Team:Panama/Team/students

Members of Panama Team

Naty

Complete name: Natasha Natalia Gómez Pérez

Age: 19 years

Career: Biology degree.

Specialization area: Zoology

Institution: University of Panama.

e-mail: nanagope@gmail.com

Hobbies: read books, papers, write about general things that happened in life and that pass through my mind, play guitar, sing, play tennis, spend time with my family and messing around with friends and finally, one of the most important things for me, be absorbed in my own thoughts.

iGEM expectations: This is a great step for doing something for the humanity. The entire world could change for good thanks to the synthetic biology. The power is in our hands, let`s do better things for the future.

Research interests: I am extremely interested in conducting research in order to contribute to the knowledge and development of humanity in the scientific field. Since I was a child, my passion has been to study animal behavior. However, since I joined to study biology, the ecology and the environmental biology has been very important to me primarily because we are living a crucial moment for the world as global warming. Now I see more clearly that the synthetic biology is a good new increasing field to combat this and one good example is what we are doing in our proyect of rhamnolipids. I have many questions, there are now many aspects of biology that I like to investigate. I am looking for many answers. To go deeper and deeper into the wonderful world of the study of life, I reaffirm the maxim of Socrates, "I only know that I know nothing", and that gives me more thirsty of wanting to know.

Nikki

Name: Nicole M. Tayler S.

Age: 25

Degree: Biotechnology

Institution: INDICASAT

Hobbies: I really don't think of myself as a person that has or cultivates "hobbies" at this point in my life since all of my time is shared between my thesis project (almost done! Yeay for me!) and the iGEM venture. This keeps me in the lab A LOT but I enjoy it very much. A few of the things that I do to blow off steam is sing (not only in the shower) because it helps me concentrate and make an otherwise bad day into a less stressful one. I absolutely enjoy the times when my best friend and I go out to have nice meals, as my grandmother used to say "Eating is the only thing that we bring with us when we go back to mother earth." A little hippie, I know. Finally, hanging out with my friends from the lab is one the things that I very much enjoy. When we are all together, we have a really hard time keeping a straight face. That's good.

The iGEM Experience: When I first learned about this, I had no idea what it was all about. Once it was all clear, let's get to work. All of the work done at the lab have all been worth it in order to come up with something that would help the world in some way, something that would further solidify Panama's position on the world map of research; a position that has been and continues to be nurtured by the best. I hope that everyone enjoys learning about our rhamnolipid project as much as we have enjoyed concieving and producing it.

Research Interests: Sometimes I feel that I should know by now what is it that I want to invest the rest of my life doing, but being in biotechnology has taught me so much in so many areas that sometimes it's hard for me to make up my mind! I've always wanted to know what makes things tick (bacterias, viruses, parasites, etc.), with a little bit of that knowledge, I can try to find better ways for them to tick or, stop them from ticking (only if it's a bad tick). For my immediate future, I'm very interested in pursuing a doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical biotechnology.

Lauris

Name: Laura Maria Pineda Rodriguez

Age: 30

Degree: Environmental Biology

Institution: INDICASAT

Hobbies: I like very much to read and ride bicycles and clear my mind from time to time. I like to bake cakes that I feed to my friends and co-workers. That makes me and them very happy.

The iGEM Experience: At first I was worried that I couldn't make it into the team, but once I started I realized that there was a lot I didn't know about synthetic biology, much less to have it so close, I understood that there is so much that can be done in that field and it has been a great learning experience.

Research Interests: I'd llove to have the opportunity to work with marine ecosystems, specially with coral reefs or whales. I love to dive and snorkel, I believe that the ocean is greatly diverse and it is impressive. Earth also has a great diversity but, the depth of the ocean is something so marvelous with all of the creatures and it is a shame that we cannot study it so easily.

Lorena

Name: Lorena Michelle Coronado Vásquez

Age: 24

Career: Biotechnology

Institution: INDICASAT

Didi

Yisett del Carmen de los Burritos - Brujita

Age: 23

Career: Biology Specialization: Microbiology and parasitology

Institution: INDICASAT, Universidad de Panamá

Hobbies: I am movie-lover, I like all types of movies with the exception of horror films. I like to read, to stay healthy by doing excercise. But what I like most of all is to travel.

iGEM Expectations: It has been a new experience where I have learned a lot and we've worked very much; staying at the lab until late running the experiments. We would like to win very much so we can probe to the panamanian people that there are a lot of young people in Panama with the entreprenurial spirit.

Ezequiel

Name: Ezequiel Aguilar

Age: 24

Degree: Computer Science

Institution: Technological University of Panama

Carolina

Name: Carolina De La Guardia

Age: 23

Degree: Biotechnology

Institution: INDICASAT-AIP

Hobbies:In my free time I like playing piano, playing tennis, watching movies and reading. Some of my favorite books are Anna Karenina, 1984, Sophie's World, Pride and Prejudice.

The iGEM experience:hard work, team work and a huge learning experience.

Charlie

Complete Name: Carlos Mario Restrepo Arboleda

Age: 24 years.

Career: Biotechnology.

Specialization Area: Biomedical and Industrial Biotechnology. Institution: INDICASAT-AIP.

E-mail: demiurgo09@yahoo.com/crestrepo@indicasat.org.pa.

Hobbies: Music (especially hard rock, heavy metal, post-grunge, punk-rock, alternative, rock-pop, country-rock, classical), song writing and singing, entrepreneurship and investments, science philosophy, hanging out with my family and friends.

iGEM Expectations: To increase my genetic engineering and systems designing skills in order to be able of design complex synthetic biological systems useful in biomedicine and the industrial field.

Research Interests: Gene Therapy for cancer and genetic diseases, induced pluripotent cells for cell therapy and tissue engineering, molecular markers for population genetics studies, vaccines development, microbial fuel cells, bioremediation, DNA damage and repair mechanisms, biophysics and nanobiotechnology, bacteriocins as antimicrobial compounds and food preservatives, reengineering processes and quality control.

Elias Grimaldo

Name: Grimaldo Elías Ureña M.

Age: what?

Degree: Electromechanical Engineer; Master of Science Graduate in Mechanical Engineering with emphasis in Renewable Energy & Environment

Institution: Technological University of Panama

Hobbies: The right word for me is passions, because my passions are Karate Do, running, math & physics, read (a lot) and philosophy. On the other hand I like to watch sports and scientific programs.

The iGEM Experience: As a scientist am really excite of be part of this, and could work in state of the art science field, now i want to continue understanding and learning of Synthetic Biology. But as philosopher I think that actual science have fallen in “do” without think, works in fields that not understand without the necessary “why” questions about (f.e. ¿What we are really doing and Why?). People accept new approach without question about the implications.

Research Interests: Science and Philosophy fundaments of reality and believes, ¿how we can create a model to explain something?. Scientist’s human practice. I work in Remote Sensing of Environment & Tropical Forest with the SENACYT - FIM, but you know I studied Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, in a few words I am interesting in a lot of things.