
  - Meeting up outside of lab hours to 'map' out project, decide on the BioBricks and design them (along with DNA sequences)
  - Need tutorial on Sequentia
- Coding in J-Sim
  - Ongoing
- Write up about Cadmium and the Environment
  - Information has been researched and written into paragraphs
  - Information could be re-written and tidied
- Decide on Awards
  - Gold Award!
  - Our project fits into the Environmental project strand
  - Wiki, Presentation, Poster
- Lab Space (Rotas)
  - Decided in meeting that because there is currently six of us, 2 groups of three will start off
  - These groups of three consist of one biologist and two non-biologists
  - Once others come back, may go into pairs
- External Wiki photos to be uploaded
  - Goksel has uploaded some photographs of Newcastle onto internal wiki
- CCS template issues on Firefox/Safari/Some versions of IE, etc
  - James has sorted the problem - it turned out to be more than a CSS issue. James changed the links from 'Wiki' links to HTML links and that has resolved the issue.
- Jen to email the team photos
  - This has already been done - this photo was used in the presentation shown in Edinburgh
- Do a new version of the timetable
  - Has been updated
- Plan for a week off before coming back for next teaching year (September-ish), to relax before even more work
  - Didn't discuss
- Edinburgh itinerary to be emailed to group
  - Completed
- Create an informal talk/presentation for the Edinburgh trip, we will run through this either on the Thursday meeting, or on an extra Friday meeting - this should contain some, but not too much technical detail, eg genes.
  - Completed - presentation was given to participants of the iGem 2009 UK team get-together
- Phil to be added to the mailing list
  - An administrator of the mailing list needs to do this if not done already

Thoughts and ideas from iGem UK get-together
- Need to write up about ethics and social implications of project and synthetic biology
  - Awaiting e-mail from Edinburgh University regarding ideas and thoughts generated from the discussion activity
- Need to write up a report of the Edinburgh trip
  - James has written a few paragraphs which has been posted onto the internal wiki
- Add photos and presentation to the wiki
  - Ongoing

Any questions or concerns
- Ask about MatLab
- Ask about Sequentia tutorial
- Ask about uploading information onto external wiki

20 – 21 June 2009 - Europe workshop (London)
23 – 24 June 2009 - UK iGEM meetup (Edinburgh)
23 October Practice Presentation (Newcastle)
23 October T-shirts are ready
27 October Practice Presentation (Sunderland)
27 October Poster is ready
30 October – 2 November 2009 - Jamboree (Boston)