Difference between revisions of "Team:CCA SanDiego/Notebook"

18 September 2014

Julia Wisnia and Miya Coimbra officially formed the CCA iGEM team and began plans to recruit members through word-of-mouth, publication in school announcements, and contacts with high school science teachers.

2 October 2014

Our initial members, including Julia Wisnia, Miya Coimbra, Ariel Braunstein, Olivia Shiah, Amanda Matheson, and Vivian Patton, held the first official meeting. We conducted research on potential projects. Suggestions included a smog filter composed of organic compounds to carry out anoxic decomposition, a method to mimic the glutamate protein pump in the brain to ensure the glutamate-GABA balance, a way to mimic the manner by which animals can predict coming natural disasters such as earthquakes, and gene repair through harnessing of the RAD51 gene.

9 October 2014

Julia Wisnia, Miya Coimbra, Ariel Braunstein, Olivia Shiah, Amanda Matheson, Vivian Patton, Ravi Agarwal, and Maggie Chen met to continue brainstorming projects. We decided that mimicking animal detection of earthquakes was not a feasible option for synthetic biology using E. coli since it would likely require a complex nervous system. New ideas were conceived of (including possibilities for electrosynthesis, quorum sensing, and prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), but still the most plausible candidate for a synthetic biology application was determined to be gene repair using RAD51.

23 October 2014

Another meeting was held among Julia Wisnia, Miya Coimbra, Ariel Braunstein, Olivia Shiah, Amanda Matheson, Vivian Patton, Ravi Agarwal, Maggie Chen, and Harrison Harris. Further research on potential projects was conducted. We also discussed iGEM fees and possible ways to fundraise; ideas included a bake sale, donations from family, and fundraising programs through local restaurants (such as Souplantation and Rubio’s). Miya Coimbra and Julia Wisnia discussed their attempts to find graduate student mentors from UCSD through email contact; unfortunately, responses are fairly intermittent.

28 October 2014

Today was a finals day for CCA students, so school ended early (12:25 p.m.). An after-school meeting was scheduled to Skype with three new potential mentors (Jenhan Tao, Sophia Hirakis, and Benjamin Kellman). The meeting was attended by Julia, Miya, Ariel, and Olivia; it was fairly brief and primarily went over the potential projects that we had brainstormed earlier.

30 October 2014

Miya, Ariel, Olivia, Amanda, Ravi, and Maggie attended a meeting to discuss fundraising. Souplantation gives a larger percentage of proceeds for fundraising events and is likely to be more popular among families, so we decided to schedule an appointment with them to host an event.

6 November 2014

A fundraising event was held in the evening for families and friends to eat at Souplantation and for some of the proceeds to go toward funding our iGEM activities. Julia, Miya, Olivia, Amanda, Vivian, and Ravi attended.

13 November 2014

Julia, Miya, Ariel, Olivia, Vivian, Ravi, Maggie, and Harrison attended a meeting after school to discuss topics and mentors. Unfortunately, based on prior discussions

20 November 2014

Julia, Miya, Ariel, Olivia, Vivian, Ravi, Maggie, and Harrison attended a meeting after school to review the basic methodology of various wet lab techniques like PCR, gel electrophoresis, transfection and cell culture in order to prepare for the wet lab work that would come later in the project.

2 December 2014

Julia, Miya, Ariel, Amanda, Olivia, Ravi, Harrison, Maggie, and Vivian met with Sophia Hirakis at the Salk Institute to review a wide range of biology concepts that would be helpful in the development and completion of our project.

10 December 2014

Julia, Miya, Ariel, Amanda, Olivia, Ravi, Harrison, Maggie, and Vivian attended a meeting after school with Benjamin Kellman to review more concepts. This time we focused mostly on DNA and its structure and function, as well as ways that it can be altered.

12 December 2014

Julia and Miya had a meeting with the mentors concerning the logistics of the project, such as where the team would meet, what time the meetings would be, and days of the week. They also talked about a general computational approach that we could apply to our project.

Over break we individually reviewed articles and online tutorials to better familiarize ourselves with synthetic biology concepts.

Julia, Miya, Ariel, Amanda, Olivia, Ravi, Harrison, Maggie, and Vivian attended a meeting after school with Benjamin Kellman to review more concepts. This time we focused mostly on DNA and its structure, function and ways that it can be altered.

Miya and Julia began our outreach program by volunteering at Solana Ranch, a local elementary school. They tutored students of all ages in any subject, but the focus was on STEM.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students with a focus on STEM subjects.

Julia, Miya, Ariel, Amanda, Olivia, Ravi, Harrison, Maggie, and Vivian met with Sophia Hirakis at the Salk Institute to review a wide range of biology concepts that would be helpful in the development and completion of our project.

Miya, Maggie and Olivia went to Solana Ranch to tutor students with a focus on STEM subjects.

Maggie and Julia iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students with a focus on STEM subjects.

Miya, Ariel, Maggie, Vivian, and Harrison met after school to discuss the upcoming elections for club treasurer and vice president, as well as fundraising ideas to cover the registration cost.

Our team received a generous donation of $2500 from a local company, Cymer. This donation helped provide the funding necessary to register for the Jamboree and let us continue the project. Our whole team was very grateful and we sent a thank you note signed by the whole team to each of the company executives.

Miya and Amanda went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

iGEM team members submitted their votes online and elected Olivia as vice president and Maggie as treasurer for the team. Also, three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Ariel and Amanda went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

The iGEM team went to UCSD where they continued working on VMD tutorials in order to prepare for their simulations.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students, while the other iGEM members begin working on a Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD) tutorial. The program is used to visualize, and analyze 3-D molecules, which we used later in our project.

Ariel and Miya went to Solana Ranch to tutor students, while the rest of the team goes to UCSD to continue VMD tutorials.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD in order to continue brainstorming ideas for our project.

Vivian and two other iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD to continue to brainstorming project ideas, and working on the VMD tutorial.

Olivia and two other iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Julia and Maggie went to Solana Ranch, a local elementary school, to tutor students with a focus on STEM subjects.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD to continue to brainstorming project ideas, and working on the VMD tutorial.

Harrison, Julia and Amanda went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD to continue to brainstorming project ideas, and working on the VMD tutorial.

Vivian and Miya went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD to continue to brainstorming project ideas, and working on the VMD tutorial.

Julia and two other iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD to continue to brainstorming project ideas, and working on the VMD tutorial.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD and completed the VMD tutorial. We then moved on to the Assisted Model Building with Energy Refinement (AMBER) tutorial. AMBER is used to simulate the way molecules act in different environments. We would use this program later in our project.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD and continued working on the AMBER tutorial. We also began finalizing our project idea, and began doing more research on biosensors.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD and continued working on the AMBER tutorial. We also continued to do research on biosensors.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD and continued working on the AMBER tutorial. We also continued to do research on biosensors.

Three iGEM team members went to Solana Ranch to tutor students.

Amanda, Miya, Julia, Ariel, Maggie, Olivia, and Vivian met at UCSD and finished the AMBER tutorial. We also continued to do research on biosensors.