Team:Exeter/Lab Book
Lab Book
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1st - 5th April 2019
Bootcamp Week
- Learnt the basics about synthetic biology
- Learnt about the format of the iGEM competition
- Had a workshop from Dr Sarah Hartley about Human Practices
- Had a trial session in the lab
- Started brainstorming project ideas. Settled on six main ideas.
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1st - 5th July
- Transformation of BBa_1746909 into E. coli DH5a, E. coli BL21, E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS.
- Streak plates of E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS onto IPTG plates.
- Preparation of overnights of E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli DH5a.
- Glycerol stock and miniprep of E. coli DH5a.
- Measured optical density and fluorescence of induced and uninduced E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli DH5a.
- Washing of a jumper and a pair of tights to collect some PET and nylon samples.
- FACS calibration for our E. coli.
- Fluorescence measurements of fluorescein.
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8th - 12th July
- Absorbance of microspheres measured.
- Transformation of T7 sGFP into E. coli BL21, E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS.
- Preparation of overnights of E. coli BL21, E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS.
- Measured optical density and fluorescence of induced and uninduced E. coli BL21, E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS for 24 hours.
- Second set of overnights of E. coli BL21, E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS.
- Measured optical density and fluorescence of uninduced E. coli BL21, E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS for 4 hours.
- Image streams and FACS analysis ran on each biological repeat of E. coli BL21, E. coli BL21(DE3) and E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS.
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15th - 19th July
- Analysis of image stream data, cloned AM, EM and BP.
- Transformation of AM, EM and BP into E. coli DH5a.
- Transformation of EM and BP with 10uL of plasmid DNA.
- Preparation of AM, EM and 1-8 overnights.
- Transformation of BP and 1-8 into E. coli DH5a.
- Prepared glycerol stocks of EM and AM.
- Overnights prepared of AM and EM. EM and AM minipreped.
- Overnights of 1-8 and BP prepared.
- Glycerol stocks prepared of 1-8 and BP. 1-8 and BP minipreped.
- All samples qubitted and sent off for sequencing.
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22nd - 26th July
- Transformation of AM, EM, BP and 1-8 into E. coli BL21 DE3.
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29th July - 2nd August
- SP1, SP2, PRA, PTS, B1, B2, MWA transformed into E. coli DH5a.
- Transformations didn’t work - wrong antibiotic used.
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5th - 9th August
- SP1, SP2, PRA, PTS, B1, B2, MWA transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3).
- Preparation of overnights of E. coli BL21(DE3).
- Preparation of ZYM media.
- Induction of SP1, SP2, PRA, PTS, B1, B2, MWA enzymes expression.
- Centrifugation and collection of pellets of the cultures induced with IPTG.
- Centrifugation and collection of pellets from cultures induced with ZYM.
- Nickel tip purification of enzymes and running of SDS-PAGE.
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12th - 16th August
- Resuspension of pellets prepared on 8th August and sonication. Collection and storage of supernatant after sonication.
- Assembling of wild type PETase plasmid.
- Ran western blots of the whole cell cultures.
- Western blots of whole lysate cells.
- Preparation of competent cells for Rosetta Gami and Arctic Express.
- Transformation of B2, MWA, B1, SP1, SP2, PTS and PRA into Rosetta Gami and Arctic Express.
- Overnight cultures of B2, B1 and MWA, SP1, SP2, PTS and PRA.
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19th - 23rd August
- Preparation of overnights of E. coli BL21(DE3), E. coli Rosetta Gami, E. coli Arctic Express.
- Induction of enzyme expression in E. coli BL21(DE3), E. coli Rosetta Gami, E. coli Arctic Express.
- Sonication of the cell cultures. Purification of the soluble fractions of E. coli BL21(DE3).
- SDS-PAGE of purified fraction from E. coli BL21(DE3).
- Western Blots of the soluble fraction of E. coli Rosetta Gami and E. coli Arctic Express.
