Team:Northeastern Boston/notebook
PROTOCOLS
DNA
Escherichia coli
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Protocols.io
Northeastern has decided to use Protocols.io to host all of its iGEM protocols. Protocols.io is an online open source wet lab repository. Researchers can upload their experimental protocol, share it others, build in functionality (like timers), and "fork" other researchers' protocols (adapting them for their particular situation).
We think this is worth breaking the "No iFrames" rule. The benefit of teams being able to create a sharable protocol, with easy reference and modifiability, outweigh the fear of "cheating" from iGEM teams altering the externally hosted content (in part because altering lab protocols is relatively benign). Other teams could, with the Protocols.io app, exactly replicate the protocol that we followed, for example, when we transformed C. reinhardtii.
Reproducibility is the existential crisis that plagues science; when results in one lab are completely unrepeatable elsewhere, the value of science plummets. Protocols.io could be one potential solution. We enjoyed using it, forking protocols, and making our own. We encourage other teams to try it as well. Protocols don't need to be hidden in transgenerational, witchcraft-ready tomes, or lab-protected Dropboxes. Instead, these methods should be as easy to access as possible.