Newcastle University/4 September 2008

Minutes

Minute Taker = Jess Thompson

Time: 16:00 – 17:00

Attended by:

Neil Wipat - supervisor Jennifer Hallinan - supervisor Jan-Willem Veening – advisor Ria Chalder – wet lab student Jess Thompson – wet lab student

Absent:

Matthew Pocock Megan Aylward Nina Nielsen-Dzumhur Morgan Taschuk Mark Wappett Leendert Hamoen Colin Harwood James Lawson Michael T. Cooling

Meeting Content

Agenda 1: media coverage

Jen mentions that the press are interested in covering work that the Newcastle iGEM team are doing and asks Jan-Willem if photographers would be allowed into the lab in the near future. Jan-Willem agrees.

Agenda 2: creating a resource page on Bacillus subtilis

Anil suggests a resource page detailing tips on how to work efficiently with Bacillus subtilis 168 would be useful to the team and to other iGEM teams as few teams have worked with this bacterium and there is little information available regarding its laboratory use. This is to be written by Ria and Jess and sent to Morgan as a Word document. Morgan can then edit the information as she sees fit and upload it onto the team's external Wiki as a separate page. The information is to include:

- what B. subtilis 168 is

- which vectors work best with it

- the advantages of using this strain

- the tools available that aid its laboratory use

- any problems envcountered when using it

- plasmid diagrams/ restriction maps

- how using a B. subtilis vector is different to using an E. coli vector

An email from Jan-Willem sent to Jen about different promotors is to be sent by Jen to the rest of the team and the information encorporated by Ria and Jess into the B. subtilis page.

Agenda 3: Newcastle helping Cambridge

Information regarding the Newcastle iGEM team aiding the Cambridge iGEM in their work will help the newcastle team meet one of the gold medal criteria. This is to be added to the external Wiki.

Agenda 3: Plasmid sent to the US

Jan-Willem explains that he sent plasmid DNA to the US in June and assumed it to be temporarily held up in customs as there had been no confirmation of its arrival. However an email has been sent 2 months later to say that the tube containing the DNA has been broken. Jan-Willem has sent more plasmid.

Agenda 4: Current state of laboratory work

Jan-Willem, Ria and Jess are pleased to announce that the biobrick has been successfully restricted out, ligated into the vector plasmids and transformed into TOP10 competent E. coli. Previous restrictions had failed to due an incorrect amount of buffer being used. Providing further restrictions of isolated plasmid run on gel show the expected 2.2kb biobrick fragment, the laboratory work can move to microscopy work next week.

AOB

Jen reminds everyone that they must register in order to travel to the US.

Jen and Anil will be away on 14th September so will be absent from the 18th September meeting.

Jan-Willem will beaway 13th-22nd September.