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26th - 30th August
- Preparation of overnights of E. coli Arctic Express.
- Induction of SP1, SP2, PRA, PTS, B1, B2, MWA enzymes expression in 1L cultures of E. coli Arctic Express.
- Nanodrop quantification of enzymes purified in the previous week.
- Sonication of the cell cultures, centrifugation and collection of the soluble fractions.
- Start of purification of enzymes from soluble fraction.
- Preparation of buffers for enzyme purification.
- PnpA assay of SP2.
- End of purification of enzymes from soluble fraction.
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2nd - 6th September
- Nanodrop quantification of enzymes obtained from the 250mL cultures.
- pnpA assay of SP1, PTS, PRA.
- Transformation of BP, PG and IDT 6 into E. coli DH5a
- Overnight incubation of BP, PG and IDT 6.
- Rehydration and transformation of A1, A2, A3, A4 and wt DNA into E. coli Arctic Express.
- Purification of DNA from BP, PG, and IDT 6.
- Setting plastic assay experiment.
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9th - 13th September
- Induction of A1, A2, A3, A4 and wt enzymes expression in 1L cultures of E. coli Arctic Express.
- Sonication of the cell cultures, centrifugation and collection of the soluble fractions.
- Purification of enzymes from the 1L cultures.
- Concentrating down the purified enzymes and quantification by nanodrop.
- pnpA assay of SP1, SP2, PRA, PTS after heating at different temperatures.
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16th - 20th September
- Purification of ancestors and wild type.
- SDS-PAGE of ancestor 1 and wild type.
- Western blot of the ancestors and wild type.
- Quantification of wild type by nanodrop.
- pnpA assay of wild type PETase.
- SDS-PAGE of ancestors 2 and 4.
- Centrifugation and concentration of the fractions that appeared on the SDS-PAGE.
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23rd - 27th September
From this point onwards, the majority of the wet lab work was done and we concentrated on documenting it on the wiki. We have also been working on our poster and presentation ready for the Jamboree!
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1st - 5th April 2019
Bootcamp Week
- Learnt the basics about synthetic biology
- Learnt about the format of the iGEM competition
- Had a workshop from Dr Sarah Hartley about Human Practices
- Had a trial session in the lab
- Started brainstorming project ideas. Settled on six main ideas. -
17th - 21st June
Monday 17th June 2019
- Researched project topics suggested in boot camp week. We didn't suggest any further ideas, trying to expand on the 6 ideas previously brainstormed.
- Voted out composting tea bags as an idea. Today we focused on semipermeable membranes, River Exe run-off, fabric dyes and solar panels. Tomorrow's aim is to further research biomining and 3D printing organic tissue.
- First lab induction. Ran through appropriate disposal of biological and chemical waste, fire exits and drills, PPE and lab working hours.Tuesday 18th June 2019
- Met with our supervisors in the morning to run through each of the ideas that we brainstormed yesterday. We narrowed down from 6 ideas down to the three most successful sounding ideas: 3D printing clean meat, making biological fabric dyes, and semipermeable membrane bandages.
- Split into three groups to take each idea and pursue it further. Each group researched whether the idea had been done before and researched the parts and pathways that had been used by previous iGEM teams or general research.
- Met the supervisors again at 4pm to discuss the development that we’d made from each other the ideas. The general feedback was that the clean meat project is massive so needs to be narrowed down to something achievable for a 10 week project. We should either look into the growth hormones, TGF and FGF or the scaffold used to produce lab created meat.
- The feedback for the semipermeable membranes project was that we need to think about how we would potentially use a semipermeable membrane or biofilm to release an antimicrobial peptide that would assist with the healing of wounds and burns. Need to further research whether it has been done and how we would make it synthetic biology.Wednesday 19th June 2019
- Split off into groups in the morning, but alternated topics so that nobody got too attached to one project idea. Spent the whole day researching each topic and came back together at 4pm to go over our findings.
