Team:UC San Diego/Attributions
Project Attributions
This entire project and its many successes would not have been possible without the support of so many individuals, both at UC San Diego and in our contacts outside of school. Although we would like to note that all of the work and deliverables generated during this project were the direct results of students’ work, it is important to acknowledge who else has been a part of this journey.
Varun Govil was involved in designing all angles of the project. He was heavily involved with early-stage protocol design, and also helped design methodologies for our team’s drylab work. He also helped put the wiki together. He was also integral in designing the public outreach activities and initiating contacts for IHP and Entrepreneurship.
Zhijian Li was in charge of designing the wetlab methodology. He is responsible for finding the foundational literature that led to our team’s innovation in the wetlab. He was also very helpful in mentoring less experienced students in the wetlab environment.
Ishan Goyal was in charge of executing the drylab methodology. He was also responsible for arranging several high-level interactions such as those with Dr. Mikael Eliasson, Dr. Matthias Essenpreis, and Dr. Jian Dai at Genentech and Roche. He was also in charge of helping structure the Epinoma business model.
Ruiyuan Zhang was in charge of wetlab execution and higher-level design. She was primarily responsible for protein purification strategies and making sure that our BioBricks were fully validated by the deadline.
Anser Abbas was part of the wetlab team, and focused on the protein expression and purification aspects of the project. He also helped write several of the key pieces on regulatory mechanisms for the diagnostic device and compiling our policy proposal.
Marin Cross was part of the outreach and human practices team. She was able to set up contacts with SGI-DNA and able to help the team think about the broader picture. She personally designed the hackerspace proposal and will work to move it forward.
Claire Luo was part of the wetlab team and responsible for completion of the Interlab study. She also helped in the initial plasmid design. She also solely developed the synthetic biology game for students, and was very excited to see the positive response.
Kalyani Kottilil was part of the outreach and human practices team. She was able to use industry contacts at Gilead to get meaningful feedback on our project. In addition, she was responsible for the idea and implementation of the diversity report.
Special Thanks
Dr. Kang Zhang, Dr. Tina He, Dr. Michal Krawczyk, and Runze Zhang
We would like to give out a special shoutout to all the members of the Zhang Lab who guided us this summer. Although all work for this year’s project was done by the iGEM students, their support was crucial for wetlab and drylab framework validation, early-stage troubleshooting, equipment operation, and our day-to-day operations. Dr. Zhang has been very involved in the success of the team and has been a gracious technical savant and financial benefactor for this year’s project. Dr. Tina helped guide our wetlab team and check our plasmid constructs as well as troubleshooting with Gibson Assembly. Dr. Krawczyk gave us the background knowledge for the drylab aspects of our project. Runze helped make the team feel welcome and helped with day-to-day operations.
Dr. Susan Golden and the Golden Lab
We would also like to thank Dr. Golden for allowing us to use their lab’s materials when completing the Interlab study and providing materials throughout the course of our project.
Dr. Jason Kreisberg, Ideker Laboratory
We would also like to thank Dr. Kreisberg for taking the time out of his busy schedule and providing feedback on our overall project design. The Cancer Cell Map Initiative is an important sponsor for UC San Diego iGEM, and we hope to continue this successful partnership.
Dr. Mike Pellini, Foundation Medicine and Section 32
Dr. Pellini’s advice and experience in the diagnostics space played a crucial role in shaping our overall approach towards product design and business scalability. His technical knowledge, complemented with our financial understanding of the space, gave us more confidence in our idea’s ability to succeed in cases of real-world implementation.
Ms. Cora DaCosta Benoun
We would like to thank Ms. DaCosta for taking the time to speak with us and provide meaningful feedback about how our team could align our textbook with NGSS standards.
Ms. Irene Jacobo and Dr. John Watson, UCSD Bioengineering Department
We cannot put into words how much UCSD Bioengineering’s full support of our project means to us as students. We would like to thank Ms. Jacobo for helping raise funds for Boston and for Dr. Watson for graciously sponsoring himself individually. We hope to make you proud.
Dr. Suresh Subramani and Ms. Naila Chowdhury, Social Innovation Fund and TATA Institute of Genetics and Society
We would also like to thank Dr. Subramani and Ms. Chowdhury for opening our eyes to the power of social innovation and giving us the contacts necessary to keep this going. We look forward to the next part of this journey, and it would not have been possible without you.
Lee Liang and David Sharp
Although they were not able to go to Boston, Lee and David steered the team’s vision for graphic design and communication strategies. This would not have been possible without their amazing skillsets.
Thank You to Our Sponsors!
