The Michigan Synthetic Biology Team would truly not be where it is today without the unwavering support of our wide network of mentors, contributors, and collaborators. We take this opportunity to extend our profound gratitude to all of these individuals for their assistance in making our team’s project successful.

Advisors

We would like to thank our faculty advisor Dr. Marcus Ammerlaan for his enduring support of MSBT as a longstanding mentor of our group.

We are incredibly grateful for assistance and advice from our graduate student advisors and their generous contribution of their time. Our thanks go out to the following:

• Anthony Balistreri for his support of MSBT for the past 6 years. His suggestions, protocols, and consistent encouragement had been incredibly valuable to the success of our team.
• Kareem Albouhosn for his glowing presence at our weekly meetings, and for always providing scientific guidance, institutional knowledge, and uplifting words of reassurance. We are also appreciative of his feedback in regard to presentation skills, writing, and funding applications.
• Robert Benisch for his advice regarding our encapsulin construct, protein purification methods, and cloning constructs. We also thank him for allowing us to conduct a growth assay in the lab space he works in.
• Franco Tavella for his advice on computational modeling, help navigating AlphaFold, and suggestions regarding mathematical modeling.
• Ethan Hillman for his advice regarding our project wiki

Faculty Members

Faculty members at the University of Michigan have provided a wide range of support for MSBT, including both advice and physical materials. We would like to thank the following:

• Dr. Tobias Giessen for his donation of a T4 GALA encapsulin and pETDuet vector
• Dr. Allen Liu for providing guidance in selecting our project topic.
• Dr. Anuj Kumar for allowing us to ship reagents to his lab space.

We would also like to thank Dr. Margo Gebbie for her assistance in providing MSBT equipment and a lab space. We appreciate her patience and adaptability in supporting our team.

We appreciate the help of Matt Korbata for his experimental advice to us while working in the Undergraduate Sciences Building.

We are grateful to Mariah Fiumara and the International Programs in Engineering Department for helping us to coordinate funding for our trip to Paris as well as travel plans.

Team

Adam Tisch served as the Co-Science Director this year. He developed the project we chose to pursue, managed lab work, and analyzed subsequent data.

Alec Eames served as the Technology Director this year. He designed the plasmid constructs, helped with experiment design, contributed to computational modeling, and designed and coded the project wiki.

Amogh Angadi served as the Human Practices Director this year. He led outreach initiatives to expand the scope of our team. He also helped with experimentation and experiment planning.

Amruta Venkatesh was involved in the human practice and wiki page subgroups. She also contributed to various wet lab experiments.

Anya Young helped to design and plan our project.

Bonnie Spence served as the Co-President this year. She oversaw all aspects of the club including research, experimental design, experimentation, finances, and administrative aspects. She worked to make MSBT both a successful research group and a welcoming community for all members.

Cameron Haynes created a preliminary mathematical model of AMP encapsulation kinetics and generated ideas for computational modeling.

Carolyn Glasser served as the Co-Science Director this year. She was involved in project planning.

Elizabeth Snider served as the Co-President this year. She was involved in the science experimentation and planning, including protocol development. She also led administrative tasks including recruiting, leading weekly meetings, and connecting with advisors.

Emily Wallace was involved in the wiki page subgroup. She also contributed to various wet lab experiments.

George Rabadi was responsible for leading the computational modeling subgroup. He also contributed to wet lab work and administrative planning.

Jack Guo was involved in the wiki page and human practice subgroups. He designed graphics for the wiki project description and design pages. He also contributed to encapsulin selection, AMP fusion construct, and several computational modeling ideas.
Jaclyn Carrannanto was involved in the finance and human practice subgroups. She also contributed to wet lab work and notebook documentation.

John Yin was involved in filming and editing the promo video. He also contributed to wet lab work including minipreps and growth assays as well as designing material for educational outreach.

Kelsey Walworth was involved in the wiki page subgroup and the computation modeling team. She also contributed to protocol development and planning for wet lab experiments.

Kimi Lillios helped with executing wet lab experiments and preparing materials. She also drafted and sent emails to potential sponsors and donors as well as presented the project at the Mini Jamboree.

Leon Wagner was the lead for the social media page. He also contributed to project development and the wiki page throughout the year.

Max Topping was involved in the human practices subgroup. He also contributed to computational modeling.

Rafee Mirza was involved in the wiki page subgroup. He also contributed to wet lab work including plasmid development and purification.

Ryan Heur helped to design and plan our project.

Sabine Meurs was involved in the finance subgroup. She also contributed to various wet lab experiments and promotional materials.

Sashider Rajesh was involved in the promo video subgroup. He also contributed to wet lab work including growth assays, minipreps, overnights, gels, and Gibson assembly.

Sophia Tesic was involved in filming and editing the promo video. She also contributed to various wet lab experiments.

Sriram Garapati was involved in the wiki page subgroup. He also contributed to wet lab work including growth assays, minipreps, overnights, gels, and Gibson assembly.

Steven Gong was involved in the finance subgroup. He also contributed to various wet lab experiments.

Surya Sanjay was involved in computation modeling, specifically molecular dynamics simulations, molecular docking, and usage of AlphaFold.

Vamsi Gollapalli helped choose the encapsulin for the project and contributed to various wet lab experiments.

Xuan An Le helped with wet lab work including regular assays as well as AMP/encapsulin combination.

Zoe Jackson was involved in the finance subgroup. She also assisted with wet lab work such as running gels and working on the Gibson assembly.

Graphics

Source graphics were created by Freepik, shmai and sourced via Flaticon.

Financial Support

We would like to thank the following for their generous contributions to our project this year: U-M Biomedical Engineering Department, U-M Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department, U-M Chemistry Department, Beckman Coulter, U-M Biology Department, student philanthropy, U-M Central Student Government, and U-M Engineering Student Government.