Research! We learned about graphene, the existing methods of synthesis and how we could overcome the existing issues using synthetic biology.
April 29th
IDT Webinar
May
May 1st
Part of the team traveled to Monterrey for the weekend to attend the IGEM Meet Up organized by team Tec-Monterrey. Here we met and started to build our friendship with other Latin American teams.
May 6th
the IGEM team from Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo León (UANL) sent us a manual of very useful IGEM protocols.
May 10th
Meeting with lawyer Mariana Manzano to learn about property rights
May 15th
We applied for SYNENERGENE’s Partneship
May 18th
Skype meeting with iGEM team from Instituto Politécnico Nacional. They helped us double check our construct design and wet lab strategies. They also offered to send us a strain of P. pastoris in the next few days.
May 20th to May 30th
We presented our project to our university’s directors and professors
June
June 1st to June 30th
We started looking for sponsors, making calls and sending letters to help finance our project
June 1st
We had our first meeting with Dr. Carlos Guzman who became our chemical advisor for the rest of the project
June 8th
We started buying reagents and we ordered the synthesis of our genes to IDT
June 15th
The production process of our promotional video started. We coordinated efforts with Carmen Garcia, video director and producer.
June 20th
We had our first team celebration. We had a BBQ with all our team members and some of our advisors to relax and strengthen our friendship
July
July 4th
Chemical experimentation begins. While we waited for our genes to arrive we decided to start working on the chemical process.
July 31st
Giant Jamboree Entrance Fees were covered for five of our team members. Their plane tickets were purchased as well.
August
August 1st
Promotional video was ready and we launched our Indie Gogo campaign to get some funds. Everyone shared the video on social media with friends and family.
August 10th
Our genes arrived! We were so happy! We started getting everything ready so we could start the wet lab work.
August 15th
Wet lab work started.
August 22nd
Graphene samples were sent to be analyzed and characterized
August 26th
We launched two online forums and invited other IGEM teams to participate.
August 30th
We began working on our wiki, our presentation and poster
September
September 2nd
We began rehearsing the presentation with our friends and professors to get some feedback and improve our skills
September 10th
Results from graphene analysis were back. We had great news and we confirmed we had actually synthetized high quality graphene.
September 14th
We started preparing our biobricks to be sent to IGEM before the deadline
September 17th
We finished our wiki! Just in time
September 24th to September 28th
We presented at the Giant Jamboree and obtained a bronze medal!
