Difference between revisions of "Team:OLS Canmore Canada/Human Practices"

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<h1 class="title">The Design</h1>
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<h1 class="title">Outreach</h1>
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<p>
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<p>As a team, we have done substantial community outreach, including meeting key stakeholders and gaining more knowledge about our the recycling industry and our community. These outreach experiences overall helped us to enhance our project’s idea.</p>
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The project will use synthetic biology to create a novel fusion protein that can specifically bio-tag polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, so that it can be sorted and recycled correctly. Synthetic biology is efficient, cost effective, and specific. The proteins, which are produced via a bacterial chassis called Bacillus subtilis, are created efficiently and at low cost. These proteins also provide high specificity due to a specific 3-dimensional shape that adheres selectively to PET polymers. The 4 constructs that we have designed, with the help of our mentors and previous iGem teams, include:  
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</p>
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<h1 class="subtitle>Bow Valley Regional Science Fair</h1>
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<p>Our first step into the outreach world was going to the Bow Valley Regional Science Fair, where we set up an interactive “Bio-Painting” kiosk, using the Amino Lab kit materials.  We let students and parents use coloured bacteria (pre-transformed and prepared in “painting kits”) to draw on agar plates. The team did this in order to help the public better understand synthetic biology and to alleviate concerns around its safety and applicability.</p>
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<h1 class="subtitle>Meeting with Bow Valley Waste Management</h1>
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<p>Months later, we had the idea of working with plastics. We talked with the Head of Waste Management in the Bow Valley, Peter Duck, who explained to us that the recycling of plastics is relatively easy and efficient. Rather, it is the sorting of plastics that proves challenging, and mis-sorted plastic cannot be recycled (therefore ending up in landfills). This critical meeting led to an entire pivot of our project, changing our direction completely.  </p>
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<h1 class="subtitle>Visiting Recycling & Sorting Facilities and Alberta Recycling Conference</h1>
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<p>We visited both our local bottle depot and recycling sorting facility to watch the process of sorting and even attempted to sort plastic ourselves. Some of our team members also attended the Alberta Recycling conference in Lake Louise to gain more contacts, and a first-hand appreciation for how plastics are sorted and recycled in our own community, as well as around our province, country, and the world.</p>
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<h1 class="subtitle>Reaching Out To The Local Newspaper</h1>
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<p>In the spring of 2018 we were interviewed by our local newspaper, The Rocky Mountain Outlook. This amazing experience allowed some of our members to spread the word of our project and to inform our own community. This article explained and answered any ethical concerns or questions, along with giving us an outlet, in which we could ask for support of the community.</p>
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<table style="width: 40%; float: clear;" >
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<tr><td><img  width="100%" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/d/d2/T--OLS_Canmore_Canada--newspaper.png"></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="imagecaptiontext">Excerpt from our local newspaper (online).</td></tr>
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</table>
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<h1 class="subtitle>Reaching Out To Businesses & Financial Groups</h1>
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<p>Some of our members reached out to our local Bow Valley Credit Union where we an opportunity to pitch our project in hopes of gaining some financial support for bringing our project to Boston to share with the synthetic biology community. </p>
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<h1 class="subtitle>Collaborations</h1>
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<p>With the extensive support we receive from Mindfuel’s geekStarter program, many collaborations were made possible this year, both with High school and Collegiate iGEM teams.  Three different Mindfuel events were held in the last year, which brought the following teams together to share our ideas and project successes, and to troubleshoot and support one another with stumbling blocks: </p>
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<ul class="standard">
 
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<li>a polyethylene terephthalate hydrolase (PET-ase) fused to a red fluorescent protein, (or RFP) called mCherry, which give the protein its <b>colour</b> aspect. </li>
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<li>Notre Dame Collegiate iGEM</li>
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<li>a hydrophobin called BslA,</li>
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<li>Lethbridge High School iGEM</li>
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<li>a PET-ase without the RFP, and </li>
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<li>University of Calgary iGEM</li>
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<li>a BslA without RFP.</li>
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<li>University of Calgary BioMod</li>
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<li>University of Lethbridge iGEM</li>
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<li>University of Alberta iGEM</li>
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
  
