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Team:Brown/Obstacles learning
From 2010.igem.org
What We've Learned
We faced many obstacles this summer and learned a lot from them, both as students and as scientists.
The Team
Brown team structure is unique to the iGEM community. Unlike the majority of teams, we are completely independent undergraduate students. We do not have a PI to continually instruct us in what to do, nor a lab that has been doing the same project for years at a time. Our advisors are present to answer questions and help us solve critical lab issues, but the entirety of the project creation and execution is our own. Although the lack of external structure was at times frustrating, it was immeasurably valuable in teaching us independence, prioritization, and organization.
composed of freshmen and sophomores with wide range of bio bgrd: it was often difficult and time-consuming to bridge this knowledge gap, but we emerged at a much closer level of understanding. Have to come up with our own projects. Only one year on the team. Mention taking forever to learn protocols. No accountability (not sure if this should be mentioned?)
The Lab
Lack of sterile conditions. Have to walk 10 minutes to get to an autoclave. Have to order all our own materials. Have to make plates/stocks/etc. Tough to achieve sterile conditions. Lack of BSL2
The Projects
Started the summer with 3, emerged with 2, one of which we came up with halfway through.
Failed projects:
Motility
This is what happened with motility
Allergen Detection
Discovery that it recently existed, cite the specific patent war
Miraculin
Difficulty in both finding and obtaining a suitable plasmid. Difficulty obtaining a 30C incubator. Difficulty transforming Yeast.
Valuable insights
In having to design our own experiments from the bottom up, we all learned a lot about protocols and experimental design. We learned how to run a lab, not just work in one. We learned how to work as a team. We learned how to be creative, and deal with the failure of our ideas.
Compared to our courses, our other research experiences, etc, this is not the level of success we are used to nor expect. But this is also not the average challenge we face. We are unique in the iGEM world, and in the world of undergraduate research at Brown. Our pride in our work this summer is not the number of papers we publish, or even the number of parts we contribute, but how we have learned keep moving forward when you face these difficulties.
