Difference between revisions of "Team:Harvard BioDesign/Team"

 
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               <span class="harvardLogo"><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Harvard_BioDesign"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/9/94/HarvardBioDesign2015Logo2.png"alt="Harvard Logo" style="width:275px;height:200px;margin-left:-50px"/></a>  </span>
 
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              <p>NAME OF PROJECT</p>
 
 
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<h4> Content </h4>
 
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                 <h2 > <strong>We are the Harvard iGEM team of 2015.</strong><br/>
 
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                     It's been an interesting summer together...</h2>  
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               </header><p> Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.  
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<br/> -Vincent Van Gogh</p>
 
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ATLANTA—Casually holding the drink between her index finger and thumb, a Delta Airlines flight attendant is at this moment trying to pass a cup of cranberry juice over your laptop, sources aboard the aircraft have confirmed. The plastic receptacle, which is filled nearly to the brim and rippling due to mild turbulence, is reportedly being extended across your expensive and relatively new laptop in the direction of the person seated next to you, who is currently nodding off and unaware his beverage has arrived. As the flight attendant leans in, dangling the juice above the computer containing work files and family photos you have not backed up anywhere else, witnesses are reporting that a passenger two seats behind you is trying to squeeze by both her and the beverage cart. Sources added that all of this is happening as the plane speeds at 500 miles per hour 40,000 feet above the earth. At press time, the person next to you was seen attempting to accept the drink and pass back a credit card with the same hand. -The Onion
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Ethan Alley grew up beneath the blue sky of Albuquerque, NM, where he became accustomed to greasy breakfast burritos, eye-watering cowboy coffee, and long drives. A sophomore, Ethan studies biology and computation and began his microbiology career culturing bacteria off of household surfaces. He is interested in applying nature's design and the tools of computation to the technical challenges of sustainability. When not juggling protein gels or scribbling in his lab notebook, Ethan can be found listening to podcasts, walking around outside, or drowning black beans in Sriracha hot sauce.
 
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                   <div> <p>WASHINGTON—Declaring that this is the last time they ever hope to speak of the aggravatingly enigmatic substance, astronomers from NASA announced Thursday that they are just going to go ahead and say that dark matter is nitrogen. “Look, nitrogen is a pretty stable element that’s fairly inert, so we’re ready to just come out and say that’s probably what makes up about 85 percent of the matter in our universe and finally move on,” said Dr. Louis Marshall at a morning press conference, adding that, after spending millions of dollars and countless hours over the past eight decades trying to solve its mysteries, scientists are “completely fucking finished” with the astronomical phenomenon. “It’s a nice odorless gas that’s plentiful in our atmosphere and our galaxy, and that’s good enough for us. So there, we figured it out. Any questions?” Before walking away from the lectern, an exhausted Marshall added that dark energy was gravity and that the formula for a grand unified theory was E=10.-The Onion</p>
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                   <div> <div id="wrapRight"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/8/88/Harvard2015ProfileLydia.jpg" alt="Lydia" width="400" height="268"/></div>Lydia is a rising sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in Applied Mathematics. She is from New York City and attended Stuyvesant High School, where she was active on the New York City Math Team. She has previously conducted research in computer science at the Research Science Institute at MIT. She enjoys swimming, piano, and will miniprep for chocolate.
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Elizabeth is a sophomore in Lowell house, studying Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology with a secondary in Classics. While she's lived in a variety of places such as California, Germany, and Japan, I currently hail from Massachusetts. She loves art, ancient history, poetry, photography, nature, biology, and God. Elizabeth's been interested in science since she asked for a chemistry set and telescope in elementary school, but she truly found her love of biology in the Travis AFB Clinical Investigation Facility, helping to use medical-grade honey to control infections of antibiotic resistant bacteria in traumatic wounds as an alternative to antibiotics. </div>
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<p>WESTON, CT—Visibly shocked and repulsed by her own behavior as she sat questioning the type of person she is deep down, unsettled 2-year-old Ellie Ritter admitted to reporters that she had no idea what compelled her to bite her friend on the face Thursday. “I honestly don’t know what came over me. I know Jacob took the train I was playing with, but I usually handle that kind of thing okay—but this time I...I bit him,” said a shaken and bewildered Ritter, sitting wide-eyed on a floor mat at her daycare as she vehemently asserted that she had no prior knowledge of this dark, disturbing place within her. “I mean, this is Jacob we’re talking about. He’s my friend, my playmate. And I just went straight for his forehead like an animal. Jesus, what is wrong with me?” At press time, the unnerved toddler was staring uneasily down at her trembling, fingerpaint-covered hands and contemplating what other horrors she was capable of. -The Onion</p></span>
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                  <span><article class="item"> <p>GRAND JUNCTION, CO—Explaining that the adjustment made the most practical sense for all parties involved, local parents Beth and Ryan Morgan held a press conference Friday morning to announce the official transfer of expectations from their oldest child, Jeremy, to his younger sibling, Angie. “After a careful analysis of our prospective returns, we have opted to reassign all of our hopes and dreams for the future from our firstborn to our second child, effective as of 9 a.m. this morning,” said Beth Morgan, who claimed that their 16-year-old son’s inadequate progress in areas such as effective decision-making and academic achievement were the catalyst for his removal as the recipient of their emotional investment. “While we thank Jeremy for his years as the primary bearer of our expectations, in the long run we feel Angie is the right choice to attain professional success and relationship stability, give us grandchildren, and ultimately, provide us the parental satisfaction we have been looking for.” The Morgans added that although they no longer retain any stake in Jeremy’s future, he will be kept on for several years to serve as an example to Angie to deter any potential waste of resources. -The Onion</p></span>
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Sylvia is a junior at Harvard College concentrating in Neurobiology. She is from North Potomac, MD and went to Thomas Wootton High School where her area of expertise lied in computer science and graphic design. She had worked previously at the National Institute of Health doing a range of projects from researching the progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis to data analysis of hemophilia patients. Her passions however lie somewhere between studying human behavior, artistic expression, and not being “normal”. She enjoys sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women. </div>
  
