Dr. Presting is the primary faculty advisor of the Hawaii iGEM team this year. He has previously mentored the Hawaii iGEM team in 2008 on their work with a cyanobacteria toolkit. Dr. Presting's expertise in bioinformatics, plant genome evolution, and centromeres has provided crucial guidance to the team on project design, research methods, and laboratory techniques.
Team:Hawaii/Team
MEMBERS
ADVISOR & GRADUATE STUDENT
DR. GERNOT PRESTING
RYAN SHONTELL
Ryan is a first year master's student in the Cell and Molecular Biology program at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. Ryan's research focuses are on the commercial applications of retrotransposons and in health disparities in cancer among the Native Hawaiian Population. He is currently conducting thesis research with Dr. Gernot Presting studying the integrase of a centromere-specific retrotransposon and directed research with Dr. Lenora Loo investigating the biological differences in ER+ breast cancers in the Native Hawaiian population that leads to poorer survival outcomes.
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
EMILY YANG
Emily Yang is a second year undergraduate, majoring in Quantitative Biology, at the University of Southern California. Her passion for applying the concepts of molecular biology learned in the classroom to impactful laboratory research propelled Emily to join the Hawaii iGEM team during her summer home in Hawaii. As part of the iGEM team, Emily has contributed to cloning the many constructs tested for VLP formation and managing the collaboration between the Hawaii iGEM team and team Dalhousie. The assets gained during her time with Hawaii’s iGEM team includes, but is not limited to, sequence analysis, expression of proteins, primer design, and optimizing protocols.
FERNANDA HENNIG
Fernanda Hennig is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in Molecular Bioscience and Biotechnology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Fernanda is currently part of the iGEMs research team that is working on characterizing and creating nanoparticles from centromere-specific retrotransposons in Zea mays. iGEMs is Fernanda’s first research experience and has provided her experience on many laboratory techniques such as colony PCR, restriction enzyme digestion, bacterial transformation, and gel extraction. Her work has allowed her to apply what she has learned from the classroom into real life experiments.
GINA WATANABE
Gina Watanabe is a 3rd year Biology undergraduate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Gina’s interest in biology and computer science has led her to pursue research in the iGEM team this year. Her involvement in the iGEM team has greatly captured her imagination and deepened her bioinformatic and wet lab abilities through the designing, cloning, and expression of fusion proteins, sequence analysis in bioinformatic software, and more.
JON TELLO
Jonathan Tello is a 4th year undergraduate in the Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology program at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Jonathan has an interest in pharmaceutical research and through his work with iGEM, has developed an even deeper passion laboratorial research. Through the iGEM project, Jonathan has learned a great deal about conducting research in an educational and professional environment. He has learned how to properly conduct many protocols, including the PCR, DNA purification, bacterial transformation, DNA sequencing, and the use of the bioinformatics software Geneious.
JOHN BANASIHAN
John Paul Banasihan is an undergraduate pre-medical major at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. John gained an interest in medicine through his employment as a Healthcare Specialist in the US Army Reserves, and gained further interest in research upon joining the UH iGEMs team. John’s involvement in the project has given him invaluable lab experience such as bacterial induction, insoluble protein purification, operation of bioinformatics software, and more.
SHELBY ROBERSON
Shelby Roberson is a 5th year undergraduate pursuing a BS in Marine Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Through the iGEM project, Shelby has gained confidence in a lab setting as well as a toolbox of new skills from performing a variety of lab protocols. After graduation, Shelby hopes to begin a masters program at UH Mānoa.