Team:BYU Provo/Collaboration

Attributions

Collaborations

UNIK-Copenhagen iGEM Team

Our main collaboration project was working with the Copenhagen iGem team in their effort to create an instructional video database called Bricks of Knowledge. Each Brick in the database contains a short instructional video giving instructions, advice, tips, and tricks on a specific topic helpful to other iGem teams. The hope and goal of the database is to provide a means of sharing experience and expertise in the specific areas that teams excel in. Such a database not only helps share knowledge between current teams, but will provide an invaluable resource for new teams as they enter into the iGem community.

We decided to create a Brick of Knowledge on how to work with bacteriophage in research capacity, and specifically, in the context of iGem.

INSERT INFO ON VIDEO, AND VIDEO ITSELF

NRP-UEA iGEM Team

We worked with the Norwich Research Park of the University of East Anglia iGem team on their project to create a library of antimycin procuding bacteria isolated from soil or sediment. While their main focus was on the filamentous Actinobacteria, they hoped to find several new and interesting antimycins.

On July 18 we received an initial request from the NRP-UEA team for soil and sediment samples from our local area. We quickly responded to let them know that we would be happy to help and requested more specific information on the type of sample that they needed. On July 22 we collected soil and sediment samples from the bank of the Provo River. These samples were kept refrigerated until they were shipped out the next day on July 23.

We contacted the NRP-UEA team to let them know the requested samples were on their way, and see if there was anything else that we could assist them with. However, they had apparently run into some issues with the licensing for importing soil samples into the United Kingdom and their project was stalled. They were eventually able to get everything cleared up, but we were unable to assist them further.

TU/Eindhoven iGEM Team

• They are creating a “Synthetic Facts” database website that acts as a fact checker site for the public to access and find out more about synthetic biology and to dispel some of the myths and misunderstood ideas about synthetic biology. DID WE CHECK THIS?

University of Texas at Austin iGEM Team

• They are preparing a petition to update the assembly and submission standards required for the submission of BioBricks to the Registry of Standard Biological Parts which require the removal of non-approved restriction enzyme sites that are used as the suffix and prefix of parts when assembled using the recommended methods. We participated in a collaborative discussion with them and other teams where input was gathered on our current preparation, assembly, and submission processes to submit parts to the iGem registry and a petition was proposed to update the submission requirements for iGem parts.

Purdue iGem Team

• Their aim is to create a standardized protocol for the characterization of parts submitted to the iGem parts registry, including a list of protocols and assays that need to be performed on each part. They hope to both standardize and improve the information available for parts in the iGem database. We participated as a team in a series of collaborative discussions on what we found to be the most important information for parts in the registry, problems or issues with the current characterization processes, and specific ideas of improvement for the characterization and documentation for biobrick parts. We also volunteered to help create the specific protocols that would be used, and to use the new protocols in the characterization of our parts this year.