Team:GeorgiaTech/Members

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2015 Georgia Tech iGEM Team

Undergraduate Research Team

Kellie Heom

Kellie is a second year chemical engineering student. She has always been interested in all the sciences and to this day fears having to decide what she wants to do with her future. This may account for her eager attitude towards iGEM; she looks forward to integrating a number of exciting concepts in synthetic chemistry, molecular biology, protein engineering, and evolution to create a product that could advance the healthcare industry. Outside (and inside) the lab, she enjoys listening to almost any kind of music, cracking sarcastic jokes, and emitting positive energy.

Jordan Nafekh

Jordan is a fourth year student studying chemical engineering. As of now he plans on going to law school after graduation, but deep down he still has no real idea what he wants to do and his plans could change on a whim. His interests outside of school focus mainly around basketball, of which he is an exceptional player.

Anthony Mok

Anthony is a senior biology student at Georgia Tech, who plans to attend medical school after graduation. He is extremely interested in how biological systems evolve and finds it fascinating that humans can utilize this mechanism. He is also fascinated by theoretical physics, of which very little he understands but would love to learn more. Outside, he loves binge eating, then playing basketball, then sleeping.

Julianne Oliver

Julianne is a second year biochemistry pre-health student. She is extremely interested in the human body and medicine, so enzyme evolution for the purpose of bettering drug delivery is what excites her the most about this project. She hopes to continue this project in order to help people in the future. Outside of the lab, Julianne is an avid runner and writer who loves to read blogs and drink way too much coffee.

Brandon Holt

Brandon is a second year biomedical engineering student, who also plans on attending biomed/bioengineering graduate school after his senior year. He is most interested in learning about and doing research in the fields of immunoengineering (in particular, the complement system) and hematology. Brandon was a hockey player for 12 years, but has recently switched to swimming, and also happens to be half-hungarian. His favorite thing to listen to is M83 and he loves to read science fiction.

Yael Toporek

Yael is a senior and a biology major at Georgia Tech. After graduation, she intends to go to graduate school for Bioengineering. She is interested in drug delivery and discovery, tissue engineering, xenobiology, and probably lots of other things. Apart from science, Yael enjoys reading, drawing, going on walks, going to concerts, and traveling. She is aware that this bio is boring but is ok with that.

Mentors

Robert Hincapie

Robert is a rising second year graduate student in the Finn lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests include evolution, DNA nanotechnology, and bioconjugation chemistry. When Robert is not performing as a chemist, he is a bicyclist who collects unusual coffee-mugs, an avid show-goer, a reader of postmodern fiction, and a lover of the oxford comma.

Allison Geoghan

Allison is going into her third year of graduate studies in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology. Traditionally trained as an organic chemist, she is quickly learning about biochemistry techniques to help the team succeed! She loves exploring Atlanta and finding quaint coffee shops to read new journal articles.

Dr. Liangjun Zhao

Liangjun is a postdoctoral fellow working in Finn Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. He has developed a tremendous interest in and enthusiasm for protein chemistry since his graduate research. The collaborative and multidisciplinary environment through his Ph.D. dissertation research on enzymes provided me with a lot of experiences. The postdoctoral training is expected to further extend his professional development. Outside the lab, he is interested in all kinds of sports.

Advisors

Dr. M.G. Finn

Dr. M.G. Finn is a Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His current interests include the use of virus particles as molecular and catalytic building blocks for vaccine and functional materials development, the discovery and development of click reactions for organic and materials synthesis, polyvalent interactions in drug targeting, medicinal chemistry and drug delivery, and the use of evolution for the discovery of chemical function. M.G. (his real first name) obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1986 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with Prof. K.B. Sharpless, followed by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. J.P. Collman at Stanford University. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1988, where his group studied and developed a variety of transition metal-mediated processes. Prof. Finn moved to the Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in 1998, and then to Georgia Tech in 2013. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, was the first recipient of the annual Scripps Outstanding Mentor Award, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal ACS Combinatorial Science. M.G. and his wife Beth have two children, Allison and Marc.

Dr. Thomas Barker

Dr. Barker is currently an Associate Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Barker has co-authored research and review papers in leading cell biology, matrix biology, and biomaterials journals. Dr. Barker has received funding from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, NIH, DOD, and Health Effects Institute. He was named the Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator by the Health Effects Institute in 2008 and received the Junior Investigator Award by the American Society for Matrix Biology in 2012. His past accomplishments/awards include the Ruth L. Kirchstein NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, National NASA Space Fellowship, as well as several conference awards for outstanding original research. Dr. Barker is currently a faculty member in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Research Centers, the Center for Advanced Bioengineering for Soldier Survivability and the Stem Cell Engineering Center at GA Tech.