Team:UChicago/Collaborations

Collaboration

This year, our iGEM team collaborated with the Tacoma Rainmakers, an iGEM team from Washington. We first connected with the Tacoma rainmakers at the 2018 iGEM Jamboree where we provided a protocol for transforming from the distribution kit. We then collaborated again over the course of this past summer. We acted in a mentorship role, answering questions and providing feedback on protocols. we primarily provided guidance for a PTC screening activity the Tacoma Rainmakers designed to teach about SNPs, DNA extractions, PCR, and gel electrophoresis. They were having difficulties with removing DNA/RNAases from their samples and were getting minimal DNA return. We proposed heating the samples at 100ºC for 10 minutes. The Tacoma Rainmakers were able to successfully integrate this advice into their protocol. In return, the Tacoma Rainmakers provided us with a duel-expression vector to test the expression of two chaperone proteins our team is beginning preliminary work on.