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Revision as of 22:14, 30 July 2016

Our weekly progress. For a list of our protocols, visit the Protocols page

Week 1: May 23 - May 27

Wet Lab Dry Lab
  • Brainstorm genetic circuits for a thallium sensor
  • Lab safety training

Week 2: May 31 - June 3

Wet Lab

Cell-Free Extract

Dry Lab
  • Contact museums and summer programs for outreach opportunities
  • Lab safety training

Week 3: June 6 - June 12

Wet Lab

Reporter

  • Transform T7 promoter, amilCP, and terminator
  • Begin assembly by ligating linearized T7 promoter and amilCP
Dry Lab
  • Contact museums and summer programs for outreach opportunities

Week 4: June 13 - June 17

Wet Lab

Reporter

  • Transform T7-GFP plasmid, lacZ alpha fragment, and eGFP
  • Send promising T7 promoter -- amilCP ligations to be sequenced
  • Perform double digest of T7 promoter and terminator from last week
  • Ligate double-digested T7 promoter to new reporters (lacZ and eGFP)
Dry Lab
  • TECBio, DiSCoBio, and Tissue Engineering Camp outreach opportunities set

Week 5: June 20 - June 26

Wet Lab

Cell-Free Extract

  • Reaction volume can be reduced to 5 μL with 5 ng/μL of DNA

Toehold Switch

  • Collins triggers activate the switches (both in plasmid form) to express LacZ

Reporter

  • Ligate T7 promoter -- amilCP construct to terminator
  • Extract successful ligations of T7 promoter to eGFP
  • Ligate T7 promoter -- eGFP construct to terminator
Dry Lab
  • Reach out to teams to collaborate based on last year's projects

Week 6: June 27 - July 3

Wet Lab

Cell-Free Extract

  • Reaction volume can be reduced to 1 μL with 5 ng/μL of DNA

Toehold Switch

  • Collins plasmids express LacZ with 25 ng of switch
  • DNA oligos trigger Collins switches

Reporter

  • Identify successful ligations to terminator for amilCP and eGFP consturcts using a gel
  • Send correct plasmids for sequencing for confirmation
  • Test plasmids in cell-free extract
  • amilCP does not produce color in cell-free reaction
  • eGFP produces fluorescence comparable to that from the Collins T7-GFP plasmid in cell-free reaction
  • Linearized plasmids containing only the promoter and insert (no terminator) do not express protein
Dry Lab
  • Work on outreach presentation for tissue engineering camp

Week 7: July 5 - July 8

Wet Lab

Cell-Free Extract

  • 384-well plate requires at least 10 μL of reaction

DNAzyme

  • Anneal PO strand with catalytic strand, both with and without erbium
  • Test success of annealing reaction in cell-free extract and with acrylamide gels

Reporter

  • Sequenced amilCP construct does not contain amilCP
  • Unsuccessfully linearize and amplify eGFP construct using PCR
Dry Lab
  • Practice outreach presentation for tissue engineering camp
  • Develop DNAzymes for other heavy metals

Week 8: July 11 - July 17

Wet Lab

Cell-Free Extract

  • Linear eGFP construct does not produce a stronger signal than its plasmid form

DNAzyme

  • DNAzyme duplex does not trigger toehold switch
  • Erbium cleaves the P substrate strand

Reporter

  • Restart amilCP cloning process
Dry Lab
  • First presentation at Camp BioE
  • Prepare for UMD Mid-Atlantic Meet-Up
  • Contact PLSG and NEB for sponsorship

Week 9: July 18 - July 22

Wet Lab

Cell-Free Extract

  • Reactions can be diluted by one-half and still produce visible results in two hours

DNAzyme

  • dPAGE assay of P substrate cleavage suggests that the DNAzyme works, but results are not definitive
  • Six-hour time course of cleavage does not yield much additional information
  • Reaction temperature (room temperature versus 37°C) does not produce observable effect on cleavage rates

Reporter

  • Continue amilCP cloning process
  • Clone RBS-T3 RNA polymerase to add into other constructs
Dry Lab
  • Presentation at Camp BioE
  • UMD Mid-Atlantic Meet-Up
  • Continue fundraising
  • Discuss systems to model