iGEM of UBC

The iGEM 2010 forum is up and running! Please join the discussion and share your thoughts.

Objective: Create an engineered bacteriophage that eliminates Staphylococcus aureus

To achieve  our objective we have divided the project into 6 tracks that will be pursued in parallel:

1. Biofilm- observe Staphylococcus aureus biofilm growth under lab conditions so we can characterize effectiveness of our engineered phage

2. DspB- extract the Dispersin B gene from A. pleuropneumoniae  so we can integrate into the phage genome

3. Phage- develop standard protocol to manipulate the phage genome in a simple and well-defined manner

4. Quorum- characterize the existing P2 biobrick part

5. Modelling- model the interaction between s. aureus biofilm, phage, and relevant molecules in the system, to supplement our wet lab experiment

6. Human Practices- gather feedback from public opinion of synthetic biology

We have decided our project this year: biofilm degradation! Thanks to those who participated in the discussion last week and it was a close race. With an awesome team we have this year, we will use this week’s JC time for them to further discuss and develop the biofilm idea, but all are welcome to participate!

Congratulations to everybody who made it onto the 2010 UBC iGEM Team! The club execs wish you all a year of accomplishment and success – do us proud!

Thanks a lot to everybody who applied to be on the UBC iGEM Team! Applications to be on this year’s team are closed, and the selection committee will be interviewing candidates to assess their suitability to be on the team. The team roster will be finalized and submitted for registration by the 31st of March 2010 (which is the registration deadline). Please check back later for further announcements.

In the meantime, this Wednesday will be an Ideas Discussion meeting, so please come prepared to discuss the ideas put forth thus far. If possible, some faculty members will be present at the meeting as well to go through the ideas as well. Please bring your laptops if you can (so that you can access the wiki while at it).

Other than that, keep checking back for the latest research articles on Synthetic Biology!

This coming Wednesday (March 31st), we will be announcing the team members for the 2010 UBC iGEM Team. Team members will be informed beforehand about their status, and it is mandatory for them to attend this coming Wednesday’s meeting. Please join and welcome this year’s team. The club execs have also prepared a surprise for the team. You will be rewarded if you come.

Aside from announcement of the team members, there will also be a vote held for selection of the final project that the team will work on. A final round of updates will be given before the team selects the project based on information present in the wiki. Based on last week’s discussion, only team members, faculty advisors and graduate student advisors will be eligible to cast their votes, but all are welcome.

The interviews for the 2010 UBC iGEM Team have concluded. Thank you everybody who applied and interviewed with the faculty advisors and student committee. You will be informed about your status before Wednesday, 31 March 2010.

Here are the slides from our brief workshop on Feb 3rd. Have fun researching!

Literature Research and Project Proposal

Thanks everybody who came out to the first team meeting! We hope everybody has a better feel for how things are going right now. The meeting slides from Dr. Lagally can be downloaded by clicking on the link below:

iGEM Meeting Presentation

Good luck picking ideas for your projects!

Applications to be a team member are due March 15th. Instructions are listed below:

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