Team:ETH Zurich/core/medals

Medal Criteria


     <img src="T--ETH_Zurich--Bronze.png" alt="bronze" class="medal-icon" class="center">

Bronze

1. Registration and Giant Jamboree Attendance

Our team has registered for iGEM and is enjoying an intense, iGEM filled summer. We are looking forward to attending the Giant Jamboree.

2. Competition Deliverables

Lots of hard work has gone into the <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/">wiki</a>, <a class="a-link" href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2019/a/a2/T--ETH_Zurich--poster.pdf">poster</a>, <a class="a-link" href="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2019/6/63/T--ETH_Zurich--presentation.pdf">presentation</a> and judging form. Watch our presentation <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Jamboree">here.</a>

3. Attributions

We are incredibly grateful to all the <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Attributions">people</a> who gave us their professional advice, critical opinion and motivating support.

4. Project Inspiration and Description

Bacteriophage libraries for personalized medicine? Why? <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Description">Take a look</a> at what inspired us to create a phage library with randomized host binding proteins.

5. Part Characterization

We characterized the T7 RNA polymerase (<a class="a-link" href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K1706007">BBa_K1706007</a>) in our cell-free transcription/translation system to investigate the optimal concentration of polymerase for protein expression and phage production.

     <img src="T--ETH_Zurich--Silver.png" alt="silver" class="medal-icon" class="center">

Silver

1. Part Validation

We created and characterized several new parts that were important for creating our phage libraries. You can find an overview on the <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Parts">parts page</a>.

2. Collaboration

We collaborated with VIT Vellore team by conducting measurements of lambda phage growth kinetics in its lytic life cycle. For this we obtained a mutant lambda strain that always undergoes the lytic cycle. We used this to infect a growing E. coli culture and took OD and phage titer measurements after certain timepoints. For all info please check out the <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Collaborations">collaborations page.</a>

3. Human Practices

What's the <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Human-Practices">impact</a> of our project on society? Who is going to benefit from it? What are the risks involved and what does the public think about it? We talked to numerous experts in the field and attended Scientifica, an event by ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, dedicated to the presentation of scientific research to the general public, where we spoke about the ways in which bacteriophages can be used as alternative to antibiotics. 

     <img src="T--ETH_Zurich--Gold.png" alt="gold" class="medal-icon" class="center">

Gold

1. Integrated Human Practices

We reached out to experts during project design to ensure that our product would be applicable in clinics, safe for patients and the environment, and compliant with regulations. We learned that to ensure the clinical relevance of our project, a fast selection process is crucial, that the infectious potential of a phage is not solely dependent on its host binding proteins and that a risk assessment can evaluate the biosafety of our phage library on the ecosystem. Visit the <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Human-Practices">human practices page</a> to find out how we implemented these learning int oour project design.

2. Improve a Previous Part

We optimized the sequence of the Nat cassette (<a class="a-link" href="http://parts.igem.org/Part:BBa_K3211998">BBa_K3211998</a>) to make it possible to synthesize and PCR amplify it.

3. Model Your Project

Modeling has been a crucial tool to understand the dynamics of phage infection and tune the control software of our bioreactor. On our <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Model">modeling page</a> you will find all the information relative to the modeling of our project.

4. Demonstrate Your Work

We successfully created libraries of phages by recombineering with a library size of ~ 104, containing five randomized codons in the tail fiber. We were able to select novel phages from the library that infect cells that were made resistant to wild type T7. Visit the <a class="a-link" href="https://2019.igem.org/Team:ETH_Zurich/Demonstrate">demonstration page</a> to see how all the parts of our project work together to create an operational system.