Team:DTU-Denmark/Team

Team

This year the DTU Biobuilders consists of more versatile skill sets than ever before. We have people studying Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering, Physics and Nanotechnology, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Software Technology, Chemistry & Technology and General Engineering, and if we were to list everyone's hobbies, it would be longer than the human genome. All of these skills have come in handy during our project and through blood, sweat and tears (not inside the lab, of course). We completed a project that we are all very proud of. You can read more about us below.

Hello

Hello

David Lokjær Faurdal

MSc Eng in Biotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: While my foray into the biological field originated with a fascination with disease, the manipulation of biological systems from an engineering point of view has come to interest me greatly. Thus, I was motivated to join Biobuilders because I felt it would allow me to apply my knowledge of biology in that context. Additionally, I really wanted to explore and participate in the inner workings of a larger collaborative project, as opposed to a small-sometimes-unserious-and-hastily-written-group-assignment during a course.

What do you do in your spare time? I enjoy reading dearly, whether it’s a great book or a wiki-article on people who think they’re Jesus (I wiki-binge a lot). Sometimes I create music on a computer or write. Resistance training is also an activity I find intrinsically meaningful. However, my favorite hobby is annoying my lovely friends.

S. cerevisiae or E. coli - why? At this point in my life E. coli is like an old friend. It’s reliable, familiar, and loyal. Sometimes, we might disagree with each other, but we always make it work. S. cerevisiae is more like a new friend, exciting and full of possibilities and adventure. I enjoy adventure and wonder as much as the next guy, but I deeply treasure my enduring friendships. As such E. coli will always have a special place in my heart of hearts

Lina Lyng Sigfredsson Nielsen

BSc Eng in Biotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: I’ve always had an interest in synthetic biology, specifically the genetic engineering part of it. When my friend, who’d participated in iGEM, said that they needed members for the 2018 team, I thought why not try, and here I am.

What do you do in your spare time? I teach karate to children at the ages 7-12 and spend a lot of time browsing the internet, watching shows on Netflix (please talk to me about Twin Peaks) and I lose myself in video games quite often.

What set of items could you buy that would make the cashier the most uncomfortable? As a former cashier I'd say the actual item is irrelevant as long as it can't be scanned and the customer has a very original arsenal of never-before-heard jokes about how the item surely must be free when it can't be scanned! At least, that would make me uncomfortable if I had to listen to it.

Jacob Mejlsted

BSc Eng in Biotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: Since being introduced to the field of biotechnology, I have been fascinated with the amazing possibilities of the technology. Therefore, I wanted to join the DTU Biobuilders, because here, we get to apply our knowledge of biotechnology to the real world.
Furthermore, the iGEM competition is an awesome opportunity to develop something and getting to present it to the whole world.

What do you do in your spare time? At the moment, I am in the middle of reading a lot of fantasy novels. I particularly enjoy a lot of the worldbuilding and wonder you can have in a fantastic setting. Other than that, I enjoy playing video games and spending time with friends and family.

If life were a video game, what would some of the cheat codes be? Not needing sleep would be the wildest cheat. You could get so much done if you didn’t have to sleep ⅓ of your life!

Tenna Gram Rasmussen

MSc Eng in Biotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: I have always been amazed at how far we’ve come with science and especially with genetic engineering, but I never knew how I myself could get a taste of such endeavours. I then got to talking with my friend David who was also considering iGEM, then one thing led to another and here I am.

What do you do in your spare time? I love to sing and am told by some that I am a portable radio as I often do it unintentionally (Why is Disney karaoke not a profession??). I also love reading fantasy as well as manga and Batman comics, and I spend a lot of my time playing video games or, if I am with my friends, playing long and strategic board games. When I have the time, I enjoy spending hours on painting or drawing or in general create something new.
Oh, and I am a Youtube-addict...

Which character from Disney movies would you like to be? I was always very jealous of Jim Hawkins’ flying board growing up and being a space pirate seems much more fun than binging Netflix... However! I was a girl dreaming of being a knight and fighting with swords, so if I could be Merida I could get that as well as living in a country with awesome music and accents.. and have voluptuous hair.

Nicolai Jensen

BSc Eng in Physics and Nanotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: I have been a part of other multidisciplinary teams before and I really like the dynamics and experience you get from it. This time, it is in the area of biotechnology and it is a completely new area for me, which I find super interesting. For me this is a completely new frontier compared to what I’m used to.

What do you do in your spare time? In my spare time I often try to learn new skills. Lately I’ve been into metalwork and blacksmithing. Not that I’ve tried blacksmithing, but I find that videos and forums are a great way to learn the skills in theory. In my experience this way of learning transfers nicely into the real world, practical skills. I also like to indulge myself in music. I play some instruments and attend a choir that I like a lot. Lastly, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, pretty basic stuff.

