Team:MIT/Attributions
Attributions
Each of our team members played an integral role in helping to develop a strong iGEM project. We were also supported by our lab instructors, managers and advisors, and we would like to acknowledge all those who helped make our iGEM journey possible and fun this year!
Team training and Project start
Our iGEM team came together in January of 2018. We started learning protocols and techniques in the Weiss lab during the spring semester under the supervision of MIT iGEM alums, Nia O. Myrie and Damon Berman. We also had weekly meetings for literature review and designing experiments as well as to learn some new synthetic biology concepts that the team was not aware of. These meetings were lead by Brian Teague and he was assisted by other advisors and alums, to whom we are extremely grateful to.
Our training in handling S.mutans and carrying our biofilm assays was lead by Caroline Werlang from the Ribbeck Lab.
Design & Experimentation
Members of our team designed the DNA that we used which was synthesized by IDT. Members of our team also performed the lab work that was required for our project, such as PCR, cloning reactions, minipreps, midipreps, and transfections. Our advisors, Brian Teague, Deepak Mishra and Nika Shakiba, would help us troubleshoot if reactions were not going as planned. Sequencing reactions were sent to Genewiz. For the design of the scFv, we were assisted by Christian Richardson. The S. mutans strain that we used in our experiments was provided by Ribbeck Lab.
Model
Our modelling sub-team worked on the model using a software called Morpheus, developed by the Broad Institute. We were assisted by Jessie Tordoff in order to learn the necessary skills to model our project.
Human Practices
We would like to thank Natalie Kuldell for allowing us to teach her Biobuilder class at LabCentral. Furthermore we would like to thank Jennifer Novotney for arranging our MIT Museum set-up during the summer. We would like to thank HSSP and BoSTEM for allowing us to share our knowledge with their students and create more interest around synthetic biology.
Furthermore, we would like to thank Bruce Paster and XueSong He from the Forsyth Institute, who helped us understand the oral cavity in more detail for us to envision future prospects. Dr. Kimberly Weiss allowed us to gain insight into the dentist’s perspective. Suman Bose and Derfogail Delcassian from the Langer Lab helped us understand cell encapsulation in more detail. Lastly, we would like to thank Hassnain Bokhari for giving us feedback on our Human Practices efforts.
The Weiss Lab - MIT Center for Synthetic Biology
Brian Teague: Mentored us throughout the process of developing our own project and coached us in the lab skills we needed to implement it. (January-July)
Nika Shakiba: Mentored us throughout the process of developing our own project and coached us in the lab skills we needed to implement it. (January-October)
Deepak Mishra: Mentored for the second half of summer and helped us troubleshoot problems that came up in the latter set of experiments. (July-October)
Ross Jones: Mentored us through the transplantation process and provided extensive guidance throughout the project.
Ron Weiss: Provided us with resources from the lab and feedback on the direction of the project.
BE Communication Lab: MIT's Biological Engineering Communication Lab features trained graduate student and postdoc Communication Fellows who offer individual coaching, targeted workshops, and a range of initiatives to support their peers as they learn key transferable communication skills that will help them achieve their career goals. They were extremely helpful by giving us feedback on many aspects of our project including presentations, written documents, and graphics.