Our Team

Sierra Tackett

I am a senior Biochemistry major with the hopes of going to medical school. I coordinated all of the projects that our team accomplished apart from lab. This included coordinating the summer camp, policy & practices work, and performing background research. Over my three years in iGEM, I have developed a passion for coordinating the Bioengineering Summer Camp, and I will miss doing this greatly. I was responsible for organizing the outside of lab curriculum and activities, as well as making sure the marketing was accomplished and that everybody had food to eat! I also mapped out the wiki page, organized content, and delegated who was responsible for what. I further ensured that leadership would transition well by creating an instruction manual with all of the details pertinent to running an iGEM team at WLC. It’s so hard to pick my favorite iGEM moment! This is my third year on the team, and presenting in Boston would have to be my favorite “moment”. I loved the city, being around my team members, and speaking with all of the iGEM teams across the world!
Aside from iGEM, I work as a medical scribe and love learning in the fast paced environment of the emergency departments that I work in. I have interned at the Medical Examiner's Office, and hope to become a pathologist some day. My favorite money drain is my growing collection of stationary and office supplies and spend more time than I should "jammin on my planner".

Matthew Mortensen

I am currently a senior Biochemistry major attending WLC. My primary role on this year’s team was acting as the lab manager. This involved deciding which experiments needed to be performed, delegating the lab workload, designing primers, troubleshooting problems, and most often just performing the protocols that needed to be done all while training the next generation of WLC iGEMers in lab. Outside of the lab, my main contribution to the team was the design and implementation of our wiki page (shout out w3cschools). I was the programmer behind our modeling program. I also rewrote the lab curriculum in our summer-camp binder. My favorite responsibility was being the primary lab instructors for our synthetic biology summer camp for high-school students. As a lab instructor I did prep work for labs, went through (sometimes) short lectures on the theoretical basis of the experiments we were performing, and finally guided the group through the planned procedures. All of our procedures worked this year which was excellent, and during the down-time between steps we were able to review and reinforce the concepts learned that day in the lecture portions.
Outside of the lab, when I have time, I enjoy exploring new types of music, comic books, the occasional video game, long walks to just organize my thoughts, NPR, and Netflix. In the future I hope to pursue a career in research by attending graduate school, although I am not truly sure of what I want to focus on just yet.

Jordyn Pieper

I am currently a junior biology student at WLC and this year on iGEM I have been in charge of the completion of the surveys by the WELS high school science teachers. My biggest time contributions have gone toward the policy and practices section of the project. I have organized meetings and have done what I could to make things as easy as possible. I have also helped in the editing of the articles that we have put onto our website. My favorite iGEM moment would be the first time I met the other members of the team. The first impression that they gave me assured me that I would be working with a group of determined people who planned on having fun in the process.

Harrison Fleming

I am a sophomore intending to major in Biology with a Chemistry minor. Much of the work I did for iGEM was in the lab which consisted of projects such as phage isolation and cloning. I also assisted this year’s iGEM team with the survey as well as writing an article on Klebsiella and Yersinia Pestis. My favorite moment from iGEM thus far was successfully moving the Klebsiella TolC to the PSB1C3 Plasmid.

Christa Winslow

I am a senior Biochemistry major. Unfortunately due to extensive traveling I was unable to be as active on the team this year as I have been in the past. Rather than working directly in lab, my primary contribution was doing background research and writing the page on antibiotic resistance mechanisms. However, I also helped in proofreading other portions of the wiki, drafting survey questions, and generally being a source of calmness and stability for the team. The highlight of this iGEM season for me lies in the time I spent studying abroad in England. It was nostalgic and encouraging to stay in contact with my team back in Wisconsin. Hearing about their progress on the project always brightened my day.

Ryan George

I am a senior Biochemistry major at WLC. I have been a part of the iGEM team for the past two years. This year I took a step back due to having multiple jobs, so I primarily worked on graphic and website design for the ‘tolsee’ project. My favorite part of iGEM this year was learning how to use Photoshop from scratch. During just about any day you can find me at one of my three jobs: I work as a dental assistant, ER medical scribe, and as a team lead concert technician. When I have time to life, I enjoy cooking and playing the guitar.

