Attributions

Tufts iGEM, or Tufts Synthetic Biology Team, is and has always been a student-run endeavor. We are proud of our independence, but we could not have accomplished so much without help. Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way!

Team Member Contributions

Anna: Anna was responsible as iGEM science chair for overseeing all lab protocols. Anna took charge of connecting with the Nair lab graduate students for protocol guidance and ran the interlab initiative. She also set up the public outreach by collaborating with a local summer camp to teach genetics and synthetic biology classes there. She also helped produce the wiki pages, especially design, education, and the interlab page.

Aiden: Aiden was responsible as iGEM financial chair for ordering and organizing materials and kits. He also negotiated with the Tufts Community Union for iGEM attendance funding. Aiden troubleshooted the gel electrophoresis and PCR processes, as well as ensured access to the lab facilities. Initial protocols were designed by Aiden based on manufacturer instructions. He also helped produce the wiki pages, especially safety, human practices, and description.

Mina: Mina contributed by running experimental portions of the project over the summer with Anna and Aiden. Mina formatted the website with HTML.

Charlotte: Charlotte produced the summer camp educational video for outreach.

Val: Val supported the iGEM team by conducting useful research during the summer project and conducting lab tests.

Kenny: Kenny was responsible as iGEM administrative chair for organizing school-year meetings for research planning and securing university funding. He helped produce the wiki pages, especially the attributions and notebook pages.

Donations

Thank you to the Tufts Community Union Senate for funding our team's iGEM competition registration fees.

Thank you to Tufts University President Tony Monaco for providing stipends for campus housing so that students could stay for summer research.

Inspirations & Project Basis

Tufts University student Sean Sullivan's course paper for the Tufts Synthetic Biology class gave us inspiration through the possibility of detection of molecules with Cas13a - this paper can be downloaded here!

BU iGEM: We were inspired by the use of toeholds in the BU iGEM 2017 project. We incorporated toehold switches into our Cas9 system.

Alexander Green's 2014 paper on toehold switches was the basis for the Tufts iGEM team's theoretical toehold understanding. Green, Alexander A., et al. "Toehold switches: de-novo-designed regulators of gene expression." Cell 159.4 (2014): 925-939.

Technical Insight

Dr. Nikhil Nair served as advisor for Tufts iGEM and provided assistance in scientific and administrative matters. Graduate Students Jessica Stieglitz and Joseph Bober also aided in the use of Nair Lab Resources. Thank you to our graduated seniors, Lucas Brown, Adam Rayfield, Dani Burton, and Hayley Carabello for their advice.

Lab Space

We would like to thank the Tufts Department of Biology for allowing Tufts iGEM to use its lab space and communal equipment. We would especially like to thank Michael Grossi for his assistance in this respect.

Thank you iGEM Foundation for providing our team with a great experience!