IGEM:IMPERIAL/2007/Calendar/2007-7-19

We are in Week 2 of the iGEM project.

<calendar> name=IGEM:IMPERIAL/2007/Calendar date = 2007/08/01 view=threemonths format=%name/%year-%month-%day weekstart=7 </calendar>

Proposals

The proposal should satisfy the following statements:

• The project is worthwhile
  • It will contribute to the field of synthetic biology and the registry of parts
• The project is relevant to iGEM
  • It is an engineering project, not a science project
• The project is sound
  • There is real science to back up what the project needs to achieve
  • A plan of action to complete the project (fit into the engineering cycle)
  • A rough schedule, or at least an indication of time required for each stage of the project
• The group is able to complete the project
  • Show an understanding of the lab work required
  • Show that literature is available (list references)

A proposed format for the proposal is the following:

• Introduction
  • What is the project? (Rough specification)
  • Why is it worth pursuing?
  • How is it relevant to iGEM?
• Background information and review of literature
  • Summarise works relevant to the project
  • Outline areas missing literature
• Project plan
  • State the project objectives
  • Explain how the project will be carried out to meet the objectives
  • Break it down into constituent parts
  • Identify possible areas of difficulty, and corresponding back-up strategies
  • Identify techniques required (lab, modelling, etc.)
• Timeline
  • Refer to engineering cycle
  • Identify most time-consuming lab activities
  • Show when each major stage should be completed by

Notes:

• Whenever possible, be quantitative
• Show understanding of the implications
• Outline the areas that are poorly understood (don't hide them)

Task List

Students

• Understand structure of proposal
• Find list of new HRP literature
• Expand on contingency ideas
• Expand on HRP application ideas
• Develop outlines of proposal presentations

Today's Schedule

Name	Alex	Anthony	Ben	Cheuk	Dirk	James	Jerry	Lucas	Maira	Peixuan
0900						Briefing
0930						Journal Club
1000						Journal Club Discussion
1030
1100
1130
1200
1230
1300
1330
1400
1430
1500
1530
1600
1630
1700
1730
1800
Evening

Debriefing

Presentation/Discussion of current ideas

Thermogenic system (as a contingency idea)

Problems/Considerations

• Research the viability of a plasma-based enzyme system, particularly with respect to the problem of possible clumping due to hydrophobicity
• Look into alternative enzyme systems which could be located intracellularly
• Research the efficiency of the proposed exothermic (thermogenic) reaction - look into alternatives?

Glucose-detection/Insulin-secretion system (HRP-based application)
Problems/Considerations

• Currently proposed system incorporates Glucose-6-P receptor. Is there a receptor available for glucose?
• It was suggested that glucose secretion would take the form of pulses. Is this viable? Alternative release mechanism?

Characterization of HRP

Work into characterizing HRP was continued, particularly with respect to

• PoPS
  • It was suggested to look into the well-characterized F2620 for a model/method of characterizing HRP wrt PoPS
    
• If glucose proves a problematic stimulus, research into the possibilty of replacing it with another stimulus; one for which working biobricks (such as receptors) are available in the registry

Database

A Database, for experiments to be carried out over the course of the project, was proposed by Dirk. This would allow for effective scheduling and prioritization of required experiments.

Contingency projects

Expand on contingency projects. Ideally, 3 contingency projects should be "available"