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Commence monthly meet-ups for Member Community Projects! o Environmental/Ecology project – Sat. March 4th 10am
(Big picture ideas, and working on a simple build of an indoor composter for food waste)
o Bioreactor/lab equipment build project – Sat. March 11th 10am (Big picture ideas, initiate making bioreactor for online interactive protozoa “game”)
o Mushroom project – Sat. March 18th 10am (Big picture ideas, and start setting up for growing mushrooms at BUGSS and making flower pots out of myceilum)
o Estrogen sensor project – Sat. March 25th 10am (Agenda TBA)
o Bio-printing project – Inquire about times for meetup!
· Teams are asked to submit a proposal  to WIN a BUGSS Community Project Award for money that could be used for supplies necessary to advance the project. Not a member yet but really want to join a community project, or at least learn more?  (please contact Sarah – slaun@bugssonline.org). These projects will be valuable for our BUGSS community to work as a team to tinker, learn, explore, and accomplish some fantastic projects with biology!

Mini Molecular Biology class- “ProTeam: Playing with Proteins”Only two spots left!!
Techniques in protein chemistry are utilized in practically every aspect of biomedical research. With the advances in decoding the human genome, there is now much to explore about the functions and roles of the genes encoded. Join us to learn the basics of protein biology as we isolate, quantify, and specifically identify proteins from bacteria. We will also discuss the applications of protein chemistry and how it impacts the biomedical sciences.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mini-class-proteam-playing-with-proteins-tickets-29819939241

SEMINARS THIS MONTHFriday March 17th 7pm We’re building a weather station network for Baltimore! We’re building a weather station network for Baltimore and we want your help! Learn what goes into an Arduino-based device, how it can help us better understand our local environment, and help us build a few stations to be hosted at BUGSS and around the city. The parts for this project have been graciously crowdfunded by citizen scientists like you (experiment.com/wxcube)!
TICKETS HERE  Friday March 24th 7pm
Samson Williams “Innovative Funding- Exploring Crowdfunding as an Option for Academic Research”  TICKETS HERE

THIS SPRING we are super excited that Baltimore Under Ground Science Space (BUGSS) and the Capital Area BioSpace (CABS) are official American Society of Microbiology (ASM) Agar Art 2017 partners! What is Agar Art you ask? It is a perfect marriage of biology and art that everyone and anyone can get into. Come to the BUGSS lab to learn about some special microbes that produce and array of beautiful and striking colors. You will be able to use the tools and instructions provided by BUGSS and CABS to create your very own living work of art on agar plates!
Best of all!? You can enter your bio-art work into a contest! The winner will receive an ASM T-shirt, a certificate, a GiantMicrobe, and his/her piece will be included in the Agar Art Gallery at ASM’s Microbe meeting (in New Orleans, LA, June 1-5, 2017).
Perhaps your work has what it takes to enter the national ASM contest and win over $400 in prizes? (Of course it does!) Get more information for this contest, examples of previous winners, as well as entry for the national contest here: http://www.asm.org/index.php/public-outreach/agar-art
Sign Up now to save your spot! We have 3 total workshops but we expect these to fill up quickly! Under 18 and want to give this a try? No problem but please have a parent or guardian with you and convince them to join in on the fun. This is for all ages and creativity!
This page is for Workshop 1 – Saturday March 25th 10am – 12pm
Workshop 2 – Saturday March 25th 2pm -4pm LINK HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bugss-and-capital-area-biospace-cab-asm-agar-art-2017-workshop-2-tickets-31691815072Workshop 3 – Saturday April 15th 2pm -4pm LINK HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bugss-and-capital-area-biospace-cab-asm-agar-art-2017-workshop-3-tickets-31692318578 Please note! There are 3 separate workshops!TICKETS HERE

Outreach and communication opportunities at your local citizen science space!
Do you have the “BUG” for science outreach and communication? BUGSS is looking for community and member volunteers that are interested in science outreach and communication! Please come to our BUGSS Lab Meet up on April 5th from 7-8pm to learn more! TICKETS HERE!!

