Team:Ecuador/Team
MEET OUR TEAM
We are the first team to represent Ecuador in iGEM! Our team is formed by eight passionated and dedicated undergrad students. As newbies, it was a challenge and an unforgettable experience to participate in iGEM 2018. Our teachers, instructors and advisors were the driving force behind each day to continue, without them, we would not have achieved it. So thanks from the heart.
She is a caring person that believes in people, with values and principles of faith, full of joy and enthusiasm for learning. Tefi is a biotechnology engineering student one of the youngest members of the team and the Student leader.
Her favourite place in the world are the Galapagos islands, and her favourite animal the sea lions. She will do her major in marine biology and she wants to focus her career by developing new technologies that allow to conserve and defend the environment. She enjoys her weekends travelling, practicing dance and theater, volunteering in dog shelters and studying Chinese 你好!
Nico is a curious young man who likes to learn new things every day. Lover of nature and the simple things in life. Cheerful and hyperactive, enjoying what he does at every moment. A fan of playing music and watching movies, strolling through the Quito’s downtown and going for an ice cream. Since he was a child sent attraction for science and now he is here. He is one of the most important members of our team, we are glad to have him.
She is Nati, she is studying biotechnology engineering in University of the Armed Forces "ESPE". She is one of the founding members of the synthetic biology team and she is interested in bioinformatics. She participated in human practices, interlab and some activities in the laboratory. She is very kind and supportive. She likes to dance and sing. In her free time, she reads romantic novels, fantasy sagas or manga, watches anime, k-dramas and many movies.
Juanca is a 21-year-old student of biotechnology engineering. He is interested in learning things and improving himself whenever he can. In his free time, he likes to ride a bike, visit new places and fill his life with new experiences.
He joined the team because he wanted to learn about synthetic biology and improve his knowledge of biotechnology, also, because he wanted to gain more practical experience in the lab and project development. Since he is one of the newest members he has been learning from the oldest members and dedicate his time to contribute with any given task.
She is 22 years old. Jenni loves the 80’s music, she really loves the cats because they are fun and great animals and obviously she has one, and she loves her major, biotechnology engineering, because it gives her the opportunity to change the world. For this reason, she has been part of the team of Synthetic biology from ESPE for 2 years. Now as member of the iGEM team Ecuador, we are working on improving the certain fields of medicine with our project. Our objective is to improve the medical attention with new ideas based on the power of Synthetic biology in creating new ideas for treatments and general health care.
He is a student of Biotechnology on “Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas- ESPE” in Ecuador. Diego considers himself as a dedicated and determined person, who does not stop easily when he encounters obstacles. In the team he is responsible for the work related to human practices, also collaborate with his experience in the work of the laboratory. His preference in the scientific field is obviously synthetic biology, metabolic engineering and industrial biotechnology. In his free time, he likes to play sports like soccer and watch different series and animes.
Cami is part of the iGEM Ecuador-2018 student team. She was born in Colombia, but almost all her life She has lived in Ecuador. She studies Biotechnology Engineering at the University of the Armed Forces-ESPE. She considers herself a charismatic, fun and dedicated person. She really likes sushi, dancing, singing and horse riding. Ecuador is a small beautiful country, with very good and happy people, we will do our best to leave the name of our country on high.
Gabo is an undergraduate engineering in biotechnology student. Since a little kid, always pursue the path of sciences and musical fields. Since every drop of knowledge obtained during his whole career might be helpful in the iGEM contest, he believes that not only he will show the world the team developed idea, but also get to know the work of other teams, and gain much more acquaintanceship.
Graduated with a major in Biotechnology Engineering from Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas-ESPE in 2008. Obtained a M. Sc. in 2010 and a Ph. D. in 2014, both from the Entomology and Plant Pathology Department at Oklahoma State University. He has published several articles in scientific journals including MPMI, Plant Disease, and Phytopathology. He is a reviewer for international scientific journals related to plant pathology and crop science. He received many academic awards including best researcher in 2017 from ESPE, the Outstanding Thesis Award in the Plant Sciences category and a Distinguished Graduate Fellowship at Oklahoma State University. Currently he is a professor at the Life Sciences and Agriculture Department at Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas- ESPE where he is involved in research related to biodiversity, plant pathology, bioinformatics, molecular biology, and synthetic biology. Former coordinator of the Ecuadorian Bioinformatics Network-REBIN, and tutor of the synthetic biology iGEM team at ESPE
The best PI ever! We can't thank him enough for all that he has done. Thank you very much!
