Team:UT-Knoxville/Team
Welcome to UTK iGEM 2018
David Garcia
Originally from Chicago, Illinois David received his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Ripon College in Wisconsin. His thesis work seeking to characterize the enzymatic potential of an uncharacterized termitic bacterium was performed under the guidance of Eric Matson. He then worked at the California Institute of Technology performing cryo-electron tomography studies of extracellular structures, before moving to Oak Ridge National Laboratory to assist with the development of biofuel-producing organisms. His current work in the laboratory of Mitchel Doktycz at ORNL is focused on the development and use of cell-free systems for metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Specifically, his work centers around the use genetic and metabolic engineering tools and techniques to design cell-free systems capable of producing valuable biological and chemical products. David is also a graduate advisor for the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s iGEM team, an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, as well as a science and society columnist for the Daily Beacon. In his free time, he enjoys reading science fiction, playing video games, and spending time with friends and family.
Ralph Laurel
Ralph is a senior in chemical engineering, biomolecular concentration at UT Knoxville. This is Ralph's second year participating in UT’s iGEM team, and he is happy to be here! Last year, he was outreach coordinator for the team, whereas this year he is taking on more of an administrative and logistics role. Outside of iGEM, he works as an undergraduate research assistant at the Neal Stewart lab for the UT Institute of Agriculture. Ralph is looking forward to another great iGEM experience!
Jared Clements
Jared graduated in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in May 2018 and is now attending medical school at The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine. His work on the 2017 iGEM team focused on utilizing CRISPR and supplied guide RNAs to target cellular essential genes then monitoring the response in cell growth. Jared handled team accounting and led the effort to gain inducible expression of catalytic xylA and xylM genes dependent on the presence of aromatics.
Frank Loeffler
Frank Loeffler received his B.S. degree in Biology and his M.S. degree in microbiology from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. He performed his doctoral studies in biotechnology at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg and received a Ph.D. degree (summa cum laude) in 1994. As an Alexander von Humboldt fellow, he conducted research in the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University, before joining the Civil & Environmental Engineering faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Since 2010, Dr. Loeffler serves as Governor’s Chair professor at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Loeffler laboratory explores the physiology, diversity, distribution, and ecology of microbes that control the turnover of nutrients and pollutants, with the ultimate goal to harness, manipulate, and predict their functions in both natural and managed habitats.
Nannan Jiang
Nannan Jiang initially developed an interest in global sustainability at the undergraduate level while working with Clifford F. Weil at Purdue University. In pursuing this interest, he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) internship to work in the laboratory of Louis A. Sherman with mentor Vilas B. Shukla to investigate polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biosynthesis in the photosynthetic cyanobacteria. During this time, Nannan realized the power of harnessing microbes to produce compounds such as PHAs, which can be processed into biodegradable plastics. Following his B.S. in Biological Sciences, Nannan pursued his M.S. in Microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There, he worked under the direction of William W. Metcalf to study gene regulation in the strictly anaerobic, methanogenic archaea, which produce the clean and renewable energy source methane. With an interest in bioenergy, Nannan then took a post-master’s metabolic engineering position at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. There, he applied molecular genetics to engineer microbial strains as candidates for consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) in the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC). Additionally, Nannan has mentored students in ORNL’s SULI and ARC internship programs. Nannan currently works with Frank E. Löffler in discovering the genetic basis for chlorinated solvent degradation in anoxic environments. Nannan is impressed with the University of Tennessee iGEM team and is proud to serve as one of their graduate advisers.
Brandon Kristy
Brandon is from Knoxville, Tennessee and is currently a sophomore majoring in Microbiology with a minor in science education. This is his first year with UTK’s iGEM team, and he is excited to gain valuable, hands-on research experience on the wet-lab team. Brandon thinks iGEM does an excellent job encouraging students to collaborate with one another to come up with innovative ways to utilize synthetic biology as a tool to positively impact the world. He looks forward to seeing where our research projects take us this year!
Caleb Young
Caleb is a junior in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UT Knoxville. This is his first year on UT’s iGEM team, and he is doing research in the lab. He believes having hands on experience working with bacteria and laboratory equipment is a great opportunity and is excited to see where this experience leads.
Jason Pan
Jason is a member of the outreach team, and he is currently a chemical engineer on a pre-med track. He enjoys working with all the different people in iGEM to make this a successful year.
Karl Leitner
Karl is a senior at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville studying Biochemistry and German. He would like to become a researcher at a Pharma company after pursuing a PhD.
Katherine Glass
Katherine Glass is a sophomore Chemical Engineering major from Knoxville, Tennessee. She is a
part of the outreach team, where she presents at UT’s Engineering freshman orientation and at
other events. Her favorite part about iGEM is seeing the public’s reaction to the research
projects we do.
Morgan Street
Morgan is a junior in Chemical Engineering. This is her first year doing iGEM, and it has been an amazing experience. She has made such good friends and learned so much. Morgan is excited to see this team succeed.
Rachel Penumadu
Rachel is currently a sophomore in Chemical Engineering. This is her first year participating in iGEM. She is so grateful to be a member of this great team at UTK and proud of the innovative work they are doing to contribute to environmental care. Here’s to new and exciting experiences!
Molly Landon
Molly is a senior pursuing a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. This is her first year working on UT’s iGEM team, but she already feels like she has learned so much. As a part of the wetlab group, she has acquired great research experience both in lab technique and teamwork. She cannot wait to see where our team goes this year at conference and hopes to carry all that she has learned from iGEM with her after graduation!
Scott Dixon
Scott is a senior in Chemical Engineering pursuing a second Bachelor’s degree. He earned his first Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry & Cell Biology at the University of Tennessee. He hopes to utilize both of his degrees and work on developing novel manufacturing processes in the biotech industry bridging lab work and research with scaling up and manufacturing.
