Team:RMIT Australia/Team

Instructors:

• Philip Poronnik
• Leonard Pattenden
• Florencia Camus
• Emily Guo
• Robert Shepherd

Advisors

• Paul Jones
• Damian D'Souza

Undergraduates:

• Symon Smith: Studying biotechnology. I previously studied at Victoria University of Wellington for a semester, including an introductory course to biotechnology which covered the history of biotechnology, including the pharmaceutical industry and bioethics. The possibility of designing artificial living systems inspired me then, as a further step after the development of nutraceuticals and production in vivo of pharmacological products as an alternative to physical and chemical methods. From here I have developed an interest in microbiology, as I learnt more and the possibilities of synthetic biology being applied to population-level behaviour of cells as an area in which I have a personal interest. The idea of moving to an infrastructure that involves less transportation of materials and extractive technologies is one reason I like synthetic biology, also the reduction in cost of research enabling cheaper access to the products of biotechnology.

• Ebony Perkins: Studying biotechnology. Other interests include theatre, travelling and animals.

• Sebastian Ramov: I have participated in iGEM 2009 and it rocked so i am back here again to rock MIT. I believe that with synthetic biology we can revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry and science in general. i cant wait to graduate to enter the work force.
• Jeremy Nagels: Loves patent law and risking his life every day as a cyclist in the Melbourne traffic. So any of you reading this, please drive carefully in Melbourne, at least until iGem is over :-P
• Michelle Chayeb: This is my second year in iGEM and had a great experience from 2009. i am studying pharmaceutical science and am interested in the pharmaceutical industry concerning research and development/design.

The group has undertaken PC2 training in readiness for practical lab work.

(30th June): Work is underway on designing primers to put the protein we are working on into an expression peptide, and the team are upskilling themselves to develop the knowledge required for this process.

Where we're from

Florencia Camus: Chile and Queensland. Len Pattenden: England! and Australia.

Symon: New Zealand and Melbourne. Ebony comes from Geelong. Jeremy from Clayton Monash.