Safety

Our biosafety committee on campus has approved our project and considered possible safety risks to our team members and the environment. It has been determined, that in our stage of research, basic laboratory precautions are sufficient to address our team safety including; wearing gloves, wearing eyeware, using a safety hood, and properly disposing of biowastes. The biobrick components we have made this year pose no known harm to human or animal safety. Parts that facilitate protein secretion in E. coli and SynechocystisPotentially, a secretion pathway could be used to secrete toxic proteins. The secretion products that we have studied are not known to be harmful.

In 2009, USU’s iGEM team proposed that the following requirements should be added to the iGEM experience:

• Additional requirements for medal qualification could require a team to make an effort to have accurately released in a school newspaper or website, an article about synthetic biology and the school’s involvement with iGEM.
• Encourage iGEM teams to host or give a presentation addressing synthetic biology open to the school and public. The presentation should also be open to accepting questions and addressing concerns.

The 2010 USU iGEM team has accomplished both of these ends. An article released to the university and community can be found at [http://www.engineering.usu.edu/htm/news/articleID=7699 this site] describing our 2009 experience.

The Department of Biological Engineering and our iGEM team at USU invited Drew Endy to give a presentation on synthetic biology and invited the University community to attend his presentation. He visited USU on January 29, 2010. More information on his visit is available at [http://www.engineering.usu.edu/htm/news/articleID=8596 this site].

For more information about USU’s iGEM Ethics, view our 2009 Ethics page

Official Meetings

July 1

Initial meeting to decide direction of project. Two initial ideas discussed, but "CyanoBricks" integration plasmid chosen due to prior progress made, the potential for advancement before iGEM, and the unique platform it provides for iGEM competition.

August 5

Presented iGEM project to the dean of the College of Engineering.

September 9

Team discussion meeting times, progress on parts & composite parts. Shirt design was decided.

September 16

Reviewed judging criteria and reviewed our progress on integration vector and composite constructions. Discussed which tracks would be most applicable to our project. Discussed titles for our project.

September 18

Made final decisions for our intended track, chose a final project title, and gave a final review of our abstract. Discussed our wiki progress.

September 23

Met to discuss progress with constructs, and issues with certain protocols. Revised timeline for remainder of project.

September 27

Team wiki party - upload majority of information, set up placeholders for any pages not yet ready. Discussed logos, ate pizza.

October 26

Final Wiki Meeting - edited and polished formats, proofreading