The Undergraduate Team
This is the synthetic bio(graphy) of Sarah Caldwell! She’s a sophomore majoring in being a nerd, which means chemical engineering with a concentration in biochemical engineering. In her minimal time outside class and lab, she enjoys biking, hiking, running, and bothering everyone with her (bad?) science puns.
Ashley Del Rose is in her second year at MSU, majoring in molecular genetics/genomics and neuroscience. As a future profession, she aspires to research Alzheimer's disease. In her free time you can find her solving riddles, watching Survivor, or spending time at a trendy coffee shop. She always seems to be laughing at and telling jokes with her iGEM family.
This is Casper Uyapo Gate, but you can call him Ghost. If you are ever ghosted by him, it’s because he is always occupied by chemical engineering homework. Soccer, volleyball, and FIFA are his favorite activities. He used to collect used batteries when he was younger, hoping to create an advanced power source, and that’s how he fell in love with chemistry!
Meet Jordan Lee is a senior Environmental Studies and Sustainability student who hopes to one day become an environmental health researcher. She enjoys the outdoors, exploring new places, and reading.
Julian Liber is an aspiring plant biologist, mycologist, ecologist, computational biologist, and some other -ologists. He enjoys gardening, cooking, birding, and taking hikes and bike rides in his spare time. If he was a plant, he would sure like the MSU iGEM team to be on his side.
Jessica Schultz is majoring in biosystems engineering. She is one of our main human practices planners! Her hobbies include encouraging Jordan to buy awesome things (the infamous Slothzilla shower curtain), watching Netflix, listening to music, and running our fabulous Instagram account. However, her one true passion is belting “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys.
Meet Erin Uhelski! Erin is a senior Microbiology student with a minor in Global Public Health and Epidemiology. After graduation, Erin hopes to become a Microbiology Technologist in a clinical laboratory. Erin enjoys geeking out about microbes, outdoor activities, and spending time with friends and family. Erin loves learning new things from others with similar and diverse interests and hopes to continue this in the future.
Sophia Viola is a senior at MSU majoring in both biochemistry and genetics. Eventually she would like to do research on genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis. She loves hiking, kayaking and anything outdoors. When she graduates, she plans to move back to Texas and get her PhD in human genetics there. Sophia’s very excited for this iGEM project, and has already learned so much.
Jaremy (pronounced Jar-emmy) is our firstborn Brachypodium distachyon model plant. He came into the world on May 31 into the arms of our iGEM team. Unfortunately, Jaremy was never inoculated with an endophyte, but he paved the path for success in the plant growth chambers. Thanks, Jaremy!
The Faculty Mentors
Dr. Danny Ducat's lab focuses upon the cell physiology and metabolism of cyanobacteria, with the goal of eventually harnessing the photosynthetic capabilities of these microbes towards sustainable biotechnologies. In his free time, you can find him chucking dice over his latest board game acquisition, digging up his garden, or spending time with his miniature schnauzer.
Dr. Bjoern Hamberger's lab focuses on Plant Synthetic Biology, understanding how plants produce their complex array of specialized metabolites. For the plants, these compounds are important for interaction with the environment and communication, but for humans, they are valuable for a broad range of applications, such as flavors, fragrances and medical activities. His team transfers the plant pathways into biotechnological hosts and engineers those for biosustainable production.
Dr. Michaela TerAvest's lab works on understanding electron flows in bacterial metabolism with the ultimate goal of engineering bacteria to produce fuels directly from electricity and carbon dioxide. She's been involved with iGEM teams since 2012 when she advised the Cornell University team on creating a bioelectrochemical arsenic sensor using electricity-generating bacteria.
Dr. Tim Whitehead is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU Boulder. He was previously (2011-2018) an Assistant Professor and the Johansen Crosby Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering at UC-Berkeley in Doug Clark’s lab and did postdoctoral training in the lab of David Baker at the University of Washington. Tim has published over 35 peer-reviewed journal publications, 6 patents (5 licensed), and has received numerous awards, including an NSF CAREER and a 2017 Young Investigator Award from PEGS (world’s largest protein engineering conference).
The Post-Doc & Grad Student
Dr. Pedro Beschoren da Costa (postdoc) researches the microbiome of biofuel crops including switchgrass, rice and poplar. Pedro is particularly interested in interactions between plant associated fungal and bacterial communities, and impacts of the plant microbiome on host plant traits.
Davis Mathieu is a genetics graduate student with a focus in symbiotic interactions, evolutionary biology and stress tolerance. His own expertise use bioinformatics and synthetic biology to elucidate potential plant interactions under different conditions. Because of Davis's values in mentoring, science communication, and food security, he has been eager to help the MSU iGEM team in their endeavors to solve big world problems through innovative solutions.