- The semipermeable membranes project has been discarded because it is not synthetic biology. After having investigated this project further we found that secretion involves synthetic biology but then has bacteria on the surface of a plaster where there is an open wound. The detection of the bandage would be mainly detected by pH which doesn’t require any synthetic biology, and any way of making it synbio would make it more complex than the current ideas and solutions.
- For the fabric dye project, we found Colorifix, a company that do what we aim to do. They originate from an iGEM team which means we have useful biobricks already. The harmful part of the dyeing process is fixation to the material so further research needs to be done into investigating a cleaner way to fix the colour to material or make the byproducts less harmful.
- The number of stakeholders involved in the clean meat project idea are vast so there has been further development there. It is important to contact stakeholders for this project because it is a relatively new and unexplored field by iGEM. Most of the information is held within specific companies that we need to get involved with.Thursday 20th June 2019
- Team meeting in the morning to recap what we did yesterday. Split into three groups, one group for clean meat, one for fabric dye and one to generate new ideas.
- Clean meat: Continued research into FGF-2 and how to purify the process. FGF was confirmed by Kai Steinmetz (researcher from Auckland) to be a confirmed growth medium, shining a slightly more questionable light on TGF and Insulin being used a growth medium. Started to look at scaffolds and maybe start contacting companies that look specifically at scaffolds.
- Fabric dyes: Emailed stakeholders from large clothing and fashion brands who are trying to be more ecological and sustainable. Researched antimicrobial dyes and growing coloured fabric using the biobricks from the 2009 iGEM Cambridge Team.
- The new ideas team spent the day researching a specific enzyme found in Ideonella sakaiensis that degrades PET plastic. The PETase and MHETase enzymes degrade PET plastic over a long period of time. The best way to use this would be to optimise the time in which these enzymes work and use them on microplastics. The PACE method will be used to evolve the enzymes to make them resistant to detergent and heat. This means we could use these enzymes in detergent to degrade the microplastics that come off clothes.Friday 21st June 2019
- Morning meeting at 9:30am to make a plan for the day. Quick run through of each research group's findings from yesterday afternoon. The plan for today is to make the presentations for when we meet Chloe on Monday and when we present all of the ideas to the academics and supervisors.
- Each of the groups started their presentations in preparation for Monday. The presentations focused on how each of the projects would be achieved and what Parts would be required.
- We emailed stakeholders to help us make a decision about which is the most feasible project.
- The fabric dye team contacted fabric making companies to determine more information. Organised a meeting with the Head of Product Innovation and the Head of Fabric Innovation at Ralph Lauren for 3 weeks time.
- For the plastic eating bacteria and detergent project, Unilever and other detergent companies including ecover and method were emailed to see if larger companies would be interested in a detergent that got rid of nano and microplastics. Academics in microplastics were also emailed to determine what the key hurdles would be and any advice that they have. -
24th - 28th June
Monday 24th June 2019
- We spent the first few hours of the day presenting to each other the ideas that we had. Our current ideas are clean meat, sustainable fabric dyes and degrading microplastics.
- In the afternoon we spent some time contacting stakeholders and preparing our presentations for tomorrow.Tuesday 25th June 2019
- Dyes had correspondence with an ethical fashion blogger, the CEO of a biotechnology company with specialises in the creation of structural colours in bacteria and an academic at Cambridge who specialises in cellulose, all of which gave us valuable feedback.
- Presented to Professor John Love at 12pm, who gave us lots of feedback. His favourite project was Plastics.
- Presented to the academics and supervisors at 2pm. The room was split but their overall favourite project was the fabric dye project.
- The team voted on which project to choose. The winning project was the plastic-degrading bacteria.
- Group meal at The Stable to celebrate!Wednesday 26th June 2019
- Started brainstorming for our Plastics project.
- Completed the safety form.
- Started researching what DNA we need to order.
- Started the Project Description and Plan wiki page.
