[BBF Standards] BioHackathon, or Characterization Challenge

[Jason Morrison]

Yes!

Mac, Kim, and I were chatting about such an idea a few weeks back, under the
guise of a Registry wiki gardening party (which would also involve garnering
additional characterization data).

I think that amassing quality characterization data would be a great boost
for the usefulness of BioBricks and that it offers a great bang-for-the-buck
in terms of benefit derived from effort put in; very tangible and useful
data can be gotten out of one focused day or weekend.

I think that spending some time beforehand to identify the best targets
(most benefit from receiving this focus) is key to getting the best bang out
of this.  Is there a clear choice here, or perhaps a good metric for judging
(i.e. use-to-characterization ratio)?

A few questions that come to mind:
* I think it's a great idea and gesture to offer labs as hosts (and I love
the live video+chat idea).  However, would there be a disadvantage to
opening it up to any labs that would like to participate?
* Would it be appropriate to reach out to past iGEM participants?

Jason

On Feb 9, 2008 3:34 PM, John Cumbers <johncumbers at gmail.com> wrote:

> >>How about focusing on the characterization of existing biological
> systems ?
>
> This is a really cool idea, perhaps we could have one on each coast, and
> one in London/Europe too?  All running together with video link/chat.  I
> offer our Brown iGEM lab as a potential host lab, although it is not so big
> can only hold ~12 at a squeeze.  Perhaps we could find an alternative venue
> outside the lab environment, e.g we could each brought along different
> pieces of equipment, or rent a lab for the day...
>
> cheers,
> John
>
>
>
> On Feb 9, 2008 6:57 AM, Vincent Rouilly <vincent.rouilly at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> >
> > the idea of a regular BioHackathon is really cool.
> > It would boost a lot the community spirit (like the iGEM Jamboree).
> > It could as well help to build a critical mass to achieve great things.
> >
> > As Jason said, building biological system still takes too long for
> > such 1-day-type of event.
> > How about focusing on the characterization of existing biological
> > systems ?
> >
> > You get 50-100 people probing an already existing piece of DNA (or a
> > mutation library of it) . Maybe they explore different working
> > conditions (temperature, PH, type of chemical stimuli, ...)
> > The BioHackathon becomes a 'Bio-Characterization Challenge'. At the
> > end, data and protocols are collected, everything is shared, and open
> > to further analysis by the rest of the community.
> >
> > Prior to meeting-up, the community could go through a vote to select
> > the piece(s) of DNA on which they want to focus during the next event.
> > I would love having a first meeting on 'Characterization of inducible
> > promoter(s)'
> >
> > Vincent.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Standards at biobricks.org
> > http://biobricks.org/mailman/listinfo/standards_biobricks.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> John Cumbers,  Graduate Student
> Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry
> Biology and Medicine
> Brown University, Box G-W
> Providence, Rhode Island, 02912, USA
> Tel USA: +1 401 523 8190,  Fax: +1 401 863-2166
> UK to USA: 0207 617 7824
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>


-- 
Jason Morrison
jason.p.morrison at gmail.com
http://jayunit.net
(585) 216-5657
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