Molecular Biology Bootcamp! Learn the basic techniques of the lab! March 30 – April 1st
This is a condensed version of our Molecular Biotechnology Bootcamp course where we will immerse ourselves in hands-on learning of the foundational techniques of a molecular biologist and a great place to start for all of the other BUGSS courses!Molecular Biotechnology Bootcamp focuses on the knowledge base and laboratory skills necessary to carry out a project in synthetic biology. The course is project based and since we are short on time we will jump right into lab and get to work! While learning hands-on we will discuss the concepts behind each technique, why we use them, and beyond.TICKETS HERE

March iGEM team meeting!
Saturday March 18th!  We are seeking mentors and students that are interested! Do you know any high school students that would be interested in hands-on learning in the lab by building with biology this summer? Do you want to help mentor students in the lab this summer while overseeing an incredible project? (photo credit: John Dean)
Please inquire with Sarah at  slaun@bugssonline.orgMore info and tickets HERE

CLASSES THIS MONTH – Get hands-on in-the-lab experience! Intro to Bioinformatics tools for DIY citizen scientists 
DATES: Four Saturday classes in February ( 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th) 10am – 12pm
You will learn biological information retrieval: databases, search strategies and BLAST
1. What is bioinformatics? Intro to databases and biological databases. Commonly used NCBI databases.
2. Effective search of NCBI databases using boolean operator, search fields and quotation marks. Databases beyond NCBI.
3. Pairwise sequence alignment, the building block of biological sequence search.
4. Understanding BLAST search- the work horse of biological sequence search.
The goal of the class: To be familiar with common bioinformatics tools for information retrieval- and preliminary understanding of how the tools work. Find relevant biological information more effectively.
Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/intro-to-bioinformatics-tools-for-diy-citizen-scientists-4-saturdays-tickets-30523744341Does it Glow? Or no?
Date: Saturday, February 11, 2017 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Join us for a few hours to explore how well disinfectants work, using bioluminesent bacteria as a marker! Great introductory mini workshop to get busy in the lab working with bacteria and how we can use them for research. Anyone middle-school-aged to adult will enjoy this short hands-on session!
Bio of your instructor: Dr Kathleen Gillespie has been a research microbiologist in industry from the Bio- pharmaceutical to Bio-defense. She recently received her doctoral degree in Marine Biotechnology and is now a visiting professor in Molecular Biotechnology at Stockton University

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/does-it-glow-or-no-tickets-30180371303

Mini Class! “ProTeam: Playing with Proteins”
Friday, February 24, 2017 at 7:00- 9:00 PM | Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 10:00am -2:00 PM

Techniques in protein chemistry are utilized in practically every aspect of biomedical research. With the advances in decoding the human genome, there is now much to explore about the functions and roles of the genes encoded. Join us to learn the basics of protein biology as we isolate, quantify, and specifically identify proteins from bacteria. We will also discuss the applications of protein chemistry and how it impacts the biomedical sciences..

Bio of your instructor:Steve Lu is an MD/PhD student at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Currently, he is spending his time in the laboratory understanding cancer immunology to develop novel therapeutics for efficient tumor control. Whenever he can get a chance away from the bench, he spends his time cooking and baking fun recipes and running outside. He hopes to help scientists-in-training continue to develop their interests and begin mastering the skills necessary for a career in science.

sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mini-class-proteam-playing-with-proteins-tickets-29819939241

Baltimore Science Slam #3 (hosted by Project Bridge and BUGSS)
IT’S TIME FOR SCIENCE SLAM AGAIN!!! Join us for our 3rd installment of an evening of intriguing and diverse science topics!
Project Bridge and BUGSS will host 6-8 local scientists (gradstudents, postdocs, citizen scientists, etc) to present their work/passion in 5 minutes. We give prizes to the talks that are most creative and best communicated! This is a great way to connect with others, learn diverse topics of science going on right here in Charm City, gain communication skills and experience, enhance chances of collaboration and emerging projects and ideas!
Join us and bring your friends for a fun night don’t miss out on this exciting science filled evening at BUGSS!
Please contact slaun@bugssonline.org if you’d like a chance to present or know someone who might.Definitely check out our first Science Slam here to see why this is an not-to-miss event:http://www.mostlymicrobes.com/bmorescislam-a-science-communication-challenge/Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/baltimore-science-slam-3-hosted-by-project-bridge-and-bugss-tickets-29875184481

