Styczynski Lab at Georgia Tech

Our iGEM team got the idea for our project from the Styczinski Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Styczinski and his graduate students are currently working on making a zinc biosensor, but are experiencing problems with overexpression of pigments. This inspired us to characterize the strength of degradation tags and ultimately rectify this issue.

In addition, Professor Styczinski has been a mentor and advisor to us. He has met with us multiple times to revise our project and troubleshoot issues. He has also generously provided materials that a high school lab does not have access to, and has periodically allowed us use of his lab. We could not have completed our project without this collaboration!

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

In order to further understand the impact of our project, we discussed micronutrients with Dr. Ralph Whitehead, a scientist from the CDC. We asked questions about micronutrient deficiencies in multiple regions around the globe. The insightful answers gave a better understanding of the micronutrient problems that plague different areas. We further discussed the specific process of blood analysis for micronutrient amounts and other organizations that are also working on the developing a household indicator for blood analysis. We also touched on the CDC’s specific process for blood analysis in targeted areas.

New England Biolabs Representative (Algae Presentation): Chris Cook

In the spring, a representative from New England Biolabs, Chris Cook, came to our school to discuss restriction enzymes and other products that we use in our lab. The presentation was helpful not only on the scientific side, but he also discussed career opportunities beyond a research lab.

Alverno California and CAPS_Kansas

Our team collaborated with Alverno Heights Academy, a fellow high school iGEM team in California, and the CAPS Kansas iGEM Team. We set up a video call with them and discussed our project as well as helped them with understanding the iGEM Jamboree, and emailed multiple times back and forth, answering questions about the process of competing in iGEM and various requirements for Jamboree.

Georgia State University

We collaborated with the Georgia State iGEM team in order to host our booth at the Maker Faire Atlanta. Members of GSU iGEM volunteered at the event and discussed their project with us during the breaks. They also generously donated materials we needed for our activities and were greatly helpful. We could not have hosted our booth without them!

Lambert Engineering Department: David Park

In order to make our lightbox device, we collaborated with the engineering department at our school. A member of that department, David Park, helped adjust our existing blueprints and allowed us to use his 3-D printer. In addition, David also helped troubleshoot when we had problems assembling the lightbox and gave us ideas to improve future versions of it.