Team:TU Delft/Attributions

iGEM TU Delft

Attributions

Team Attributions

We all worked really hard on our project and credits go to our entire team.

Carmen

Policy and Practice Manager

As Policy and Practice manger it was my task to “connect” our product to the real world. I was responsible for finding applications for our project. One of those applications, the micro lens arrays as encapsulation layer for solar panels, appeared to be commercially very interesting and I have written a business plan about this application therefore. Furthermore, I have been in contact with multiple researchers, managers and scientists to discuss and improve our project. Together with Lara, I have worked on a report about iGEM and I think we found some interesting ways to improve iGEM even further. Furthermore, I really enjoyed working with Iris on the Safety tool we have developed in collaboration with the RIVM. Eventually, I have presented the tool during the RIVM and Rathneau event. Next to this event we contributed to multiple other events and it was my responsibility to organize this. Additionally, I have supported Liza with the modeling and I also made the final presentation together with Charlotte.

Célina

Public Relations Manager

As PR manager my function was managing contact with the community. Therefore I placed weekly updates on the Facebook and started a LinkedIn page for the team. I went a few times to our communication advisors of the TU Delft, Wendy Dallinga and Lenny Bakker. They helped me with creating a press release. I also managed to get articles on different websites, magazines and newspapers. For policy and practice I made a little start in looking into how to optimize teamwork within a team. For the wet lab, I helped a few times, such as doing colony PCR, ligation and transformation.

Charlotte

Hardware, Graphics and Safety Manager

My first task was being the hardware manager. For this task I have approached a great amount of optics and photonics companies and requested sponsoring, discounts or borrowing equipment that was required for building the optical setup. Once all equipment was collected I was responsible for building the optical setup and testing our cells in it. Furthermore, I was responsible for conducting all wide field and confocal microscopy experiments, together with Liza. My second responsibility was being graphics manager. Here my main task was designing and making the posters and presentations. Furthermore, this task included designing and making the logo, figures and all outreach materials for the team, as well as making sure that all data fom our experiments is represented in a clear and professional way. Lastly, I was the safety manager of the team. This means I wrote the research proposal for our project including all safety considerations and handed in all the iGEM safety forms. It was my responsibility that all ML-1 safety measures were met. Besides my managing functions, I also made and did the final presentation, helped out in the lab, did a little modeling and arranged some conversations with experts for policy & practice.

Giannis

Team Leader

As a team leader I was responsible for the organizational aspects of the project. This means I had to find places for the team to stay and dine in Boston, arrange the registration of the team members and mentors for the Jamboree, communicate with headquarters with problems we had, but also more day-to-day chores such as chairing the weekly meetings and reminding the team about deadlines, and creating weekly updates for the advisors. Additionally, I was involved in the modeling part of the project with Liza. As a modeler I firstly created scattering models for thin films to define the reflectivity depending from the refractive indices, thickness, wavelength and angle, and later, models of electromagnetic waves interaction with the biological microlenses to determine the scattering pattern and any focusing and Eigen modes model for the laser part of the project.

Iris

General Team Member

I contributed to various subtopics of the iGEM project. I have mainly been involved in the safety and risk management related topics, a part of policy and practice. I am largely responsible for the implementation of general safe-by-design strategies in the shape of a safety tool. Carmen, our policy and practice manager, and I designed and created the software for this tool. In addition, I have contributed to the lab work, expecially in the first phases of the project.

Lara

Finance Manager

As the finance manager I was first of all responsible for the external collaborations and communications. Getting in touch with companies and other stakeholders to receive funds and enthuse them about our project. Besides taking care of all funding, I also was the treasurer of our team, tracking our budget closely. Furthermore, as part of the core labteam, I have spent a lot of time in the wetlab making our constructs and characterizing them. At last, I also made a significant contribution to the policy and practice by cowriting our strategyreport and the organization of several outreach events.

Liza

Modeling Manager

As a modeling manager I was responsible for making models underlying the work of the lab team. In order to create these models a good understanding of the physics was required and therefore I also have studied a lot of physics concepts. Therefore I also talked with experts. With my knowledge of the underlying physics I also assisted and advised the lab team. Furtheremore I have helped Charlotte with building the optical setup. I also was involved in characterizing the lasing in both the optical setup we build as the microscoppe of the university. Furtheremore I made Transmission microscopy images of the vesicles of the Wageningen team and of our silica covered cells.

Lycka

Science Manager

As science manager I closely collaborated with the lab manager, María. Our first task was to design all of the biobricks, which we did after a period of literature research. Subsequently, we were the ones spending most time in the lab, working on the cloning and helping out less experienced team members. It was my responsibility to troubleshoot together with María and the advisors, when experiments did not work out as expected. Furthermore, I designed experiments to characterize our biobricks according to literature. When I was not working in the lab, I helped Liza modelling the laser threshold.

María

Lab Manager

My role as a lab manager was to make sure that everything in the lab was ready (equipment, protocols...). Also, I have worked together with Lycka in the science and experimental design of the wet lab part of the project. At the beginning it would be us two in charge of figuring out everything we needed and how it worked and then passed it on to the rest of the core lab team members to be able to work as fast and efficiently as possible.

