General Support

We would like to extend a special thanks to the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) whose infrastructure was key to the success of our project. Not only were we provided access to laboratories housed with state-of-the-art equipment and instruments that were crucial to completing the wet lab component of our project, but also to so many individuals with special expertise that helped shape the human practices component of our project, including advice surrounding ethics, fundraising, and project management. Thank you UNBC for your continued support of the Northern BC iGEM team!

Dr. Elizabeth Dunn was tireless in her support in all aspects of the team, from the wet lab to finance. Dr. Dunn was instrumental in reviving the iGEM program at UNBC. Because of her support our team was able to get off the ground and effectively create a successful project.
Dr. Brent Murray helped in preparing the team for the Jamboree.
Dr. Kathy Lewis, Chair of Biology, ensured the support courses for the iGEM program at UNBC were scheduled and ready to run.
Dr. Geoff Payne provided general advice at the iGEM program level as well as specific support at a project level.

Wet Lab Support and Advice

Dr. Elizabeth Dunn provided technical details and troubleshooting guidance, in-kind gifts of reagents and supplies, training in techniques, and much more!
Dr. Brent Murray provided wet lab guidance and lab space.
Dr. Dezene Huber lent us important equipment and supplies.
Dr. Stephen Rader provided yeast strains and shuttle vectors as well as many in-kind gifts, including equipment and supplies; he also provided the team with technical project support.
Dr. Martha Stark provided many in-kind donations, including equipment and supplies, as well as technical project support.
Caitlin Pitt, Analytical Laboratory Support Specialist, Molecular Biology & Genetics (UNBC) promptly ran our sequencing samples for us.
Conan Ma, Dispensing Chemist and Chemical Safety Officer received chemical reagents and provided general safety-related consultation.

Human Practices Support and Advice

Dr. Elizabeth Dunn provided general human practices support and guidance for the wiki.
Dr. Tammy Klassen-Ross provided guidance about ethics and reviewed our proposed interview questions.
Isobel Hartley, Research Ethics Officer (UNBC) provided general guidance with respect to navigating research ethics procedures in place at UNBC.
Brayden Scott, ICU nurse and part of the Shambhala Music Festival Medical Team had helpful discussions with us, and directed us to ANKORS' 2018 music festival drug testing results.
Chloe Sage, Prevention & Educations (ANKORS) for helpful discussion surrounding their drug testing activities.
Dr. Peter Krygsman, Regional Sales Manger - MIR and Raman Products (Bruker Ltd.) provided specific details surrounding the sensitivity, accuracy, cost, and use of the Bruker Alpha II FT-IR as a drug testing instrument.
Stephen Petrucci, Assistant Superintendent (School District 60, Peace River North) had insightful discussions with us regarding the effects of the opioid overdose crisis on high school students in northern British Columbia.
C. Warner, Deputy Fire Chief (Prince George) had insightful discussions with us regarding the first responder experience with respect to arriving at a potential overdose emergency call.
The Prince George Multicultural Heritage Society allowed us to set up a booth at the Canada Day celebration in Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park.
NUGSS for providing boardroom meeting space and providing us a venue to showcase our team and our work at Clubs Days and other events on campus.
Thank you to everyone who helped at our documentary showing:
- Panelists:
  - Dr. Lawrence Fredeen, General Practitioner
  - Reanne Sanford, Regional Nursing Lead for Harm Reduction at Northern Health
  - Kim Dixon, Northern Interior Regional Manager, BC Schizophrenia Society
- Thanks to Kevala VanVolkenburg for hosting this event, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) for partnering with us!
Thank you to Reanne Sanford for also conducting a naloxone training session on campus as part of our public outreach.

Fundraising Advice

The UNBC Advancement Office (Tim Tribe, Ian Lindsay, Alla Shchepotkina) provided helpful discussions regarding short-term and long-term fundraising, as well as general finance organization strategies.

Teams

Finance Team

Lila Mansour and Adrian Lamb created a donor and sponsorship package, approached local businesses to promote our team and project to attract funding, tracked finances, and generated financial statements for the iGEM season.

Human Practices Team

Paige Malmgren, Victoria Rea, and Jayden Boxeur ran interviews, explored potential avenues for a policy brief, and assisted in fundraising and outreach activities.
Fatima Usman was our primary outreach coordinator.

Wiki Team

Shamitha Aravind and Paige Malmgren designed and built the wiki.

Wet Lab Team

Michael Jurjevich, Jasneek Manhas, Lisa Russell, and Sahej Dhak designed and worked on the main biosensor components.
Sonia Kandola, Bushra Khalid, and Mohamed Shubair worked on parts contributions.

Financial Support

Dr. Geoff Payne, VP Research (UNBC Research Office)
Stem Cell Therapeutics, Inc.
OOPS, Inc.
Jason Luke, owner of Sonar Pub and Club
Thank you to everyone who supported our GoFundMe and FlipGive campaigns!

Fundraising Platforms

GoFundMe
FlipGive

Corporate In-Kind Gifts

Promega Corporation provided us with $2,600 (CAD) in free molecular biology products.
IDT provided us with free gene blocks and primers.
Benchling provided us with free Benchling accounts with an extra 10 GB of space.
Special thanks to BLVD for designing the Northern BC iGEM logo.

iGEM at UNBC

iGEM at UNBC is still very new, with this being only the third team to compete at the international iGEM competition. UNBC recognizes the great opportunity the iGEM competition offers students, allowing them to engage in heavily integrated, interdisciplinary, and experiential learning activities. To support iGEM activities at UNBC, two courses are currently offered that allow students to earn credit toward their degree program based on their contributions to the team. The first course runs from January through to the end of April and focuses on project development. Students explore the merits and challenges of various project proposals pitched by the team members and ultimately decide on a final project to pursue by the end of April. Through January and February students assess other previous iGEM projects from around the world to better understand what makes a good project. In March and April they pitch their own ideas and begin their human practices and project design activities. The second course runs from May through to the end of August and supports the project work. Project design was completed by the end of May and lab work started in June with the preparation of media and reagents as we waited for project-specific components to arrive. Project-specific work commenced in early July and continued beyond the end of this course and well into early October. Because the course changes with the project each year, the course syllabi are flexible to allow adaptation that ensure the appropriate project supports are in place, and as such, the syllabi and course materials are not available online. In both courses, students present their work in both informal and formal presentations, as well as in a final written report. They are also expected to keep detailed annotated bibliographies and other relevant records (meeting minutes, financial records, etc.) throughout both semesters.

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