Team:RUM-UPRM/Attributions
We are thankful to everyone who believed in our team and helped us achieve this two-phase project. Our journey, which started in 2020 has come to its final stage, now, we are proud to say the next phase is “the Giant Jamboree”. The entirety of the project design was done by the initiative of the team’s undergraduate students, but we are entirely grateful for the support and inspiration we received from the PI’s, Advisors, Mentors, and collaborators.
Attributions
At the start of this year's competition, we pulled through all difficulties, and access to the laboratory was permitted following strict measures and the implementation of safety procedures. In last year's competition, we looked forward to the further development of “Mer-Nite to the Rescue” and so it became a reality with “R-DetoX”. R-Detox emerged from “Mer-Nite to the Rescue” as our second phase project with a more centralized idea on the decontamination of RDX by the process of bioremediation.
As the project turned its focus on RDX some slight modifications were made. The persons responsible for the design, cloning of the genetic circuit, and laboratory work were: Valeria, Iris, Solimar, Frances, Lionel, Luis Garcia, Marieli, Elimar, and Adriana. Valeria, the Biology Team Leader, and Adriana, the Research Director, worked on the redaction of a safety plan for laboratory precautions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they supervised the laboratory work and fulfillment of all safety measures.
The biorreactor designs were done by the engineering and programming team: Marieli, Adriana, Claudia, Luis Viera, and Carlos. Carlos was in charge of the design of the wiki. Later on, for the programming of the wiki page, all the other teams also helped in the redaction and upload of information while implementing all the advice given by Carlos.
The Human Practices Team, composed of Jennifer, Luis Montalvo, Keysha, Agnes, Elan, and Angel, were involved in contacting stakeholders. They set up virtual meetings with them and carried out educational outreach. Some of the activities performed, such as Synthetic Biology Week, SynBio 101: Summer Camp for High School Students, Science Fair, workshops, and more are detailed in the following links: Human Practices, Education, Inclusivity.
Our team’s administrative work was fulfilled by Marieli, Luis Garcia, Adriana, Solimar, Angel and Elan. Our president, Marieli, was in charge of communicating directly with the main offices of our University, ensuring every deadline was met, leading meetings and doing collaborations. Our vice-president, Luis Garcia, dedicated himself to offering his support to the president and to focus on the development of genetic circuits together with our Research Director, Adriana. Adriana made sure that all tasks from each divisions of the team were fulfilled, as well as organized our work plan. Our Marketing Director, Solimar, was in charge of maintaining all of our team's social media and digital arts design. She frequently collaborated with the Social Impact team to ensure a meaningful and effective outreach. Angel, our treasurer, took charge of organizing the finances of the team and looking for all the pertinent price quotes to ensure a good financial plan. Finally, Elan was appointed as the team's secretary. He was in charge of communicating with other iGEM teams and sending emails regarding the search for sponsorships in conjunction with the treasurer.
Finally, we want to attribute Laura C. Ramos Toro for producing, filming and editing our team's Promotional Video. Her collaboration was crucial to our team and we are very grateful that we were able to collaborate with each other. Additionally, we want to thank Jeylian Perez Hernandez and Wadimir Santana for participating in our video.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our Principal Investigators Dr. Patricia Ortiz Bermúdez and Dr. Carlos Ríos Velázquez, for their constant support and feedback throughout our project. Your mentorship and advice were definitely key to the development of our project:"R-DetoX". Thank you for always being available and participating in our various activities. We also want to thank our graduate student advisors and instructors: Victor López Ramirez, Edwin Rivera Lopez, Flavio Rodriguez Polanco, and Angelica Gonzalez Martinez for their constant feedback and support on our project. Your laboratory workshops definitely helped us improve our techniques and obtain accurate results.
Special Thanks
We want to give a special thanks to Bárbara Sánchez Santos; Scientific Research Technician, and Katherine Carrero Figueroa; Scientific Instrumentation Specialist, for allowing us to use their laboratories facilities, offering us materials for our experiments, and providing constant support towards our team.
We want to give a special thanks to Agronomist Sol Rosado for always saying yes to offering a conference, giving us the space to expose our project, and for helping us spread science and Synthetic Biology in Puerto Rico.
We would like to thank Dr. Arturo Massol Deyá for his feedback on our project and the suggestion to add RDX as a contaminant we should approach. We are grateful for the information about the Anones Lagoon, and for sharing information about the history and situation of Vieques.
We want to give a special thanks to Lcdo. Adrián González Costa for meeting with us several times and guiding us on the situation in Vieques. We want to thank you for all your effort and support, your dedication to our team, for the opportunity to outreach to Viequenses and for making our trip to the island of Vieques possible.
We want to thank doctoral student Francheska Colón, Dr. Samuel Hernandez, The Center for Chemical Sensors Development, and The UPRM-based Chemical Imaging and Surface Analysis Center for providing constructive criticism regarding our proof of concept and providing RDX solution for our lab procedures.
We also appreciate Mike Barandiaran for providing us with information about writing a proposal for the opportunity to go to Vieques and take samples for our project.
We would like to recognize the Biology Department of the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez under the direction of Ana Vélez Díaz and Bárbara Sánchez Santos, the Lab Technician in Scientific Investigations, for their support in providing us with a lab space where we could perform our experiments.
We would like to thank the constant support and encouragement of different authorities of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. These include Patricia Torres of the Department of Social and Cultural Activities, PRENSA RUM, the Dean of Students Dr. Jonathan Muñoz Barreto, and the Chancellor of the University Dr. Agustín Rullán Toro.
We would like to give special thanks to one of the 2021 iGEM Ambassadors for Latin America, Heber Torres for being a speaker in our SynBio Week 2021 and answering all our iGEM competition-related questions.
Lastly, we would like to thank all of our sponsors. Donations from First Medical were used for the SynBio 101 Summer Camp. Genscript, Amgen, IDT, and Twist Bioscience provided us with lab materials for our experiments. Finally, SnapGene made it possible for us to develop cloning models corresponding to our project.
