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From 2011.igem.org

Welcome to my wiki! I am a first-year PhD student at [http://www.cs.tufts.edu/ Tufts University] studying Human-Computer Interaction. My research focuses on how next-generation interaction techniques can support research through enhanced brainstorming and within-group collaboration. Previous to this summer, I worked on a multi-touch genome browser, [http://www.youtube.com/user/oshaer#p/u/2/me_Maa8xcGM G-nome Surfer], and teaching tool for phylogenetics, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb09DCoXfV4 Phylo-Genie]. This summer I'm back at Wellesley as the student mentor to students on the development and engineering of multi-touch and tangible interaction software and tools, lead by [http://cs.wellesley.edu/~oshaer/ Dr. Orit Shaer] of the Wellesley College [http://cs.wellesley.edu/~hcilab/ HCI laboratory] and [http://people.bu.edu/dougd/ Dr. Douglas Densmore] of the SynBio laboratory at Boston University.

For daily updates on my work and lab events, find me on Twitter as [http://twitter.com/megankstrait megankstrait].

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Contents 1 Bootcamp 1.1 Technology Tour 1.2 Bio Basics 1.3 CAD, Clotho, and Community 2 Device, Spice, and Mice 3 G-nome Surfer Pro 3.1 Prokaryotic Parser 3.2 Publications and Plasmids 3.3 Sequence and Search 4 Birthday BLAST 4.1 Twitter 4.2 Twitter Bomb 4.3 Twitter Blast 5 Primers, Permutations, and Papers 5.1 Wellesley 5.2 Primer Design

Bootcamp

05.31 - 06.03 : This is week 1 of our work towards the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition in synthetic biology. We have a lot of excitement, but a lack of experience. Thus the BU team leaders have put together a bio bootcamp to take everyone bio 101, software support, and outreach opportunities in three days.

Technology Tour

Tuesday, we welcomed our three newest members - Kelsey, Casey, and Kathy - to the HCI laboratory with a tour of the technology and tools. New students and current iPhone programmers worked on "Hello World", Microsoft Surface style. Kathy, our resident bio-enthusiast and expert, started a survey of state-of-the-art genomics tools and molecular infographics.

Bio Basics

Wednesday began the BU-Wellesley iGEM bootcamp. For the next three days, we received a year's dose of biology basics well organized and delivered by our wet lab leader, Traci Haddock. Primers, permutations, invertase and in vitro - we covered the basics to catch the comp team students (including me) up to speed on the terminology, experiments, and tools (both physical and digital) employed by synthetic biologists.

CAD, Clotho, and Community

Device, Spice, and Mice

06.06 - 06.10 : We focused this week on developing the multi-touch interaction for a prokaryotic genome browser. Check out our [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM8hbKfU5iI prototype]!

G-nome Surfer Pro

06.13 - 06.17 :

Prokaryotic Parser

Publications and Plasmids

Sequence and Search

Birthday BLAST

06.20 - 06.24 : Already week 4, already mid mid 20's! My mentor and lab mates, new and old, surprised me with cake and gifts to celebrate the new week and my old age. The focus this week was to finish the adaption of G-nome Surfer to visualize prokaryotic data and to design Primer BLAST for the Surface. This included

Twitter

Twitter Bomb

Defined as spam tweeting one particular topic to the twittersphere. Especially when making it a trending topic.

Twitter Blast

Defined as having a blast on twitter.

Primers, Permutations, and Papers

06.27 - 07.01 :

Wellesley

Primer Design