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<br>
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<p>Through these meaningful collaboration events, we got to know other students working in Synthetic Biology and made meaningful connections with other experts and mentors in the field.  In particular, we are grateful to have met the U of Alberta iGEM team, who worked with Dr. Robert E. Campbell, who was an expert in mCherry, and provided us with a sample of purified mCherry lysate for our spectrophotometric assays! </p>
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<p>
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A LipA secretion tag is added to each construct to signal the bacteria to secrete the proteins out of the cell for easier purification. We chose to use this Bacillus over E. coli because of its natural ability to produce hydrophobins, and because it is better at secreting proteins than other bacteria.  Bacillus is also naturally occurring in the environment, and has reduced risk for environmental contamination concerns.
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</p>
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<p>
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<p>We had hoped to connect more closely with the Tianjin 2016 iGEM team members since our PET-hydrolase constructs were intended to be modifications and improvements upon their excellent work. Unfortunately, we did not get any responses from our emails or social media outreach to Tianjin 2016, and so we were not able to collaborate with them. </p>
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The PET-ase is an enzyme that naturally binds to PET plastic, and the mCherry RFP it is paired with will visually indicate when the protein has adhered. The hydrophobin is “water-fearing” and will therefore bind to several surfaces. However, for this project, it will be used to help adhere the PET-ase specifically to PET plastic. We are using the four proteins in combination with each other and test their effectiveness at tagging PET plastic.  
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</p>
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<tr><td><img  width="100%" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/d/d9/T--OLS_Canmore_Canada--prototypetext.svg"></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="imagecaptiontext">Implemented prototype, what could be seen in a sorting facility.</td></tr>
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</table>
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<h1 class="subtitle">Machine Prototype</h1>
 
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<p>
 
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With our constructs design in place, we had to design a way of using them in a real life situation.  Drawing on our experiences visiting real sorting facilities, and using the feedback and insights gained from the people working in this industry,  we have designed a prototype using existing technology to adapt to our solution. A simplified description of our prototype includes the following steps:
 
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</p>
 
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<ol style="margin-bottom: 20vh;" class="standard">
 
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<li>Incoming, unsorted plastics move along a conveyor belt and pass through a bath of our purified protein bio-tag. </li>
 
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<li>Our bio-tag selectively adheres only to PET plastics. </li>
 
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<li>Next all plastics will pass through a wash or rinse.  The bio-tag is removed from any non-PET plastics.</li>
 
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<li>An optical scanner detects the fluorescent signature of mCherry on the PET plastics, and will separate it from the rest of the plastic. </li>
 
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<li>In future, similar bio-tags can be developed to selectively mark all other recyclable plastics using similar design principles.</li>
 
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</ol>
 
  
  
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Revision as of 12:32, 17 October 2018

HUMAN PRACTICES

Outreach

As a team, we have done substantial community outreach, including meeting key stakeholders and gaining more knowledge about our the recycling industry and our community. These outreach experiences overall helped us to enhance our project’s idea.

Meeting with Bow Valley Waste Management

Months later, we had the idea of working with plastics. We talked with the Head of Waste Management in the Bow Valley, Peter Duck, who explained to us that the recycling of plastics is relatively easy and efficient. Rather, it is the sorting of plastics that proves challenging, and mis-sorted plastic cannot be recycled (therefore ending up in landfills). This critical meeting led to an entire pivot of our project, changing our direction completely.

Reaching Out To The Local Newspaper

In the spring of 2018 we were interviewed by our local newspaper, The Rocky Mountain Outlook. This amazing experience allowed some of our members to spread the word of our project and to inform our own community. This article explained and answered any ethical concerns or questions, along with giving us an outlet, in which we could ask for support of the community.

Excerpt from our local newspaper (online).

Collaborations

With the extensive support we receive from Mindfuel’s geekStarter program, many collaborations were made possible this year, both with High school and Collegiate iGEM teams. Three different Mindfuel events were held in the last year, which brought the following teams together to share our ideas and project successes, and to troubleshoot and support one another with stumbling blocks:

  • Notre Dame Collegiate iGEM
  • Lethbridge High School iGEM
  • University of Calgary iGEM
  • University of Calgary BioMod
  • University of Lethbridge iGEM
  • University of Alberta iGEM

Through these meaningful collaboration events, we got to know other students working in Synthetic Biology and made meaningful connections with other experts and mentors in the field. In particular, we are grateful to have met the U of Alberta iGEM team, who worked with Dr. Robert E. Campbell, who was an expert in mCherry, and provided us with a sample of purified mCherry lysate for our spectrophotometric assays!

We had hoped to connect more closely with the Tianjin 2016 iGEM team members since our PET-hydrolase constructs were intended to be modifications and improvements upon their excellent work. Unfortunately, we did not get any responses from our emails or social media outreach to Tianjin 2016, and so we were not able to collaborate with them.