Funding
We are very grateful for financial support from Stanford University REU, Stanford VPUE Grant for Undergraduate Research, Brown University UTRA, NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate Early Innovation, Ames Chief Technologist Office, NASA Ames Center Investment Fund, and the Rhode Island Space Grant.
Project Support and Advice
Thank you to our advisors! Especially Trevor who was always there for us even on those late nights.
All experiments were conducted by the team members and all images are originally created unless otherwise noted. List of sub-project attributions:
• Collagen/Elastin: Charles Gleason, Anna Le, Eric Liu
• p-Aramid: Eric Liu, Anna Le, Charles Gleason
• Latex: Gordon Sun, Taylor Sihavong, Elias Robinson
• Nylon: Charles Gleason, Anna Le, Eric Liu
• UV Protection: Elias Robinson, Michael Becich
• Gas Production: Taylor Sihavong
• Chromoproteins: Cynthia Hale-Philips, Theresa Sievert
• Fluorophore-Quencher: Michael Becich
• IRES: Julia Gross, Amy Weissenbach
• Aptamer Purification: Amy Weissenbach, Julia Gross, Michael Becich
Wiki Architect
Taylor Pullinger (with support from former team member, Forrest Tran)Graphics Design
Taylor Sihavong, Taylor PullingerHuman Practices Liason
Amy WeissenbachModeling/Software
Gordon Sun, Eric Liu, Michael BecichFunctional Nucleic Acid Advice
Mark Ditzler, NASA Research Scientist Christina Smolke, Stanford University Associate Professor of Bioengineering
Melanin Production Metabolic Engineering
Guillermo Gosset, Departamento de Ingeniería Celular y Biocatálisis, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoProtein Extraction Advice
Jesica NavarreteMicroscopy Instruction
Ivan Paulino-LimaGeneral Lab Instruction/Troubleshooting
Trevor! KalkusGriffin McCutcheon
Ryan Kent
Kosuke Fujishima
Jesica Navarette
Kara Rogers
We appreciate all the people involved in helping make a successful iGEM team!
We would like to thank Dr. Lynn Rothschild, Dr. Kara Rogers, Dr. Gary Wessel, Dr. Kosuke Fujishima, Dr. Ivan Paulino-Lima, Dr. Mark Ditzler, Griffin McCutcheon, Trevor! Kalkus, Ryan Kent, Jesica Navarrete, Simon Vecchioni, Jim Head, Jill Tartar, Margaret Race, and Maria Chavez.
Company Sponsors
Team Training and Project Start
Stanford University is well equipped for synthetic biology work, as an undergraduate Bioengineering program with several lab courses exists in full force. Brown University offers a Synthetic Biology Course every other year taught by Gary Wessel. We alternated between using Dr. Lynn Rothschild's lab at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the open-resource Uytengsu Teaching Center in Stanford's Shriram Center for Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering. Most of the members on the Stanford side of the team became acquainted with bioengineering lab work through BIOE44 (Fundamentals for Engineering Biology Lab). This course is generally taken as a sophomore, and some of our team members took it during the fall quarter of 2015-2016 (9/21/2015-12/11/2015). Materials for this course, such as the syllabus, are readily available online: here is an example from 2014.
Our team brainstorms and cross-continental team Skype sessions in March 2016, where we stitched together rough subprojects and the overall theme of bioballoon. Our work in the lab did not start until late May 2016, when the Brown students ended their spring semester and travelled to California to work with the Stanford side in person. Stanford students got to lab after finishing their spring quarter in late June. All projects were begun by the Brown students, and ended by the Stanford students during the regular school year as the Jamboree approached.
Our team brainstorms and cross-continental team Skype sessions in March 2016, where we stitched together rough subprojects and the overall theme of bioballoon. Our work in the lab did not start until late May 2016, when the Brown students ended their spring semester and travelled to California to work with the Stanford side in person. Stanford students got to lab after finishing their spring quarter in late June. All projects were begun by the Brown students, and ended by the Stanford students during the regular school year as the Jamboree approached.