BUGSS Lab Meet-up Community Projects!!
Join us for our BUGSS Lab Meet-up on Friday February 17th 7-9pm!In this meeting we will be introducing our new Member Community Lab Meet-ups!
Based on a survey of our members, and potential members, we have decided to initiate lab meet-ups that will focus on a few different community projects. Not surprisingly, our BUGSS community is interested in ALL THE THINGS! Meaning we really had a hard time zeroing in on just one topic because of the interest and curiosity in biology that spans across many disciplines. We want to take that interest and make it a reality! Let’s meet-up to learn, tinker, and explore!
· Members will enter into a “Project Team” (or teams if interested in more than 1) centered on a topic of interest.
o Bioreactor/lab- equipment build project
o Environmental/Ecology project
o Estrogen sensor project
o Mushroom project
o Bio-printing project
· Monthly meet-ups for each project will be scheduled, but teams can arrange to meet up more frequently if they would like.
· Teams will be asked to submit a proposal (details given during this meeting) to WIN a BUGSS Community Project Award for money that could be used for supplies necessary to advance the project.
Not a member yet but really want to join a community project, or at least learn more? Come to this meeting to make connections! Can’t make this meeting? Let us know and we can add you on Skype or take your information for future meet-ups (please contact Sarah – slaun@bugssonline.org). These projects will be valuable for our BUGSS community to work as a team to tinker, learn, explore, and accomplish some fantastic projects with biology! 
Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bugss-lab-meet-up-community-projects-tickets-31566700852BUGSS Baltimore iGEM team meeting
Saturday, February 18, 2017 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Do you know any high school students that would be interested in hands-on learning in the lab by building with biology this summer? Do you want to help mentor students in the lab this summer while overseeing an incredible project? Come stop by BUGSS on Saturday the 18th at 2pm! We will have applications for high school students on site. Please inquire if you would like to contribute to mentorship of these students this summer via slaun@bugssonline.org.

Want to learn more about the team. Check out these links to the articles published so far on our iGEM team Baltimore BioCrew. Technical.ly and The Sun. Here is a link to the Baltimore BioCrew’s iGEM wiki page
During this session:
1) We are fortunate to have a fantastic speaker Dr. Eric Schott from IMET (Institute for Marine and Environmental Technology). He will be talking about his work detecting different bacterial species in our waterways and the harbor. He will also be discussing the problem of micro plastics in the bay!
2) We will have the team discuss their ideas for design and diagram of a structure (bioreactor, composter, under the ship contraption, or whatever idea) that we could build to test our plastic-eating bacteria this summer.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bugss-baltimore-igem-team-meeting-tickets-31366445884

Lab Skills Nights! – Restriction Digestion of Plasmid DNA
Two separate event dates: Thursday, February 9 at 7:00 PM | Thursday, February 23 at 7:00 PM

We are now offering Learn a Lab Skill Nights!
To help work around busy schedules, two nights a month we will offer a hands-on learning experience of a specific technique. The month of February we will be teaching Restriction Digestion on both days. Future months we will cover additional techniques including: Polymerase Chain Reaction, DNA Ligation, DNA Transformation, and others to follow. Those interested in Digital Badges please inquire! You have the poteinal to earn these with each session via Credly.
Restriciton Digestion: We will be learning how to set up (one of the most used reactions in the lab) the enzyme reaction! Using enzymes derived from bacteria we will be able to “cut” the covalent bonds of the DNA backbone to release different sized DNA fragments. We can discuss this process during class in more detail.
This will be an immersive hands-on class so be prepared to attend the full 2 hours and listen carefully. Additional material will be available to help understand concepts and basic biology of this technique and applications.
Non-members $15, members FREE – Spots limited!

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lab-skills-nights-restriction-digestion-of-plasmid-dna-tickets-30907053830