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 Fatima, John and Alex, 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 advisors, 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 collegiate team as they showed me how to carry out basic procedures and the art of using a pipette. When I wasn’t in the lab I was working on the wiki content, the presentation or learning some of the concepts behind maths modelling.

Matthew Simmons

I worked mostly in the lab; with the help of the lab advisors, I put most of my time into producing our secretion system, which secreted the fusion construct cloned with help from Bartosz, Albert and Mia. Thanks to them, I was able to learn a lot on how to do the various procedures required to produce our construct. In the beginning of the summer the Dundee collegiate team greatly helped me develop the skills needed, and from their experience I have learned not to repeat their mistakes - such as not labelling test tubes.

Individual Attributions: Dry Team

Mia Wood

So that we could get everything done, my time was split 50/50 between the dry and wet teams (wiki coder note: we include her as an honorary dry team member anyway for a satisfyingly even split. Also since it's the better 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 us to help each other and share our knowledge. When I wasn’t in the lab I would be working with Beth and Darryl on human practices/outreach, contacting various specialists to get their insight into our project. I also worked on the maths modelling with Beth, Bartosz, and Darryl, with the help of Lucas and Prof. Fordyce Davidson. Special shout-out to Fatima for driving me home in time for the Great British Bake Off after being in the lab until late.

Beth Rear

Throughout our project I was mostly part of the dry team, involving myself in maths modelling with help from Lucas and Prof. Fordyce Davidson. I was also focused on the human practices aspect of our project, working together with Mia and Darryl to develop this. Once that was done, I started working on our presentation and poster together with the rest of the team. (She may be a technophobe, but most of the lovely diagrams you see throughout our wiki and on presentation slides were by her and her unexpected Powerpoint prowess). However, I would occasionally be found in the lab helping out with any work to be done, particularly towards the final stages of the project.

Darryl Sime

During our project, I took on the job of coding/bringing together the team’s wiki. With limited prior knowledge of HTML and CSS, I decided to teach myself them using Codecademy, W3Schools, and the wonders of Google. When I hit a snag, I'd also seek guidance when needed from John, or Chris Nelis from the Dundee collegiate team. I also worked on human practices with Mia and Beth, plus a bit of maths modelling with them and Bartosz, guided by Lucas and Dyce. Big big thank you also to Ummi Jameel from the Dundee team, who provided some of the graphics you see on our wiki (team and F.B.I. logos, orange bacteria mascots), and was always there to advise with making good graphic design choices. Also for attempting to get good team photos of us (it didn't really work out).

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.