Antonio Lamb

Antonio Lamb

San Diego, CA

B.S., Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, IndieBio 2016 Cohort

Plant Molecular Biologist

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Published on Jul 30, 2018

The reward for your contribution

I have spent several months trying to figure out the best way to recognize and thank the people who had donated to the crowdfunding experiment. I thought of several ideas in the past, such as givin...

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Published on Aug 23, 2017

Proinsulin expression was not detected, but recombinant GFP successfully expressed from MSX constructs

We were still unable to detect the expression of recombinant proinsulin in chlamydomonas from our pAsapI construct, despite the fact that the construct seemed to have successfully integrated into t...

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Published on Feb 16, 2017

The proinsulin gene was positively detected in our transformed algae using genotyping PCR

We were finally able to detect the algae proinsulin gene. We had re-cultured the emergent transformed microalgal colonies on minimal media to ensure that the colonies contained our pASapI-proinsuli...

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Published on Jan 04, 2017

Quick New Years Update

It has been an eventful 2016, to say the least. On the technical side, we were able to transform an antibiotic resistance marker successfully into microalgae (pictured below).  Unfor...

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Published on May 29, 2016

Completion of more E. coli expression work, paving the way for algal transformation work.

Last week, we reached another milestone. We were able to successfully confirm that our modular expression system (derived from the pASapI plasmid) is indeed functional, and working well in E. coli....

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Published on May 10, 2016

We are officially in the IndieBio accelerator program!

Thanks to the amazing support and enthusiasm we received from the community through the Experiment.com platform, our team was offered an incredible opportunity to join the IndieBio synthetic biolog...

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Published on Apr 21, 2016

A Successful Molecular Cloning: Overcoming Stubborn Structures

If you've followed our methods section, you'll be happy to know that we completed some important experiments on our path to making algal insulin a reality. First off, the proinsulin gene was clone...

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Published on Feb 21, 2016

Proinsulin Gene in E. coli and Construction of Microalgae Vector (Update)

It has been an incredibly busy few weeks, which is why this overdue update is a bit late. The algal DNA construct is already done but we do not know if it works, so we needed to test in bacteria fi...

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Hey Jim sorry for the late response. We successfully expressed GFP and we also confirmed the insulin gene was transformed into the algae. Unfortunately, the expression levels were below detectable levels. However, we did manage to express a bunch of other vaccine antigens so we will try again soon but for our proof of concept in general, we were successful.
Oct 29, 2018
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Ah it's okay. Sorry I just saw this but I'll also reach out to Bowen and see what he's doing :).
Aug 28, 2017
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Thanks Cindy :). We hope to have more updates in the future. Hope you are doing well too :).
Aug 23, 2017
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Hey Jim. Nope, it is still going. however, we have had to shift focus to Microsynbiotix in order to meet certain technical deadlines and secure funding for the company (and to ensure that we have the funds to continue the algal insulin). We have transformed strains. The amount of expression is yet to be determined but we are hoping to have that data very soon.
Apr 18, 2017
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Thanks Denny :thumbsup:. Same to you
Jul 18, 2016
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Really cool stuff! I hope your research will help us better protect these beautiful cats.
Jun 04, 2016
The Urban Caracal Project: Exploring how wild caracals persist in a rapidly urbanizing landscape
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We chose fish because it eats algae naturally and the dosage required to vaccinate fish is much lower. We've also identified that there is a clear market demand. We would of course consider other avenues if we are successful in this area.
May 18, 2016
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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We chose fish because it eats algae naturally and the dosage require to vaccinate fish is much lower. We've also identified that there is a clear market demand. We would of course consider other avenues if we are successful in this area.
May 18, 2016
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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That is interesting. We will look into it! Thanks for sharing.
May 18, 2016
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Hey Jim. Doing something like that would be quite difficult, if not impossible. Perhaps one could fuse algal protoplasts with cyanobacteria, but there are plenty of problems with it working... for instance, the host cell would probably recognize this bacterial "guest" as an intruder and destroy it, assuming it could even survive in there. Maybe you can find a way to do it. Sift through the scientific literature and see where it leads you. You never know, but my opinion is that it would probably never work without some very complex biological engineering.
May 06, 2016
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Thank you Willi! Wishing you the best as well.
Apr 22, 2016
Making Inexpensive Insulin Using Microalgae
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Nice! Thanks for the great response!
Jan 28, 2016
Comprehensive Conservation of Southern Resident Killer Whales in the Modern Ocean
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