The QGEM 2020 team would like to acknowledge and thank all of our team and friends for making this year’s project as great as it could be! Although the lab was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team stepped up remotely, and we could not thank them enough!
While our institution does not teach an iGEM or specific synthetic biology course, much of our team is supported by and takes courses through the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences and Department of Chemical Engineering. Many members of our wiki team attend the School of Computing at Queen’s University.
QGEM each year begins the hiring process for a new director in early winter, shortly after the previous team attends the iGEM final jamboree. Leads are hired in late February, with a call for volunteers shortly after that. Brainstorming on this year’s 2020 project began in March, with the first models and work started in late April of 2020 after winter semester exams.
Leadership Team
Sono Khan organized and coordinated the team, its finances, and sponsorships throughout the project. He also assisted with the Wet-Lab and conducted nanoscale molecular dynamic simulations.
Sono Khan
Director of QGEM
Kody Klupt designed the protein constructs, wrote protocols, did advanced static modelling, created the parts in the registry, and developed a seminar lecture on biohacking.
Kody Klupt
Wet Lab Lead
Geneviève Norris-Roozmon designed the detection device and modeled the fluid dynamics of ISF in microneedles. She also created an end-user phone application for Velcrion.
Genevieve Norris-Roozmon
Dry Lab Lead
Wiki Team
Anthony Marsili
Wiki Design Lead
Liana Evans
Wiki Design Lead
Mahdi Kabir
Wiki Design Advisor
Our wiki design trio of Anthony, Liana, and Mahdi designed the wiki pages and helped implement them on the QGEM wiki using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. There work was instrumental in graphic design and delivering our project to you!
Maya Dixon
Graphic Design Lead
Maya helped create many of the Team Queen’s Canada graphics, along with providing insight towards the graphical layout of our wiki.
Outreach Team
Hannah created, organized and promoted the essay contest for high schools. She also assisted with creating our survey for CKD patients, which we are currently waiting results for.
Hannah Beddow
Human Practices Lead
Aasiya organized and executed various activities for public engagement including the design of educational programs and social media content.
Aasiya Remtulla
Public Engagement Lead
Talia helped facilitate our collaborations with many teams around the world, and worked on creating a collaborations video about common questions asked about synthetic biology.
Talia Dang
Collaborations Lead
Janis provided advice on our outreach plans, helped design our logo, and assisted in the creation of educational materials.
Janis Cheng
Outreach Advisor
Special Projects Team
Akshaj designed and created our bioinformatics software: MutaGuide. This software was created to help the synthetic biology community identify which mutations are suitable to perform within a protein.
Akshaj Darbar
Bioinformatics Software Developer
Project Advisors
Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University
Canada Research Chair in Structural Biology
Dr. Allingham provided protein structure advice, organized team management, aided with troubleshooting, assisted with team finances and iGEM registration/communications.
Dr. John Allingham
Principal Investigator
Professor, Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University
Co-Director, Bachelor of Health Sciences
Dr. Adams provided advice on CKD biomarkers and physiology, biosensor apparatus technology, and general presentation help.
Dr. Michael Adams
Project Advisor
Nephrologist, Kingston General Hospital
Clinician-scientist, Kingston General Hospital Research Institute
Professor, Department of Medicine and Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University
Dr. Holden advised us on clinical-best practices for CKD patients, CKD monitoring protocols, biomarkers for CKD, and has helped us create a survey for CKD patients which needed approval by our institutions research ethics board.
Dr. Rachel Holden, MD
Project Advisor
Professor, Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University
Canada Research Chair in Protein Engineering
Dr. Davies aided in the troubleshooting of our cysteine immobilization technique, protein homology searches, and guided us on fluorescent protein detection techniques.
Dr. Peter Davies
Project Advisor
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University
Dr. Campbell helped us with both static and dynamic modelling, including molecular dynamics, as well as guiding our fluorescent protein detection technique.
Dr. Robert Campbell
Project Advisor
Graduate Advisors
PhD candidate, Jia Laboratory, Queen’s University
Nolan helped our team with our construct designs, navigate iGEM competition criteria, model our constructs, and with expression/purification protocols
Nolan Neville
Graduate Advisor
PhD candidate, Allingham Laboratory, Queen’s University
Byron helped our team with our protein buffer, navigate iGEM competition criteria, model our constructs, and with expression/purification protocols.
Byron Hunter
Graduate Advisor
MSc candidate, Synthetic Biology, Concordia University
Fmr. Director, QGEM 2019 Team
Ruben helped our team with initial project design considerations, provided advice on software tools, and assisted in team hiring.
Ruben Warkentin
Team Advisor
Consultants
Registered Dietician, Kingston General Hospital
Multidisciplinary Chronic Kidney Disease Clinic
Jenny guided our team with clinical best-practices for dietary changes based on CKD biomarker levels, paving the pathway for a consumer phone app meant to improve dietetics.
Jenny Munroe, RD
Consultant
Angela provided us with valuable advice on intellectual property protection, and what steps to take towards patenting after disclosures of intellectual property.
Angela Lyon
Director, Queen’s Business Law Clinic
Tomiola gave us insight towards how we could take Velcrion to the next level, and venture into start-up territory.
Tomiola Adebiyi
Assistant Director, Commercial Development, Queen’s University
Michael helped inform us on the variety of regulations and laws surrounding patenting, and what constitutes an invention. He also gave us clear next steps to take with patent searches and provisional patent filing.
Michael Wells
Director, Research and Innovation Partnerships at Queen’s University
Janice provided us with invaluable information and resources surrounding data aggregation and security. Data security and privacy of patients is of immense importance, and she helped us better understand how we can incorporate safety measures into our biosensor application.