Team:UGent Belgium/Notebook

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General notebook

February

  • February 29:
    • Application for iGEM is sent
    • A team of four master students is assembled under guidance of PI Wim

March

  • March 03: Brainstorming for subjects starts
  • March 24: PI's Marjan and Yves join the team

April

  • April 22: Three subjects are chosen, and a presentation is prepared

May

  • May 03: Our iGEM application is officially accepted
  • May 04: Presentation on possible subjects for PI Wim
  • May 06: Six PhD students and one advisor join our team
  • May 17: First meeting
  • May 31: We have our subject!
    • The work gets divided into four work packages, and team members are assigned

June

  • June 15: Fablab is contacted to be a partner for 3D printing our collector, they accepted
  • June 29: Abstract is written and added to site

July

  • July 07:
    • Our Facebook and Twitter page are live
    • A first draft of a 'sponsor letter' is made
  • July 18: Our stay in America has been booked
  • July 19: Work package 'shape' decides to use Autodesk Fusion 360 to shape the water collector
  • July 22: Prof Dan Fernandez (CSUMB), who makes fog catchers, is interested to work with us

August

  • August 01: First 3D model of water collector prototype: dome with a gutter to collect the water. Printed the first prototype.
    ShapeV1
    ShapeV1Print
  • August 04: New water collector shape with holes to distribute the water.
    ShapeV2
  • August 15: The info video is made and put on the website
  • August 19: We successfully dissolved 0.55g PLA in 8ml DMF at 80-90 deg. C (68.75 g/L) and precipitated it by pouring the solution into room temperature EtOH (disolol, denatured)
  • August 20: Filament precipitated and washed with ethanol (cf. 19/09).
  • August 22: A brainstorm on how to stack the collectors (not geometrically feasible :( ).
    ShapeV2
  • August 30: Our first batch of PLA is delivered. Brainstorming on a new stackable water collector. Only holes on the bottom and top with a cavity under the dome.

September

  • September 01:
    • The first batch of biotin is delivered: the work on the filament can begin!
      Biotin

    • Steven, our advisor, met up with the EPFL team in Lausanne, Switserland. They immediately bonded
      Steven with the Lausanne team
  • September 07: We collaborated with the iGEM Virginia team by filling in their survey
  • September 12: Biotin should be soluble in DMF at 1.7 g/L at least (more at higher temperatures), also in EtOH at 0.8 g/L so be sure to saturate the washing solution as well (see 'Experimental Measurement and Modeling of the Solubility of Biotin in Six Pure Solvents at Temperatures from 298.15 K to 333.85 K' by Su et al.). Solubilising solution for 1.375g PLA: 20 mL DMF + 50 mg biotin (to saturation), Precipitating solution (washing solution is identical): 50 mL EtOH + 40 mg biotin.
  • September 13:
    • We all got to know the EPFL team better, as they conducted a Skype interview with us
      Skype interview Lausanne
    • Dewpal has been chosen as name
    • New version of the water collector designed: stackable and internal water distribution.
  • September 14:
    • We printed three different prototypes of our water collector
    • We scaled the filament up to 10x. A slightly temperature raise was necessary to dissolve the PLA (145°C instead of 130°C on plate). When precipitating in ethanol, a rather glutinous substance was received on top of some big flakes that could be recuperatied: recuperated substance was dried, and ethanol with DMF was stored overnight at room temperature.
  • September 15:
    • Our crowdfunding page is live!
    • The filament sample (cf. 14/09) was decanted and centrifuged (6 falcons). PLA-biotin was harvested (pellet) and was set to dry at 70°C overnight.
  • September 18: We made a temperature and humidity sensor with a Raspberry Pi so we can observe the environment while testing our 3D shape
    Skype interview Lausanne
  • September 20: The water collector without biotin was tested for its water collecting efficiency
  • September 21: We met with Winnie from ReaGent
  • September 23:
    • We met with Deepak from 3dee, who gave us some amazing advice on how to enhance our 3D shape
    • Our filament group went to Timelab to make a batch of filament
      Making filament at Timelab
  • September 24: We made an experimental set up with a humidifier and our temperature and humidity sensor (cf. 15/09) to test the water collection of our shape
    Humidifier set up
  • September 26: We tried our INP: it works!
  • September 29: A logo has been designed. Shape design now includes a screw cap to fit on a plastic bottle.

October

  • October 01: Developed a new 3D design, with an active surface area that is almost 20 times larger than the previous (third) version
    Water collector version 4
  • October 02: New 3D design made by weaving ribbons (let the inner artist go!).
    Water collector version 4
  • October 05: New filament batch: 13.75 g PLA, 1000 mg Biotin in 200 mL DMF. Precipitation solution: 200 mL EtOH, 200 mg biotin, washing solution: 50 mL EtOH, 40 mg biotin.
  • October 07: 3Ders did a press article on our project.
  • October 09: We started coating the water collector with biotin. Solvent with PLA and biotin is poured over the water collector and left to dry under the laminar air cabinet.
    Binding biotin with out water collectors
    Water collector version 4
  • October 10: Digital Trends did a press article on our project
  • October 12: Testing four water collectors with four treatments: INP + INP_NC-mSA2, RFP + INP_NC-mSA2, INP_RC-mSA2 and mGFPuv2-mSA2. Each collector is sawn in half, one half receives a treatment and the other half is the control. The water collectors are placed overnight in the controlled humidified chamber.
    Binding biotin with out water collectors
  • October 13: Another press article, this time by Made in Oost-Vlaanderen
  • October 16:
  • The Chinese press also did an article on our project!
  • October 26: We're off to America!