Team Leaders
Hover your mouse on our names to find out what each of us worked on!
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Ben Cynamon
Major: Information, Communications & Technology
Role: Electronic Communications Lead
Ben Cynamon
I participated in the selection of the project and I developed our team's wiki! Cleanly laid out and easy to navigate, this website would be little without the contributions from the rest of our terrific team.
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Alexandra Kata
Major: Biochemistry
Role: Associate Team Leader and Create Team Member
Alexandra Kata
I worked on the BIOFAB collection, our sound inducible system, monitoring the wiki, poster, and presentation.
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Ian Schlander
Major: Biological Science
Role: Team Leader
Ian Schlander
My priority throughout iGEM was ensuring the successful progression of our project. I personally worked on researching literature relevant to our designs, brainstorming the impacts of our system, interviews with professionals for human practice, discussions with financial supporters, organizing collaborations with other iGEM teams, facilitating team workshops, editing our wiki, and creating our presentation & poster.
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Nedgie Paul
Major: Commercial Entrepreneurship
Role: Fundraising Lead
Nedgie Paul
I serve as the fundraising lead and I am responsible for raising money for the team. This includes money for team stipend funds, lab equipment, iGEM competition expenses, and much more. I am also responsible for contacting, meeting, and following up with potential sponsors and investors. As well as networking and establishing fundraising opportunities and connections for our future iGEM teams. An important skills to have, as an entrepreneur, is the ability to raise money and tell a story and as fundraising lead I am able to do just that.
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Rollin Scott
Major: Computer Engineering
Role: Modeling Team Lead
Rollin Scott
I worked on the model for the team’s project.
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Human Practice Team
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Jessie Griesheimer
Major: Criminology and Biological Science
Role: Human Practices Team Lead
Jessie Griesheimer
I led the Human Practices team focusing on how our project could affect the field of molecular biology and the brewing industry. I researched DNA watermarking and with the help of Florida Department of Law Enforcement, our Design, and Create Teams, a watermark was able to be integrated into our plasmid. I set up interview appointments with contacts in the field, interviewed the brewmaster, and took pictures at Proof Brewing Company. During the project I also wrote the HP report, detailing HP’s investigation of the team’s project.
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Arian Rastgou
Major: Chemical Engineering
Role: Human Practice Team Member
Arian Rastgou
I worked on the Human Practice team in contacting individuals who could provide knowledge on the application of our topic. I also worked on the modeling team with the goal of creating a mathematical model to calculate the energy from the speaker to the median and researching the parameters of how sound travels.
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Design Team
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Michael Taylor
Major: Biological Science
Role: Design Team Lead
Michael Taylor
I developed the background and plan needed for understanding our project. Then, conducted research to understand E. Coli pathways that may trigger under sound stress. I also contributed to the experimentation of the ordered parts and supported the create team throughout the project. Much of the "Design Page" content was edited and formatted by me.
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Arianna Sigalos
Major: Biochemistry
Role: Design Team Member
Arianna Sigalos
I researched characterized genetic systems that could potentially respond to sound, including mechanosensitive channels and ion signaling pathways. I thoroughly analyzed these findings to help select our systems to be tested. I also produced much of the content under the "Design" page of the wiki.
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Cristopher Cruz
Major: Chemical Engineering
Role: Design Team Member
Cristopher Cruz
I worked on the Design Team and helped with the modeling of the project.
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Create Team
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Daniela Quijano
Major: Biochemistry
Role: Create Team Lead
Daniela Quijano
As lab leader and iGEM team member my duties spanned different tasks. At the beginning of iGEM 2018, I collected and read research papers that could help us learn as much as we could about audiogenetics. Once we learned enough about the project I helped assemble plasmids, transform cells, and make plates & master cultures. I was in charge of the experimental setup which included exposing the cells to sound, making measurements and deciding what method to use to expose the cells to sound. The experimental setup included filling 96 well plates with appropriate dilutions and making Fluorescence and optical density measurements before and after sound exposure. Additionally, I purified plasmids in order to sequence them and confirm that we had the DNA we intended to assemble. Also I delegated different tasks to my teammates as we went along with the project. Lastly, I analyzed the data obtained from the experiments.
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Luis Millares
Major: Athletic Training
Role: Create Team Member
Luis Millares
I participated in determining, building, and setting up our sound inducible systems for testing, along with contributing the sketches for DJ coli and the rest of the bacteria crew found throughout the wiki, team shirts, and poster.
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Acknowledgement
General Support
We are incredibly grateful for the support received from the following sponsors throughout our iGEM journey
FSU Office of the Provost
FSU Office of Research
FSU College of Medicine
FSU Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement
FSU Innovation Hub
Integrated DNA Technologies
SnapGene
Florida A&M University
Jim Moran School for Entrepreneurship
FSU College of Criminology & Criminal Justice
FSU College of Arts & Sciences
Madison Social
FSU Student Government Association
FSU College of Communications & Information
Proof Brewing Co.
Design & Modeling Support
Dr. Emily Pritchard
supported the Design and Modeling teams in understanding sound and designing the experimental set up used to test our results. She was incredibly helpful in understanding the possible power of sound and designing the method for exposing bacteria to sound. She worked closely with Rollin, Arian, and Christopher.
Dr. Jonathan Dennis
assisted the Design team in the understanding of potential sound effects on E. Coli and protein pathways. He was also influential in understanding the mechanisms of the systems chosen by the design team.
Human Practices Support
On behalf of the entire 2018 FSU iGEM team, Human Practices would like to thank everyone who helped us along our research path. HP would like to specifically thank David Kant-Rauch, John Gonzalez, Sterling Strmel, and Ross Bartels for their assistance with Human Practices.
David Kant-Rauch
took the time to clearly describe the brewing process and offered ways our project could be used in the brewing industry. Proof Brewing Company also allowed HP to take photos of the brewing facility which are used throughout the presentation and wiki.
John Gonzalez
met with team members to discuss the team’s concern our project could become a potential biohazard in the future. As a part of FDLE’s evidence lab, he improved our understanding of how to mitigate the negative impacts of our project through the use of a watermark on our plasmid.
Sterling Strmel
met with HP and was always ready for our questions on how to strengthen HP’s investigation of our research. During meetings with Sterling, she would help HP when we would get off topic.
Ross Bartels
came to many of our Workshops and Tuesday HP/Design weekly meetings. He helped keep HP grounded when our minds went a bit too imaginative for the scope of our project at this time.