He is a synthetic biologist with broad scientific interests, his passion is creating new production paradigms and reducing the impact of unsustainable production technologies on the environment and on human health, by engineering biological systems. He has formal training in Experimental Biology (B.S, Mexico), Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Ph.D., Mexico) and Synthetic Biology (Postdoc, USA and Brazil). His life goal is to advocate for the responsible application of scientific knowledge to improve life quality and environmental restoration, particularly in developing countries of Latin America.
Francisco developed a passion for working with microorganisms and molecular biology methods after being research assistant at the Microbiology Laboratory and IDgen. He obtained the Food Safety Internal Auditor ISO22000:2005 degree by August, 2016. One year later, in September 2017, he took part in the Global Community Biosummit whose goal is to provide an space for the evolution of do-it-yourself biology.
Confounder of "Plan Seta", created in an effort to replace some plastic products using mushroom mycelia of Ganoderma and Pleourotus species, he is working for running a biotech startup in the near future. Last year, the Plan Seta team won the Bayer Young Community Innovators contest organized in Ecuador.
His collaborations to the project involve the dry-lab work building the mathematical modelling, the designing and wet-lab work assembling the constructs that are being coupled to bacterial cellulose. He also participated as instructor in the course of Molecular Biology techniques that the group designed for ecuadorians interested in Synthetic Biology.
On the social side, when Francisco has spare time he enjoy spending time whit friends or watching and training mixed martial marts.
He studied Physics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid where he earned his Ph.D. degree in 2010 working under the supervision of Prof. Nicolás Agrait. After that he completed two postdoctoral research fellowships at TUDelft, working with Prof. Herre van der Zant, and at Columbia University, working with Prof. Latha Venkataraman. Since june 2015 he works as a professor and researcher at the CENCINAT located at the Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE. His scientific interests are focused on the study of electronic, magnetic, mechanical and optical properties of nanoestructures, seeking to establish the knowledge base required to develop novel technological applications.
She is Linda Guamán, MSc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology. She defines as a scientist passionate about microorganisms and nature. Her main research interest is Engineering microorganisms for the production of high valued chemical compounds such as biopolymers, biofuels, probiotics, etc., through synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and the use of CRISPR Cas9.
Francisco developed a passion for working with microorganisms and molecular biology methods after being research assistant at the Microbiology Laboratory and IDgen. He obtained the Food Safety Internal Auditor ISO22000:2005 degree by August, 2016. One year later, in September 2017, he took part in the Global Community Biosummit whose goal is to provide an space for the evolution of do-it-yourself biology.
Confounder of "Plan Seta", created in an effort to replace some plastic products using mushroom mycelia of Ganoderma and Pleourotus species, he is working for running a biotech startup in the near future. Last year, the Plan Seta team won the Bayer Young Community Innovators contest organized in Ecuador.
His collaborations to the project involve the dry-lab work building the mathematical modelling, the designing and wet-lab work assembling the constructs that are being coupled to bacterial cellulose. He also participated as instructor in the course of Molecular Biology techniques that the group designed for ecuadorians interested in Synthetic Biology.
On the social side, when Francisco has spare time he enjoy spending time whit friends or watching and training mixed martial marts.
Bachelor in Genomic Biotechnology from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, he participated in iGEM for the first time in 2011 being part of the founding team of the university. As a member of iGEM UANL He participated in massive scientific dissemination projects in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, which led to work at the Interactive Science and Technology Center - horno3. Later he did his Master of Science studies with a specialty in Molecular Biomedicine at the Cinvestav in Mexico City. Currently, he is part of the academic body of the Bilingual Education Research and Development Center of the UANL in the city of Monterrey, Mexico.