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From 2010.igem.org

Contributions

Undergraduates

The UIUC-Illinois iGEM Team is very much run and organized by the Undergraduate Team members. Three returning members Meagan Musselman, Steve Waltersdorf, and Francis Lee organized recruiting, applications, and choosing of a new team. They then lead discussion leading to project selection. Each member has contributed significantly through lab work as well as administrative efforts, particularly fundraising and grant writing (Tom Hsaio, Francis Lee, and Steve Waltersdorf), publicity (Amanda Chang), financial organization (Bob Cooper), coordinating the wiki (Matt Entler) and writing newsletters (Erin Borchardt).

Advisors

We have four advisors who have been very encouraging to the team. We have had bi-weekly meetings for one hour with Dr. Chris Rao, Dr. Yong-Su Jin, Joanne Manaster, and Courtney Evans throughout the Spring semester, summer, and Fall semester.

Dr. Rao and Dr. Jin have been extremely helpful in providing advice on trouble shooting lab procedures and structuring the presentation.

Dr. Jin has been gracious enough to support us working next to his lab space, and he has ensuring that we are able to work and maintain our current lab space.

Courtney Evans has been extremely helpful with administrative questions and providing contacts.

Joanne Manaster has helped significantly to arrange for us to participate in outreach events such as GAMES camp and the Surrounded By Science TV Show. She has been very encouraging in this area and helped discuss the ethical implications of Synthetic Biology and how best to interact with the public.

In the past we have had strains donated from the Slaugh and Vanderpool labs on campus. We have also contacted several other professors across the UIUC campus who have all been extremely gracious and willing to discuss research with us.

Further Support

Our team would not be possible without the support of The Institute for Genomic Biology and its director Doctor Harris Lewin. The IGB has continually supported our undergraduate research though funding and lab space.

We have received generous product donations particularly from Promega, and also from Thermo Fisher, Corning, Midsci, and Life Technologies. Please see our home page for logos and links!

We are also extremely grateful for other on campus support that we have received from the Design Council or College of Engineering and The Student Organization Resource Fee (SORF).

Collaboration

The University of Illinois Bioware Team has collaborated with a number of different iGEM teams this year.

UIUC Software

• We have worked closely with our sister team in many aspects, including recruitment, system testing and diagnostics, fundraising, etc. Neither team would be where they are now without the significant amount of collaboration that happened this year.

Project Advice:

• Email threads and video conferences were held with Peking University and Purdue University to discuss problems and to trade suggestions and advice.

Surveys:

• The team participated in surveys hosted by the University of Warsaw team, the Middle East Technical University Software team, and the University of Edinburgh team to assist in their own bioethical projects.