- Started brainstorming potential ideas for Human Practices.Thursday 27th June 2019
- Adriano taught some of us how to build a wiki page whilst we finished off the Project Description and Inspiration page.
- Continued looking into parts to order and contacting stakeholders.
- Went to a modelling drop-in session in the LSI to speak to academics about potential modelling ideas.
- Started looking into the possibility of using cell free systems.
- Early finish to allow for a group trip to Exmouth!Friday 28th June 2019
- Emailed more stakeholders and started to design our approach to Human Practices.
- Researched modelling options for a filter design. -
1st - 5th July
1st July 2019
- Collated previous iGEM team’s research
- Sent the necessary DNA sequences to our supervisors and did some research into rational design.
2nd July 2019
- Prepared for call with Xeros on Thursday.
- Wrote up protocol for using washing machine.
- PACE technique died3rd July 2019
- Started looking at the small laboratory washing machine we bought. Got it working and started running it.
4th July 2019
- Planned Human Practices section and arranged a meeting with Dr Sarah Hartley from the University of Exeter Business School.
- Did filtering with the washing machine.
- Meeting with Professor Harmer about the possibility of implementing ancestral reconstruction.
- Engineers had a meeting with Xeros.5th July 2019
- Meeting with Dr David Santillo about the environmental law implications of the filter design.
- Meeting with Miele about the potential to integrate enzyme-based filters into their washing machines.
- Engineers meeting with David Pritchard to discuss designs.
- Contacted potential sponsors. -
8th - 12th July
8th July 2019
- We had a meeting with Dr Sarah Hartley about Human Practices.
- Contacted the ethics director for our department to create an ethics consent form for any interviewed stakeholders.
- Started developing our Human Prctices section, which will be a consideration about the implied responsibility of our project, and how our product is being influenced by stakeholders. We will consider this through different lenses (gender, power, politics and economics) to identify why the project would be taken down a certain route.
- Started planning our outreach to four groups of people: government, academics, industry and publics.
- Contacted a graphic designer to design our logo. Some sketches were sent and two logo sketches were chosen by the whole team.
- The engineers developed a few CAD model filters to attach to the back of a washing machine.
- Miele offered to send us a washing machine to run filter tests on.9th July 2019
- Completed the timeline for the Integrated Human Practices wiki page regarding companies we have contacted and heard back from, for June and July. Each company has a brief description about them, what they contributed from the meeting and how we adjusted our project.
- The engineers continued to develop the filtration design in Solid Works. After speaking to the engineering department we were given the all clear to 3D print some parts of the filter to test. We predict that we will have to manufacture the final filter out of metal.
- The DNA arrived from IDT so we can rehydrate and freeze it for use.10th July 2019
- The data team have been working on plotting the graphs from the lab data. Meeting with the supervisors to discuss how we would go about plotting graphs and the requirements we want to use for them.
- The Human Practices team wrote up reports to send to curriculum advisors in universities and schools, and one for research councils, to discuss including social sciences into STEM curricula as well as including social scientists into large research teams.
- In the afternoon, Extinction Rebellion was holding a meeting in Exeter that we attended to talk to them about our project. At this talk we met a lawyer from the Exeter Law School who is providing details for lobbyists regarding policy change, a member of the Exeter Conservative Party who will take our idea to their meeting.
- Researched the technique of ancestral reconstruction to improve PETase and MHETase.
- Picked four people from the team to go to the UK iGEM meetup on the 28th-31st of July.11th July 2019
- Human Practices had a meeting with Stella McCartney which was incredibly beneficial. Despite the brand not using much synthetic fibres, they have many contacts who look into microplastics.
- Created a lesson plan, presentation and worksheets for responsible science to be delivered in secondary schools.
- Meeting with local government advisory to talk about our product and creating policies.12th July 2019
- Morning team meeting to discuss what each team in the group have been doing so that everyone is on the same page. Discussed Golden Gate Assembly and how to obtain microplastics samples to test on.
