Team:Nottingham/Team
Students
Ruth:
I study mathematics and my role in the team is as a modeller. I wanted to take part in iGEM to have the opportunity to work with students from other disciplines and see how we inspire and learn from each other. In my spare time, I love playing sport, with my biggest achievement being playing basketball for the England u17 squad. As the basketball season is over for the summer, I am now focussing all my competitive spirit on iGEM and am determined to bring the BioBrick trophy to Nottingham! An interesting fact about me is that I am a test tube baby. I started life in the lab, so long as I’m not kidnapped by the wet lab team for in vivo experiments, I hope I won’t end it there…
Varun:
I study History and American studies and my role in the team is Human Practices and Finance. I wanted to join iGEM to broaden my experience and work on a large global project, just like iGEM! My interests are in marketing and brand, which fits well with helping to manage our team’s social media pages. In my spare time, I love cooking (and eating!) as well as reading up on American politics and spending time with my friends. A fun fact about me is that I have lived my whole life in Nottingham- University of Nottingham was so great it made me want to stay in this amazing city for another 3 years!
Fatima
I study Human Genetics and I work in the lab and help with finance/fundraising. iGEM was particularly appealing to me because anything that allows me to disassemble and reassemble things instantly has my attention (not to mention, I get to scare my family with not-so-scary biology). In my spare time, I spontaneously go on long walks without any real aim. Often times, I walk for more than 5 hours without realising it- I have yet to accidentally walk into another city, though. An interesting fact about me: I can remember most of my dreams in freakish detail and that can be as many as five a night!
Nemira
I study Biotechnology. In iGEM I am a part of Human practices and also wet lab. I believe iGEM gives me opportunity to understand what I want in life, gives me loads of practical skills, teaches me interdisciplinary and teamwork. I have several different hobbies like astronomy, music, volunteering, travelling and basically trying to do everything I can from this university experience. I am Lithuanian – that’s an interesting fact about me!
Lucy
I am a second year microbiology student and my role in the team is wet lab and inter-lab studies. I wanted to join the iGEM team to gain more experience working both as a team and individually in a lab as that is where I love to be. I love to travel and am competitive by nature so being part of a global science competition allowed me to combine many things that I enjoy. An interesting fact is that I contracted an illness in hospital just after being born so working on C. difficile (a hospital acquired illness) seems very appropriate for me.
Lukas
I am a biochemistry student and my role in our iGEM team is working in the lab. I joined the iGEM team to improve my team working skills, learn more about what life in a lab actually is like and gain a deeper understanding of synthetic biology and its increasing potential to solve real world problems. In my own time I enjoy running and playing the piano. One interesting fact about me is that I can speak 3 languages- English, Danish and German!
Hassan
I study Computer Science and I work within the lab to help out with the modelling and create the Wiki. I found iGem appealing because I wanted to do something interdisciplenary, and enjoyed Biology and Chemistry at A level/ Highschool. An interesting fact about me is that I have flappy hands and can clap with one hand.
Dan
I study Biotechnology and in the team, I am involved in the lab and also organising the lab book. I heard about the iGEM competition form a guest speaker in one of my lectures and saw it as a chance to expand my practical skills as well as getting the chance to work in a research environment in a team. I am interested in doing a PhD after I graduate and getting to work closely with PostDocs has made me realise what an amazing opportunity this iGEM project is. Outside of labs I enjoy sports and am part of my Football and Frisbee teams. I am looking forward to meeting with other teams around the UK for collaborations and am excited to seeing projects from around the globe at the Giant Jamboree!
Sofya
I am a second-year Biochemistry and Genetics student and spend most of my time in the lab. You can’t imagine how happy I am to be a part of Nottingham iGEM team – you get to carry out actual experiments, work on realistic problems and present your work in Boston! This does seem to me like a start of great “how I spent my summer” essay, doesn’t it? When I don’t need to run gels or pray for good results, I enjoy watching horror movies, doing Wing Chun and reading. An interesting fact about me is that I can play 4 instruments, skate and convincingly lie. I hope that I can help our team to make it to the top 3 and show the world anyone can do science that changes the world!
