Brown:March142006
From 2006.igem.org
Contents |
Meeting Minutes for March 14, 2006
Assignment of roles
Community Maker - Nick, Megan
Notetaker/Organizer (Secretary) - Angela
Journal Club Coordinator - Elena
Fundraising/PR
- Julie: Fundraising, Sheldon
- Brendan: PR
- Elaine: helping both
Faculty Liaison - Victoria
Wiki Development - Peter
Research - Annie, Sheldon
"Benevolent Dictator" =) - John
Commercialization Potential (patents, etc)
Industry Laison
We have lab space in JWW!!!
Meeting Minutes for March 21, 2006
Present: John, Kara, Angela, Annie, Jessie, Peter, Brendan, Katherine, Victoria, Meghan
Journal Club Presentation
Construction of a Genetic Toggle Switch in E. Coli
by Victoria and Meghan
- purpose: to integrate theory and experiment by constructing and testing a synthetic, bistable gene circuit (Toggle switch) based on the predictions of a simple mathematical model
- integrate (mathetic) theory and (biology) experiment
- mathematical models supposed to predict how much transcribed, testing expected outcomes
- took a switch that self-regulates and has inducer (heat, chemical) that starts
- prediction was wrong due to gene variability
- simplest, as few reagents as possible better
- specialized promoters
- ribozyme binding sites, harnessed in plasmid; ensure that they are turned into proteins individually
- genetic engineering (memory device) insert into something that you would want to be turned on for a long time
- registry of biological parts at MIT; biological switch, wire linked together (electronic diagramà biological diagram
2005 iGEM project summaries:
UCSF: Kara; genetic circuit of bacteria to respond to temperature gradient, analog vs. digital
Toronto: Angela; Cell See-Us Thermometer and Bacterial Etch-a-Sketch; used mRFP and GFP didn’t have a result
Berkeley: John; cell-cell communicator, send out genomes to other bacteria via a specific pore (channel) and the other bacteria would send something back when it received that message
Harvard: Peter; bio-sketch; use UV pen to write on bacteria, use GFP mutation as reporter; not so much a toggle switch as a one way switch; used heat to “erase”; didn’t work
Caltech: Annie; detect caffeine in solution; YFP and GFP high concentration of caffeine would repress GFP and YFP would glow; if decaf, YFP would be repressed and GFP would grow; if medium, then both would be present.
ACTIONS
- Victoria will go to SAO to get info about table for ADOCH
- possibly also a web page/link to Brown iGEM
- have a site for prospective students to see who we are, as well as our contact info
- also, for everyone: think of ways to gain more attention
- Everyone: create a section on the wiki for the category you are overseeing
- Create a community portal:
- serve as a site that can be linked possibly from admissions page
- emphasizing that we are cross-disciplinary undergraduates performing research at Brown University, even several freshmen involved
- have our slightly more colorful biolographical infos attached
- Possible ideas for our project?
- Victoria/Megan doing the Journal Club presentation next week.