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<p>NEW YORK—Following an evening of heavy drinking at local bar McGuire’s Tavern, 32-year-old Peter Larsen reportedly awoke with a hangover Wednesday and was horrified to discover he had made dozens of plans the previous night. “Oh, God, I can’t believe I said I’d get lunch with Emily and told Scott that I’d hang out next weekend,” said Larsen, rubbing his temples and lamenting that he never should have let himself get so out of control and recklessly commit to numerous social obligations. “I just hope I didn’t say anything stupid to someone from work about how I’d love to catch the new Fantastic Four with them when it comes out. It’s bad enough that I kept going on and on to Jeff about going on a camping trip together in August.” At press time, Larsen had reportedly resolved that in the future, he would stop drinking as soon as he noticed himself beginning to talk loudly about going in together on a beach house rental on Long Island. -The Onion</p></span>
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Ben is a sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in Applied Mathematics. He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts and attended the Roxbury Latin School. Prior to joining the Harvard iGEM team, Ben had worked with a number of different labs ranging from the USDA Sugar Beet and Bean research unit at Michigan State University to the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease group at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge. His primary fields of interest include protein and genome modeling and improving the implementation of programming in biological research. When he is not in the lab, Ben enjoys sailing, football and Super Smash Bros.</div>
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<div><div id="wrapRight"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2015/c/c3/Harvard2015Neel.jpg" alt="Neel" height="257" width="258"/><header><h3>Neel Joshi, Ph.D.</h3><h4>Super Awesome Instructor</h4></header></div><p>
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Neel is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at John A. Paulson Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He has authored 11 publications and holds two patents.He is developing new biomaterials constructed from engineered proteins and peptides. The overarching goal of his research is to extract innovative design principles from materials and systems that are the product of natural evolution and recapitulate them in synthetic systems where their physical properties can be precisely tuned to suit biomedical and biotechnological needs. Current projects employ a range of approaches, including synthetic chemistry, protein engineering, directed evolution, and molecular biology. Working with the Synthetic Biology Platform, Neel has developed a novel protein switch platform that is able to convert the presence of certain biomolecules into a readily detectable signal. This work is being further developed for use in diagnostic applications for the tracking of disease biomarkers in bodily fluids and food samples. Another project associated with the Programmable Nanomaterials Platform is focused on engineering the molecular composition of bacterial biofilms to convert them from pathogenic substances into useful materials with non-natural function, such as filtration devices and catalytic membranes. Neel also has interests in mechanically responsive systems for drug delivery that take advantage of force-induced protein unfolding to release drugs on-demand in living systems.
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Marika is a Graduate Student in Pamela Silver's laboratory.  She works
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Matthew studies the cyanobacterial carboxysome, its structure, biogenesis, and potential synthetic applications. He is also involved in the lab’s ongoing work engineering bacteria to perform diagnostic and therapeutic functions in the human gut. He is interested in developing novel biological systems to address environmental and global health issues, and hopes to earn his PhD in Bioengineering.
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Chris Wintersinger is starting as a PhD student in bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is proudly Canadian and has been affectionately named “Wizard-singer” by his undergraduate colleagues since he is responsible for training them in methods of molecular biology and scientific research. When he is not helping students with their experiments, Chris is typically on his laptop contemplating how evolution may be leveraged with synthetic biology to develop protein biomaterials. On rare weekends that Chris escapes the lab, he may be found on mountain-tops, beaches, his bicycle, or anywhere where he can be active and in the great outdoors.
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Isaac is a Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering at the John A. Paulson Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He has his Masters of Science in Philosophy and Public Policy for the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Isaac’s work focuses on harnessing the unique biology of cyanobacteria to construct new microbial engineering paradigms. He is also interested in the policy and ethics of biological research, and has far more opinions than is generally considered healthy.
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Latest revision as of 00:58, 19 September 2015


Prologue by HTML5 UP

We are the Harvard iGEM team of 2015.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.
-Vincent Van Gogh

The Students

Ethan

Ethan Alley grew up beneath the blue sky of Albuquerque, NM, where he became accustomed to greasy breakfast burritos, eye-watering cowboy coffee, and long drives. A sophomore, Ethan studies biology and computation and began his microbiology career culturing bacteria off of household surfaces. He is interested in applying nature's design and the tools of computation to the technical challenges of sustainability. When not juggling protein gels or scribbling in his lab notebook, Ethan can be found listening to podcasts, walking around outside, or drowning black beans in Sriracha hot sauce.


