Notebook

Lab Notes

Calendar

August

• 4-6: NCTU College iGEM meet-up.
  Visited conference to experience what Taiwan College teams were doing for the 2013 Asia Regional
• 14: Start TAS iGEM club
• 14: Start Synthetic Biology Course at TAS
• 15: Publish article in School Magazine
  About on iGEM's experience on a college iGEM team (NYMU_Taipei)
• 18: Introduce iGEM to Students at TAS club fair
  Had a sign up of 82 students join our iGEM club
  Had help of NYMU college iGEM team
• 21: Introduction to the iGEM lab
  Safety protocols, introduction to laboratory instrumentation, tools and chemicals
• 26: Microbio Techniques #1
  How to use pipettors
• 28: Microbio techniques #2
  How to make LB, plates

September

• 3: Speaker Series #1 Dr. Jin-Wu Tsai
  Asst. Prof at the Institute of Brain Science at NYMU
  "Watching Neural Stem Cells in Action: How do failures in Neuronal Migration make the Brain Smooth"
  Meet and greet with the professor
• 9: Microbio Tecniques
  How to make agarose gels and load them
• 16: BioBuilder Lab Eau that Smell
  Compare two competing designs that accomplish the same task
• 23: BioBuilder Lab iTunes Device
  Show how promoter and RBS strength affect expression of a desired gene.

October

• 2: TAS iGEM club visit NYMU President’s office to hear NYMU College iGEM presentation
• 4-6: iGEM Asia Regional Competition @ Hong Kong
  TAS iGEM student presents as part of the NYMU_Taipei Team
• 10: IGEM Group Meeting to discuss brainstorming for project ideas
  Bring 3 crazy ideas to the next meeting
• 13: BioBuilder Lab: Picture This
  Learn Tinkercell, model the circuit using electronic comparison
• 18: Speaker Series #2 Dr. Steven M. Boxer
  Professor of Chemistry at Stanford
  “Green Fluorescent Protein: Breaking up is hard to do”
  Meet and Greet with the professor
• 21: iGEM Group Meeting to discuss Brainstorming for project ideas
  Presentation and discussion of crazy ideas
  Ideas put into spreadsheet to start researching info
  Create iGEM google doc that became the main sharing folder for students
• 21: BioBuilder Lab: What a colorful World
  Learned the importance of the cellular chassis
• 23: IGEM Group Meeting
  Split into groups to research 2013 iGEM HS team projects
  Presentations at the next meeting
• 28: IGEM Group Meeting
  Students present their research findings on their crazy ideas
  Voted on ideas to narrow down to the top 10 project ideas

November

• 1-5: iGEM World Championship @ MIT
  TAS iGEM student presents as part of the NYMU_Taipei Team
• 7: IGEM Group Meeting
  continue to research and discuss projects from 2013 HS competition
• 11: IGEM Group Meeting
  Discussed 10 crazy ideas
  Voted and narrowed down to 6
• 16: IGEM Group Meeting
  Discussed 6 crazy ideas
  Voted down to 4 ideas
  Food Waste conversion to biofuel
  Paper Recycling
  Oxygen detector for composting
  Extend Life
• 18: IGEM Group Meeting
  Chose heads for the following categories:
  Project Leader
  Experimental Head
  Modeling Head
  Human Practice Head
  Wiki Head
  Team Administrator
• 28-Dec 1: Thanksgiving

December

• 2-3: TAS Scientific Research Symposium
  Presented labs from the BioBuilder curriculum
  Presented our circuit designs and project brain storming ideas to the pubic to gain feedback
• 20 - Jan 6: Winter Break
• 23-28: Group meetings to discuss topic
• 29: Organized meeting with Dr. Chuan-Hsiung Chang, NYMU iGEM advisor to discuss project topics and feasibility.

January

• 6: End Winter Break
• 8: Cloning cycle lab work: Transformation
• 13: Cloning cycle lab work: 3 in 1: Liquid Culture, PCR check, Restreak
• 14: Visiting TAS Alum: Charles Hsu, MIT alum and MIT iGEM alum
  gave a talk about different assembly methods
• 16: Cloning cycle lab work: Plasmid Purification
• 20: Cloning cycle lab work: Digestion and purification
• 21: IGEM Group Meeting
  discussed research on telomeres and the effect of shortening on cell death
  Human practice ideas
  Motivate!
• 22: Cloning cycle lab work: Ligation and transformation
• 25-Feb 3: Chinese New Year Break

February

• 3: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Discussion of cloning cycle – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  Project goal: LIVE LONGER!
• 10: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Receive transformation efficiency kit
  Worked on naming system for tubes, plates, etc.
  Start on line lab note book
• 11: Speaker Series #3 Dr. Michael Li
  Asst. Professor at the School of Dentistry at NYMU
  “Stem Cells, Regeneration and Reprogramming: Hope or Hype?
  Meet and Greet with the professor
• 16: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Modeling discussion
  Seek help from NYMU
• 21: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Group T-shirt Design!
  Experimental recap – RecD, plasmid purification, PCR and gel checks
  Human Practice recap – set up teaching lower school kids, faculty panel invites
• 24: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Work on presentation for NYMU meeting
  More work on circuit design of oscillator
  Experimental Recap – PCR results verify correct plasmids
• 28: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Experimental Recap – Ligations, primer order, work at NYMU, hTERT promoter
  Develop Blue Light sensor to activate circuit