- Sent the lesson plan and presentation to schools in Exeter to get feedback on whether this would be something they would consider adding to their curricula.
- Modified the reports to send to curriculum advisors, research councils and academics under the recommendation of Dr Sarah Hartley. Found contacts to email these reports to.
- Started to work on the presentation for the Newcastle meet up. -
15th - 19th July
15th July 2019
- Created a report for government officials encouraging the introduction of washing machine company regulation and putting integrated microplastic filters in washing machines.
- Created a leaflet for the team members who are going to the Extinction Rebellion Action tomorrow in Bristol to give out.
- Started to work on the Outreach and Public Engagement wiki page.
- Meeting at 3pm with the UK and US Heads of Innovation to discuss upscaling of our filter to their fashion mills. They will send us flow rate samples to model scaling our filter up to manufacturing plants.
- Worked on the analysis of the data from the Image Stream.
- Designed the wiki navigation bar.16th July 2019
- The final logo arrived.
- Booked a presentation run through on Monday before the UK meet up. We mainly worked on the presentation for the UK meet up in two weeks.
- Completed the outreach wiki page write-up with what we’ve done so far.
- Two team members went to Bristol to the Extinction Rebellion Action to raise awareness about microplastic pollution.17th July 2019
- Group meeting at 9:15am to catch everyone up to speed on all the areas of the project.
- Whole group meeting with Dr Hartley about our Human Practices so far. She encouraged us to definitely submit a think piece to a journal before the Jamboree, and suggested contacting the associate deans of our selected colleges about integrating social sciences into STEM courses. She also suggested writing a newspaper article for a local newspaper.
- Met with Matt from last years iGEM team to get some advice for the UK meet up. He showed us last year's UK presentation and advised that we communicate we between each of the subgroups of our team so that everyone is on the same page.18th July 2019
- The whole team spent the morning with the supervisors learning MatLab, practicing how to plot graphs for our data.
- Meeting with Nottigham discussing collaborations. We agreed to do a measurement for them because they don’t have an anaerobic fume hood and they agreed to do assays for us.
- Half of the team continued finishing the UK presentation. Aside from the biological side, the presentation is mostly finished.
- 3 members of the team went to the local council meeting in the evening. It was filled with local council members from across Devon, who were talking about climate action in their towns. In the time we had to mingle, we spoke to the council members and some of the general public who were amazed by our research. However, the overwhelming questions came down to the structure, prototyping and efficiency of the filter. Therefore we are starting to feel that we should start prototyping before we attend any more meetings.19th July 2019
- Meeting with Dr Ceri Lewis at 11am to discuss her experience as a microplastics researcher.
- Meeting with a lab technician at 11am to look at the SEM and image the microplastics.
- Ancestral reconstruction meeting with Professor Harmer at 10:30am.
- Fluids lab induction at 2pm. -
22nd - 26th July
22nd July 2019
- Miele washing machine arrived and was unboxed.
- SEM scans at 2:30pm to image microplastic samples that had gone through the wash, has been collected from fleeces and given to us by academics at the Uni.
- The engineering team did the risk assessment and method statements for the washing machine testing.
- Looked at potentially altering the design to a hydrocyclone from the current design we have.
- Started the poster for the UK meetup.
- HP team spoke to the press office to advertise our project and try and set up links between us and David Attenborough. We produced a press summary to send to them so that they had a greater understanding of our project and its aims.
- Developed a leaflet to be distributed around the city as a form of outreach.
- Sent our report to curriculum advisors in each part of the University, including all the STEM departments.23rd July 2019
- Did a run through of the presentation and Q&A session to the academics. The main takeaway was to be prepared to say that we don’t know everything at this stage of the project. We also need to add a modelling slide.
- Three members of the team were considering attending a microplastics conference in Penryn, so are organising tickets and booking places on the course.
- The engineers looked at a new hydrocyclone design and read some papers about how to 3D print a successful design.
