Attributions

The University of Rochester IGEM team of 2022 would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of everyone who has helped us on our journey. We would not have been able to accomplish this project without their assistance and support. Thank you to:





Team Members

  • Mackenzie Dillenbeck (She/Her)
    • She is the Team Leader of Team Saptasense. Besides leading the team, she worked diligently in the wetlab, hardware, and policy & practice sub-teams. She conceptualized and worked with the methods in the Sarcosine module
  • Danielle Wuerdeman (She/Her)
    • Danielle served as the team’s Fundraising and Finance Manager and was responsible for maintaining the team’s budget. Additionally, she designed and executed many of the experiments for the dextran ropy syrup module and participated in the Policy & Practice sub-team.
  • Sarah Broas (They/Them)
    • Sarah acted as the Science Manager of Team Saptasense. They conceptualized each wet-lab module, and designed and documented each of the BioBricks. They involved themselves in the wet-lab and policy and practice subteams, focusing much of their time on the universal whole-cell bacterial biosensor. They also pioneered the team’s inclusivity efforts.
  • Sudarshan Ramanan (He/Him)
    • As Hardware Manager, Sudarshan developed a novel analytical device and used various electrochemical techniques to validate several wet lab experiments. He is also a key member of the modeling team and used R to help the team gain better insight into the relationship between different small molecules and amino acids.
  • Showmick Paul (He/Him)
    • As the Wiki Manager, he learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript all summer to design our wiki. Also, he worked on designing and carrying out experiments for the asparagine module, and designed the buddy sap prediction model.
  • Sarah Chiaradonna (She/Her)
    • As the Policy and Practice Manager, Sarah C. arranged meetings with industry contacts to learn about the full context of the project. She also worked in the wet lab on expressing and performing assays on choline oxidase.
  • Alec Kingsley (He/Him)
    • He is the Software and Modeling Manager. He is responsible for our models and softwares. He is also an active member of the hardware and wet-lab team. He led efforts in helping create the sarcosine aptasensor.
  • Carly Blair(She/Her)
    • She is the Public Relations Manager and Graphic Designer. As the public relations manager, she maintained the team social media pages and sent out the team press releases. As graphic designer, she designed the logo for the team and helped in illustrating the main page of the wiki. She performed many of the experiments for the choline oxidase buddy sap module.
  • Shalaka Natu (She/Her)
    • As the Outreach and Education Manager, Shalaka designed and implemented engaging synthetic biology activities for students and community members across the United States. In addition, she conducted experiments for the universal whole-cell bacterial biosensor, and helped facilitate other wet-lab work throughout the semester.
  • Isabelle Murray (She/Her)
    • She is the Video Manager. Isabelle designed, produced, and edited the promotional video. In addition to her role she was a part of the choline wet-lab module and worked extensively on the policy and practice team. She facilitated meeting in person with maple farmers across New York state in order to gain conceptual advice, product feedback, and recorded interviews.
  • Aashee Budhwani (She/Her)
    • She is the Safety and Wet Lab Manager. As a part of her role, Aashee devised a safety plan to ensure the team’s safety while working with biological, chemical, and hardware materials and reagents. She was also responsible for implementing safety rules and procedures and ensuring that the lab had all materials needed for performing the experiments. In addition to her role she was a part of the hardware team and worked on designing protocols and performing experiments for the dextran and sarcosine module.
  • An Vo (She/Her)
    • She is the Collaboration Manager. As the Collaboration Manager, she is in charge of reaching out to other teams and coordinating our team’s collaboration projects. She came up with the idea of working with maple syrup in the brainstorming phase. She contributed to the conceptualization and performed many of the experiments in the dextran module.

Team Advisors

  • Dr. Anne Meyer, our Principal Investigator, for introducing us to iGEM, helping us to develop our project, and providing feedback and logistical support.
  • Dr. Nancy Chen, our modeling advisor, for advising our modeling team, helping us to analyze and manipulate data, and giving us advice on using synthetic biology to inform our models, and vice versa.
  • Alicia Shipley, for teaching us lab techniques, proof-reading our write-ups, and helping us troubleshoot experiments.
  • Phillip Bellomio, for teaching us lab techniques, proof-reading our write-ups, and helping us troubleshoot experiments.
  • Helen Shammas, our hardware teaching assistant, for your guidance of the hardware team and proof-reading our write-ups.

