Endy: Regular Journal Club

I would like to propose that we start a regular Journal Club.

Benefits of having a regular Journal Club:

• We will explore current research topics more deeply through discussion than by individual reading.
• We will be exposed to new topics that we wouldn't normally flag ourselves.
• We will become more knowledgeable of other Endy/Knight lab projects.
• We will discuss more papers than the sporadic one or two per year that we read under the current Journal Club model.

I know that we have tried holding regular Journal Clubs in the past, and that they all fizzled. So I would like to propose a new format that would perhaps be more sustainable:

• Meet once or twice per month
  • We would meet on the same day of the week at the same time, so it would become a habit (like group meeting).
• Assign each journal club to one club member
  • This person would be in charge of selecting a paper and leading the discussion.
  • We could assign slots in a similar manner to group snack (a duty which is never neglected, hehe)
• Invite people from outside the Endy/Knight labs, who may have an interest in our topics of discussion.
  • This might freshen up the meetings, so it isn't always the same group with which we always hang out.

I would love to hear any thought you guys might have about this.

Thoughts/Suggestions

• Whoever is leading JC should be prepared to present the paper in brief to set up discussion. (This lowers the barrier for people to attend JC.)
• JC should be recorded on the wiki to generate summaries of important papers and allow ongoing/archived discussions.
• Papers to be discussed could be selected from a "wishlist" that everyone contributes to. Seconding suggested papers will determine the level of interest.

If you are interested in participating in a regular Journal Club, please sign up below:

(Name, topics of interest)

1. Samantha, Synthetic Biology, Protein Engineering.
2. Alex, buildin' squishy stuff
3. Barry, chassis engineering, well-characterized simple parts - plasmids, promoters, RBSs
4. Reshma, biological energy, magnetotactic bacteria, measuring PoPS, synthetic biology
5. cmc, synthetic biology, design rules for modularity in Standard Biological Parts. Measurment technologies for characterizing SBPs.
6. SK, whatever strikes my fancy.