Team:UC Davis/Attributions


Attributions

The 2019 UCD team would like to thank the following mentors for their help and guidance throughout our whole iGEM journey. We would not have been able to accomplish as much as we did in such a short time otherwise.

Marc Facciotti

Project Advisor | Associate Professor

Dr. Marc Facciotti was our primary advisor, who helped us establish and streamline our project design. He met with us weekly to go over our slide deck since July. Whenever he discovered gaps in our knowledge, he gladly provided us with a crash course and a stack of papers that we should read. In addition, he connected us to other valuable mentors including Steven, Hyunsoo, and Daniel.

Research Interests

Our laboratory is interested in understanding how structures and dynamics of gene regulatory networks have evolved to regulate complex phenotypes. We focus primarily on microbial systems due to the relative simplicity of microbial genomes, which allow us to interrogate complex processes across a wide range of levels of cellular complexity (e.g. from single proteins to comprehensive systems-level analysis). We aim to develop tools that will allow the rational engineering of gene regulatory networks at both the protein and network-structure levels, and have application across species boundaries.

Lab website

Andrew Yao

R&D Engineer | Molecular Prototyping and BioInnovation Lab Manager

Andrew Yao was the lab manager of the Molecular Prototyping and BioInnovation Lab (MPBIL). Along with Dr. Facciotti, he check up on our progress weekly. He advised us on all aspects of wet-lab, provided us with protocols, and helped troubleshoot experiments gone wrong. In terms of dry lab, helped us lasercut the gaskets for the light box. Furthermore, he ordered our materials, organized flights to Boston, and provided emotional support during our times of need.

Bioinnovation Lab Website

Steven Lucero

Development Engineer | TEAM Lab Advisor and Machine-Shop Manager

Steven was the mechanical and electrical counter part of Andrew at other TEAM lab on campus. He kindly accepted us into his space, provided guidance on soldering the light box, and 3D-printed parts for us.

Team Lab website

Hyunsoo Kim

PhD Student | Facciotti Lab

Hyunsoo was an invaluable resource in the construction and improvement of the LPA, providing materials, advice, and guidance based on her own research. She also provided us with a testing plasmid set cloned to target GFP as a means of testing our project design before our endogenous system was completed.

Daniel Facciotti

Biotechnology Pioneer

Dr. Daniel Facciotti is a trailblazer in the field of genetic engineering. He was one of the first scientists at Calgene, the pioneering agriculture biotechnology company in Davis, California. He recently retired from full-time work at Arcadia Biosciences. During his career he helped design and engineer numerous commercially important crops. Dr. Facciotti is now volunteering in Prof. Marc Facciotti’s lab at the UC Davis Genome Center. Using his knowledge of plant cell culture and transfection he guided us through the planning and initial optimization of our transfection experiments. His proposals to consider adherence, lipofectamine concentration, and an optional wash step greatly improved our expression levels, especially as we began implementing our multi-plasmid system.

Research Interests

Dr. Facciotti's current research interests are broad and currently involve developing a better understanding of cartilage development and synthetic biology methods for its engineering.

Mark Yarborough

Dean’s Professor of Bioethics

Dr. Yarborough answered our questions pertaining to human practices. Through our discussions, we considered the ethical implications of our project, the importance of gaining public trust in biomedical research, and started the process of developing guidelines for future teams looking to implement bioethics.


Research Interests

Dr. Yarborough’s scholarly publications, which have appeared in both bioethics and medical journals, address ethical issues in many areas of health care, such as how to build public trust in biomedical research, artificial feeding at the end of life, genetic counseling, human subjects research, insurance underwriting, and the role of profit in medicine. He has lectured on bioethics to numerous professional and public organizations and groups, served on several IRBs and ethics committees, and been a member of various public and private advisory committees.
Website

Additional Thanks

Lisa Illes

Former president of BioInnovation
Group 2018-2019

Lisa shared her wise counsel on securing funds early in the season. It was so effective that it only took one week during spring break!

Daniel Graves
& Jacob Lang

UCD iGEM 2018 Members

Daniel and Jacob helped form this year’s UCD team through advertising online, screening preliminary applications, and holding in person interviews.

James Letchinger

Electrical and Computer Engineer

James took our lovely team photos and answered occasional math questions when we got stuck.

A Special Thanks to Those Who Brought Us Food:

Lauren Ting

Angela Lee

Robert Viano

James Letchinger

Jessica Lauren Manalo Santos

Daniel Graves