Team:Washington/Team

Members

Anastasia Nicolov

is going into her third year at the University of Washington, studying Bioengineering and Violin Performance. She has acted as the Project Manager for this year’s iGEM team, helping with administration, fundraising, and educational outreach, as well as performing experiments for both the auxin detection pathway and the paper platform. Outside of iGEM, Anastasia is passionate about her research in biomaterials and her volunteer work in STEM outreach programs through the BioE department and her Tau Beta Pi chapter. She is also an avid performer in multiple local orchestras and chamber groups. After her undergraduate work, Anastasia plans to pursue a career as a physician.

Andrew Chau

graduated from the UW in 2015 with a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry. He has participated in one previous iGEM competition on the UW 2014 Team.

Anita Jaganath

is going into her sophomore year at University of Washington. She plans to major in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Biomedical Instrumentation. Anita mostly worked on the Auxin/IAA pathway part of the project. Outside of the lab, she enjoys baking, reading, and watching TV.

Caroline Cannistra

is a rising senior majoring in Bioengineering and Applied Computational and Mathematical Sciences. She is on the computational team and worked on the team wiki and on computational models of various project elements. She was also involved in the team’s outreach work at many elementary schools and UW Engineering Discovery Days. Her academic interests include synthetic biology, theoretical biology, bioinformatics, and programming. She enjoys knitting and singing in choirs.

Elizabeth Oestreich

is a rising senior working towards a degree in biology, with an emphasis in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. Originally hailing from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Elizabeth worked mostly on fundraising, project planning, and outreach for the iGEM team. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and playing games with her kids. In the future, she plans to pursue a career as a genetic counselor.

Eric Chen

is a rising junior currently majoring in biochemistry. He was a major contributor to the auxin project and its numerous difficulties. Interests include history, politics, chemistry and the intersection of all three. He enjoys reading and writing in his spare time.

Gabrielle “Gabby” Pang

is going into her sophomore year at UW. Originally from Singapore, she moved to the United States in 3rd grade. She is currently planning to major in some kind of engineering, and has worked mostly on the aptazyme system this year. In her free time, Gabby enjoys scuba diving, machining, drawing, crocheting, singing, watching anime, and playing League of Legends. She also has a passion for learning new languages; in the future, she hopes to travel all over the world and experience many different cultures.

Hadley Garrett

is going into his Sophomore year and starting the Bioengineering major. He mostly worked on the Auxin/IAA pathway, and the implementation of yeast onto paper. Hadley is very interested in the future of DNA sequencing, especially nanopore sequencing using MspA and Alpha-Hemolysin nanopores. In his spare time, he enjoys skiing and traveling.

Harman Malhi

is a Seattle native and a returning member of our team. He graduated this June with a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. In the future, hopes to continue his academic career and earn a PhD. This year, Harman helped advise the Auxin Pathway group where his duties included training new members in cloning and primer design, as well as assisting them with other aspects of their project. He also co-led his own Auxin cloning project with the YFP reporter gene. Harman's hobbies include reading, travelling, and creating his own microbrews.

Jennifer “Jenny” Merrill

is a rising senior from Winlock, WA. Majoring in Biochemistry, iGEM has been her first step into synthetic biology research. She has worked on implementing and testing the aptazyme system. Outside of the lab, Jenny enjoys playing piano, hiking, and baking.

Justin Jenkins

is a rising senior in the Bioengineering department, heralding from Southern California. This year, he has served as the task manager and one of the primary innovators for the aptazyme group, in addition to helping with numerous educational outreach events. Outside the lab, he enjoys exploring cities and nature. After earning his degree, Justin plans to attend graduate school with a focus in synthetic biology.

Kevin Li

is a rising senior currently majoring in biochemistry. He mostly worked on the computational aspect of the project and serves to help recent members of the UW iGEM team. His aspiration are to attend medical school and hopefully practice medicine in the field of cardiovascular surgery. Outside of iGEM, he is conducting clinical research at Harborview and University of Washington Medical Center and mentors high school students. At the outskirts of everything, he likes to be active (running, hiking, bouldering). while maintaining his nerdiness through games, anime, and DnD.

