Team:Tec-Monterrey/Team


iGEM MTY 2015

Team

About the Team

We are a committed group of students who love to do science. We are comprised of students from different majors: biotechnology engineering, design, and computer technology. We also are from across the country, reunited in the same school. We interact and enrich each other’s ideas as we contrast our points of views.

We all started as a group of strangers that during the course of the project ended up as best friends, trusting and knowing each other. We first discovered in each other the interest in synthetic biology, and ended up as more than colleagues. The team was what it was thanks to our various abilities and different personalities. And that is what created this year’s project, the introduction of an insect cell platform to the competition.

Members

Ana Karen T

Mine

Luly

Hiyam

David

Dania

Claudia

Jesús

Chencho

Ana Karen C

Caro

Ale

Alex

Eduardo

Carlos

Escorcely

Evan

Rick

Alberto

Javier

Julio

Lizz

Instructors and advisors

Dr. Manuel Zertuche: Without his support, nothing would’ve been possible. He always believed in the project’s potential and helped us overcome the obstacles.

Dr. Rito Palomares: His interest in the project and his help were of great importance for the development and completion of it.

Dra. Laura Palomares: National Researcher Level III and expert in complex protein production, she kindly gave us the insect cells that started everything.

Dr. Richard Willson: Mainly focused on the structural determinants of molecular recognition in complexes of proteins with recognition agents, he offered kindly advice and donated Cas9 Protein.

M.Sc. Ruth Pastor: Expert in the production of recombinant proteins in insect cells and in vaccine production using baculovirus-insect cell technology, she gave us helpful advice and helped us by sending the Sf9 cells and E. coli DH10bac.

M.Sc. Irasema Romo López: Gave us invaluable advice and material for our insect cells.

M.Sc. BongMin Bae: Provided material when needed and also gave us awesome advice.

Dra. Adriana Pacheco: Was kind enough to donate material that was of great use to us.

Enrique Paz: For his kind guidance in the use of Sf9 cells.

Felipe López Pacheco: Gave us much needed material.

Dr. Mary Rocha: Gave us great advice and donated much needed material.

B. S. Emilio Polanco: Took the time to teach us how to quantify protein and we’re very grateful for it.

B. S. Luis Mario Leal Garza: One of our past team leaders. Gave us advice and was an important support system.

M.Sc. Israel Ramírez Alanís: Donated material and offered support.

B.S. Edgar Acuña: Gave us positive control for our SDS-pages.

Eloisa María Fernández Rangel and Donato Cárdenas: For taking time from their busy schedule, provided legal advice for our customs research.

Juan De Dios Bonilla Boiso, Christian Alejandro Fregoso Duran and Jessica Rocha Velázquez: From Customs Regulation and Normativity, for listening to our problems with customs and working with us to find a solution.

Bootstrap: For their awesome responsive framework.

Carlos Alberto Silva Ruiz (Charlie): Always was nice enough to lend us material from the lab.

FEMSA Biotechnology Center Staff and Biotechnology Department: For giving us access to the lab, patience and advice in general.

Lic. Luis Omar Peña Ortega, Director of the Division of Biotechnology and Food Industries: We are grateful for his attention to our problems and for always providing quick solutions.

Dr. Gilberto Armienta, Director of the School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences: For giving us his support throughout our project.

i4 Chair:

For this project we were positioned under the scheme of this chair to administrate our funding and role in the school. The students’ chair (i4) is an opportunity offered by the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterrey, through its School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences, so students interested in biotechnology and food industries can develop projects in the area. The concept is based on four core values:

  1. Imagine.
  2. Investigate.
  3. Innovate.
  4. Incubate.

Student teams, like ours, that want to apply your project may reach hatching their own business, running an article in scientific research, process your patent application and compete internationally. We are especially grateful with them for their generous sponsorship that allowed us to get the genes and some material for the project.

School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences (ESCB: Escuela de Biotecnología y Ciencias de la Salud): The School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences integrates talent, infrastructure and curriculum designed to provide the best educational, research and knowledge transfers in Mexico and Latin America. Our school combines science and technology to create value and quality of life in society, and sustainable processes are performed with the highest degree of social responsibility. Thus, our motto "Integrating Science, Technology and Business" describes the vision of outcomes generated in every academic program.

FEMSA Biotechnology Center: The FEMSA Biotechnology Center in the Tecnológico de Monterrey integrates researchers from several academic departments to create interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary groups. Also, it's dedicated to the generation of research, knowledge transfer and business design models in food and biotechnology areas. It emerged 15 years ago as a response to the growing trend in scientific and technological innovation in the country and the whole world. Through time, the Biotechnology Center has developed lines of biotechnology research directed toward the innovation of processes, products, and services.

Tecnológico de Monterrey: Our institution, "Tecnológico de Monterrey", located in Monterrey, Nuevo León, was founded in 1943 by Eugenio Garza Sada and a group of businessmen who formed a civil-and-nonprofit partnership, named "Higher Education and Research, A.C."

Based in Monterrey, Mexico, the Institute has 31 campuses in 25 cities throughout the countryland, and is known as the first university ever connected to the Internet in Latin America, having one of the top graduate business schools in the region and being one of the leaders in patent applications among Mexican universities.

Today, the Tecnológico de Monterrey is a multicampus system with five common core values: innovation, global vision, team work, humanistic outlook and integrity.

Acknowledgements

Sponsors

Cátedra de alumnos Logo

• Cátedra i4 & Tecnológico de Monterrey - School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences

o We are especially grateful with them for their genesdrous sponsorship and the trust they had in us. With their support, we became able to get the genes / constructs and most of the materials that were crucial for the development of the project.

o On the other hand, we want to thank the student chair (i4) for lending us the equipment and facilities that we required to reach our objectives.

CTR Logo

CTR Scientific

o CTR Scientific is a company that supplies high quality laboratory instruments, material and reagents. We would like to thank them for the economic support that they have provided us during this year.

NEB Logo

New England Biolabs (NEB)

o This company is the leader in the development and discovery of enzymes for genomic research. We would like to thank them for their sponsorship in restriction enzymes, kits for DNA Assembly, and other products that were important for the laboratory activities.

Agilent Logo

Agilent Technologies

o Thank you to the leader in life sciences and diagnostics who provided us our Cloning Kit (SureVector®), which was an important item for the development of our project.

Uniparts Logo

Uniparts

o We are very thankful with them because they provided us the demo of GloMax® from Promega, which was helpful for the measurement of our Nanoluc luciferase.

GenScript Logo

GenScript

o We would like to thank this company for the special price that offered us to synthetize genes that we needed for the development of our project.

IDT Logo

IDT

o We are grateful with this company because they provided us the free synthesis of gBlocks and Oligos that helped us for the assembly of our biobricks.

MATLAB Logo

MATLAB

o We thank this company for giving us licenses and additional complements for its software, which allowed us to better develop our mathematical model.

SnapGene Logo

SnapGene

o We are very grateful with SnapGene for giving us licenses to use its software, which helped us to better design our parts for the project.