Team:iTesla-SoundBio/team
Our advisors And Student Members
Meet Our Members!
Advisors
Zach Mueller
Head Adviser (Boss)
"Zach is a biohacker based out of Seattle, Washington who is the co-founder of SoundBio Lab where he engages in community projects, advises their high school / community lab iGEM team, and oversees general operations. Although Zach has no formal background in biology, he is extremely passionate about synthetic biology and strengthening the power and network of DIY labs. When he is not working after hours in the lab, Zach can be found at his day job working as a Data Scientist at Amazon.
Zach's mission is to push innovation in the biotech community through open-source technologies while lowering barriers for anyone that shares similar passions in biotechnology. Pairing these with his love for travel, he visits community labs around the world to increase collaboration in DIY bio projects worldwide."
Anastasia Nicolov
Graduate School Mentor
Anastasia Nicolov is a bioreactor scientist at Just Biotherapeutics, a drug manufacturing company based in Seattle, WA. She graduated from the University of Washington in 2017 with a B.S. in Bioengineering and a Bachelor's of Music in Violin Performance. Also an advisor for Team Washington, this is her fifth year being involved in iGEM and attending the Jamboree. Outside of work and iGEM, she enjoys playing in local orchestras, running her Etsy jewelry business, and traveling with her family. !
Yoshi Goto
Postgraduate Team Adviser
"Yoshi is a recently graduate in B.S. Bioengineering with a focus on Systems Biology from the University of Washington, Seattle. He currently works as a researcher in the Center for Reproducible Biological Models at Seattle and as a lab manager for SoundBio Lab. He is an iGEMer involved since 2016. He helped start the iTESLA-SoundBio team in 2017. Some say iGEM is taking over his life. He insists that it's a conscious effort to be active, as iGEM has led to great opportunities and connections for him. Who knows if he's right? You'll need to talk to him to find out. Aside from synthetic and systems biology, which he thinks is pretty awesome, Yoshi likes hiking, board games, reading manga and eating good food. "
Alan Bohn
Postgraduate Team Adviser
"Alan Bohn is a volunteer at SoundBio. He has a Master’s Degree in Microbiology and enjoys sharing science and teaching techniques to others."
Student Members
Mary Elizabeth Adler
CSO & Team Lead
Newport High School, WA / Princeton University
Mary Elizabeth Adler is a senior at Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington. Over the past few years she’s been fascinated with all facets of biology, from the evolution of species to the exciting possibilities of synthetic biology. She is one of the leaders of wetlab, and has had such a great time diving head-first into the wonderful world of iGEM. She enjoys reading and napping.
Sarah Alvi
Team, Interlab, Project Story Lead
International School
Sarah Alvi is a senior at International School in Bellevue, Washington. She enjoys reading, rowing, participating in her school’s jazz choir, and traveling. Her interest in genetics really peaked after she got the opportunity to explore Institute for Systems Biology. Since then, she has explored other fields but has always come back to biology. Being part of Team iTesla for her second year has provided her with a great place where she can learn about topics that truly interest her, connect to the iGEM community, and have a good time!
Katherine Holo
Team, Human Practices, Collaborations Lead
Interlake High School, Bellevue, WA
As an aspiring biomedical engineer, Kat's experience in iGEM has been an amazing opportunity to not only learn, but to meet new people who are also dedicated and interested in synthetic biology. Outside of iGEM, she can be found procrastinating on her homework and searching for new music to listen to. She has thoroughly enjoyed working on iTesla's project this year and is excited to see all the projects at the Giant Jamboree!
Juntao (Jimmy) Zhong
Wiki Page Lead (It's this page)
Newport High School, Bellevue WA
12th grade Juntao loves trees, and his life time goal is to help people live as long as trees. He wants to be a molecular biology researcher in the future. Besides the love for natural science, Juntao enjoys history, math and coding. He plays the accordion and wrestle for school. He likes to find food in the wild and believes that most organisms are edible.
JJ Wheeler
Team, Wetlab Lead
Newport High School, Bellevue, WA
JJ Wheeler is a senior at Newport High school in Bellevue, Washington. He has been interested in the amazing things that can be accomplished with synthetic biology for a long time and is always ready to learn new things. He used to dream of one day genetically engineering an actual, real, totally legit, fire-breathing dragon. Now that he’s actually learned a lot and gained that valuable experience through iGEM, his dream is becoming increasingly unrealistic because so far none of the science he’s done has involved dragons in any way, shape, or form. Well, there’s always next year.
