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 instructor 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, cloning and Kirby-Bauer Assays. In the lab I also focused on obtaining the knowledge and skills to take over leading the laboratory work in coming years. Outside of the lab I 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. It has been an awesome learning experience so far and I intend to continue with it in the coming years!

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, presenting at Biotechnology Information Night, 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. Outside of iGEM I participate on the track and cross-country teams on campus. I also work part-time as an ER medical scribe. In my free time I enjoy spending time with friends and watching Netflix.

Anna Garvey

I am a Senior Biochemistry student at Wisconsin Lutheran College and have been an iGEM team member for three years. This year, I stepped away from the lab work to spend most of my time focusing on the Policy and Practices portion of the project. I was responsible for writing the various surveys, lecturing at the biotechnology informational event, writing portions of the wiki and doing general wiki editing. As graduation is approaching, I’ve started to seriously think of what I am going to do after my undergraduate education is through. This is terrifying. Ultimately, I do hope to either attend graduate school to obtain my Ph.D or attend medical school. Until then; however, I am going to take a few years off in to pursue other dreams of mine. Hopefully, I will spend the next portion of my life teaching students English in various countries across the world through programs such as Friends of China and Hearts of Change. During the summers, I plan to focus on writing a book and traveling the rest of the world. That’s the true dream if I’m being honest with you. There are 6.8 billion people in the world and I want to meet all of them and see their cultures and learn from them all that I can. So that’s the plan. And like I said last year, I really don’t know what I want to do yet, or where I want to go, but I do know that I want to strive to lead a happy life and I suppose that is all I need.

Zach Birner

I am a senior Biochemistry major 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 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. Dr. Werner also has a research focus on phage discovery and characterization in Escherichia coli. John relaxes by practicing the cello for a local community orchestra. Dr. Werner has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Dr. James Henkel

James Henkel is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Wisconsin Lutheran College, with an interest in Microbial Pathogenesis, specifically Chlamydia trachomatis small GTPase recruitment, bacterial toxin mechanisms of action, and microbial metabolism. A 6th-dan blackbelt in Taekwondo, he regularly instructs classes in the martial art and women’s self-defense classes at the college. As an advisor for the iGEM club, both he and Dr. Werner are always impressed by the depth of knowledge and the incredible enthusiasm the students display every day in the lab. We are proud of your accomplishments and blessed to be advisors for such a special group of young people. Dr. Henkel has a Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology and Microbiology and a Masters in Clinical Microbiology.