Lydia
Lydia is a rising sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in Applied Mathematics. She is from New York City and attended Stuyvesant High School, where she was active on the New York City Math Team. She has previously conducted research in computer science at the Research Science Institute at MIT. She enjoys swimming, piano, and will miniprep for chocolate.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth is a sophomore in Lowell house, studying Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology with a secondary in Classics. While she's lived in a variety of places such as California, Germany, and Japan, I currently hail from Massachusetts. She loves art, ancient history, poetry, photography, nature, biology, and God. Elizabeth's been interested in science since she asked for a chemistry set and telescope in elementary school, but she truly found her love of biology in the Travis AFB Clinical Investigation Facility, helping to use medical-grade honey to control infections of antibiotic resistant bacteria in traumatic wounds as an alternative to antibiotics.

Ben
Sylvia is a junior at Harvard College concentrating in Neurobiology. She is from North Potomac, MD and went to Thomas Wootton High School where her area of expertise lied in computer science and graphic design. She had worked previously at the National Institute of Health doing a range of projects from researching the progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis to data analysis of hemophilia patients. Her passions however lie somewhere between studying human behavior, artistic expression, and not being “normal”. She enjoys sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women.

Ben
Ben is a sophomore at Harvard College concentrating in Applied Mathematics. He grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts and attended the Roxbury Latin School. Prior to joining the Harvard iGEM team, Ben had worked with a number of different labs ranging from the USDA Sugar Beet and Bean research unit at Michigan State University to the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease group at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge. His primary fields of interest include protein and genome modeling and improving the implementation of programming in biological research. When he is not in the lab, Ben enjoys sailing, football and Super Smash Bros.

Instructors and Advisors

Neel

Neel Joshi, Ph.D.

Super Awesome Instructor

Neel is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at John A. Paulson Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He has authored 11 publications and holds two patents.He is developing new biomaterials constructed from engineered proteins and peptides. The overarching goal of his research is to extract innovative design principles from materials and systems that are the product of natural evolution and recapitulate them in synthetic systems where their physical properties can be precisely tuned to suit biomedical and biotechnological needs. Current projects employ a range of approaches, including synthetic chemistry, protein engineering, directed evolution, and molecular biology. Working with the Synthetic Biology Platform, Neel has developed a novel protein switch platform that is able to convert the presence of certain biomolecules into a readily detectable signal. This work is being further developed for use in diagnostic applications for the tracking of disease biomarkers in bodily fluids and food samples. Another project associated with the Programmable Nanomaterials Platform is focused on engineering the molecular composition of bacterial biofilms to convert them from pathogenic substances into useful materials with non-natural function, such as filtration devices and catalytic membranes. Neel also has interests in mechanically responsive systems for drug delivery that take advantage of force-induced protein unfolding to release drugs on-demand in living systems.



Marika

Marika Ziesack

The Advisor Who is in the Land Above (The 5th floor)

Marika is a Graduate Student in Pamela Silver's laboratory. She works on engineering microbes for renewable production of chemicals. She did her undergrad studies at the University of Heidelberg in Germany in Molecular Biotechnology. In 2008 she participated in the iGEM competition as a member of the Heidelberg team which sparked her interest in synthetic biology. In her graduate studies, Marika develops tools for metabolic engineering of microbes and applies those for the production of commodity chemicals such as fertilizer and fuel.



Matt

Matthew Niederhuber

The Advisor with the Graphic Skillz

Matthew studies the cyanobacterial carboxysome, its structure, biogenesis, and potential synthetic applications. He is also involved in the lab’s ongoing work engineering bacteria to perform diagnostic and therapeutic functions in the human gut. He is interested in developing novel biological systems to address environmental and global health issues, and hopes to earn his PhD in Bioengineering.



Chris

Chris Wintersinger

The Instructor Who Got Stuck With Us

Chris Wintersinger is starting as a PhD student in bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is proudly Canadian and has been affectionately named “Wizard-singer” by his undergraduate colleagues since he is responsible for training them in methods of molecular biology and scientific research. When he is not helping students with their experiments, Chris is typically on his laptop contemplating how evolution may be leveraged with synthetic biology to develop protein biomaterials. On rare weekends that Chris escapes the lab, he may be found on mountain-tops, beaches, his bicycle, or anywhere where he can be active and in the great outdoors.



Isaac

Isaac Plant

The "Boss" Instructor

Isaac is a Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering at the John A. Paulson Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He has his Masters of Science in Philosophy and Public Policy for the London School of Economics and Political Science. Isaac’s work focuses on harnessing the unique biology of cyanobacteria to construct new microbial engineering paradigms. He is also interested in the policy and ethics of biological research, and has far more opinions than is generally considered healthy.