Team:MIT/Medals
Project
Medals
Gold Medal
1. Expand on your silver medal Human Practices activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the design and/or execution of your project.
We conducted interviews with experts in the field, Professor Kristala Jones Prather of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, Ben Woolston of Professor Gregory Stephanopoulos’s lab in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, and Jose A. Gomez of the Process System Engineering Laboratory in the MIT department of Chemical Engineering. The conversation with Professor Prather heavily influenced our circuit design when we learned that, although continuous cultures sound ideal, they are not yet industrially practical. With this improved understanding of the practical applications of our project, we began to focus on a batch culture and altered our circuit to best utilize a batch setup. Ben Woolston furthered our understanding of the current state of the art and how productivity is defined industrially. This helped us realize that we needed to focus on increasing the E. coli population because that population produces the product (biodiesel). The effects of these interviews can be seen in our circuit design and project goals. Also, Jose Gomez influenced our adaptation of flux balance analysis to a species to which it had not previously been applied, C. hutchinsonii. More details on how we integrated the information we gained from these interviews can be seen on our Policies and Practices Page.
2. Help any registered iGEM team from a high-school, different track, another university, or institution in a significant way by, for example, mentoring a new team, characterizing a part, debugging a construct, modeling/stimulating their system or helping validate a software/hardware solution to a synbio problem.
We have collaborated with the University of Georgia’s iGEM team and Wellesley’s iGEM team. Se our Collaboration page for more detailed descriptions of each collaboration. University of Georgia (UGA)- We characterized parts and an organism, M. maripaludis, for the UGA team by measuring mCherry and protein concentrations. We then sent the data back to the team for analysis. Wellesley College - We tested the Wellesley’s software prototype and gave them feedback on the design.
3. Improve the function OR characterization of a previously existing BioBrick Part or Device (created by another team, or by your own team in a previous year of iGEM), and enter this information in the part’s page on the Registry. Please see the Registry Contribution help page for help on documenting a contribution to an existing part. This part must come from the your team’s 2015 range of part numbers.
We characterized Anderson promoters from the Boston University CIDAR lab. We have documented this characterization on the Anderson Promoter Characterization page.
Silver Medal
1. Experimentally validate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected. Document the characterization in the Main Page section of the Registry entry for that Part/Device. This working part must be different from the part you documented in Bronze medal criterion #6.
We have verified that the C. hutchinsonii origin of replication works as expected in both Chloramphenicol and Kanamycin resistant backbones. The data is on the C. hutchinsonii page.
2. Submit this new part to the iGEM Parts Registry. This part must be different from the part you documented in Bronze medal criterion #6. (Submissions must adhere to the iGEM Registry guideline.)
We have submitted the C. hutchinsonii origin of replication to the iGEM Parts Registry.
3. iGEM projects involve important question beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project.
We have investigated the state of the art in consolidated bioprocessing and what our project contributes to the current bioprocessing industry. We have also illustrated the economic impacts of consolidated bioprocessing. Also, we have discussed the impact of using cellulose as a feedstock for production and producing biodiesel. Furthermore, we designed our project to address the current issues in consolidated bioprocessing with co-cultures, such as population control.
Bronze Medal
1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
We are a registered iGEM team, had a great summer, and will attend the Giant Jamboree.
2. Complete the Judging form.
We have completed the Judging form.
3. Create and share a Description of the team’s project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team’s parts using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
We have created a team wiki and documented our parts on the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree.
We have created a poster and prepared a talk, and we will present both at the Jamboree.
5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
We have created a list of attributions on our Attributions page under the “About Us” tab.
6. Document at least one new standard BioBrick Part or Device central to your project and submit this part to the iGEM Registry (submissions must adhere to the iGEM Registry guidelines).
We have created, documented, and submitted many new parts. These are described under our Parts page.
