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Team:CSWProteens
From 2014hs.igem.org
- a team description
- project description
- safety information (did your team take a safety training course? were you supervised in the lab?)
- team attribution (who did what part of your project?)
- lab notebook
- sponsor information
- other information
Example: 2013hs.igem.org/Team:CSWProteens/Our_Pets
| You can write a background of your team here. Give us a background of your team, the members, etc. Or tell us more about something of your choosing. |  |
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Tell us more about your project. Give us background. Use this as the abstract of your project. Be descriptive but concise (1-2 paragraphs) | File:CSWProteens team.png Your team picture |
| Team CSWProteens |
| Official Team Profile |
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Contents |
Team
The Cambridge School of Weston is located in Weston instead of Cambridge, Massachusetts in America. It is a progressive, co-educational, day and boarding school for students in grades 9 to 12 and post-graduate. Since the school's inception in 1886, it has been at the forefront of educational innovation.
Our teachers are passionate. And we are bold, thoughtful, and some of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet. We are The Cambridge School of Weston, CSW Proteens. We will rock the world upside down!
The team consists of 14 intelligent students who stand strong with the best instructors on the earth, Howard G. Goldswag and Melodie Knowlton. Oh, not gold swag but Goldsweig. It must have meant the same. The team is led by Joey Booties, sorry, Joseph Boots-Ebenfield actually, a courageous young lad who started the iGem team for the school from zero to infinity. The team members, Aiden Kolodziej, Jenny Woo, Matthew Waters, Ellie Wolf, Nate Williams, Joey Boots-Ebenfield, Noa Machover, Ben Klebe, Summer Ardell, Claire Kerper, Thomas Schaffner, Micah Rickles-Young, and Liam Kaufer. As united as the round table knights (if you ignore Lancelot) and as smart as Albert Einstein. Ah! And please don't forget the honored webpage editor Yixuan Liu. The editor was "honored" because he was too lazy to do anything. (Just kidding) :)
Project
Annually, about 5% to 15% of agricultural produce is lost due to frost. The formation of ice damages plants by rupturing cells and also through dehydration as water molecules are drawn out of tissue. Current solutions to this problem - such as using heat or covering crops with protective material - are cumbersome, costly, and not fully preventative. Synthetic antifreeze chemicals have not been proven to work. Even if they did, they would need to be applied repeatedly, at great cost, and may also leave residues in the environment. The CSW ProTeens aim to design a synthetic biology solution to this problem with a nonpathogenic strain of E. coli able to produce and secrete RiAFP (Rhagium inquisitor Antifreeze Protein) using a part that the Yale ‘11 iGEM team developed. RiAFP is an insect antifreeze protein from Rhagium inquisitor and the most efficient AFP known. RiAFP, unlike synthetic chemicals, should not be harmful if ingested. We are not sure yet whether this method is effective on an industrial scale and will need to test this. We wish to control the population of the E.coli by designing a kill switch mechanism that will prevent excessive growth as well as use a type 1 secretion system designed by the Utah State University ‘09 iGEM team to transport the protein directly to the extracellular space.
Notebook
Show us how you spent your days.
Results/Conclusions
What did you achieve over the course of your semester?
Safety
Safety is always an important thing for our team. When doing labs, at least one of our instructors is always with us. The lab is well equipped to ensure every team members' safety. We have thick gloves specially designed for preventing things from burning our hands. Goggles to prevent bad things spitting into our eyes. Rubber gloves ensure the sanity and our health. We also have a lab shower and an eye washer that will save our lives if we get into trouble with some dangerous chemicals. Moreover, we all have insurance so we won't pay out of our pockets if something bad happens ;)
Attributions
We've all done a lot of work so far, with more to come! Summer, Micah, and Aiden are our primary fundraisers. They wrote and sent letters to local biotech companies letting them know what we're doing, and that we would love to get some help from them. Lilly has been doing most of the work on our two social media outlets other than the wiki (our tumblr and facebook page). Ellie has been contacting middle schools in the area to see if they would like to have us teach about synthetic biology and DNA. Noa is our project manager, and has been organizing everyone, and keeping the entire team on track. Joey is the team leader, and has been busy coordinating all of the little things there are to do. Everyone has been involved in design and lab work. And of course, Melodie and Howard are our advisors!
Human Practices
Fun!
What was your favorite team snack?? Have a picture of your team mascot?
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