Team:UNSW Australia/Team
Team Members
Brian
Team Leader
Brian is in his 4th year of his Advanced Science/Arts degree, studying Microbiology and Music. He hopes to help expand the synthetic biologist's toolkit and advance our understanding of the world that we live in. He is fascinated by synthetic biology as it is driven by innovation - who knows where it will take us next?
Megan
Human Practices & Assays
Megan is currently three years into an Advanced Science/Law degree at the University of New South Wales, majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology. She ended up doing Science because she wants to change the way that science is regulated, and spend more time involving researchers in government policy which directly affects them.
Alex
Modelling & Assays
Alex is a 3rd year Advanced Science student majoring in Biotechnology and Genetics. He is most passionate about technologies that aim to benefit the planet. Currently he is learning how to integrate computer science, maths, and biology, to create informative models of complex systems. In the future he would like to explore the growing field of mushroom biotechnology!
Linda
Cloning & Design
Linda is currently in her third year of a Bachelor’s degree in Science and Education, majoring in Biotechnology. She is interested in how bacteria are able to communicate with one another through the magic of quorum sensing, an area that she is hoping to explore more of in the future. Apart from science, eating and napping, Linda also really loves cats!
Patricia
Wiki & Human Practices
Patricia is a third year Advanced Science student, majoring in Genetics and Biotechnology. Patricia plans to combine her interests in computing and genetics, and is currently undertaking research to determine the impact of mutations on splicing in paediatric cancer. Outside of science, she is passionate about travel, dogs and entrepreneurship.
Rebecca
Plants & Education
Rebecca is a third year student passionate about microbes, robots and wine. Although many view this as strange, some see the broad potential for innovation that comes with the intersection of these interests. From synthetic biology and biohacking to smart homes and viticulture, she looks forward to applying the skills from her Advanced Science and Engineering dual degree to develop the new technologies of tomorrow.
Emily
Human Practices & Plants
Emily is a third year Science/Law student majoring in Microbiology at the University of New South Wales. Growing up in a small coastal town inspired her interest in marine microbiology and The Good Wife. Synthetic biology's potential in harnessing complex biological mechanisms from nature to design unique systems is something she hopes to pursue further.
Nick
Design & Protein Expression
Nick is currently an undergraduate at UNSW studying Science, majoring in Genetics in his final 8 months of study. He loves science fiction and the hope it brings people which meets his passion for real science believing bioinformatics and synthetic biology are the future. He aspires to help people through scientific progress and to set the wheels in motion for social change through his career.
Tobias
Assays & Interlab
Tobias is a second year Medical Science student, majoring in Molecular Biology and Pathology. He hopes exploring the molecular interactions of disease will open avenues to advanced treatment allowing better patient prognosis. He enjoys university a little bit too much, and when he's not studying, you can catch him listening to classical piano or hiking in the bushland around Sydney.
Tyler
Protein Expression & Cloning
Tyler is in his third year of Advanced Science, studying Biotechnology and Genetics. He has a strong interest in the field of synthetic biology and despite working in the field, is still blown away by some of the feats conquered by genetic engineering. Inspired by the likes of Craig Venter, he wants to create life forms and biological robots to further society and bring us into the future.
Zeeshan
Outreach & Protein Expression
Zeeshan is a final year Molecular and Cell Biology student at UNSW. He is excited by the potential of recombinant DNA technologies as well as believing that bioinformatics is the future of medicine. In his spare time he enjoys football, playing the guitar and getting involved with the biotech society on campus.
Mentors
Christopher
Chris completed his PhD in biochemical engineering, in the area of producing monoclonal antibodies in bioreactors. Since being an academic he has worked on many collaborations with industry and other academics in areas that include protein production and purification, nanobiotechnology and bioremediation. Through iGEM, Chris has become a fan of synthetic biology and the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration to create amazing things.
Dominic
Dominic is a protein engineer and synthetic biologist. He graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry from Monash University. Subsequently, he conducted postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley for the development of self-assembling protein templates. His research activities seek to understand and exploit the remarkable fidelity and precision of protein self-assembly for biotechnology applications.
Daniel
Daniel is the God of protein expression and we lyse our bacteria as a sacrifice to him.
He is the recipient of a CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Fellowship.
Jess
After participating in iGEM in 2016, Jess completed her Honours in pathology and is now undertaking a PhD studying cytotoxic T cell migration and behaviour. By advising our 2018 iGEM team, Jess hopes to spread her enthusiasm for research to other young scientists.
Maddie
Shivani
Shivani is a past iGEMer, currently completing her honours in HIV research. Through iGEM she has become fascinated about the way synthetic biology develops innovative solutions to improve human health and the quality of life. She is excited to help future generations of scientists learn about what iGEM has to offer.