Attributions

The Team

Wetlab – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Victor, Angel

Project design – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Victor, Angel

Outreach – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Angel

Podcast – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Angel

Wiki coding and design – Sabrina, Angel

Wiki content – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Victor, Angel

DNA design – Victor

Ordering parts – Victor

Device design and building - Lia

Poster – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Victor, Angel

Promotional video – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Victor, Angel

Presentation video – Sabrina, Dara, Lia, Victor, Angel

Advisors

We greatly appreciate our mentors for encouraging us throughout our iGEM experience. We send a huge thanks to our mentors for attending our weekly meetings, providing guidance on our project, and being available for any questions we had.

Dr. W. Seth Childers coordinated weekly meetings with our team members to ensure that we receive constant feedback and support. He provided us advice on how to improve our protocols and experiments. He also provided reagents and resources for our experiments.

Dr. Alex Deiters provided insight on our project design, experimental approach, and data. He helped with troubleshooting issues and interpreting lab results.

Dr. Jason Lohmueller provided insight on our project design, experimental approach, and data. He helped with troubleshooting issues and interpreting lab results.

Dr. Jason Shoemaker provided insight on our project design, experimental approach, and data. He helped with troubleshooting issues and interpreting lab results.

Dr. Sanjeev Shroff managed the budget and finances of our team as well as providing advice on our project design. He also coordinated our team lab re-opening in conjuction with the University of Pittsburgh COVID-19 Saftey Policies.

Lab Support

We thank Dr. Natasa Miskov-Zivanov for generously allowing us her lab space at the Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh to conduct our research.

We also send a special thanks to Dr. Dave Gau for providing reagents and resources for our experiments as well as allowing us access to lab equipment such as the spectrophotometer and autoclave.

Interviews

We want to especially thank all the experts that have taken the time out of their schedules to provide their input on our project. Their advice has been a valuable resource in determining the direction and design of our project.

Dr. Siyuan Rao, PhD. - Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioelectronics Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Dan Piraner, PhD. - Postdoctoral researcher at University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Michael Christiansen, PhD. - Postodoctoral researcher in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich

Dr. Warren Ruder, PhD. - Associate Professor of Bioengineering and a William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Jungsang Moon - PhD. Candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Special thanks to Dr. Mikhail Shapiro, PhD. and Dr. Polina Anikeeva, PhD. for providing us guidance and contacts for our project via email.

Project Start and Team Training

Team members of the Pittsburgh iGEM Team were selected during the beginning of April. We met for the first time over Zoom on April 30th and immediately began brainstorming ideas for our project. After going through several project ideas, we selected the Bluetooth Bacteria by the end of June. We began extensive research and literature review on our project.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not have lab access during the summer. On July 24th, the Pittsburgh iGEM Team was approved for limited lab access at the Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

A synthetic biology course is offered at the University of Pittsburgh. This course is taught by Dr. W. Seth Childers. The course covers current developments in the synthetic design and construction of biomolecules and biological systems. The course discusses synthetic biology methods and engineering synthetic cells emphasizing chemistry concepts utilized in this field. Sabrina Catalano took this course during Spring 2020, and Victor So took this course during Spring 2018.