Week 0

6/19/13
Part of the group met for the first day to discuss iGEM. In spite of some of the technical difficulties with Skype and Google Hangout, we learned about some of the principles to consider when choosing an iGEM project and began brainstorming. With consideration of time, we decided to limit our chassis to Escherichia coli. We also believed that providing a foundational advance for the field of synthetic biology would be an advantageous project to pursue. After our discussions, we had a small list of ideas. We created a Google Doc for further collaboration and created a list consisting of all of our contact information.

6/20/13
We continued brainstorming ideas about different problems that we could address through synthetic biology. We came up with the following list of ideas for potential projects:

• Tal Repressors + riboswitches
• Red, green, blue color output in response to light
• Cas9 kill switch
• RNA Devices - develop some sort of assembly method protocol
• Integrase switch
• Faster reporting system - RNA fluorophore + repressing RNA binder
• Optimization of taxol biosynthesis through augmentation of mevalonate and isoprenoid pathway
• Shewanella RFID tag used in detection of volatile compounds present in produce
• Applications of expansin proteins for control of plant growth
• Method to suppress infectivity of the soybean cyst nematode
• Assessment of noise production in different promoters via production of ribosome competing RNAs
• Use of Integrase and excisionase for memory storage, lysis device, binary counter
• Oscillator with different RNA fluorophores
• Cas9 inserting a fluorophore for further expression
• Vitamin B12 biosynthesis
• Engineering E. coli for production of wine ingredients
• Detection of harmful UV light levels
• Detection of plant pathogen small molecule
• Induced self cleaving of ribozymes with homologous RNA ends for the intracellular production of dsRNA to stimulate antiviral interferon response

6/21/13
We talked extensively about the potential projects for the summer with our advisers. The advisers gave ratings for each of the possible projects and helped in identifying pros and cons for each of them. With consideration of the adviser’s input, the group decided to meet over the weekend to narrow the down the list to four ideas.