What’s the closest thing to real magic? At first I thought a demonstration of the Lentz effect was pretty magical. Then I saw Laser rust ablation in action and now I know that THAT is pure magic! Optics and nanotechnology pretty much seem to impress me every time. Cutting edge science and technology as a whole is as magical as anything can be in my opinion.

Melissa Emilie McGrail

BSc Eng in Chemistry and Technology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: I was looking for a project at DTU that would be fun and relevant for me and ended up talking to last year’s BioBuilders team at the PF study exhibition. I thought it sounded like an amazing “course” to add to my studies and decided to join the team this year.

What do you do in your spare time? In my spare time, I hang out with my friends and am currently watching That 70’s Show, but I also try to make time to do fun stuff on my own like my trip to France this summer to study the art of perfumery or my ever-challenging why-do-I-bother project to wash my hair with alternative ingredients like nuts, honey, tea, and vinegar.

What’s the closest thing to real magic? When I began my chemistry studies at DTU, I was convinced I was in actual fact attending Hogwarts. We were always taught the theoretical chemistry alongside experiments which resulted in explosions that send out dense smoke which crawls up along the steps of the auditorium, glowing or color-changing liquids, tall beams of light, wild fire, you name it! I remember it as beautiful and terrifying at the same time. In my experience, chemistry comes pretty close to my vision of real-life magic.

Joen Haahr Jensen

BSc Eng in General Engineering

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: Spend your summer vacation working in a lab, being stressed out by deadlines and all for no pay, what is not to love? No, seriously, few things are as inspiring as working with people who are passionate and driven towards the same goals. I find some of this in iGEM, I mean, who else would set aside their vacation to work on a study project. Furthermore, iGEM seemed like a great opportunity to learn a ton of useful skills: Fundraising, lab work, communication, project management and all the other things needed to keep a project together. These skills seem like quite useful tools to have in the toolbox, when one is joining the workforce in the future

What do you do in your spare time? I am a person of many interests, more than I justly can find time to nurture. Most importantly, I enjoy spending time with my friends, with whom I party, play board games and attend random events. On my own time I like to ponder, cook, run, read and tune out to a good tv-show, a movie, or the 'Primitive Technology' channel on Youtube.

What mythical creature would improve the world most if it existed? The Freud Fairy, a small creature with immense psychological knowledge and the appealing voice of Morgan Freeman. Being mythical, it would be able to visit all adults and children alike, simultaneously. By its nightly psychoanalysis, every person on earth would come to understand themselves, their errancy, their suffering and what truly makes them happy. Also, phallic jokes.

Hannah-Marie Martiny

MSc Eng in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: I have always been very fascinated by the idea that we can manipulate organisms to do useful things, and as the iGEM competition embraces exactly this approach to science, it seemed a fantastic idea to join the BioBuilders team and see how a project comes to life during the summer. It is also super exciting to be working with people of so many background and see what can be done!

What do you do in your spare time? I have been described as being a bookworm, so one can say that I love books! Otherwise you can find me outside playing Pokemon Go - gotta catch them all!

S. cerevisiae or E. coli - why? I have a question for you: which one smells the nicest? I don’t know what you prefer, but I like my yeast! You can use S. cerevisiae for research, but what is even more cool is that you can also use it to make bread and beer - and who doesn’t like that! Can E. coli do that, eh?

Mathies Brinks Sørensen

MSc Eng in Biotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: Applying statistics towards a more biological practical problem and working with bioinformatic data. Designing a larger series of experiments trying out DOE on a larger scale. Meeting new people and form new friendships. Trying to formulate and carry out “your own project” on a larger scale

What do you do in your spare time? Computer stuff gaming, programming, playing tennis, having fun with friends drinking in bars/anywhere.

What kind of cult would you like to start? A cult solely devoted to the spreading of wrong sized hats. This would secretly inconvenience people so new hats would be bought, the new hats have a catch. Yes you’ve guessed it, the new hats all come with the Russian karaoke version of the 1993 tequila originally performed by the champs. All cult members are recognized by emitting constant low humming noises while having lobsters for shoes.

Konstantinos Zifkos

MSc Eng in Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: Being an enthusiastic (!) molecular biologist every aspect of biology and living systems, intrigues me. IGEM, a synthetic biology competition, immediately caught my interest and offered me the opportunity to participate in a large scale collaborative project and apply my knowledge in biological systems, contributing in biological discipline and the solutions it can provide in our everyday lives.

What do you do in your spare time? Browsing the internet is my weakness. That’s the truth. I also enjoy playing video games and sometimes I catch myself reading horror stories written by my fella King, Stephen King.

Which character from Disney movies would you like to be? It’s cool being a lion, isn’t it? Being the mightiest animal of the wilderness and having this golden-hairy-thing around your neck? Yeah, it’s cool. Lion King is my all-time favorite cartoon movie, and you might have already understood why. But being questioned about a specific character I would pick Mufasa. The king of the pride, the one who was sacrificed for the greater good (being a little dramatic can cause no harm).

