Studio Services + CRISPRkit — May 21, 2026, 1 PM
Attendees: Moraima DiMare (organizer), Maren Pfirrmann, Joe Sherman, Cathy Chase, Joshua Weiss, Alex Choi, Reuben Zoom: stanford.zoom.us/j/94440577008 (PW: 598531) Your Studio Services role: Strategist (per Mar 23 scoping). Notable: Belinda Yeung is NOT on this invite — relevant for the handoff question (see below).
What CRISPRkit is (30-second version)
A tEquity seed grant. Makes CRISPR gene-editing biotech accessible for K-12 classrooms at ~$1–2 per experiment vs. $18,000–42,000 for traditional lab equivalents. Students add DNA + CRISPR into a tube and observe a color change in ~30 min. Already in 1,000+ classrooms. Target audience: AP Bio (HS), some down to 5th grade.
There’s a companion app (the CRISPR Companion App) that does three things: AI chatbot for in-experiment troubleshooting (RAG on the team’s Nature paper), phone-camera greyscale image analysis to compute results, and pre/post quizzes. Currently iOS-only; cross-platform path is the technical question we’ve been advising on.
The team
| Person | Role | At today’s meeting? |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Choi (achoi45@stanford.edu) | Postdoc, Stanley Chi’s lab (Bioengineering). Drives classroom adoption + chatbot prompts. | ✅ Yes |
| Maren Pfirrmann (marenpf@stanford.edu) | Project lead. PhD Biology. Writing the teacher handbook. | ✅ Yes |
| Belinda Yeung (byeung@stanford.edu) | App developer. React Native, RAG, deployment. Reuben’s main technical contact. | ❌ Not invited |
| Matthew Borg Hymn Lau (mattlau8@stanford.edu) | Team member. | — |
Tech stack (so you don’t have to ask)
- App: React Native (good — cross-platform-friendly)
- Auth: Supabase
- Vector storage: FISE
- LLM: OpenAI 4.1-nano (chat)
- Cloud: AWS
- RAG: Built on the team’s Nature paper Q&A
- TestFlight code:
NGEHQB(you have this; download still on your action list) - Apple Developer: already have one. Google Play Developer: Belinda is setting up.
What’s been happening on Reuben’s side
| Date | What |
|---|---|
| Mar 23 | Initial Studio Services scoping. Full team. Reuben assigned Strategist. Six support needs surfaced (app dev, chatbot prompts, study design, survey, Spanish translation, teacher PD model). |
| Apr 8 | 1:1 with Belinda — tech walkthrough. React Native is the path. Reuben sent Google Play Console link. |
| Apr 23–24 | Cross-platform testing options scoped. Three paths: Android Studio device streaming via Firebase, BrowserStack App Live, or a physical Android device (~$125 Samsung A16 5G renewed). |
| Open | Three open action items on Reuben (see below). |
What’s open on Reuben (your side of the table)
| Action | Status |
|---|---|
Download CRISPRkit TestFlight (code NGEHQB) |
Open |
| Check with GSE IT about loaner Android devices / Chromebooks | Open |
| Research Android apps on Chromebooks for CRISPRkit deployment | Open |
Email Belinda re: React Native deployment options (belinda-rn-crispr) |
Open from Apr 24 |
These have been sitting since April. Expect to be asked about progress. Honest answer is fine — you’ve been heavy on GPS retro + Leading Educators this week.
THE BIG OPEN THREAD: the “handoff to Belinda” question
From the May 12 Strategic Huddle prep doc (prep/2026-05-12-strategic-huddle.md, line 64):
“CRISPRkit: high-touch consulting → tentative handoff to Belinda. Confirm with Cathy today.”
That “today” was May 12 — Cathy was supposed to confirm. As of this morning, the handoff status is still unresolved. This 1pm meeting is the natural moment to close it.
Three possible reads on what “handoff to Belinda” means:
- You step back, Belinda owns the technical relationship internally. You move from high-touch consulting to occasional sounding-board.
- The CRISPRkit team owns more of the technical work itself (Belinda is their app developer) and Studio Services downshifts overall.
- Cathy was thinking something different that didn’t get fully captured in the huddle prep.
Belinda is not at this meeting — which is mildly inconvenient for landing the handoff cleanly, but also tells you the team didn’t see this meeting as a Belinda-coordination moment. Worth asking Cathy mid-meeting (or after) which reading she had in mind.
What to surface (Strategist hat)
- Confirm the handoff with Cathy — pick a reading, name it, get agreement. Don’t leave the meeting with this still ambiguous a third week running.
- Status the four open Reuben action items honestly. TestFlight download is the easiest one to actually do before the meeting (5 min) if you want a clean “done” to report.
- Cross-platform decision point — if the team is ready to pick a path (Firebase / BrowserStack / physical device), help them land it. The Samsung A16 5G at ~$125 is the cheapest and most realistic option for actual user-like testing.
- The strategic question Cathy might raise: does the project need more Studio Services time, less, or a different mode (study design help vs. tech help)? You’re the Strategist — be ready to read the team’s energy.
Things to listen for
- Whether Maren’s teacher handbook is on track — that’s the artifact that determines whether 1,000-classrooms-and-counting becomes 10,000.
- IRB / Title I study status — they were “coming” in March; Cathy was supposed to review their survey.
- Belinda’s Google Play Developer setup — if it’s still not done, that’s a deployment blocker.
- Whether Alex wants more help on the chatbot prompts — your original Mar 23 commitment was prompt design with him; that hasn’t actually happened.
What NOT to do
- Don’t try to relitigate the six support needs from Mar 23. That was the scoping meeting; today is a checkpoint.
- Don’t overcommit on the chatbot-prompt work if energy is low — you have GPS retro deliverable + Coding SofIA right after this meeting.
- Don’t let the handoff conversation get deferred a fourth time. If Cathy isn’t ready to confirm a clean answer, get a date when she will be.
Quick prep: 2026-05-21, ~30 min before the meeting. Strategist hat on.
prep/2026-05-21-studio-services-crisprkit.md