Our project would not have been possible without the help of various people.

Our Team

As a team, we split the responsibility for different components of our project amongst us. For more information about our team, visit the “About Us” page.

• Liron Abrahami- Liron was not only a part of the group working on the secretion project, she was also our own personal designer...for everything! Our shirts, poster, wiki, and Powerpoint presentation would have been extremely boring in comparison, if not for Liron's fantastic artistic skills.


• Maayan Lufton- Maayan was our poster child for human practices and collaborations. She constantly took initiative, teaching the course we gave to the Technion high school team and planning the Mini-Jamboree. She also worked restlessly on developing the comb.


• Tal Ofek- Tal could almost always be found in the lab. She worked restlessly on the secretion component of our project, continuously trying and trying again when necessary.


• Ruth Veksler- Our project would have been a lot messier without Ruth. Ruth worked on the secretion part of our project, but was also in charge of the lab. We would never be kept waiting more than a few minutes for the necessary materials, and her expertise in various protocols made her the go-to person for most questions we had.


• Adi Yannai- Adi could always be counted on in the lab, working mostly on the expression component of our project. Adi's successes would never let us down and could never be confused with anyone else's- she showed expression blatantly by growing purple bacteria using the BBa_K1357008 biobrick from the 2015 DNA Distribution Kit. Additionally, she was also on top of the requirements for the medals for the competition, as well as the relevant deadlines.


• Nitzan Shmuel- Nitzan was the mastermind behind our model and wiki. Having more extensive expreience in coding than the rest of our team, he set up the basics for the website, as well as the fancier components such as the dropdown menu and the homepage. In parallel, he worked on a complex model, always taking him further and further into the bolts and cofactors of the biology behind our project.


• Sagi Sheinkman- Sagi joined our team later on, but definitely pulled his weight in helping us develop the comb. The comb and syringe, along with their uniform distribution properties, is largely thanks to Sagi's help.


• Roni Cohen- Roni was another team member that could always be found in the lab. She worked non-stop on developing the cofactor for our project. The success seen in the results is largely credited to her perseverance even in the face of bad results.


• Alexey Tomsov- Alexey can be seen as the producer of the project. Not only was the idea for the project something he originally suggested, but he could also be counted on to know largely what was going on with all the subgroups. Alexey was also the producer of all the videos which relate to our project and which can be found in the human practices section and main page of this wiki. Alexey also took part in the expression component of the project.


• Yael Annis- Yael worked together with Roni on the cofactor component of the project. She is also largely responsible for the content of this wiki.



Our Advisors

We would have been completely at loss about the competition and how to go about starting our project, if not for our advisors from the lab of Dr. Roee Amit at the Biotechnology and Food Engineering faculty at Technion. They were always available to chat about problem-solving and creative solutions to obstacles along the way. Their patience left us awe-struck at times. Thank you so much for all you help!

• Dr. Roee Amit- As mentioned above, our iGEM project would not have been possible without Dr. Amit's lab. Yes, that sounds cliche, but its completely true. Dr. Amit is the driving force behind iGEM at Technion, and his lab's never-ending and non-stop availability for helping students makes participation in the competition possible. Other members of the lab who helped us:
  
  • Inbal Vaknin
  • Lior Levy
  • Noa Katz
  • Michal Meirom
  • Dr. Orna Atar
  • Dr. Sarah Goldberg

Support with Strains and Genes

• Prof. Roy Kishony from Technion gave us E.coli MG1655 wild-type.


• Prof. Toby Fuhrer from Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, Switzerland, gave us E.coli MG1655 Δpgi and ΔudhA.


• Prof. Hanna Engleberg-Kulka from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem gave us a pQE32 plasmid containing the zwf gene.


• Dr. Shira Omer from the lab of Dr. Avigdor Eldar at Tel Aviv University gave us B.subtilis PY79, the pDR111 plasmid, the MC medium, and valuable advice regarding working with B.subtilis.


• Dr. Ilana Kolodkin-Gal from the Weizmann Institute gave us pDR111 plasmid, E. Coli DH5α competent cells, MC medium,and advice regarding working with B.subtilis.



General Support

• Assist. Prof. Moran Bercovici and the Technion’s Microfluidic Technologies Laboratory at the Technion for fluid mechanics advisory and 3-D printing our combs.


• Prof. Ayelet Fishman and her lab at the Technion allowed us to use their student lab equipment and materials, advised us and helped us with SDS-PAGE.


• Prof. Yuval Shoham, Dr. Smadar Shulami, and at the Technion advised us and helped us with sonication.


• Prof. Sima Yaron and her lab at the Technion allowed us to use their shaker-incubator and gave us sorbitol and mannitol.


• Zoya, Rachel, and Ilana for autoclaving, cleaning and other lab work at Technion.


• Prof. Ben-Zion Levi and his lab at the Technion allowed us to use their nanodrop.


• Dr. Lena Lifshitz from the Technion advised us and managed our equipment orders and donations.


• Prof. Marcelle Machluf and her lab at the Technion allowed us to use their bead vortex contraption, liquid nitrogen, and NaOH.


• Dr. Yaron Fuchs at the Technion advised and helped us with the proof of concept for our project.


• Prof. Tomer Shlomi from the Technion advised us and helped with NADPH research.


• Dr. Uri Lesmes from the Technion advised us during our brainstorming.


• Dr. Yoav Livni at the Technion advised us during our brainstorming.


• Martine Bernstein gave us a lecture and tips for working with genome compiler.


• Prof. Opher Etzion gave us tips for creating a presentation.