March

• 3: IGEM Group Meeting:
  BUBBLE TEA!!
  Research on telomere length decay
  Research different ways to induce circuit rather than blue light
• 5: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Progress reports from each division (Exp, HP, Modeling, Wiki)
• 6: Presentation at NYMU: First presentation to NYMU about project. Gain feedback from their iGEM team
• 7: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Discussion about meeting at NYMU
  Focus less on stopping cancer and more on extension of telomeres
• 10: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Finalize teaching plans for 8th graders
  Wiki and Human Practice Updates
• 11: Human Practice: Taught 8th graders about synthetic biology, taught proper pipeting technique
• 12: Human Practice: Taught 8th graders about synthetic biology, taught proper pipeting technique
• 13: Visiting Scientist: Roy Su, PhD candidate at NYMU – molecular biologist
  Discussion of C-Myc and hTERT activity
  Received permission to work at NYMU in Roy Wu’s lab for mammalian cell experiments
• 14: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Experimental update about oscillator ligations that need to happen
  Recap on Human practice with 8th graders. K and 5th graders next
  Modeling update from Edward… working with a grad student from NYMU
  Wiki Update with new home page
• 17: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Teacher panel planning for human practice
  Modeling and Wiki Update
  Experimental – Kill all experiments relating to blue light senson
• 21: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Spring fair ideas for Human practice: YOLO Survey, Pin the Telomere on the Choromosome.
  Update from all divisions
• 27-April 7: Spring Break

April

• 6: Teacher Ethics Panel
  What are the ethical considerations we should take into consideration about our project
  Teacher from all different fields to gain a diverse perspective
• 7: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Boston Details
  NTU Presentation work on presentation
• 9: Presentation at NTU (National Taiwan University) – Gain feedback on our project from the NTU iGEM team
• 10: Human Practice: Taught 5th graders about DNA and how to use pipettors
  Taught Kindergarteners about DNA by reading them a story made up by our team
• 11: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Shot Let it Grow music video
  Met with Dr. Chiang from Academia Sinica – Our second advisor for the TAS iGEM team.
• 14: IGEM Group Meeting:
  3 Component oscillator discussion from the experimental team.
  Modeling details about how promoter strength affects oscillator strength.
• 18: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Continue iGEM Let it Grow Music Video
• 21: Visiting Grad Student: Michael Carlson – PhD student in Marine Biology from University of Wisconson
• 22: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Reminder about lab technique and safety. Getting a bit too familiar, but sloppy with lab
  Recap of tons of human practice over the last month
  Experimental things that need to get done in class
• 28: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Preparation for first Taiwan HS iGEM meet up. Invited Mingdao to visit our lab and discuss projects
  Preparation for the science research symposium to get out our project ideas!
  Experimental info on the kill switch with Psurvivin

May

• 5: IGEM Group Meeting: Cancelled Due to AP/IB exams
• 9: IGEM Group Meeting: Cancelled Due to AP/IB exams
• 13: IGEM Group Meeting: Prepare project presentation for the TAS hosted Mingdao HS iGEM meet up
• 14: Organized First Taiwan High School iGEM meet-up with the Mingdao high school iGEM team from Taichung
• 16: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Plan fun things to do in Boston
  Discuss plan for final experiments and testing results
  Introduce 2 component oscillator system
• 19: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Wiki Update
  Experimental discussion about 2 component oscillator circuit and new design
• 23: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Oral presentation practice for TAS scientific research symposium
• 26: Scientific Research Symposium
  Oral talks about iGEM project
  Individual talks for the 4 main divisions (experimental, modeling, wiki, human practice)
• 30: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Talk about invitation to the NCTU college iGEM meet up. Only high school team invited
  Overview of what needs to get done during June.

June

• 3: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Discussion on intro video for the wiki and presentation
  Wiki update
  Modeling overview: extension, regulation and termination
• 4: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Organization of wiki writing duties
  Lab work!!!
• 9: IGEM Group Meeting:
  First day of Summer vacation = MORE TIME TO IGEM!!
• 10: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Putting Everything together….
• 11-18: IGEM Group Meeting:
  Long work schedules every day from 9 am to 1 am, rotating available members in lab
• Keep working on experiments and write-up
• 19: Put together poster, fliers, postcards
• 20: Wiki Freeze!!!
• 24: Depart for Boston, USA
• 27: iGEM Practice Day – 5:30 Stata Center Room 32-123
• 28: iGEM High School iGEM Jamboree Competition Day!!!
• 29: Celebratory dinner in Boston for completing our first year of iGEM
• 30: Depart for Taipei, Taiwan