Sophie Liu
Team, Interlab, Biobricking Lead
Newport High School, Bellevue, WA
sophie is dope: Sophie Liu aka sw4g m4ch1n3 is an exalted meme lord blessing the iTesla-SoundBio team with her presence. She follows the teaching that "A dab a day keeps the h8ers away."-Ancient proverb by Sophie Liu. Follow her on quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Sophie-Liu-60
Ishika Mukherjee
Fundraising Lead
Tesla STEM High School
Ishika is a senior at Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Washington. She loves snowboarding, playing the piano, and building robots. When she's not building robots or in the lab, she's at the lake with her dog! Her fascination with biology and engineering has been present all her life. iGEM is her favorite way to continue learning about the cutting edge technology of synthetic biology and genetic engineering!
Charlie Anderson
Biobricking Lead
Lakeside School, Seattle
Synthetic biology has been a fascination of Charlie's since third grade, when his science class did a (very) brief unit on it and he decided he wanted to learn more. Being on an iGEM team has been a great opportunity for him to gain hands-on wetlab experience and meet some truly awesome people. Charlie hopes to eventually go into a career that somehow integrates synthetic biology, neuroscience, and machine learning. He also enjoys playing games and reading.
Vrishabhadev Sathish Kumar
Co-Wiki Lead
North Creek High School, Bothell, WA
Vrishabhadev Sathish Kumar is a rising senior at North Creek High School. Even though this is Vrishab’s first year in iGEM, the growing field of synthetic biology has truly intrigued him, and he plans to devote his time and effort to biomedical research. He aims to become a medical oncologist in the future, but still hopes he can pursue research as well. When he’s not at the lab, Vrishab is either playing tennis, volunteering at the local hospital, or reading Slavic mythology.
Keerthana Thammana
Team Member
Redmond High School
Keerthana Thammana is a junior at Redmond High School in Redmond, Washington. Keerthana was drawn to biology after entering the Washington State Science & Engineering fair in middle school, and her interest further increased after taking advanced courses in high school. She is fascinated by the immense possibilities of synthetic biology, and would like to learn more about its various applications. She loves the hands-on experience iGem offers, and enjoys doing wetlab. When she is not sleeping, you can usually find her drawing, singing, reading or playing the piano.
Hanul (Patrick) Kim
Team Member
Newport High School, Bellevue, WA
Hanul (Patrick) Kim attends Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington. Ever since doing basic experiments in his 8th grade biology class, he has furthered his interest in synthetic biology and explored many aspects of future technology in general. He sees himself one day working at a research lab and conducting tiresome yet meaningful experiments that may benefit the mankind. But until then, he seeks to gain more experience in an actual lab setting and learn as much as he can about everything. In his free time, he loves to stare off into space and sip his boba.
David Lu
Team Member
Roosevelt High School, Seattle, WA
David is a junior at Roosevelt High School. He enjoys sailing and piano. He has an interest in Chemistry and Biology after taking those two courses at his school and hopes to develop his wet lab skills through iGEM.
Ila Sharma
Team Member
Tesla STEM High School, Redmond, WA
Ila Sharma is a senior at Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Washington. She loves learning computer science, environmental science and biology, and especially loves doing research. From going to wetlab meetings to reaching out to professionals to doing loads of research, Ila has enjoyed all aspects of being part of iGEM. In her free time she likes to read, listen to music, and travel the world.
Alex Richardson
Team Member
Newport High School, Bellevue, WA
Alex is a junior who originally stumbled upon the field of synthetic biology after reading an article about the possible de-extinction of mammoths in 5th grade. He is also a fierce gelato enthusiast who loves swimming and science fiction.
Rachel Gao
Team Member
Newport High School, Bellevue, WA
Rachel Gao is a senior at Newport HIgh School in Bellevue, Washington. She enjoys learning about biology as well as other fields of science. She first became interested in synthetic biology during a biotech unit in her AP Biology class. She also participated in sports and plays the piano and saxophone.
Deepali Juneja
Team Member
Newport High School, Bellevue, WA
Deepali Juneja is a senior at Newport High School, Washington. She was fascinated by learning about genetics and evolution early on in middle school and advanced science courses sparked her interest to join iGem where she could incorporate her academic knowledge into practical skills and potentially contribute to her community while learning something new (and cool) every day. Eventually, she aspires to set her foot in a career that brings together astronomy and medicine to enhance the treatment of diseases like dementia. Besides iGem, she can be found studying astrophysics online, working with the research team and HOSA Club at Bellevue College (as a full-time running start student this year), learning Spanish, writing and reading poetry, playing badminton, or spending quality time with her younger sister.