Team:NYC Wetware/Deinococcus/Expert Opinions

Expert Opinions

Early on in our project, we sought out the shoulders of giants to stand on. We contacted a host of experts in the field of radiation resistance. We fore-mostly appreciate Dr. Raji Viswanathan (http://home.yu.edu/faculty/viswanathan/page.aspx?id=7430&ekmensel=696_submenu_0_link_1) for enthusiastically and expertly facilitating the creation and formation of our iGEM team. We acknowledge Drs Frederick Domann (http://www.uiowa.edu/~frrbp/domann.html) and Matthew Fritzgerald (http://www.uiowa.edu/~frrbp/directory.html) from the University of Iowa who opened our eyes to T. cruzi and then filled our hands with some T. cruzi plasmids to go; Dr. John Battista (http://www.biology.lsu.edu/faculty_listings/fac_pages/jbattista.html) of Wayne State University for teleconferencing us; Dr. Michael Daly (http://www.usuhs.mil/pat/deinococcus/index_20.htm) of Unites Services University of the Health Sciences for collaborating with us on the Deino Genomics; Mr. Stephen Marino (http://www.raraf.org/marino.htm) of Columbia University’s RARAF facility for guiding us in the use of his Particle Radiation Facility. Thank you Chayim Goldberg from the Albert Einstein Graduate School of Medical Sciences for your extraordinary effort on behalf of your "Boys" in the final stretch. And for lab space, equipment and encouragement during that trying period - thanks Dr. Yakov Peter (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/home/faculty/profile.asp?id=11870&k=) of Yeshiva University. We also acknowledge Sung won Lim of Genspace for guidance throughout our project.

In addition to these professors, we benefited from correspondences with the following radiation biology scientists:

Dr. Suzanne Sommer (http://www.igmors.u-psud.fr/spip.php?article422), Institut de Genetique et Microbiologie
Dr. Eli Glatstein (http://www.xrt.upenn.edu/EliGlatstein.shtml), University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Jim Imlay (http://mcb.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/1189), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. John Helmann (http://micro.cornell.edu/research/labs/helmann-lab/index.cfm), Cornell University
Dr. Michael Cox (http://www.biochem.wisc.edu/faculty/cox/lab/default.aspx), University of Wisconsin at Madison
Dr. Valery Verbenko (http://www.labome.org/expert/russia/petersburg-nuclear-physics-institute-33402.html), Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute
Dr. Juliann G. Kiang (http://www.usuhs.mil/rad/kiang.html), United Services University of the Health Sciences
Dr. Lewis Dartnell (http://www.lewisdartnell.com/), University College London
Dr. Steve Blattnig, NASA Langley Research Center
Dr. Janice Huff (http://www.dsls.usra.edu/huff.html), Universities Space Research Association
Dr. Cary Zeitlin (http://www.swri.org/iProfiles/ViewiProfile.asp?k=2i1x9021ek22ml9), South West Research Institute
Dr. Susan Lovett (http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/faculty/lovett.html), Brandeis University

Expert Brainstorming

Before choosing our project, we brainstormed ideas, and acknowledge Dr. David Deamer (http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/people/deamer) of the University of California at Santa Cruz for several teleconference calls trying to help us down the exciting protocoll project road; and finally we were excited to meet Dr. Albert Libchaber (http://www.rockefeller.edu/research/faculty/labheads/AlbertLibchaber/) of Rockefeller University, who hosted a conversation with representatives of the three New York City iGEM teams all about synthetic biology, protocells and biological physics.