- Meeting at 2pm to discuss how to structure our Human Practices on the wiki to best display it.
- Sent emails to enzymes companies to get their feedback on our project and how they would set it up.
- Created a set of workshop ideas to take to a meeting with Exeter library tomorrow afternoon.24th July 2019
- General meeting with the supervisors about our name, logo, wiki design and presentation feedback.
- Wiki meeting to decide upon what needs to be done and how quickly, colour schemes, the nav bar and the graphics. We suggested maybe finding a wiki that we each like so we can get an idea of styles.
- Printed the leaflets onto A5 glossy paper ready to be distributed around the city.
- Meeting with a senior library manager at Exeter, who let us have some space in the library in October as part of the Fun pPalace. We talked her through some workshop ideas. We need to provide a summary so that she can put it on the Fun Palace website and leaflet. She also put some of our printed leaflets up in the library. We then walked around the town placing our leaflets on any community noticeboards, in community areas, cafes and shops.
- Finished the poster for the UK meetup so that it can be printed tomorrow.
- Started on the wiki Team page.25th July 2019
- Called Sean Large about the hydrocyclone, considered the idea of several hydrocyclones in a row to get rid of the larger particulates.
- Talked through design in another meeting with David Pritchard to discuss ways to get round some of the barriers we’re facing.
- Made a Gantt chart and printed the method statement for the washing machine.
- Sent a summary to the library to explain the Fun Palace workshop. Need to come up with a title for the event.
- Completed the wiki page write-up for the HP Introduction page.
- Started to work on designing the entrepreneurship aspect of the project. Started producing a business model.26th July 2019
- Emailed pipette companies.
- Updated Integrated HP page and Outreach page.
- Emailed consent forms to academics.
- Started the think piece.
- Ran first washing machine test.
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29th July - 2nd August
29th July 2019
- Got the physical printed filter and cleaned up to take to the Newcastle meet up.
- Held a meeting with the supervisors to discuss the progress made from each part of the project. Feedback included making sure we stay focused on the reason we are doing each part of our HP and how it makes our project better.
- Emailed the government report to all the government MPs in the local area.
- Started to look at using FLUENT for modelling the hydrocyclone and how we would use this software.
- Started writing and editing the think piece.
- 4 members of the team left for Newcastle meet up.
30th July 2019
- Wrote up a press release for Grow Magazine.
- Started to look into the business model and a plan of action to complete it successfully. Had a meeting in the innovation centre to discuss IP.
- MP replied saying that they would like to discuss the legislation involved with enacting environmental change.31st July 2019
- Edited the think piece further, need to make it a more balanced piece as it will end up in an academic journal. Therefore it needs to be powerful without having a distinct bias.
- Consent forms were written up to be sent to companies and organisations.1st August 2019
- Did another wash on the same settings as previously, short 1400 spin and 40 degrees. We only used one fleece to make it comparable to the experiment with the table top washing machine.
- Took samples from the first release of water and the final release of water to test through the Image Stream to get concentrations.2nd August 2019
- Consent forms sent off to all the companies.
- Further consent forms to be printed for Miele visit and potential Xeros visit.
- Press release with included pictures has been sent to Grow Magazine for editing and publishing. -
5th - 9th August
5th August 2019
- Continued work on wiki home page.
- Ancestral reconstruction discussions with Professor Harmer.
- Started work on the filter electronics, programming the arduino so that it would measure the flow rate directly and begin to determine when the filter is full so that the valve would close and release the solution.
- Started the hydrocyclone modelling. Found some papers that let us dictate the value to find the diameter of the hydrocyclone necessary which could be used at larger industrial plants.
- Edited the think piece again as now it feels very anti-business instead of anti-government but it still needs to be neutral.
- Drafted the Engineering wiki page.6th August 2019
- Xeros filter arrived and unpacked.
