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From 2010.igem.org

Monday 26th July - The day everyone forgot.

We started the day meeting with Qaiser at 10am to order some plasmids. In the afternoon we got the ball rolling for the bulk of our human practices work. We made lots of lists in the meeting room to set the framework for tomorrow. Tom and Caz also tried to grow up some plasmids in the BarA knockouts (chloramphenicol resistant).

Tuesday 27th July - Continuing with human practices.

Today we pieced together some of our work from yesterday using the lists as a tool to make the next step for our work. Sadly the control from the cell cultures showed contamination, so we autoclaved some pipette tips and made some more LB stock solution. Late on in the afternoon Tom and Matt attempted growing up the cells again with the sterile tips. If this works we're hoping to get some plasmid minipreps done tomorrow!

Wednesday 28th July - Meeting with Visakan and Steve to discuss modelling.

Tom, Steve, Kate, Narmada and Nii had a meeting with Visakan at 10am to discuss how certain processes in our engineered cells could be modelled and also so that those not from engineering could gain insight into how the whole modelling process works. Meanwhile Matt and Caz carried out some work in the lab making plasmid minipreps from the successful growths from yesterday's samples. Steve, caz and Mat then met with Qaiser to finalise some more orders. During the afternoon we took control of Catherine's Massive office to research modelling literature and develop some more images on photoshop. The compilation of the human practices work pictures has been made, which is great.

Lunch at Bungalows and Bears, which will probably double up as a new home for a very impressed Andy Balmer. Steve was surprised to hear voices in the toilet... this matter is being investigated further.

Thursday 29th July - The team go ice skating

19:20 meet at the IC tram stop to go down to ice sheffield. We managed to leave Narmada behind - sorry Narmada! After getting off and waiting for the next tram the team was reunited. Bargain £2.50 entry - excited we got our skates on and began sliding. Many falls later (mostly by the very unfortunate Narmada who did indeed try her best) Steve began challenging everyone to a race around the rink. Tom managed to survive the experience void of falling and Andy showed off his skills of being the most talented skater of Sheffield Igem.

Post Ice, we headed to Bungalows and Bears to sit, chat, drink and play board games until the clock reached friday morning. Very pleasant evening and not too many injuries considering the high faller to non-faller ratio among the team.

Friday 30th July - Half day

10am start. Much to do, Steve and Matt looked at primers that need to be ordered with Qaiser, while Caz managed some cell transformations since the previous batch didn't work. Tom, Nii and Narmada worked on Modelling and graphic design. 12:30 marked our meeting and presentation to some important people at the University. Our presentation work seems to be improving, another successful piece of work by the team. Andy was impressed with how we handled the questions at the end too - thumbs up!

After the meeting there wasn't much left to do apart from head back home and enjoy the early start to the weekend. Much deserved Igem team, we've worked hard this week.