Eun
I study pharmacy and my role in our iGEM team is working in the wet lab. I wanted to join iGEM team not only to broaden my knowledge and experience on synthetic biology but also to get involved in various human practices in science. In my spare time, I go to training for taekwondo, a martial art which contains different kicks and punches. Sometimes, I am beaten by serious fighters, but it is really great to win a sparring- and I have won a silver medal last year! An interesting fact about me is that I can distinguish origins of coffee beans by tasting the coffee. I can tell the differences of their tastes (by degree of bitterness, sweetness, sourness, and smokiness) thanks to my dad who is enthusiastic about learning different types of coffee!
Supervisors
Micky
I am Micky and I am one of the advisors for the iGEM team. I am a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Synthetic Biology Research Centre where the team is based and my research focuses on bacteriophages and their potential therapeutic uses. In my spare time I like to do yoga and play netball.
Daphne
Currently I am a third year PhD student, trying to understand why a particular Clostridium strain quickly degenerates with the aim of turning this little mutator into a well behaving and reliable strain for future research projects. Besides the PhD I am one of the Nottingham iGEM team advisors, which has been both challenging as well as a lot of fun. When I am not battling bacteria and DNA in the lab or algae in my fish tank, I like to go hiking and bake delicious Dutch apple pies.
Louise
I am the Synthetic Biology Research Centre’s (SBRC-Nottingham) Outreach and Communications officer and have been working in this position for the past 4 years. My role in the SBRC involves organising and facilitating outreach and public engagement activities as well as all marketing and communications for the Centre. This is the 2nd year in a row that I have been part of iGEM. I am the Human Practices and Outreach Adviser for this year’s team and I am also responsible for the iGEM team’s project management and administration.
Carmen
I am an interdisciplinary social science researcher with a particular interest in exploring multi-species relations in the context of governing emerging biotechnology applications. I recently returned to the School of Life Sciences as social science lead on research within the Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC) exploring how a Responsible Research and Innovation framework can be embedded within the work of the Centre. Previously I held a Research Fellow post at the SBRC from June 2015 to June 2017, before taking up a 10-month project at University of Oxford, contributing to the Good Germs Bad Germs project and the Oxford Interdisciplinary Microbiome Project (IMP).
Craig
I studied Biology at Imperial College London before completing my PhD at the BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Centre, Nottingham. My work focussed on the development of transposon mutagenesis strategies in the acetogenic bacterial species Clostridium autoethanogenum, and on the development of highly-robust gene transfer protocols for the same organism. My current work involves the implementation of Transposon-Directed Insertion Site Sequencing (TraDIS) in a variety of Gram-positive species of industrial interest.
Chris
I’m a post-doctoral research fellow at the Synthetic Biology Research Centre Nottingham, and I will be one of the advisors to the Nottingham iGEM team this year. I am currently working in the field of gas fermentation, capturing carbon from a variety of waste gases and converting it into platform chemicals and fuels. My research involves the genetic and metabolic engineering of acetogenic species in order to expand their product profiles and generally make them more industrially favourable organisms. The opportunity to simultaneously limit our negative impact on the environment through reducing greenhouse gas emissions and recycle that waste gas into useful commodities makes this a fascinating area to study.
Principal investigators
Nigel
Nigel is one of our PI’s for this year’s iGEM project and this is his second year taking part in iGEM. Nigel established the Clostridia Research Group (CRG) in 2004 at the University of Nottingham to focus exclusively on improving the scientific understanding of Clostridium, after spending 25 years at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and research at Porton Down. The CRG aims both to develop more effective countermeasures against pathogens and to exploit the medical and industrial properties of beneficial strains, specifically in cancer therapy and biofuel production. A former programme leader within the UK BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC), he is now the Director of a BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC) focused on gas fermentation. He is also the director of the BBSRC Network in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (NIBB), "C1net: Chemicals from C1 Gas".
Philippe
Dr. Philippe Soucaille, our 2nd PI for iGEM serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of Metabolic Explorer s.a and served as its Member of Management Board. Dr. Soucaille is a world-renowned professor at the INSA of Toulouse (French National Institute for Applied Sciences), a leading high engineering school. Dr. Soucaille served as Senior Scientist and Project Leader of Genencor International Inc., where he managed the 1, 3-propanediol project, an industrial collaborative project at Dupont de Nemours involving more than 40 scientists. Dr. Soucaille serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Mascoma Corporation. Dr. Soucaille holds a BS degree in Microbiology from the University Paul Sabatier, Ph.D. and MA degrees in Biochemical Engineering from INSA.
