Hello! My name is Nimaya De Silva, and I am 18 years old. I just graduated from Winston Churchill High School. Starting this fall, I will be entering the biomedical sciences program at the University of Calgary. This is now my third year of iGEM. I joined iGEM to gain more experience in the lab, and to venture more into the world of biology. But I have also found myself working on human practices, and coding the wiki which has been very enjoyable! I hope to continue my experiences in iGEM in post secondary as well! Besides iGEM, I love to read anything and everything to do with dystopia and Harry Potter and love to recreate pop songs on the piano!

Hi!!! My name is Mina Akbary-Zheng, I am sixteen years old and I am in grade 11 at Winston Churchill High School. I was excited to join iGEM for the first time because I loved the idea of creating something completely unique with people with similar interests to me. I love designing and coding on the wiki and learning new things about lab work and synthetic biology. I have not yet decided what I want to study in post secondary but iGEM has led me towards a path in engineering or computer science. Besides iGEM, I love dancing, listening to music (Jazz, La La Land or Hamilton) and annoying my parents while singing in the shower.

Heyyy! My name is Dewuni De Silva and this is my first year of iGEM! I am sixteen years old and I am in grade 11 at Winston Churchill High School. I originally joined iGEM to learn more about synthetic biology, as well as to gain experience in the lab. I have found myself enjoying many aspects of iGEM such as coding and wet lab. After high school I hope to continue learning about science and biology in post secondary. Aside from this I love listening to anything Disney and eating chocolate! :))

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Hello :) My name is Mark Lea, I am in Grade 12 and I go to Chinook High School. I am really glad that I have had the opportunity to participate in our iGEM project this year! Originally, I wanted to focus on the wiki design and coding, but I have found that I am very interested in wet lab and mathematical modelling. I have learned a lot this season, and it has even influenced what I want to study for my undergraduate degree. Currently the degree that interests me is Biochemistry (Biology AND Chemistry!!?), and in the future I would like to pursue a career in Medicine. Outside of iGEM I enjoy playing piano, volunteering, listening to music, drawing and reading anything!

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Heylo, it’s Alice here and I am sixteen years young, attending grade 11 at Winston Churchill High School. This is my very first year of iGEM and it’s been a BLAST so far. I joined because I thought it would be interesting to get some experience in the lab and in coding. And so far, I like what I’ve been doing. My future after iGEM is undecided but I’d really love to take a year off before post-secondary to travel around Russia. In my normal life, I enjoy drinking chocolate milk, being edgy with my mains and reading. Toodles, bye.

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Hi, my name is Karen! I’m in grade 12 at Chinook High School. I joined iGEM because science is my favourite. I love how we learn so many different things in iGEM—biochemistry, Human Practices, and more. Other than science, I love cats and music.

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Originally from Germany I moved to Canada in 2005 to start a research group on the structure and function of the bacterial protein synthesis machinery, a cellular process targeted by over 50% of the known antibiotics. I am intrigued by the molecular design and function of this essential bio-nanomachine. I try to unravel the underlying design principles in order to enable the rational design and engineering of novel bio-nanomachines. I am essentially asking the question if such novel bio-machines can be constructed from simple and fundamental principles or are these assemblies just to complex. Well and that’s why it was extremely easy to rope me into doing iGEM.