Dr Dominic Glover, Primary PI

Dominic has supported, mentored and encouraged our team over the year. We are extremely grateful to him for securing funding, resources and space for the team to use. We are especially grateful for the advice and troubleshooting-help he has provided for both the wet and dry lab teams throughout the year. Moreover, he aided the team in the lab by advising us on optimising our protein purification and protein chaperone assay protocols, and even participated as one of the panel members for our symposium. He has been a huge support over the year, and we are endlessly thankful for his input.

Ahmad Zeeshan Siddiqui, Primary Advisor

Zeeshan provided mentorship, direction and advice for the team throughout the year. In addition, he helped the team navigate the structure and requirements of the competition, and attended general team and dry lab meetings for extra help. Moreover, he provided advice and support for the direction of the molecular dynamics simulations and assisted with the planning and layout of the teams wiki. We are also grateful to him for giving the science communication team direction with the outreach projects, as well as connecting us with science communication and education collaborators. Zeeshan has been someone we could always count on, and we are extremely grateful for his input.

MENTORS

Joshua McCluskey, Lab Mentor

Joshua has helped us with lab techniques and experiments involving: the Gibson assembly; cloning; running DNA and protein gels; protein purification; plasmid design; and general wet lab workflow. He was also one of the panel members for our symposium, and helped communicate scientific concepts to a non-scientific audience.

Dr Daniel Winter, Lab Mentor

Daniel trained us to use the sonicator and plate reader. In addition, he was involved in helping obtain key laboratory materials and provided experimental advice for protein purification as well as general wet lab workflow.

Megan Jones, Human Practices Mentor

Megan helped us navigate our human practices approach and framework, providing extensive feedback throughout the entire process.

Kevin Huynh, Human Practices Mentor

Kevin gave us helpful and encouraging advice from his own past experiences of Human Practices, which helped give us a sense of direction and kickstart our HP journey.

Justine Salazar, Wiki Mentor

Justine helped us learn basic HTML and CSS for the development of our wiki pages. Moreover, she helped out with content writing, moderated a science communication event, and was a huge support during our entire project.

LAB WORK

A/Prof. David Suggett

Professor Suggett gave us helpful lab advice, directing us away from the use of coral probiotics due to its complexity as a growing area of research. He also suggested using combination techniques such as electroporation with protoplasts for transforming Symbiodinium. Moreover, David proposed choosing Symbiodinium from Clade C and D as they were more common in the GBR, as opposed to Symbiodinium microadriaticum, which are rare and may disturb the natural ecosystem.

Professor Madeline Van Oppen

Professor Van Oppen advised our wet lab team about developing stable transformants for Symbiodiniaciae. Professor Van Oppen also provided us with contacts to colleagues working on CRISPR-Cas9 modification of Symbiodinium.

Associate Professor Wallace Bridge

Professor Wallace Bridge helped design our antioxidant protection system for Symbiodinium, and advised us to upregulate glutathione reductase to increase the antioxidant capacity of our system. He also confirmed that bifunctional glutathione synthetase is a good choice over the two enzymes glutamate cysteine ligase and glutathione synthase due to its simplicity and lack of product inhibition.

Melissa Katon

Melissa Katon has helped us shape our future lab work by expressing concerns about the complexity of coral probiotics. In addition to this, she has helped us in the design of our proposed implementation, giving us suggestions on the possible ex-situ farming of our modified Symbiodinium model through the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS).

Jesse Bergman

Jesse helped us understand the benefits of using invertebrates in lab work, as well as gave us advice about importing coral to commercial aquaria facilities.

Brian Ee, Molecular Dynamics Advisor

Brian, using his molecular dynamics and past iGEMer expertise, was extremely informative regarding our protein structure modelling work. He provided us with sample scripts and innumerable explanations to help us understand the rationale and assumptions behind the software we used. Interpretation and then the utilisation of molecular dynamics outputs can also be a true adventure, and in this respect, Brian was a brilliant guide. Lastly, we are most grateful to Brian for the extensive troubleshooting and alternate analysis methods he showed us, without which our models would not be what they have become.

Dr Rodrigo Santibáñez, Dry lab simulation

We would like to thank Dr. Santibáñez for helping our dry lab team debug our models with the PySB package through the PySB gitter platform. We are thankful for his time for introducing us to new methods and packages such as Kappa.

Professor Mark Tanaka, Mathematical Modelling

We would like to thank Professor Tanaka for giving our dry lab team a general overview and set of best practices for mathematical modelling. Professor Tanaka helped validate our specific approach of using both deterministic and stochastic models, and explained sensitivity analysis to us in details. Additionally, Professor Tanaka helped clarify the background on the stochastic Gillepsie algorithm used by BioNetGen.

HUMAN PRACTICES

Professor Matthew Kearnes

Professor Kearnes has helped us with our Human Practices framework by advising us to view our solution in either a ‘mitigation or adaptation’ perspective. He helped us identify the aim of our solution as one that adapts corals due to the changing climate. In addition, he helped us expand our understanding of the existing mutualistic relationship between science and people.

Associate Professor David Suggett

We would like to thank Professor Suggett for introducing the concept of social licensing to us and helping us with the structure of our Human Practices framework. Professor Suggett allowed us to understand the importance of the suggestions of our stakeholders on our solution more deeply, and explained that these suggestions are just as important as any official license or permit.

Dr. Aditi Mankad

We would like to thank Dr. Mankad for kindly sharing the results of the National survey, which allowed us to gather an understanding on Australian public attitudes regarding the synthetic biological solutions on conservation and environmental problems.