Lau Halkier Wandall

BSc Eng in Physics and Nanotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: To get experience with working on a team with members from different fields, and what I as a Physicist can bring to such a project. I want to get a look into the many possibilities of synthetic biology.
I also looked for a project with a strong innovation aspect.

What do you do in your spare time? Spare time? You mean project time? I like to play with perfectly spherical magnets with Mathias. I also try to get time to play both board- and videogames with friends.

What’s the closest thing to real magic? Technology

Mathias Hoeg Boisen

BSc Eng in Physics and Nanotechnology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: Bioengineering is an exciting new field, which I think has some cool applications and great potential. With a background in physics I’m excited to see how I can help with modeling such complex multivariable systems as found in biology.

What do you do in your spare time? I like to play with perfectly spherical magnets with Lau. My favorite polyhedron is the icosahedron and my favorite intermolecular potential is the van der Waals potential. I spend most of my waking hours at university, for obvious reasons most of my friends do the same. I live in a great dormitory, which means that I usually spend my evenings in the kitchen with my neighbours. My current spare time projects are in no particular order: playing pool, fixing up my dorm’s pool table, learning the guitar, reading all the works of Irvine Welsh, sleeping and rewriting this paragraph.

Alejandro Ventura-Traveset

MSc Eng in Pharmaceutical Design and Engineering

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: After I was introduced to iGEM by a friend that was participating in last year’s DTU team, I started to have curiosity about the competition. Then, I attended a presentation and decided to apply. I have two main motivations for joining iGEM. First, to do a project in biotechnology, that is the field I decided to study, and I am passionate about. Also, I am truly motivated about doing voluntary work that I am sure will give an added value for myself and my studies and for my team. Lastly, I expect to meet other interesting people in my field that share the same taste for life-sciences as I do.

What do you do in your spare time? I have many things I like to do during my spare time! Among my top things there is playing sports, as football, handball or padel (very popular in Spain but not that much in Denmark), or just going for a run with a friend. Besides sports, I love to listen to music and going to concerts, and I play the guitar and piano when I am at home. One of my passions is to dive, and I hope one day I get to travel to remote places to amazing diving sites. Finally, I also enjoy going out with my friends and have some laughs!

What kind of cult would you like to start? A cult where people would live on the top the trees and would be able to live by going from a tree to another without touching the floor. You would only go to the ground twice a month to play sports. The village would decide their mayor with a music contest and the only possible adoration would be Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain or any of the “27 club”. Also, every Sunday a huge Spanish paella would be served.

Michelle Lind Østrup

BSc Eng in Software Technology

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: Some of my friends asked me if I’d be interested in creating a website for a course they were working on. At first, I thought it was just a small competition, but the more I looked into it, the more interested I got. Now, I’m happy to be working on a project with amazing and dedicated people and to learn the skills that come with managing expectations and tasks in a large group.

What do you do in your spare time? In my spare time, I like to learn. It can be anything from woodworks to surviving in the wilderness, but the thing that I have consistently spent the most time on is creating stories, which is why most of my spare time is dedicated to writing, drawing and 3D modeling. I also love programming and have a lot of small, fun projects with friends. Also I’m addicted to YouTube.

What are some fun and interesting alternatives to war that countries could settle their differences with? I think that all world leaders should start a restaurant together. That restaurant would inevitably fail and they would end up on the show ‘Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares’ like one big dysfunctional family. After being yelled at by Chef Ramsay for 45 minutes, I’m sure that all their differences would be settled.

Supervisors

Christopher Workman

Associate Professor, DTU Bioengineering

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: I am a complete believer in the importance of Synthetic Biology as an enabling set of technologies that will transform the way we manufacture drugs, food, fuel and many other important commodities in a more sustainable future society.

What’s your favorite fermentation product? My favorite fermentation product right now is beer. A fresh over-hopped IPA cannot be beat on a hot summer day.

What did you work on during the project? My role was most often moral support and encouragement. There are so many challenges when going into the lab and experiencing repeated failures. This can be very trying on the patience and it is important to keep the spirits up in order to persevere.

Kyle Rothschild-Mancinelli

PhD Fungal Genetic Engineering

What is your motivation for joining the iGEM team: I competed in iGEM when I was a student at Edinburgh University and wanted to get involved again, so being a phd supervisor was a logical next step.

What do you do in your spare time? I am a competitive bagpiper and fly to Scotland and Ireland to compete at various championships including the European and World Championships during the summers. In addition to this, I love travelling the world and seeing new cultures and places, which is one of the reasons I am an expat American living in Denmark. I also like to eat and cook, but mostly eat.

If your five-year-old self suddenly found themselves inhabiting your current body, what would your five-year-old self do first? Easy. Go to the store and empty my bank account buying chocolate and ice cream. Was there another acceptable answer to this question?

Here's a group picture of our lovely team.