- Mathematics done regarding the solid weight that would be in the water that comes out of the washing machine. Further modelling helped to derive some mathematical equations that would let us predict the size of the hydrocyclone and how many we would need for specific over and underflows. Need more data to get to a final stage model yet.
- Electronics arduino was set up so that a valve will close.
- Investigated the relationship between pressure, friction and fluid flow through porous materials to get a better idea of how our filter would work if it got clogged too quickly.
- Meeting with the CEO of The Microfibre Consortium went really well. She sounds very interested in our project idea and would be willing to take our idea further to talk at board meetings if she knew about it in further detail. Some further details such as TPA and EG restriction levels and flow rates from fashion mills were provided in this meeting. TMC also talked about helping to fund the project after the competition.7th August 2019
- The flow rate arduino circuit was completed, needs to be taken into the electronics lab.
- A Solid Works design that would be adaptable for different filter sizes was developed.
- Mathematical modelling continued for the hydrocyclone using the research paper found online. Main aim was to work through the mathematics so that we could understand the process and replicate it.
- Continued work with the wiki page, especially Home and Description pages.8th August 2019
- The mathematical modelling was completed and we realised that we couldn’t use a hydrocyclone for our final model due to the size it would have to be for it to be effective.
- Further design models were 3D printed.9th August 2019
- Miele visited the University for a tour around the biology lab and the fluids lab. They were very interested by the project and felt that it go further than the competition and they would still happily be involved in the research process. They also speculated the idea of funding for a studentship.
- A 6kg wash was run to get the litres released for this weight, 55.4 litres in total. This was important for the modelling. Water samples for the 6kg wash were taken from a completely dirty was to measure how well they filter.
- The modelling for the hydrocyclone was written up but still needs editing. -
12th - 16th August
12th August 2019
- Adjusted wiki pages to conform to medal criteria judging pages.
- Uploaded HP wiki pages.
- Continued the modelling write up.13th August 2019
- Finished the hydrocyclone modelling write up and got others to read over it and suggest edits.
- Added further HP information to the wiki page.
- Meeting with business people in the innovation centre and organised further meeting for IP.
- Collected and sanded the second physical print out of the filter design.14th August 2019
- Uploaded Team and Modelling wiki pages.
- Started business model canvas.15th August 2019
- Microscope for fun palace sorted.
- Press meeting at 2pm: press release will be written up by the press office, just need to organise IP before they can release it.16th August 2019
- Meeting with supervisors to update them on the project so far and organise the lab work for next week.
- Engineering meeting to discuss the filter designs. -
19th - 23rd August
19th August 2019
- Updated the HP wiki page design.
- Designed the Engineering wiki page.
- Did a market analysis and vision statement.
- Completely finished Description page.
- Heard from Google that they would sponsor us with £500 of their services.20th August 2019
- Meeting with someone in the innovation centre about whether we could get IP and how to start work on a business model canvas.
- PAT tested X-filtra.21st August 2019
- Edited some of the infographics across the wiki as a team to make it look more on-brand.
- Started organising team stash.22nd August 2019
- Tested the 40 micron filter from the biolab on the washing machine and it worked, so started another design iteration with a basket filter.
- Started the value proposition and brainstormed for business model canvas.23rd August 2019
- Got two of the solenoid valves working.
- Started the cost analysis for the filter.
- Added three tabs for the results page.
- PRODUCED THE FIRST EXTRACELLULAR MUTANT MHETASE IN THE WORLD! -
26th - 30th August
26th August
Bank holiday Monday!
27th August
- Phone call with Miele who offered design changes and edits we could make, from a consumer and industry perspective.
- Uploaded the timeline to Integrated HP.
- Decided to link the area framework to the four steps we’ve used to detail our conversations with stakeholders.
- Organised a HP collaboration with Oxford. They will simultaneously do the Oxford Fun Palace while we do the Exeter one.
- Meeting with the supervisors to get them up to speed on what we’ve achieved so far.
- Activity of SuperPETase so massive that it broke the machine!28th August
- Started filling IHP timeline.