Lakaysha Blacksher

I am the Research Assistant to the Professor of Anthropology (Dr. Ned Farley) at WLC. I graduated from Saint Francis High School in 2012, and am currently a junior studying Biological Anthropology with an intended minor in Spanish. My involvement with this year's project is based in Human Practices; exploring the cultural boundaries and effects of introducing biotechnology to developing countries. My hobbies include billiards, music, reading, and crying before exams. I hope to use my degree to become a Forensic Investigator or professor of Anthropology. I intend to stay on with WLC's iGEM team until graduation, and also plan to publish several articles, including a study on Roman-era metallurgy.

Jacob Jodat

I am a junior biochemistry major with aspirations to attend medical school following my undergraduate education. This is my second year on the iGEM team. My role on the team was to assist with lab work, research diseases that are relevant to our project, and help out at our synthetic biology summer camp. My favorite part about iGEM is getting experience in the lab. I enjoy being able to see the whole process of a research project rather than doing several unrelated labs one time in a class.

Anna Garvey

Zach Birner

I am a senior Biochemistry with the intent of going to medical school. This year is my second as a member of the iGEM team. While the first year I primarily did lab work, this last year I downsized my workload, due to medical school applications, and spent my time with phage therapy research and the summer camp. My favorite part of iGEM was getting to know all the other members with many similar interests. My life outside of iGEM consists of working as an emergency medical technician, playing on the Wisconsin Lutheran College Tennis team, and playing the guitar.

Hannah Rodrigues

I am a senior Biology major that joined iGEM to spark my interest in research. I was involved with the original brainstorming of the project for policy and practices. I also contributed lecture material for Biotechnology Information Night. I look forward to further pursuing biology in my education. IGEM was a great start!

John Bechtel

I am a freshman Biochemistry and Marine Biology major that started iGEM after attending the team’s summer camp! During the time that I have been involved, I have worked on designing and constructing informational boards and posters, survey assistance, and helping develop the Policy & Practices coffee cup lid design. My favorite moment in my short time with the WLC iGEM team was definitely the first official team meeting I attended and getting to see the behind the scenes workings of Genetic Engineering, and the incredible camaraderie of the team.

Advisors

Dr. John Werner

Dr. John Werner (Instructor) is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Wisconsin Lutheran College, with an interest in bacterial cytoskeleton research involving a genetic model system in Caulobacter crescentus. He also is actively working on the first comprehensive grizzly-to-english translation guide. Dr. Werner (who insists on everyone calling him ‘Dr. Little John’) also has a research focus on phage discovery and characterization in Escherichia coli. John relaxes by practicing the cello for a local community orchestra as well as challenging Yo-Yo Ma to pulse-pounding ‘play-offs’, a cello marathon through Tovey’s cello concerto, Air, played backwards. John has won 4 of the last 6 of these impromptu matches, and Yo-Yo has accused John of cheating multiple times. A master of the hammer dulcimer, Dr. Werner plays a soothing rendition of, “We Will Rock You”, for his iGEM team while they work in his laboratory. John has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Dr. James Henkel

Dr. James Henkel is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Wisconsin Lutheran College, with an interest in Microbial Pathogenesis, specifically Chlamydia. He is an instructor for the iGEM club. A 6th-dan blackbelt in Taekwondo, he regularly instructs classes in the martial art at the college, sometimes even when it is actually a martial arts class. He insists that fear does not exist in his classroom. Jim also writes and draws for a popular graphic novel called, “Dr. Anthrax”, involving a misunderstood villain who fights evil with gigantic, trained paramecium. Dr. Henkel is a world-ranked champion in the Domino Tournament circuit, and competitively paints against Bob Ross for the fastest bird-to-tree picture. His sweat is 95% testosterone, and is sold as a popular hair-growth treatment. He is an avid beer-brewer, and insists that the hardest part is getting all the “pesky eukaryotes” to listen to his instructions on producing fermentation side-projects. He is an instructor for the WLC iGEM club. Did I mention that he is an instructor for the iGEM club?