Minutes: 11/7/09 Meetup

[Jata]

Hey everyone,

We had a great, productive meeting this Saturday! Here is a summary of
what happened:

Shane, Becca, Bill, Ed, Ashley, and Jata met at Edwardo's, ate some
delicious pizza, and chatted about what DIYbio is, what it means, and
where it is going in the long and short term.

We discussed safety regulations, community outreach, and potential
projects. The team is nicely split between science and humanities
people; we can use the respective talents of each. Goals:

1. Maintaining a blog or a website; posting pictures and progress.
2. Public relations: Explaining clearly what DIYbio is and what we are
doing, and why it is a good thing.
3. Writing articles/talking to the press: Help get more people excited
about DIYbio!

Some potential projects we have slated to work on this year are:

1. M-Prize at home: The Methuselah Mouse Prize, DIYbio-style.
2. Pesticide bioremediation system: Working with the UChicago iGEM
team, this near-complete project needs to be finished and tested.
3. DIY-SENS: Enzyme expression to help the SENS lab in Mountain View.
4. Hardware testing: There are many DIYbio hardware projects in the
works. We can offer to help with development by using them and
providing documentation. For instance, let's field-test Joe Jackson's
thermocycler! http://www.synthesis.cc/2009/10/the-lava-amp-is-alive.html

If anyone has anything to add to these notes, please feel free to do
so (just reply to this email).

Thank you all for coming! If you couldn't make it, I hope to see you
next time!

We will decide, in another email thread, when to meet again
(tentatively, the afternoon of Sunday, Nov 14th). We'll have more
concrete plans (with protocols!) and a timeline, so try to make it!
See you soon.

Cheers,

Jata :-)