Team:Waterloo/Attributions

Attributions

Introduction

Our project was the product of a number of people’s contributions and hard work. On this page we would like to acknowledge the efforts of our team, advisors, supporters and the like. Each and everyone of these people and groups were integral additions to the Waterloo iGEM 2016 project.

2016 Team Members Idea and Project Development

This year we conducted our project brainstorming and development in 3 parts to incorporate the entire team. Since our team consisted of 34 students we decided to first narrow down our potential projects amongst the project director and 4 sub-team leads in February. Through internal brainstorming among our leads team, the first iteration of our “OFF to PriON” project was established.

The foundation of the project idea was then further developed in the second phase of our brainstorming with the rest of the students on our team in early March (click here to learn more about our team). Our team consists of students in programs ranging from biochemistry to nanotechnology who each brought a number of perspectives and knowledge bases.

The third phase of our development consisted of detailed design of the execution of our project which consisted of experimental design, modeling potential and human practices research. The bulk of the project design phase ended in May with ongoing modifications made throughout the season as necessary. Execution of these plans began in June and continued on until late September. The project itself was developed independently by the students on the Waterloo iGEM 2016 team and executed throughout the summer with support in the following areas.

2016 Team Advisors

We were very fortunate to have 7 advisors this year for our team ranging from disciplines in applied mathematics and sociology to molecular biology. The following advisors offered valuable feedback and knowledge to our team throughout the entire 2016 iGEM season from the start of our project to its completion.

Dr. Trevor Charles: Professor - Biology

Forbes Burkowski: Associate Professor Emeritus - Computer Science

Dr. Barbara Moffatt: Professor - Biology

Dr. John McLevey: Assistant Professor - Knowledge Integration

Dr. Andrew Doxey: Assistant Professor - Biology

Dr. Brian Ingalls: Associate Professor - Applied Mathematics

Dr. Marc Aucoin: Associate Professor - Chemical Engineering

Wet Lab Support
  1. Protocols and Equipment Access
    • Dr. Laura Marrone: provided guidance with fluorescence data collection and access to various other lab equipment
    • Dr. Brian Ingalls: provided free access to his flow cytometer necessary for the parts characterization sub-project, and for enabling us to sequence our samples.
    • Angel Nguyen: provided guidance in operating the flow cytometer.
    • Dr. David R. Rose and Dr. Marcie Chaudet: provided access to consumables and reagents
  2. Yeast Culturing and Maintenance
    • Dr. Moira Glerum: provided us with yeast strains and culturing material.
    • Dr. Bernie Duncker and Larasati: provided us with yeast strains and protocols.
  3. Construct Development
    • Dr. Jiujung Cheng and and Dr. John Heil: provided guidance in cloning experiment troubleshooting
  4. General
    • Maya D’Alessio: provided support with laboratory management
    • Dr. Marc Aucoin: assistance with the analysis of flow cytometry data for the parts characterization, as well as suggestions for further experiments.
    • Dr. Trevor Charles: provided Waterloo iGEM with its own lab and office to grow and develop such ambitious projects.
    • Dr. Barbara Moffatt: provided much needed assistance with re-organizing our lab finances early on in May
Modelling Support
  1. Aggregation Modelling
    • John Drake: provided ongoing guidance and troubleshooting to the implementation of this model; a truly valuable mentor
    • Dr. Forbes Burkowski: Providing guidance towards modelling choices early in the year, recommended papers for obtaining parameters
  2. Plasmid Loss
    • Dr. Ingalls: Provided feedback on the model throughout the year, suggested lab experiments that would allow us to make a data-driven model
  3. Network Modelling
    • Dr. John McLevey: Guidance on the type of models that are generally applied on data like ours and validation of our methods
  4. General
    • John Drake: Guidance on the topic and direction of math’s projects at the beginning of the year and feedback on modelling choices throughout the year. Provided considerable time and effort towards the selection of new members for the math team.
    • Robert Gooding-Townsed: feedback on some of the modelling choices this year. Provided considerable time and effort towards the selection of new members for the math team.
    • James Hawley: Provided considerable time and effort towards the selection of new members for the math team. Offered valuable administrative guidance.
    • Dr. Brian Ingalls: Provided valuable mentorship
    • Dr. Andrew Doxey
Policy and Practices Support
  1. Networks
    • Dr. John McLevey: Guidance on relevant literature and concepts to consider in our project and validation of our methods
  2. Open Science Paper
    • Kruti Patel: co-authoring the open science paper and giving permission to submit for iGEM.
    • Hannah James: co-authoring the open science paper and giving permission to submit for iGEM.
    • Robert Gooding-Townsend: editing the open science paper.
  3. SYNBIO101
    • 2013 Paris-Bettencourt iGEM: creating content used in presentation.
    • Sam Hirniak: helping design the SYNBIO101 workshop.
    • Peivand Sadatmousavi: helping conduct SYNBIO101 workshops.
    • Erin Laidley: helping conduct SYNBIO101 workshops.
  4. General
    • Dr. Elizabeth Meiering: agreeing to an interview and providing her perspective on the impact of our project in the research community.
    • Linda Yang: provided considerable time and effort towards the selection of new members for the policy team.
    • Lisa Wong: provided considerable time and effort towards the selection of new members for the policy team.
    • Suzie Alexander: provided considerable time and effort towards the selection of new members for the policy team.
    • Nadine Haymour: provided considerable time and effort towards the selection of new members for the policy team.
Outreach Support
  1. Synbio Workshops
    • Women in STEM University Group- WiSTEM: Collaborated with us to advertise and conduct workshops open to University of Waterloo community
  2. SHAD VALLEY
    • Jenn Coggan -Nanotechnology Instructor/ Undergrad Lab Co-ordinator: provided us with laboratory space in the Quantum Nano Centre to conduct our laboratory workshops with the high school students
    • Karen Miinch: For her assistance in providing safety material for SHAD Valley outreach event in the Spring Term.
    • Kim Boucher: co-ordinating and supporting the Shad Valley workshop.
    • 2016 William and Mary iGEM: sharing the latest copy of their synthetic biology curriculum and giving permission to include it in our Shad Valley workshop.
Business Support
  1. Account Bookkeeping
    • Bill Lin: Generated framework for organizing iGEM accounting bookkeeping and maintained books for 2016 season
  2. iGEM Account Host
    • Jennifer Lehman -Managed our Biology Department account throughout the iGEM 2016 season
General Acknowledgments
  1. Presentation Practice
    • Ontario iGEM Teams -OGEM: Provided presentation feedback
    • Canadian Society of Microbiologists -CSM: provided opportunity and platform for Ontario iGEM teams to practice the presentation of their projects
    • American Society of Microbiologists -ASM: Through the initiative of Dr. Trevor Charles, provided Ontario iGEM teams with the financial support necessary to present at the Canadian Society of Microbiologist Conference in June
  2. Wiki
    • Cody Receno: main facilitator to the wiki development, design and also conducted workshops to train team members in the transfer of content onto the wiki
  3. Logo Design
    • Laura Vaughan: Laura created the design for our project logo this year