Attributions | UNSW_Australia

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Dr Dominic Glover

Primary Instructor (PI)

First and foremost, we would like to thank our primary instructor Doctor Dominic Glover, who offered our team guidance on the direction of the project every step of the way. His input and knowledge of the iGEM competition and synthetic biology has been invaluable for our team.

Gustave Severin

Wet Lab Supervisor/Mentor

For the day-to-day wet lab activities, we owe a great debt to Gustave Severin who provided extensive supervision and assistance in the lab, suggesting protocols and ideas on how to optimise experiments when we encountered hurdles in the laboratory.

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Professor Robert Park

As an important point of contact, Professor Robert Park aided our team in understanding the pathogenesis of the cereal rust fungus and handling the pathogen in the lab. Here, he expanded our knowledge of the issue as a whole, including the emergence of virulent strains

Doctor Megan Lenardon

As a leading researcher in clinically relevant fungal infections, Doctor Megan Lenardon assisted us in approaching our research of the fungal proteins and pursuing ways to inhibit fungal growth with various active fungicidal compounds. She also suggested several assays we could perform to test for the interaction of the fungal target protein and our designed peptide candidate.

Professor Torsten Thomas

Professor Torsten Thomas focused our attention on the interactions of microorganisms within their natural environmental systems, thereby guiding our approach in implementing our solution to the site of application.

Associate Professor Till Böcking

With his experience in biochemistry and biophysics, Associate Professor Till Böcking helped our team pursue the design of pseudo-de novo peptide candidates using computational modelling programs he suggested.

Doctor Ming-Bo Wang

Doctor Ming-Bo Wang regaled us with his experience of treating plant diseases using RNAi technology, given we were initially planning to pursue this approach. Though we decided to go ahead with using a peptide-based fungicide, we thank Doctor Wang for his encouragement of our team's goals.

Professor Mark Tanaka

We would like to thank Professor Tanaka who is a computational biologist and part of the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre at UNSW. His advice helped the team plan around the potential of fungal resistance to our peptide.

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Alexander Kelly

We would also like to thank Alexander Kelly for his assistance to the wet lab team's activities in the lab, and providing resources to conduct experiments when needed.

Recombinant Products Facility (RPF)

We would like to thank the highly skilled staff at the RPF, who provided us with protein purification services, enabling us to carry out our experimentations.

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Doctor Lucy Carter

We are immensely grateful to Doctor Lucy Carter for her knowledge and advice on approaching such a com plex, socially-relevant problems like cereal rust from a social and ethical perspective.

Professor Matthew Kearnes

Professor Matthew Kearnes aided our team in contextualising the vernacular understandings of and responses to technological, scientific and environmental change when exploring applications of synthetic biology. In addition, he helped us plan to resolve the disconnect between science and society.

Joshua Gilbert

We are incredibly grateful to Joshua Gilbert for educating our team about the inexplicable connection between the Indigenous community and the land. We would like to extend our respects to the broader Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and look forward to maintaining our meaningful relationship.

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Destiny Tsai

Wet Lab Human Practices

Contributed to the screening of a target fungal protein
Hosted meetings with Academics to guide the evolution of the project
Hosted meetings with Traditional Landowners to guide our human practices team
Reached out to government organisations to discuss the legality and feasibility of using GMOs in agricultural environments

Divyangi Pandit

Education/Communication Lead Wet Lab

Conducted experiments in the library including protein expression and purification, colony PCR, Gibson assembly, and transformation
Reviewed existing literature to help with wet lab content
Organised and chaired Education/ Communication meetings and delegated tasks
Organised content and presented at public schools to raise awareness of synthetic biology
Operated the team’s social media accounts to facilitate public outreach
Responsible for the creation of all graphical assets for social media including weekly posts and temporary logo
Curated the team’s Education/Communication Magazine
Conducted interviews and wrote articles for the teams' Education/ Communication Magazine
Wrote and edited the wiki page for Communication, Collaboration and part of Experiments
Acted as a point of contact between other teams around the world for collaborative initiatives

Eloise Paine

Team Lead Wet Lab Lead Human Practices Wiki Design

Organised and hosted wet lab and entire team meetings, maintained meeting minutes and facilitated contact between the team and supervisor
Brainstormed thumbnail sketches of the logo and provided developmental sketches for further logo design refinement
Conducted literature reviews for wet lab and human practices content
Assisted with the promotional video
Organised wet lab experiment timeline and coordinated lab roster for the wet lab team
Conducted experiments in the lab, including Gibson assembly, transformation, colony PCR, protein expression and purification
Responsible for registering the teams’ parts and parts collection
Ran and analysed AlphaFold models to screen for confirmational changes following addition of the His-tag and fluorescent protein
Facilitated collaboration with the King’s School iGEM team

