Bootstrap Example

What We Accomplished

This summer our team set out to design a paper-based assay for the detection of vulvovaginal and invasive yeast infections. We have successfully assembled the plasmid for the positive control, wild-type HRP, in Escherichia coli and transformed it into Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have also created a prototype paper-based assay for an HRP-TMB reaction and developed a mathematical model to predict the ideal concentration of protein to load on said assay.

We would like to thank those that have helped make this project a success.

Dr. Kevin SolomonPurdue University, Professor for the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He served as our primary advisor and mentor.
Dr. Mohit Verma Purdue University, Professor for the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He served as another advisor for the team.
Dr. Jaqueline Linnes Purdue University, Associate Professor in Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. She served as a primary source for our team's creation of the paper-based assay. She also let us use her lab for the creation of it.
Kok Zhi Lee Purdue University, Graduate Student working under Dr. Solomon, Graduate School in Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Served as an irreplaceable mentor for the team in all aspects. Taught laboratory protocols and techniques. Answered an absurd amount of questions for the team.
Ethan Hillman Graduate Student working under Dr. Solomon, Graduate School in Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Served as the resident yeast expert in respect to transformation and culture.

Special Thanks

Monetary Support

In addition to those that have helped make this project a success through personal support. We also couldn't have possibly made this project a success if it weren't for those who gave monetary support.

Purdue College of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Purdue College of Agriculture
Purdue College of Engineering
Purdue Honors College
Purdue Office of Executive Vice President of Research and Partnerships
Summer Undergraduate Research Foundation
Molecular Agriculture Summer Institute

Corporate Sponsor

Additional support

Many others have offered help in some way and helped made our project a success. While they provided a minor role in the overall project, without their efforts there is no way this project wouldn't have been a success.

Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue Foundry and Dr. Abhijit Karve. They've helped our team by answering much needed questions relating to the patenting process as well as provide a bit of information on what businesses want to see in a possible product.
Ethan, Logan, Jake, and everyone else in SolomonLab. They've helped answer many questions for the interns out of their own kindness. Without them helping out when needed our team wouldn't have been successful.
Taylor Moehling and Kristin Beyers from LinnesLab. They've provided much help and resources to our team and helped the team due to their natural kindness. Our team wouldn't have been successful if it weren't for their efforts.
David Scharberg, provided guidance and answered questions and offered advice for the development of the paper-based assay.
Dr. Lisa Yang, gave our team insight about what practitioners do for yeast infections and helped provide feedback on what to prioritize on our design for healthcare professionals.

Team Training & Project Start

Purdue offers a synthetic biology course, but no one on our team has taken it. The syllabus and course materials are not offered online. The team started brainstorming in early February, started project design in mid-April, and started in lab on March 23.