Elle Davidson

We would like to thank Elle for expanding our knowledge on the deep and long-lasting relationship between the GBR and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who are the traditional owners of the Great Barrier Reef.

Lawrence Menz

We would like to thank Lawrence for helping us understand the importance of biodiversity in the survival of the reef, as well as giving us direction for framing our solution to the general public. Lawrence also expanded on the safety concerns associated with the release of modified organisms.

Associate Professor Suhelen Egan

Professor Egan highlighted the delicate and complex microbial interactions found on the coral holobiont. She helped us understand the necessity of these interactions in bioprospecting practices, and explained that any potential solution must seek to protect them.

Australian Coastal Local Council

The council provided insight on the Statewide effort to adapt the coast for the coastal hazards of the future. Their explanation on how councils survey the community, and what they prioritise in community solutions, was incredibly helpful in understanding how local government acts to help their communities. We are grateful for their aid in navigating coastal community and council values, so that we could better understand how we can make a good and responsible solution for the world.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA)

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) manages the Great Barrier Reef region under the guidance of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975. In partnership with Australian and Queensland government agencies, and various stakeholders including tourism and fishing industries, the GBRMPA stewards the reef by using the ‘best available science’ to protect the environment and dependent communities.

TEAM MEMBERS

Annabelle Beach

Team leader overseeing human practices, wiki, design and social media leads. Annabelle also acted as symposium moderator, a graphic designer for social media, presentation slides and brochures, and was a promotional and presentational video script writer, as well as a wiki writer. In addition, she made sure deliverable deadlines were achieved, and organised weekly team meetings.

Annabelle Lee

Human practices team lead. Annabelle led the research and development of the IHP framework, oversaw outreach to stakeholders and experts, and facilitated collaborations with other iGEM teams. She also moderated and presented for the ‘Coral Symposium’. Annabelle was involved, in a writing capacity, in the ‘Revive & Restore’ grant, ‘Human Practices’ and ‘Collaborations’ wiki, and the presentation video script.

Cornelius Bong

Science communication team member. Cornelius was also a creator and organiser of the virtual escape room, grant draft co-writer, wiki writer, contributed to the final presentation video production, “How is Science Solving Local and Global Challenges?” moderator, and contacted potential science communication collaborators.

Chelsea Liang

Dry lab team lead. Chelsea was in charge of protein structure modelling and molecular dynamics for HSP22 complex, dry lab wiki writer and proudly coined the project title PROTECC Coral. She also acted as the dry lab contributor for the presentation video.

Caitlin Ramsay

Dry lab team member. Caitlin was in charge of structural modelling, created the HSP22E and HSP22F dimer model structure, modelled monomer docking to obtain a dimer, and performed De Novo Loop modelling for dimer and Wiki writer for dry lab.

Deborah Chandra

Wiki lead and human practice team member. Deborah also acted as a wiki programmer and designer, HP framework developer, in charge of the team's social media correspondence and contacted stakeholders for bioprospecting.

Farnaz Sedghidiznab

Wet lab team member. Farnaz was in charge of the safety form, was a wet lab wiki writer, literature review writer, contributed to lab work, and was a registry page author. She also came up with with the idea of using small heat shock proteins as a solution for coral bleaching and carried out research in this area.

Gabrielle Milet

Design team lead. Gabrielle acted as the project’s lead illustrator and the producer of the promotional and presentation videos. She was also involved in the development of the IHP framework, liaised with coastal protection stakeholders, and was a wiki writer for Human Practices.

Jason Lin

Wet lab team lead. Jason performed wet lab experiments, acted as a symposium presenter, MolecularCloud interviewee and a presentation, promotional video script writer, as well as wiki writer. Additionally he came up with the team’s project idea and contributed to human practices.

Jack Robbers

Dry lab team member. Jack was in charge of mathematical modelling and simulation, and was also a wiki programmer, creating wiki structure and templates using the static site generator 11ty and iGEM Wikisync.

Kelley Gao

Wet lab team member and human practices team member. Kelley also acted as a literature review writer, in charge of safety form, HP integration wiki writer for wet lab, contributed to lab work, Symbiodinium transformation research and contacted experts to guide the project.

Kelly Varianne

Science communication lead, wet lab team member, design team member. Kelly also acted as the PROTECC Coral symposium organiser, children's book co-writer, education package editor and co-illustrator, “How is Science Solving Local and Global Challenges?” presenter, virtual escape room moderator, contributed to wiki writing, final presentation video production, and contacted potential science communication collaborators.

Sayali Gore

Team leader overseeing the wet and dry lab leads. Sayali also performed wet lab experiments, was a MolecularCloud interviewee, and a presentation and promotional video script writer, as well as a wiki writer. In addition, she made sure deliverable deadlines were achieved, and organised weekly team meetings.

Samuel Humphrey

Science communication team member, wet lab member, HP member. Sam also was an education package creator, wiki writer, researched on Traditional Owners and commercial and recreational fishing, virtual escape moderator, “How is Science Solving Local and Global Challenges?” presenter, and contacted potential future science communication collaborators.

Sakthirupini Ramamurthy

Science communication co-lead, wet lab team member, design team member. Sakthirupini also acted as an illustrator and writer of children’s book, creator of the physical card game, contributed to visuals and as moderator of the virtual escape room, wiki writer, final presentation video production, promotional video production and “How is Science Solving Local and Global Challenges?” presenter.

Zelun Li

Dry lab and wet lab team member. Zelun was in charge of mathematical modelling, acted as a wiki writer for dry lab and helped with collaboration.

Team:UNSW Australia/Attributions