Melanie Weber

is from Germany where she did her undergraduate studies in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Leipzig. She now attends the University of Washington as a graduate student in Applied Mathematics. Her research interests include network analysis, complex systems, and machine learning in Genetics and Neurosciences.This year, she has worked on modeling and website design on the iGEM team. Outside of school and research, Melanie has a passion for literature, classical music, and traveling.

Mengtong “Tom” Duan

is going into his senior year, majoring in Biochemistry. Originally from China but raised in Slovakia, Tom has worked on implementing, screening, testing, and troubleshooting for the aptazyme system. With his knowledge from [previous lab work], he has also helped to train new and less-experienced team members. In his spare time, Tom likes to play piano and guitar, as well as fix and restore old, broken, or used stuff.

Roya Amini-Naieni

is a rising eleventh grader from Seattle, Washington. She helped implement the theophylline pathway, fundraise for her team, and spread word of their innovative work via the internet. Other than being a member of iGEM, Roya's an avid science blogger, Netflix aficionado, and filmmaker. She dreams of travelling to the Galapagos to study evolutionary biology, opening up her own science magazine, and solving some of the world's oldest problems with the new and fascinating science of genetic engineering. She is also fascinated by the astonishing omnipotence of DNA and its terra incognita.

Snigdha Kanuparthy

is a rising Senior majoring in bioengineering. Residing right in the Seattle’s Eastside neighborhoods, she worked most on the modelling components and collaborated with others from the group on the aptazyme model and the microfluidic model. She hopes to pursue software or medicine in the future. Her hobbies include writing short stories, reading, and listening to late night radio shows about ghosts and people who follow the sasquatch for 11 months consecutively.

Timmy Lee

is going into his sophmore year at UW. Originally from Arizona, he is hoping to major in Bioengineering, and has spent most of his time on the aptazyme system this year. In his free time he enjoys scuba diving, machining, hiking, watching Netflix, and playing league of legends.

Advisors

Dr. Eric Klavins

is an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. He received a B.M. in Music in 1992 and a B.S. in computer science in 1996 from San Francisco State University. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and engineering in 1999 and 2001 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. From 2001 to 2003 he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Control and Dynamical Systems Department at the California Institute of Technology where he worked with Richard Murray. In 2003 Eric was hired in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA and received tenure in 2009. He holds adjunct appointments in Computer Science and Engineering and in Bioengineering and is the Director for the UW Center for Synthetic Biology. Until approximately 2008, Klavins' research was primarily in computer science and control systems, focusing on stochastic processes, robotics and self-assembly. At about this time, he learned the basics of genetic engineering of the next few years switched entirely fields to synthetic biology and now runs an interdisplinary group of engineers, biologists, experimentalists, and theorists -- all focused on engineering life. His current projects include synthetic multicellular systems with engineered bacteria and yeast, modeling and design for synthetic multicellular systems, and laboratory automation.

David Younger

is a 4th-year PhD student in the bioengineering department. He completed his undergraduate work at Rice University and now works in the Klavins lab. This year, he was an adviser for the iGEM team, helping with project planning, teaching concepts and techniques, and troubleshooting experiments. Besides lab work, he has a passion for the outdoors, enjoying hiking, climbing, and backpacking in his free time.

Dongwook Choe

is a returning member of our team and graduated in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. He is a Washingtonian that has helped the team as an advisor. He is interested in science and enjoys doing research in his free time.

Rashmi Ravichandran

Is a lab technician that majored in microbiology. Originally from Washington, and has helped our team with ordering supplies, coaching the presenters, and administration.

Nick Bolten

is a 4th year PhD student of the Klavins lab in UW Electrical Engineering. He works on synthetic multicellular signaling platforms and synthetic biological design automation.

Team:Washington/Team

Members

Advisors

Sponsors