Our achievements

After severals weeks of brainstorming and team meetings, we decided to focus on the implementation of cell-free biosensors. As there was no local expertise in working with cell-free systems, we had to read a lot of literature and developed the cell-free biosensors on our own. All work described in the wiki, including project identification, lab work, securing sponsorships, writing about our topic on the wiki and human practices work, were done by ourselves unless otherwise stated. We discussed our topic with several experts and lecturers. Without the support of the people named below, we would not have come so far in our project. These are the people we want to express our gratitude to.

General support

• Prof. Dr. Jörn Kalinowski gave us the opportunity to participate in iGEM by providing us with our own laboratory and the resources of his work group.
• Prof. Dr. Kristian Müller participated in our weekly team meetings and supported us with advice and equipment.
• Tore Bleckwehl, Lukas Rositzka, Matthias Ruwe, Manuel Wittchen: A huge thanks for your endless patience when listening to our problems, your willingness to help and for motivating us to give our best. You all did a great job in advising us. It was a great and fun time with you.
• Timo Wolf, as a former iGEM member, helped us with sponsoring and advice.

Modeling support

• Dr. Petra Lutter (Mathematical Methods in Systems Biology, Faculty of Biology) gave us an introduction into modeling and gave us advice during weekly meetings. Thank you for your time and your kind help!

Analytics support

• Vera Ortseifen assisted us in preparing and measuring samples for the protein identification via MALDI-TOF/TOF.
• Julian Droste, as former iGEM team member, helped us with his knowledge of SDS-PAGEs and EMSAs.
• Dr. Marcus Persicke measured the standard row of gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid via HPLC-MS for us.

Material support

• The work group Microbial Genomics and Biotechnology allowed us to use their laboratories and equipment and showed great patience when we occupied many of the facilities.
• The Wendisch Lab allowed us to use their microbioreactor system for cultivation.
• The work group Fermentation Technology allowed us to use their laboratory facilities.
• Dr. Raimund Hoffrogge helped us with his knowledge of protein-DNA interaction and allowed us to use the Ettan DIGE scanner of the proteomics laboratory.
• Dr. Dieter Tanzer, Head of Advanced Analytics R&D at Merck KGaA, advised us regarding paper-based analytics and provided us with paper samples suitable for analytic purposes.
• MACHEREY-NAGEL GmbH & Co. KG sponsored us with filter paper MN 827 B for our paper based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis.
• Munktell & Filtrak GmbH sponsored us with two different laboratory filter papers C350L and FN3 for our paper-based Cell-Free Protein Synthesis.

Construction and Technical support

• Marco Radukic designed the model for 3D printing.
• Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Schäffer realized our 3D printing model with his 3D printer.
• Nadine Rodrigues de Carvalho assisted us with operating the Ettan DIGE scanner.

CFPS support

• Dr. Michael Jewett, Associate Professor at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, gave us valuable hints about the storability of crude cell extract. He commented on our thoughts and ideas which helped us establishing cell-free protocols.
• Mr. Zachary Z. Sun, PhD candidate at California Institute of Technology, gave us valuable hints regarding cell lysis and extract purification. He shared his thoughts about the impact of cell-free systems with us.
• BANDELIN electronic GmbH & Co. KG support informed us about how to calculate the energy input of the sonifier we used. This was really helpful to generate highly active cell extract.

Human practices and biosafety support

• Dr. Mathias Keller evaluated the biosafety of the biosensor system "plasmid repressor interaction assay" with us.
• Prof. em. Kathryn Nixdorff commented on our dual use report and provided valuable insights in both ethical questions and legal situation and proposed additional ideas for the implementation of biosecurity risk assessment.
• Prof. Alfons Bora who provided insights in the guidelines and proposals of the Leopoldina and the German Ethics Council as well as aspects of ethical council for research. He read and commented our dual use report and provided ideas of the implementation of biosecurity in our project, such as the contact of an ethics council.
• Constantin Teetzmann proposed his idea of possible improvement of biosecurity risk assessment within iGEM as well as within the research community itself.
• The Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety for a statement about its responsibility and the current legal situation in Germany. The interviewed member shall remain nameless.
• Prof. Bohner provided insight into the current responsibility of the ethics council at the University of Bielefeld and the necessary measures to extend those responsibilities.
• Nils-Christian Lübke provided advice on language style and structure of our report with patience.
• Joseph Ayar provided insights in the legal situation of dual use and biosecurity in the USA. His contribution is marked as quote.
• Dr.rer.nat. Andreas Bermpohl provided advice about test strip and the usage of heavy metal detection
• Dr. Christiane Bettin talked to us as representative of the THW (Federal Agency for Technical Relief) about the usage of our test strip for their purposes.
• Dr. Rüdiger Gaydoul provided us with information about water contaminants.

By the way, what is this Bielefeld-CeBiTec?