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From 2010.igem.org

Supervisors

Thorsten Heidorn

Researcher at the Department of Photochemistry & Molecular Science.

Primarily I am interested in using photosynthetic microorganisms such as green algae and cyanobacteria for the biotechnological production of valuable products, particularly the potential future energy carrier hydrogen. About 4 years ago I got in contact with the idea of synthetic biology for the first time and saw immediately the big potential of this approach for my research. Last year I initiated the first iGEM team in Uppsala which was a great success, and now it comes year number two...

Daniel Camsund

PhD student at the Department of Photochemistry & Molecular Science.

Within the greater goal of renewable production using solar energy, I’m working with the design and implementation of biological tools and systems in the photosynthetic cyanobacteria. This includes transcriptional and post-transcriptional control, development of standard (BioBrick) plasmids and heterologous expression of hydrogenases. Additional research interests include light-regulated transcription and in vivo localization. Developing and advising iGEM-teams (Uppsala-Sweden 2009 & 2010) provide me with inspiration, and will hopefully help in advancing Synthetic biology.

HsinHo Huang

PhD student at the Department of Photochemistry & Molecular Science.

Optimizing the bio-converting process from solar energy into chemical fuel for the high energy-demanding human society is a great challenge. Synthetic biology could be one of the solutions to add or modify novel biological functions into the existing organism and eventually design an novel biological system with the desired properties. To generate an array of genetic tools for photosynthetic organisms, my present work focuses on changing gene expression level via promoter sequence modification and quantitizing it in relative to a reference promoter via measuring fluorescence of a fluorescent protein. This year I was also involved in coaching the iGEM2010 Uppsala team, which is a nice teamwork.

Mats Wallden

PhD student at the Department of Computational and Systems Biology.

Born 1980, in Uppsala, Sweden. Msc. In Molecular Biotechnology at Uppsala University 2008. From 2008 to the present a Ph. D. student in Johan Elfs group studying the effects of the cell cycle on gene regulation in E. coli with single molecule microscopy and microfluidics. Instructor for the IGEM team in modeling chemical reactions of synthetic gene circuits.

Students

Antonio Ascue Avalos

Program: MSc Engineering Molecular Biotechnology

Age: 25

Background: Swedish student with Peruvian roots

Why I wanted to participate in iGEM: I heard about synthetic biology for the first time in a evening course and loved the combination of different fields in synthetic biology and the standardized engineering vision it has. That suited very well with the broad range of diverse courses I´ve studied in my programme. I became very curious how synthetic biology would work in practice hence iGEM is the perfect opportunity to get a flavor of this exciting new field and cooperate with people with the that same interest.

Interests: meeting people and friends, my family, biotech, synthetic biology, green sustainable techniques, playing piano, listen and dancing salsa, windsurfing, football, psychology, etc

Bing Cai

Program: Applied Biotechnology

Age: 24

Why I wanted to participate in iGEM: I’m so glad I could be part of this competition and be in this team. I love the idea adding engineering discipline and approach into biology which creates an exciting and useful new biological function and system. As a student studies both in chemical engineering and biotechnology, synthetic biology is really exciting and attractive for me. Though I’m not familiar with this subject, but I love the challenge. I also enjoy working with others to build something from scratch. From the teamwork, I learnt to contribute my part, and to be supportive to the others.

Imtiyaz Syed

Program: Bio-Informatics

Age: 22

Why I wanted to participate in iGEM: I was very impressed by the concept of iGEM, as it gives us an opportunity not only to learn Molecular Biology but also have fun while doing it. Being able to put together a complete new organism is exciting and unique. It is a pleasure of being a member of iGEM team uppsala.

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Nagarjun Vijay

Program: Bio-Informatics

Age: 24

Why I wanted to participate in iGEM:iGEM provides a great deal of freedom to explore and develop our own ideas. Due to interdisciplinary nature of the work, we learn a lot more about the other fields and learn to work in a team.

[http://nagarjunv.blogspot.com/ Nagarjun V]

Nirupama Ramanathan

Program:Applied Biotechnology

Age: 23

Why I wanted to participate in iGEM:Synthetic Biology has always been a fascinating subject for me. Bringing imaginations to reality by meddling with genes is quite a fun. The iGEM competition not only kindles our creativity but also helps us learn and think. This is also a good ground for learning to work as a team and together we can work wonders! I am happy to be a part of this and I am quite confident our team will succeed in our attempt.

Lei Sun

Program: Molecular Biotechnology

Age:22

Background: Chinese-Swedish

Why I wanted to participate in iGEM: Biology has always been my favorite subject since middle school. I was intrigued by the way nature works. The knowledge I absorbed along the path of wanting to understand gave me a silver medal from International Biology Olympiad in high school. Synthetic Biology, the art of combining biological systems with engineering discipline, has caught my eyes since freshman year. My dream is to be able to design biological devices with any desired functions. To me, iGEM is the perfect place to get one started. It grants you the opportunity of knowing what's out there as well as the people who share similar aspirations as you.

Interests: singing to my own piano accompaniment, dancing salsa, badminton, basketball, meeting people, seeking the next level, and Synthetic Biology!