Team:Czech Republic/Team
The IOD inventors
Our team is made up of engineers first. Biologists and students of medicine complete us. We were brought together by the Georgiev Lab whose engineering and innovation philosophy set the bar for all ideas and activities. We strive to make synthetic biology more comprehensible and bearable to engineers. This is the first iGEM team from the Czech Republic, hence the name. In a country where synthetic biology still lacks footing, we are outsiders in all of our respective departments. This brings us close together to a single lab from multiple corners of our country. In the months of hard work on the IOD band, our own band of friends and lab geeks emerged.
The Team
Advisors
Instructors
The Team
Jan Bejvl
Jan is the tallest member of our team. He is a student of medicine at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and greatly widens our technically-focused point of view with his entirely different medical approach. Jan adopted many technical skills over the summer and improved his abilities in the field of programming and data processing.
He assisted with experiments in Module 2 and the Interlab study.
Martin Cienciala
Martin is a Molecular Biologist by degree, who has always gravitated towards the field of Synthetic Biology. He is currently a student at the Charles University in Prague where he gained more than two years of experience of laboratory and research work. His positive nature does not allow for the possibility of failure, which might actually make the lab experiments work well. He is the main enthusiast of developing our technology into a commercial product.
Martin is the leader of Module 3 and the one performing microfluidic experiments.
Hynek Kasl
Hynek Kasl is a graduate student with 4 years of experience in Synthetic Biology, currently enrolled in the Cybernetics graduate program at the UWB. He is driven by unexpected solutions provided by his truly interdisciplinary intuition developed through persistent work at the intersection of bioengineering, mathematics, and physics. His approach involves foundational development of ideas using rigorous mathematical analysis backed by experimental evidence.
He is the leader of Module 1. He has also worked extensively on the mathematical models used in the CeCe simulator, such as the diffusion modelling and the hydrodynamics computation. Whenever he could he provided advice and assistance in data analysis and mathematical modelling to other modules.
Veronika Kolejáková
Veronika is a tireless individual who has made an effort to work in a laboratory during her university studies as soon as possible and discovered the field of biotechnology on the way. She finished her bachelor studies in Molecular Biology at the Charles University in Prague and is transitioning to study Computing Science. She thrives in the interdisciplinary nature of iGEM and the team at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.
Veronika has worked on the Module 3 and our Human Practices.
Jiří Louda
Jiří is one of the youngest members of our team. He contributed in the fabrication process of microfluidic chips and assisted with the experiments in Module 2. He is currently a student of the Cybernetics bachelor program at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. In addition, he is a badminton champion and the leader of the Scout Group.
Jiří has helped with experiments in Module 2 and with the fabrication of microfluidic chips.
Filip Nemčko
Filip is a great Molecular Biology enthusiast who is not discouraged by any failure or difficulty encountered in his scientific work. He studies at the Faculty of Science at the Charles University in Prague, but you can most often find him in the lab. His extensive knowledge of not only molecular biology principles but also particular details about yeasts were very important while developing our project plan.
Filip was responsible for developing the Module 3 idea and performing experiments validating yeast display plasmids and constructing synthetic haploid strains.
Václav Pelíšek
Vaclav, or Pelda as everyone calls him, is the youngest member of our team who greatly contributed to our efforts. He not only fabricated the microfluidic chips and assisted with experiments to whoever needed a helping hand, but also built the parts of CeCe simulator essential for our project. He is currently a student of the Cybernetics bachelor program at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and focuses on Mathematics and Programming. In addition, you can always count on him on making the lab atmosphere more cheerful.
Vaclav is responsible for developing many of the CeCe simulator components, the wiki page code, making of the microfluidic chips, and experimental assistance.
Anna Sosnová
Anna is a talented student of the Cybernetics bachelor program at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. Her experience with laboratory research is not long, but she was able to quickly gain a vast amount of knowledge and skills. She is the person that you can always count on at times when others forget or are unable to perform a particular task. Her capability can be seen in the number of roles she performed ranging from Module 2 experiments, through Interlab study, to Human Practices.
Anna performed Module 2 experiments, constructed and validated the BioBricks, carried out the Interlab study, and played a major role in our Human Practices work.
Advisors
Jiří Fatka
Jiri is a PhD candidate focusing on Bioinformatics and possesses a strong background in Computer Science. He is an extremely diligent person who is enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge with younger and less experienced students. We have a beautiful wiki page and an accurate and reliable simulator thanks to his advice, guidance and unbeatable knowledge.
Pavel Fikar
Pavel is a PhD student of a mixed PhD program in electrical engineering at UWB in Pilsen and at ESIEE Paris. He is an expert in the field of microfluidics that is absolutely unique in Czech Republic.
Kateřina Pěchotová
Kateřina has a rounded background and years of experience in Molecular Biology. She is the important person thanks to which our lab functions and for that we are very grateful. Kateřina not only made sure that there was enough equipment, media, and everything else in the lab but also advised students working on Module 2 in their efforts to build synthetic receptors and corresponding signals.
Tereza Puchrová
Tereza is a PhD student on Department of Cybernetics, UWB in Pilsen. She joined Georgiev lab four years ago in its early years and she has been involved in several projects from the field of synthetic biology since then. Recently, she has been working on methods of regulation of yeast pheromone pathway.
Pavel Zach
Pavel is a PhD student, involved in the synthetic biology at the UWB from the earliest days. During these years, he contributed to several SynBio projects at the [http://www.zcu.cz/en/ UWB] and [http://www.upv.es/ UPV]. His main goal is to bring the standardization and design methodology from engineering into synthetic biology. During the summer, he provided literature and advice regarding chimeric receptors and synthetic pheromones and supervised the BioBrick construction.
Instructors
Daniel Georgiev
Daniel Georgiev is the principal investigator of the Georgiev Lab, Faculty of Applied Sciences, UWB. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Klavins lab, University of Washington. His work is to establish fundamental principles that enable complex technologies.
Eduard Janeček