Tessa

Wiki Manager

As Wiki Manager my first and foremost responsibility was the design and content of the wiki. I designed our wiki according to our house style, created by Charlotte, and I uploaded most of the files. I also reminded others to write pieces for on the wiki, so I could create a page around it. What I really enjoined about being the Wiki Manger is the fact that it was my responsibility to make all the pages both clear and look nice. Therefore, I discussed with every Manger extensively how their page should look like and in that way I was always partly involved in all the parts of our project. Besides this I also spend a lot of time in the lab helping with the cloning of our biobricks and I worked on the InterLab study. I also went to modeling meetings and I helped Carmen with the policy & practise when I had the time.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the people who helped us with our experiments or provided us with parts for our hardware setup or knowledge. We would also especially like to thank our advisors for their help and feedback throughout the entire project.

Advisors

  • Timon Idema for supervising the modeling and being the head advisor.
  • Anne Meyer for providing us with weekly feedback and tips.
  • Esengül Yildirim for giving the lab workshop, for supervising and helping with the lab, and for being there for us whenever we needed her.
  • Dominik Schmieden for answering all of our many labwork related questions and for giving the wiki workshop, the SnapGene workshop and the presentation workshop.
  • Jorine Eeftens for helping our with the hardware and for giving the brainstorm workshop and the leadership workshop.
  • Helena Schomar Monges for helping us out in the lab and giving the policy and practice workshop.
  • Greg Bokinsky for advising us and for giving tips on cloning.
  • Executive board of directors for financial support of our efforts.

Lab support

  • Jeremie Capoulade, Head of the microscopy facility of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for helping us with microscopy experiments.
  • Susanne Hage, Wetlab coordinator of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for providing us with labs and a lot of practical help.
  • Marinka Almering, Biosafety officer TU Delft of the Faculty of applied sciences, TU Delft for helping us with our research proposal.
  • Robbert Kleerebezem and Dmitry Sorokin of the Department of Biotechnology, TU Delft for providing us with information about PHB visualisation.
  • Mariana Velasco Alvarez and Aljoscha Wahl of the Department of Biotechnology, TU Delft for providing us with information about PHB production in E. coli.
  • Allard Katan of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for helping us with AFM measurements.
  • Vanessa Ribeiro de Carvalho of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for helping with preparing TEM samples.
  • Yoones Kabiri of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for helping with Transmission electron microscopy experiments.

Human Practices

  • Emma Verver & Pierre-Emmanuel Monet from Nikon Europe for the interview at Nikon and a tour through the facilities.
  • Ronald van Dijk from Olympus for the interview and visit to Olympus.
  • Stefaan Heirman from the Photovoltaic Materials and Devices Research Group, TU Delft for helping us with the Solar Simulator Experiments and Spectroscopy.
  • Arno Smets from the Photovoltaic Materials and Devices Research Group, TU Delft for helping with arranging the Solar Simulator Experiments.
  • Joost Mathot and Justin Kok from Delft Enterprises for helping with the business plan.
  • Korienke Smit from the Centre for Safety of Substances and Products (RIVM) for guiding us through the safe-by-design assignment of the RIVM.

Hardware

  • Margreet Docter of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft For providing us with an optical lab and a lot of components for our optical setup.
  • Elio Abbondanzieri, assistant professor of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for providing us with optical parts and equipment.
  • Roozbeh Shokri from Thorlabs for providing us with help and donating a lot of optical parts.
  • Marco Lentjes from Coherent for extensive help on finding a suitable laser for our project and lending one.
  • Yusef Maarouf from Deltapix for providing us with a CCD camera.
  • Pieter Kramer from Laser2000 for helping to find optical parts and providing us with a function generator.

Modeling

  • Daniel Nascimento-Duplat and Ying Tang, Ph.D Students from Optica – Optics Research Group of ImPhys – Department of Imaging Physics, TU Delft for debugging our COMSOL models and using CST software.
  • Ewold Verhagen, Scientific group leader of the Center for Nanophotonics, FOM Institute AMOLF for helping with eigenmodes modeling in COMSOL and interpreting the results.
  • Florian Bociort of the Departement of Imaging Physics, TU Delft for giving an explanation of optics at the beginning of our project.
  • Nandini Bhattacharya of the Departement of Imaging Physics, TU Delft for helping with characterizing the lenses.
  • Aurèle Adam of the Departement of Imaging Physics, TU Delft for helping with understanding of microlenses.

Fundraising and Finance

  • Aljoscha Wahl of the Department of Biotechnology, TU Delft for helping us get in touch with numerous companies.
  • Angela de Ceuninck van Capelle, Management support staff of the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for helping in logistics and funding.
  • Stefania Usai, Program manager at the Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for helping in funding and especially creating an elevator pitch.
  • Our sponsors for financial support.

Public Relations

  • Wendy Dallinga and Lenny Bakker of the Communication Department, TU Delft for helping us write the press releases.
  • Michel van Baal, Press officer of the TU Delft for giving a media training.

Others

  • Lesley Robertson, TU Delft for providing us with an Antoni van Leeuwenhoek microscope.
  • Jolijn Leeuwenburgh and Amanda van der Vlist Secretary of Department of Bionanoscience, TU Delft for helping in logistics.