IGEM team meeting nodes 7/7/14
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Attendees: Patrik D., Maria I., Ben, Steven, Eric, Vern, Itai, Arif, Ed, Wes, Brett, Nokolai, Lou, Teddy, Cherie, Tito, Eri, Advait, Craig, via Zoom: Ahnon
Call in information:
\url{https://zoom.us/j/744239720}
Or, go to \url{https://zoom.us/join} and enter meeting ID: 744 239 720
**Ellen Jorgensen* will join us from 6:30-7:30pm. **\url{**http://www.meetup.com/BioCurious/events/189694362/**}
* 6:30-7pm: Ellen covers the Community Labs iGEM track. Tips, meaning, context and such
* 7-7:30pm: Ellen fields any questions we have about iGEM (meeting requirements, best ways to do outreach..really anything)
**Indiegogo Update**
\url{https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/real-vegan-cheese/}
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* **Budget planning.**
* Who is the money umbrelled under for tax purposes so that no one has to individually deal with it on their personal taxes. Would it make sense to have a bank account in orginizations name and have it under one of two labs with its own 501c3.
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* **Committee???**
* Funnel money through Food not bombs?
* Members for Budget Committee/purchasing (how much do we have, how to spend it) : Patrik
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* No experiments without budget approval.
* Process for submitting experiments:
* timeline \url{https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NOPblWr9\_pIHMst0Nvy\_\_7J\_n97LNwEsz2ujtZ3yFBo/edit#gid=0}
* Prioritizing reagent purchases.
* We need to finalize stretch goals (bioreactor; experimenting with *pichia*; iGEM travel expenses?)
* Send folks to iGEM. How many people want to go? Sending 5 scientists to iGem (travel plus hotel etc)
* Narwhal cheese - more exciting
* Pichia - ethichal issues movign away from bakers yeast?
* Equipment - investment into lab
* Bioreactor -
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* We also need to put up the bank information for receiving funds from indiegogo.
* It is currently Ashley's Paypal account, need to find a 501c3
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* Develop our next indiegogo campaign update?
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* Plan video responses to 'ask a biohacker'?
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**Experiment Planning - So much science, so little time!**
* A. Review current experiments
* B. Future experiments (like, in the next 3 weeks).
* 1) **Sequencing hKCasein clones**
* - 15-20 reactions free from Sequetech.
* - need to design sequencing primers
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* 2) **SDS-Page of supernatants from E. coli o/n cultures - did we see expression?**
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* 3) **Transforming Yeast**
* - Needs: Yeast (Ura3-), YPD agar +/- uracil and broth, transformation reagents
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* 4) **Cloning other constructs.**
* - Place order with IDT?
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* 5) **"Making cheese" experiments**
* - Dry casein resuspended in different solvents (fat, water, etc)
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* C. **Planning next working meetings - when will we do these experiments? Need casein by August 1.**
**Ethics conversation**:
Our website needs to be updated with our commitment to 'biohacker' ethics, a GMO statement, et cetera. Is the ethics team working on this stuff??
**TO DO:**
* **Research Plan**
* Cloning, verification, purification of proteins
* **Stretch Goals**
* Sending folks to iGEM - what are requirements to go?
* Picchia pastoris
* Narwahl - Check in with UC Santa Cruz - follow up
* Bioreactor
* Other equipment
* **Update for IndieGoGo**
* **Contact Food not Bombs for fiscal sponsorship**
* **Ethical Team: Maria, Craig, Rebecca**
* Biohacker ethics.
* Ellen Jorgensen is cofounder \& ED at Genspace and cochair of the Community Labs track at iGEM. She's helped teams compete in iGEM for years through Genspace
Stretch goals brainstorm:
Teddy: maybe focus on stretch goals that directly help the vegan cheese project. This way we can focus mainly on the Real Vegan Cheese project and have iGEM just serve as a great platform for publicity to further bolster the actual Vegan Cheese Project (e.g. narwhal cheese, bioreactor, etc.)
Short Summary
* We are the San Francisco Bay Area iGEM team - a collective of biohackers working out of Counter Culture Labs in Oakland and BioCurious in Sunnyvale.
* This project has the ability to address future food scarcity concerns, as yeast are renewable and the process to cheese is limitless. We believe that vegans have rights to nutritious cheese too! And we believe that the days of using cows as food production machines is environmentally irresponsible.
* *Briefly describe your campaign and why it's important to you:* This is our opportunity to prove to the world that we, as citizen scientists can innovate, discover, and contribute to science in a menaingful way!###Remember, keep it concise, yet personal. Ask yourself: if someone stopped reading here would they be ready to make a contribution?
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###What We Need \& What You Get
###Break it down for folks in more detail:
* *Explain how much funding you need and where it's going. Be transparent and specific-people need to trust you to want to fund you: *Start with Craig's budget - $5000 for molecular bio needs. Igem website for for break-down of costs associated with competition and related travel. Cheese making budget. Must flesh out the details for each sub section.
* *Tell people about your unique perks: *See Google Doc.
* Describe where the funds go if you don't reach your entire goal:###
###The Impact
###Feel free to explain more about your campaign and let people know how the difference their contribution will make:
* *Explain why your project is valuable to the contributor and to the world:*
* There are clear health benefits (i.e. decreased autoimmunity) to consuming milk proteins derived from humans versus say cow milk proteins. This is made possible through expressing the genes that code for human milk proteins in regular old brewer’s yeast - The same stuff used in bread and beer making! Using human genes to make vegan milk may not be appetizing to everyone. So, for you folks that love good old-fashioned cow cheeses, we’re making vegan cow cheese too.
* Point out your successful track record with projects like this (if you have one).
* Make it real for people and build trust.###
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###Risks \& Challenges
###People value your transparency. Be open and stand out by providing insight into the risks and obstacles you may face on the way to achieving your goal.
* Share what qualifies you to overcome these hurdles.
* Describe your plan for solving these challenges.###
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###Other Ways You Can Help
###Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean they can't help:
* Ask folks to get the word out and make some noise about your campaign.
* Remind them to use the Indiegogo share tools!###
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###Frequently Asked Questions
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Will you be eating this cheese?
Eventually, yes - that is the goal. But it may be a while before we reach that point. We will need to do some more research on how exactly how to match all the FDA regulations regarding foods generated using genetically engineered organisms. If we can achieve a sufficiently purified product, and show that it does not contain any foreign DNA or living organisms, then we believe that our vegan cheese should qualify as “Generally Recognized As Safe”. We would also need to produce the cheese in a facility suitable for food production. Until we meet all those requirements, all cheese protein we produce will be clearly labeled as “Not for Human Consumption”.
When can we buy your cheese?
Hold your horses! We are still in the Research \& Development stage right now - that is what our IndieGogo campaign (and our participation in the iGEM competition) is all about. Once we have proven that we can actually do this, we’ll still need to figure out how to scale up from milligrams to kilograms, and how to produce our cheese in the most food-safe and economical way. We may even do another fundraiser once we get to that point. Check back with us next year...
But aren’t you sending out a Real Vegan Cheese as one of your IndieGogo perks?
We hope to brew a big batch of yeast at the end of the project, and have enough cheese protein for one small cheese. Any donor at the “Big Cheese” level will have the option of receiving a cheese made from that batch (likely labeled as “Not for Human Consumption”), made from a vegan nut cheese, or even from cow’s milk. Or they can