Ezekiel Otaegui-Campos

Team Lead Human Practices Lead Wet Lab

Responsible for organising and hosting meetings, constructing meeting agendas, and acting as a point of contact with supervisor and team
Researched and collated a list of fungal target proteins and plant binding proteins to base our peptide candidates off of
Researched mechanisms by which to express our peptide in the site of application as part of our proposed implementation
Assisted other wet lab and human practices members by answering questions that they had regarding the project
Conducted computational modelling to understand the fungal protein structure and its potential binding to peptides
Brainstormed the name of the team (Rust Busters)
Conducted wet lab experiments, including preparing competent cells, Gibson assembly, transformation of recombinant plasmids into cells, colony PCR, inducing protein expression, protein purification using chromatography techniques, DNA and protein gels
Organised the lab bench and maintained a constant supply of reagents and materials to conduct experiments
Compiled a list of potential stakeholders to contact that may be relevant to our project
Contacted professionals to obtain advice on our approaches to our solution and engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to learn more about their perspectives
Responsible for writing and editing the Project Description wiki page, Human Practices wiki page, project title and project abstract, as well as assisting with writing the preliminary judging form
Facilitated collaboration between other iGEM teams including The King’s School and The University of Sydney teams
Completed the safety modules and performed experiments in accordance with UNSW safety rules

Jasmin Yip

Wiki Design

Produced, animated and edited footage/sound for the promotional video
Developed and designed graphical assets used throughout the team's wiki and promotional video
Contributed to the wireframe and aesthetic elements of the team's wiki page
Implemented the filing cabinet system to be used across the team's wiki pages

Keshiga Gopalarajah

Wiki Design

Coordinated initial wiki/design meetings including constructing meeting agendas and minutes
Assisted in the design of the team logo and wiki interface
Collected external footage and clips for the promotional video
Implemented wiki pages and features including the footer and modals using html, css and js

Kimaya Gadre

Wet Lab Education/Communication

Contributed to the school outreach and public education program
Organised and presented at public schools to raise awareness for synthetic biology
Ensured the project complied with safety guidelines

Mark Hong

Team Lead Dry Lab Wiki Design

Developed software pipelines to screen for protein targets, predict functions of annotated proteins, analysed protein structure/sequence data
Conducted protein-peptide docking analysis to predict active sites and develop novel peptide inhibitors
Analysed data from software pipelines to generate usable insights
Assisted in student outreach by contacting schools
Collaborated with University of Sydney and The King's School's wiki teams
Produced graphical assets which were used for the team's wiki and promotional video
Curated data from protein target screening, protein-protein docking structures and engineered peptide structures

Max Galettis

Team Lead Dry Lab Human Practices

Provided selection requirements for the organism that we would want to create a pesticide for.
Developed software pipelines to screen for protein targets, predict functions of annotated proteins
Helped with dry lab trouble shooting
Wrote part of the modelling wiki page

Roger Jiang

Wet Lab Human Practices Sponsorships

Synthesised fungal protein targets in the laboratory
Reached out to various companies for sponsorships
Hosted meetings with Businesses to help guide commercialisation of the project

Ryan Huynh

Wet Lab Wiki Design

Contributed to the screening of a target fungal protein by conducting literature reviews
Synthesised fungal protein targets in the laboratory
Assisted in structural analysis of proteins to generate fluorescent proteins and peptide inhibitors
Contributed to the writing and editing of various dry lab and wet lab wiki pages

Syed Taimoor Mansoor

Wiki Design Education/Communication

Developed and designed graphical assets which were used throughout the team's wiki, social media, and promotional video
Designed the team's logo, mascot, and hoodies
Presented at East Hills Boys Public School to raise awareness for synthetic biology
Helped to produce the Education/Communication magazine
Produced the Education/Communication comic in collaboration with other IGEM teams

Vandana Prathapar

Dry Lab Wiki Design

Contributed to the modelling and screening of potential Fungal targets and peptide inhibitors
Conducted protein-peptide docking analysis to predict active sites and develop novel peptide inhibitors
Developed code to analyse reliability of AlphaFold models
Created layouts and code for various wiki pages

Yola Li

Wet Lab Education/Communication

Developed ideas to minimise off-target effects of our peptide inhibitor
Assisted in screening of existing peptides from literature
Created content for the team’s social media accounts
Recorded podcasts in collaboration with other IGEM teams
Prepared presentations for engagement with public schools

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Latch Bio: For sponsoring us with free cloud computing hours

DNA Technologies (IDT): For providing 20kb of free gene fragments to the team

Twist Bioscience: For providing 10kb of free DNA to the team

UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences: For supporting our team and for funding our place in this year's IGEM competition

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