Team:Lambert GA/Attributions
PROJECT FOUNDATION
Lambert iGEM’s 2020 project, AgroSENSE, was inspired by numerous video conferences with a variety of experts in the hydroponics/aquaponics field. Hearing about timely, cost-effective, and often inaccurate methods of detecting nutrient levels faced by aquaponics farmers, the team characterized and improved upon a set of nutrient biosensors - specifically phosphate, nitrate, and nitrite. Lambert iGEM also utilized modular hardware to monitor environmental conditions for hydroponics systems. Furthermore, the team improved upon last year’s frugal fluorometry device and app, FluoroCents, to create Fluoro-Q, another frugal fluorometer based upon image-analysis.
RESEARCH AND CONTRIBUTION
Abby Bell Nar | Pho |
Aditya Prabhakar Hardware |
Anaghaa Kohli IHP |
Aryan Gupta Hardware |
Faith Johnson Nutrients |
Justin Yu Hardware |
Kathy Ye Nar | Video |
Krishi Kishore Software |
Madhav Gulati Software | Hardware | Wiki |
Melanie Kim Nutrients | Collaborations |
Monica Cho Nar | Pho |
Neha Lingam IHP | Outreach | Wiki |
Nikhita Lalwani Nar | Pho |
Ruth Hong Nar | Pho | Modeling |
Sachintha Ashok Nar | Pho | IHP |
Sahil Sood Nar | IHP |
Saif Khan Nar | IHP |
Sindhu Mettupalli Nar | Pho |
Sri Pinnamareddy Outreach | IHP |
Taeyoung Yang Nar | IHP |
Tapasya Katta Nutrients |
Varun Sendilraj Software | Hardware | Wiki |
Zoya Mir IHP | Outreach |
Dr. Brittney Cantrell Mrs. Janet Standeven |
EXPERTS
AQUAPONICS SYSTEM
Ponix: Mr. Michael Choi generously donated a hydroponic system to Lambert iGEM. He addressed the basics of building a hydroponic system and methods to grow food efficiently so that the team can design our own system. He also provided ongoing support in troubleshooting issues we were having with algae growth, leaking water and plant seeds.
Georgia Aquaponics: Mr. Dave Davies and Mrs. Marion Davies encouraged the team to focus on aquaponic education to ensure that the general public is receptive to aquaponic produce. They were also helpful in discussing types of produce and fish to use in systems.
OPENCELLX
Dr. Saad Bhamla - BhamlaLab: Over the past year and a half, Dr. Bhamla has shared his thoughts and feedback on the continued development of OpenCellX. His connections and resources have been an invaluable resource as we have approached the testing phase of the project. He permitted access to the high speed camera in his lab.
Elio Challita - BhamlaLab: His continued feedback and support on the design and engineering aspect of the OpenCellX project has helped us create a more reliable and functional device. He helped with the high speed camera images.
FLUORO-Q
Dr. Saad Bhamla - BhamlaLab: Over the past year, Dr. Bhamla has shared his thoughts and feedback on the development of the Fluoro-Q. His resources have been key to the progress of the project from the ground-up.
Mr. Dan Heieren - Lake Region Optics: Mr. Heieren supplied us with filters information for the continued development of Fluoro-Q.
HUMAN PRACTICES
CarePointe: Mrs. Mona Hoffman helped the team consider the implementation of our aquaponics system. Additionally, she gave the team contacts to the Gwinnett Coalition and the nutrition specialist of Atlanta Food Bank.
Gwinnett Coalition: Mrs. Suzy Bus and Mrs. Lecia Young helped the team understand if aquaponic systems can effectively address food insecurity issues in local communities. They also answered the team’s main concern by informing team members that people had positive responses to aquaponically grown food.
Georgia Aquaponics: Mr. Dave Davies and Mrs. Marion Davies encouraged the team to focus on aquaponic education in order to ensure that the general public is receptive to aquaponic produce.
Atlanta Food Bank: Mrs. Kristen Elliott gave the team several nutritional guidelines to follow when developing recipes for our cookbook.
APD Urban: APD Urban helped the team integrate aquaponic systems into the city in order to effectively mitigate the effects of food deserts.
PHO AND NAR
Dr. Mark Styczynski: Dr. Styczynski advised the team’s initial experimental design of Pho and Nar by reassuring that the native Pho Regulon/Nar Operon would not interfere with nutrient detection and GFP expression in the E. coli cell. Additionally, he confirmed that the idea for the project’s model was feasible.
Ms. Yue Han: Ms. Han guided the team throughout the process of creating the model and gave valuable advice on making sure the model was accurate.
Ms. Yan Zhang: Ms. Zhang helped the team troubleshooting cloning and ran the plate reader for our characterization curve data.
Ms. Elizabeth Chilton: Ms. Chilton aided the team by running the plate reader for the nutrient testing of our E coli cells. She also provided M9 media for use in our experiments.
IRON
Dr. Todd Guerdat: Dr. Guerdat gave the original inspiration for this portion of the project because he said the only nutrient that was added to his hydroponics system was iron, and there was an untapped potential source of iron in fish sludge.
Dr. Ichiro Matsumura: Dr. Matsumura suggested that the team look into whole cells and natural iron reduction processes in ponds instead of synthetic biology.
Dr. Samuel Bell: Dr. Bell suggested that the CYBRD 1 gene was too labor intensive while chemical conversion was simple.
Mr. Bob Ratajczak: Mr. Ratajczak told the team that iron deficiency was not a problem in his hydroponics system.
HYDROPONICS
Mrs. Janet Standeven: Mrs. Standeven supported the maintenance of our hydroponics system during our six month quarantine.
Mr. Michael Choi: Mr. Choi donated a hydroponics system and guided us through maintenance.
Mr. Dave Davies and Mrs. Marion Davies: The Davies gave us feedback on barriers in aquaponics implementation and potential solutions.
SPONSORS
