Dundee Schools

Attributions

Throughout our project we have received support and help from a whole variety of people, and we would like to extend our gratitude to everyone involved.

We would like to thank Prof. Frank Sargent, Prof. Tracy Palmer and Prof. Fordyce Davidson, who made this amazing opportunity became a reality by putting our team together and securing both that oh-so-crucial funding and a place in which to work that allowed us to take part in iGEM. They have also aided greatly by guiding us through various aspects of our project, ranging from the biology behind it to maths modelling.

A big thank you to our amazing advisors Fatima Ulhuq, Alex Finney and John Allan, who all helped us tremendously with teaching us how to work in a lab, as well as guiding us through our project. Big thanks also to our other advisor Lucas J. Morales Moya, who taught us maths modelling from scratch and could always find time in which to help us with it.

The same to the Dundee University collegiate team for working alongside us and always being on hand to help out, as well as for being fun to spend breaks with.

We would also like to give a big thank you to:

• Erin Stanbridge, Division Secretary - for always helping to organise everything and anything, including train journeys and flights. Oh, and that beautifully stocked stationary cupboard *wipes tear*.
• Dr Jackie Heilbronn, Lab Manager - for teaching us all of the lab safety protocols and making sure we stayed safe.
• Dr Grant Buchanan for teaching us a lot about microbiology, providing help, giving us samples of Serratia marcescens and E. coli gDna, and for making us laugh with his jokes.
We would also like to thank the Sarah Coulthurst lab for providing us with Serratia Db10 gDNA.
• IT Department of Dundee University for providing us with access to the Uni network, which allowed us to do a lot of work (and access to free wifi, for super important researching and Pokémon hunting reasons).
• Central Technical Services of Dundee University for providing us with clean and sterilised equipment, as well as various media used in our project.
• MRC PPU DNA Sequencing and Services, for giving us free sequence runs.
• The Garland Café in the Life Sciences building, for making dem gewd bacon rolls and for keeping Darryl alive on Monday mornings with coffee.
• Olawale Raimi for providing us with Rhamnose in a crucial moment where we ran out.
• Brian Walshe from the charity Mercy Ships, for not ignoring us and for referring us to Rob Porter.
• Rob Porter, Consultant of Microbiology and Infection - for giving us a lot of detailed feedback on our initial ideas/plans, as well as raising excellent questions that helped shape our project.

Individual Attributions: Wet Team

Albert Brown

Throughout my summer, I mostly worked in the lab. With the guidance of the advisors John, Alex and Fatima, I was able to learn a lot about working there, and have been able to carry things out independently when required (such as cloning or further producing our final constructs). The Dundee collegiate wet team members aided greatly in learning the initial ways of how I should go about doing my work; I was also particularly helped by John when performing experiments with the constructs to see if our OsmY-Hfq fusion was being secreted.

Bartosz Witkowski

Throughout our 8 weeks of iGEM, I worked mainly in the labs to do cloning and experiments. With the help of our lab advisers, John, Fatima and Alex, I was involved in the cloning of our BioBricks and further characterisation by doing experiments such as western blots. I also helped with successfully cloning the spiRNA and working on the motility assays. During the early stages of our lab work I was also helped a lot by the Dundee Undergraduate iGEM Team as they showed me how to carry out basic procedures and how to use a pipette. When I wasn’t working in the lab I was working on the wiki content and the presentation.

Matthew Simmons

I have mostly only worked in the lab; with the help of the lab advisors, I was able to put all my efforts into producing our secretion system, which secreted the fusion construct we cloned with help from Bartek, Albert and Mia. Thanks to them I was able to learn a lot on how to do various procedures in order to produce our construct. In the beginning of the summer the Undergraduate Dundee iGEM team greatly helped me develop the skills needed to finish this project and taught me a lot from their experience to not repeat their mistakes; such as always labelling all the tubes.

Individual Attributions: Dry Team

Mia Wood

So that we could get everything done my work was split half and half between the dry team and the wet team. In the lab I did a lot of work in making the initial construct and performing the tests on it with the help of John, Fatima and Alex. Working together with the rest of my team in the lab made it very enjoyable and allowed me to depend on others while helping them when needed. When I wasn’t working in the lab I would work with Beth on Human Practices and the Outreach contacting various specialists to get their insight on our project. I also worked on the maths modelling with Beth, Bartek, and Darryl, with the help of Lucas, and Prof. Fordyce Davidson.

Beth Rear

Throughout my summer I was mostly focused on being part of the dry lab, as well as involving myself in maths modelling with Lucas and Prof. Fordyce Davidson. I was mostly focused on the Outreach and the Human Practices working together with Mia. Once that was done I started working on our presentation and poster together with the rest of the team. However I would sometimes attend the lab to help out with any work needed to be done in particular the experiments in the final stages of the project.

Darryl Sime

During summer I took of up the job of creating the team’s wiki. With little prior knowledge of coding I decided to teach myself as well as seek guidance from the advisors and Chris Nelis from the Undergraduate Dundee iGEM team who were able to help me during critical times.

Lastly we, the 2016 Dundee Schools Team, would like to give a big thank you to everyone in the Life Sciences' Molecular Microbiology Department, who were always very kind and helpful in all situations.