- Started some 3D prints and ran a couple of tests in the lab with a microsieve.
- Started pricing chart for business plan.
- WiFi module was set-up and connected with the server.
- Call with Miele, who gave us suggestions for our filter design.29th August
- Created half of the registry pages and created all 16 pages for the results of the lab work for the team to put stuff onto. Sorted all the mutants and the sequences.
- Did a wash to collect microfibres.
- Meeting with supervisor to discuss her revisions to the wiki.
- Continuation of business plan, including market analysis completion and company description.
- Completed edits on description page for wiki.30th August
- Edited human practices introduction.
- Uploaded Engineering page.
- Finalised and ordered stash.
- Design for lab book wiki page sorted and uploaded. -
2nd - 6th September
2nd September 2019
- Put all the lab book so far onto the wiki.
- Miele sent us an enzyme delivery system to test and investigate to see if there were applications for our own filter.
- Did first 100 micron wash and successfully tested a functioning prototype with micro-sieves!
3rd September 2019
- Wash with a 70 micron microsieve which successfully captured more microplastics but we were faced with more leakage due to increased pressure
- Edited the hardware wiki page to get filter designs up.
- Added more protocols to the wiki page.
- Added more to the introduction to HP page.
- Did a 40 micron microsieve test to determine.
- Sent strawberry protocol to the Oxford iGEM Team for our Fun Palace Collaboration.
4th September 2019
- Started to make the iGEM PETexe Banner.
- Made the Safety page for the wiki.
- Added Oxford collaboration to the wiki.
- Started to populate the Demonstrate page and added to the Hardware page.5th September 2019
- 3 consecutive washes with a 100 micron filter to determine whether flow is impacted by repeated washing and whether the filter starts to clog. Plan to run two further washes tomorrow to test whether the filter can handle 5 washes.
- Added to the registry pages.
- Added the safety forms as click buttons to the safety wiki page.
- Further work on the Bronze Results page information.
- Plotted lab data in MATLAB for silver results page.6th September 2019
Slow day.
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9th - 13th September
9th September 2019
- Worked on the filter's electronics system.
- Worked on the business plan.10th September 2019
- The CEO of The Microfibre Consortium visited our laboratories.
- Continues on the electronics.
- We reformatted the Entrepreneurship page.
- A letter from Parliament arrived, discussing the current microplastic legislation for washing machine companies.11th September 2019
- Worked on the wiki.
- Electronics.
- Had a meeting with the university's IP lawyer to discuss the possibility of getting IP on our filter.
- Finished and uploaded the safety form.
- Updated the IHP timeline.12th September 2019
- Worked on the wiki.
- Electronics.
- Sorted all the photographs and added the relevant photos to the IHP timeline.
- Looked at the H&M award form.13th September 2019
Slow day.
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23rd - 27th September
23rd September 2019
- Term starts.
- More washing machine tests.24th September 2019
- Team meeting in which we discussed how to continue through term.
- Discussed the possibility of setting up a company.
25th September 2019
- Small edits on the wiki.
- Had a meeting with the supervisors to discuss progress so far.
- Started filling out the judging form.26th September 2019
- Press release came out. Our project is featured on the front page of the University of Exeter website, as well as on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
- Made a survey for our collaboration with Oxford.
- Organised supplies for Fun Palace, including a microscope.
- Changed the design of the Description wiki page.27th September 2019
Slow day.
28th September 2019
Interview with BBC Radio Devon
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30th September Onwards
From this point onwards, the majority of the dry lab work was done and we concentrated on documenting it on the wiki. We have also been working on our poster and presentation ready for the Jamboree!
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Wiki Freeze!
The dreaded wiki freeze! The whole team gathered from midday through into the early hours of the morning to make the final changes to our wiki and registry pages! We are really happy with how our wiki has turned out and would like to say a big a thank you to all of the supervisors for helping us on wiki freeze to finalise all our pages!
