25 July 2008

Debriefing

Presentation was given summarizing the project so far (upload presentation). Several key issues were raised during the presentation:

• Need to order sequence and reagents asap,
• On Monday 11.30 the DNA illuminator will have a demo and on Tuesday the fluorometer will.
• Need to contact the imaging center to begin training on the wide field microscope,
• QQ needs to contact Tony Cass about his experience expressing elastin protein in bacteria,
• Group clearly needs to be restructured, need to think about how to organize ourselves from now on. Going to discuss on Monday how we can move forward.
• Feedback about our design so far:
  • Integration sites - Is there we can design them to allow assembly in B.subtilis, e.g. if we want to insert another biobrick to the beginning or the end of a construct, or will we have to assemble the constucts in E.coli
  • Genetic Circuit - Questions over trying to suppress the natural EspE by overexpressing SinR, this could have diverse effects to the cell. Also do we want to have a memory switch, so that when we induce the expression of biomaterials with blue light, then we will continue to produce biomaterials rather than requiring constant or frequent exposures to potentially harmful light.
  • Think modular and think about the different constructs that we are going to add to the registry!