First meeting of 2011

 Present:  Jim, Chris P, Chris S., Elif, Roman, Bill U.

Items:

1. WHOI deployment.
   1. Deploy April 20, flip June 4, recover July 20
   2. Elif has done much work with cold testing of reagents.  Rejected methanol as an 'antifreeze' as viscosity increases with lowered temps.  Will try adding buffer E to block and see if that helps.  Also will try ethylene glycol which she ordered today.  Must also test lysis buffer without SDS and see if it works similarly to  present lysis buffer.
   3. tests will begin on the bench and move to the ESP.
2. Standard curves
   1. Chris S. rethinking the efficacy of running standard curves when we don't really know the strength of the bugs being tested.  Better to use a correction factor against Diane's old curves.
   2. Roman has much testing to do (linker, spacer) but printer is running well.
3. ESP waste
   1. Phone conference with Kevin Creed tomorrow to discuss our waste generation and whether mixing our bleach solution with RNALater is a problem.
   2. Currently, all liquid and solid waste is identified as hazardous and disposed of appropriately.
   3. Results from our discussion will direct redesign of the next gen waste container.
4. Bill has begun gathering logistics for the ESP cruise
   1. we may use the CTD
   2. will ship ESP in van, instead of transiting up on boat.
   3. Will have a cruise planning mtg next Monday, 9:30am with Girguis to discuss cruise logistics.
5. Spring 2011 Monterey Bay deployment
   1. Chris Francis (Stanford) wanted to follow a deep deployment with a surface, and may be interested in adaptive sampling for nitrate loving bugs.

Other items:

1.  ASTEP II planning mtg was tentative for Jan 25. Now moved to Feb 7, when Pete will be here at MBARI.
2. Elif ready to number our remaining 'unnumbered' pucks.  Must give her label series to begin with.
3. Melancon bringing China visitors from Zealquest on Jan 19 in the PM.