The Enzymes

Wet Lab Support


  • U of R Biology Department, for providing us with a space for our lab and for providing funding for our experiments
  • Elena Rydkina, for overseeing our wet lab work and providing reagents for the team
  • Michael Seluanov, for overseeing our wet lab work and providing reagents for the team
  • Aaron Lewis, for managing the team’s hazard waste and for serving as the team’s emergency contact
  • The Meyer lab, for sharing their equipment with the team
  • The Welte lab, for sharing their glassware with the team
  • The Werren Lab, for sharing their glassware with the team
  • The Bergstrahl lab, for sharing their reagents with the team
  • The Sia lab, for sharing their equipment and glassware with the team
  • The Ghaemmaghami lab, for sharing their equipment, glassware, and reagents with the team
  • Dr. John-Carl Olsen, for granting the team access to facilities for Infrared spectroscopy
  • Lynn Sidor, for helping with lab techniques and data interpretation
  • He, Luying (Louise), for providing us with blank pSB1C3
  • Morgan Brady, for providing us with his purified GFP

Hardware Support


  • The McCamant lab, for sharing their facilities for Raman spectroscopy with the team
  • Brad Johnson, for helping the team set up their laboratory desktop computer and connect the lab to the internet
  • Paul Osborne, for helping the team with soldering the Saptameter
  • Jim Alkins, for assistance with 3D printing the casing of the Saptameter

Software Support


  • Tabib Wasit Rahman, for helping us with setting up the git and ubuntu to develop our wiki locally

Sugarmakers


  • Dan Milke of Shadow Hill Maple Syrup, for providing initial context for the maple industry and the buddy, ropy, and invert sugar problem
  • Joshua Stamp of Sterling Valley Maple, for providing initial context for the maple industry and the buddy, ropy, and invert sugar problem
  • Dave Schiek of Schiek’s Maple Products, for providing initial context for the maple industry and the buddy, ropy, and invert sugar problem
  • Dean Wilber of Mapletree Farm, for providing initial context for the maple industry and the buddy, ropy, and invert sugar problem
  • An anonymous Amish sugarmaker for their feedback on whether Amish sugamakers would be willing to use our technology
  • Flint’s Maple, for providing initial context for the maple industry and the buddy, ropy, and invert sugar problem
  • Lyle and Dottie Merle and Eileen Downs of Merle Maple, for providing initial context for the maple industry and the buddy, ropy, and invert sugar problem, and for providing feedback on our Saptamater prototype
  • Kevin and Karle Casler, for providing their perspective as hobbyist sugarmakers on our project
  • Gordon Putman of Whispering Brook Farms, for providing feedback on our Saptameter prototype

Human Practices


  • Catherine Belisle, PhD and Aaron Wightman from the Cornell Maple Program, for their information about maple research and for donating sap for us to test our biosensors
  • Helen Thomas, Executive Director of New York State Maple Producers Association, for her information about the maple industry
  • Michael Galban, Historic site manager of the Ganondagan State Historic Site, for providing the team with information about the history and tradition of Indigenous sugaring
  • The University of Rochester Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, for their advice on the implementation of our products
  • Katya Sizov, co-founder and CEO of Strella Biotech, for her advice on the implementation of our products
  • Jennifer Prosceo of the University of Rochester Office of Disability Resources, for her providing feedback on our disability justice initiatives
  • Thomas Ledbetter, Lucy Goode, Anna Buttenwieser, Liz Randolph, and three additional anonymous individuals, for participating in our Disability Justice in STEM webinars
  • Divya Ail and the entire iGEM Diversity and Inclusion team, for inviting team member Sarah B. to present at their Mental Health in Stem webinar

Outreach


  • Elizabeth Broas, for providing feedback on our educational activities and advice on student engagement
  • Tutors for Change, for partnering with the team to conduct a week-long virtual synthetic biology camp for young students
  • Danielle Lavell, Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) Camp Programs Coordinator, and the RMSC Camp Counselors, for allowing the team to host educational activities for two weeks at their Curiosity Camps
  • Highlands at Pittsford, for inviting the team to present to their residents
  • Big Brother Big Sister (BBBS) of Ithaca and Tompkins County, for partnering with Rochester iGEM and Cornell iGEM to put on a synthetic biology event for young students
  • Rochester Westside Farmers Market, for allowing the team to set up a tent and lead children through a synthetic biology-related craft

Collaboration


  • Cornell iGEM, for partnering with the team in wet lab, community outreach, and presentation practice
  • Stony Brook iGEM, for co-authoring a synthetic biology activity book for children
  • Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU-Israel) iGEM, for discussing amino acid detection and biosensor fabrication with the team
  • Lund Beecilli iGEM, for collaborating on coding the teams’ wiki pages

Miscellaneous


  • Moriana Garcia for teaching the team how to conduct primary literature research
  • University of Rochester Advancement, for helping the team launch their crowdfunding campaign
  • University of Rochester Office of Undergraduate Research, for providing funding for summer living costs and our travel to Paris

The Mitochondria

Our Sponsors


  • Thermofisher Scientific
  • Beckman Coulter
  • BASi Research Products
  • IDT
  • Promega
  • SnapGene
  • Cayman Chemical
  • New England BioLabs
  • plasmidsaurus
  • Graphenea
  • Metrohm DropSens
  • Cornell Maple Program
  • Tiny Fish Printing