Team:Northeastern Boston/Attributions
TEAM
Members
David Adams
Wet Lab & Written Investigation
I am a fourth year Chemical Engineering Major at Northeastern. I come from the small town of Grand Isle, Vermont. I went to school in Boston for the dense concentration of life science and engineering opportunities. After graduation I’d like to work on the scaling up of novel biotech processes. Favorite Movie: Kung Fu Hustle. Favorite Animal: Wolf.
Joshua Colls
Project Design & Wet Lab
Major: Biology. Graduation Year: 2017. Career plans: I'm planning on attending Medical School post undergraduate completion. Why iGEM: The idea behind joining iGEM was to enhance my lab skills and ability to debate biological concepts. Other: I moonlight in designing intricate wood carvings based off of pictures of 19th century french impressionists. I also love to knit aprons, and debate politics at the local bodegas.
Ariela Esmurria
Wet Lab & Human Practices
I am from Somerville, MA and I am a Cellular and Molecular Biology major going into my second year at Northeastern. I choose to be a part of iGEM because I love working in the lab and I fell in love with synthetic biology in high school. After graduating I plan on working for a biotech company and then going on to get a PhD in either microbiology or virology.
Kevin O'Leary
CSS Champion
Josh Timmons
Captain, Project Design & Wet Lab
I dropped my med school plans after reading "Biology is Technology." I look forward to the innovations that will redefine biology as an engineering substrate.
David Urick
Wet Lab & Written Investigation
I'm David Urick, a sophomore chemical engineer from Phoenix. I joined iGEM to learn more about biology. Two of my favorite things are sports and food, and I think Tom Hardy will win an Oscar over Leo in 2016. See you at the Jamboree!
Advisers
Jeffrey Bouffard
Technical & Moral Support
I’m a PhD candidate in Bioengineering. I had to be a part of Northeastern’s first iGEM team because I believe that advancing synthetic biology is going to make this an even more amazing time in history to be alive. Serving as a graduate student advisor for the undergraduate team was great fun, and it was rewarding to watch the team members grow and make progress over the summer.
Sanjin Hosic
Technical & Moral Support
Sanjin Hosic is a PhD student in Northeastern's chemical engineering department advised by Professors Shashi Murthy and Abigail Koppes. Prior to pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering, Sanjin earned his BS in Chemical Engineering also at Northeastern University. After graduating in 2011, Sanjin worked as a Process Engineer at Nantero, focusing on development, scale-up, and technology transfer of carbon nanotube purification and formulation processes. In 2013, Sanjin joined Cubist Pharmaceuticals where he developed and optimized downstream purification processes for preclinical, clinical, and commercial small molecules. Sanjin's current research is focused on bioMEMS and microfludics.
Caitlin Kramer
Technical & Moral Support
I work on elaborating the protein-mediated mechanisms of DNA damage and tolerance, a better understanding of which can help us combat antibiotic resistance and cancer development. My ongoing growth in science is fueled by the passionate and knowledgeable people in this city-sized idea incubator which is Boston. I believe that computational ability and biology are not just running in parallel--they are on a collision course.
Hema Madaka
Technical & Moral Support
I am a 2nd year Masters student in Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University. As a chemical engineer, I have always had a passion for renewable energy and biofuels. Since global warming has become very pervasive, people have become more aware of its negative effects and want to switch to alternate sources of energy such as biofuels. After graduation, I would like to start a company of my own. It was a great learning experience as an advisor for the iGEM team and was satisfying to watch the team progress over the summer.
Marissa Puzan
Technical & Moral Support
Marissa joined the ABNEL research group and Northeastern University in the fall of 2014, where she is currently pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering. She received her bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013. Marissa’s research focuses on designing an in vitro, tissue engineered model of the intestine, combining the epithelial cell layer, enteric neurons, and luminal components. She looks to use this model to study the affects of various toxins and metabolites on enteric neural signaling pathways, intestinal inflammation and immune response, and epithelial cell barrier composition. The developed model may lead to new developments in the treatments of neurogastroenterological diseases, such as autism, depression, or irritable bowel syndrome.
Alison Wirshing
Technical & Moral Support
I graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BS, and my undergraduate research involved methods for growing microalgae for biofuel production and genetic engineering of the microalgae Dunaliella. My initial graduate research at Northeastern University was on a collaborative project where I worked in both the Lee-Parsons Lab (Chemical Engineering and Chemistry Departments) and Cram Lab (Biology Department) studying lipid production and gene expression in the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris. My current graduate work in the Cram Lab is on understanding the role of the actin cytoskeleton in mechanotransduction and tissue contractility using C. elegans spermatheca.
Instructors
Lisa Amelung
Technical Support & iGEM Guru
I am a graduate student from Hannover, Germany, currently enrolled in an exchange program in a Neurobiology lab at Northeastern University. When I heard of this year’s iGEM team I was reminded of my time as a student in the 2014 Hannover iGEM team. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to share my knowledge with Northeastern’s iGEM team. Although I could only help while advising, I had a great time meeting the team and gaining the insight into a project that has great potential. This project stands out because of its novel approach of producing proteins in microalgae.
Dr. Godoy-Carter
Technical Support & Guidance
Veronica Godoy-Carter is an Associate Professor at Northeastern University. Her research group is interested in studying a multiple protein complex formed by components involved in important DNA transactions when cells are exposed to DNA damage. This is a condition that induces the expression of error-prone DNA polymerases, the activity of which might lead to mutations. Their long-term goal is to learn about the mechanisms that regulate the activity of error-prone Y family DNA polymerases. They use bacteria as a model system and especially Escherichia coli. Due to its relative simplicity, studying basic processes in bacteria will render mechanistic insights that would be difficult to attain directly in more complex systems.
Dr. Lee-Parsons
Technical Support & Guidance
Carolyn W.T. Lee-Parsons is an Associate Professor at Northeastern University, jointly appointed between the departments of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry / Chemical Biology. Her research interests involve engineering the metabolism and regulation of natural products from cultures of medicinal plants and biofuels from microalgae to improve the supply of critical pharmaceutical compounds and the productivity of biofuels.
Irina Santourian
Technical Support & iGEM Guru
I am a graduated exchange scholar from Hannover, Germany working on a collaboration project in Erin Cram’s and Carolyn Lee Parsons’ lab at Northeastern University. By coincidence I noticed the foundation of the first Northeastern iGEM Team. As an emerging scientist I wanted to share my scientific knowledge with the iGEM team and to support the teams efforts to gain an understanding of the production of proteins in microalgae.
Acknowledgements
Benjamin Geilich
iGEM Guru & Fundraising
Anh Phong Tran
Facilities Support
Victoria D'Agostino
Fundraising
Matthew Mazzone
Fundraising
Hannah Worden
Planning Support
Sponsors
