Team:KU Leuven/Attributions

KU Leuven Support

We were able to participate in the iGEM competition thanks to Prof. Joris Winderickx and the KU Leuven BioSCENTer, the Center for Bio-Science, Bio-Engineering and Bio-Technology.
BioSCENTer’s mission is to integrate expertise on biology and biomedicine; to stimulate interaction between experts and to foster cross-fertilization of disciplines. BioSCENTer wants to create visibility in research, teaching and valorisation by appropriate branding and scientific outreach. Sounds like a perfect match with iGEM to us ?! We are very grateful for the opportunity and hope BioSCENTer will keep up the iGEM vibe at the KU Leuven!



We did our molecular biology experiments in the Laboratory of Molecular and Synthetic Biology under supervision of Johan Robben and his lab members. We would like to thank all of them for the help and advice they've given us during the summer. They strongly believed in letting us do our own experiments! In the end, we are thankful for all the hands-on experience we gained this summer!
Thanks also to the Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics and especially Elke Van Assche, David De Coster and Tine Verhoeven for their help and patience during our qPCR adventure.

Another big thank you to the other lab on the second floor, the group of Prof. Giovanni Maglia, working on Nanopore devices, for their help and support in finding our way through a hall with identical doors with media, buffers, ... hiding behind them!

Finally, thanks to our administrative supporters! First and foremost to Cathy Hendrickx, who helped us take care of our finances and made sure we were all booked on the right flights with the proper paperwork!
Thanks also to Anouk Desmet, an invaluable part of the iGEM selection committee, a rockstar in ISP organisation and our connection to the Medical Faculty.


Also Liesbeth Van Meerbeek deserves a big hurrah for continuously adapting the iGEM BioSCENTer website to our wishes, usually last moment and under time pressure ....






Last but not least, we thank Mimi Deprez. She facilitated access to the fancy poster printer (multiple times ...), is an important part of the iGEM selection committee and a steady and calm presence in the face of press deadlines and meetings.

We couldn't have done it without them, so THANKS !!!

Joris Winderickx

The laboratory of Molecular and Synthetic Biology.

The laboratory of Nanopore Devices.

Cathy Hendrickx

Liesbeth Van Meerbeek

Mimi Deprez

KU Leuven Help

We are thankful to professor Luc Anckaert from the KU Leuven for supervising the ethical part of our project and also his contribution to the article on Hans Jonas in Tertio. We would like to thank the Institute of Philosophy of the KU Leuven for their hospitality and the collaboration between this department and the KU Leuven iGEM team.
Thanks to dr. Jan Baeten and professor Dirk De Vos from the Centre for Surface chemistry and catalysis for their help with the GC-MS and to Joaquin Christiaens and professor Kevin Verstrepen from the Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics for their help with the headspace GC-FID.
We would like to thank professor Kristel Bernaerts from the department of Chemical Engineering for her kind advice towards the modelling team.
We are thankful to professor Johan Suykens from the department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), professor Jan Degrève from the department of Chemical Engineering and professor Dirk Roose from the department of Computer Science for their useful advice on our oscillator model.
We would like to thank Tim Tambuyzer for his time to explain us the possibilities of motion tracking.
We are thankful to dr. Joke Allemeersch from Nucleomics Core for the information regarding the nCounter technology.
We are grateful to professor Abram Aertsen from the Centre of Microbiological and Food Technology for his expertise on implementation of networks in vivo.
We would like to thank Dries Van Eyck for the 3D modelling pictures of DAHP synthase.

Outside of KU Leuven Support

We were invited by the companies Biobest and pcfruit to perform experiments with aphids, their predators and plants. We would like to thank them very much that they've opened their laboratories for us, helped us perform the experiments and shared their knowledge.

Outside of KU Leuven Help

First of all a big thanks to the Hub Zwart, professor of Philosophy at the faculty of science of the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, for his contribution to one of the three articles, published in Tertio, on ethical aspects of synthetic biology. Moreover, we thank him for his lecture and seminar on September 26th, 2013.
We are grateful to professor Bert Blans, emeritus professor at the School of Catholic Theology of the Tilburg University, The Netherlands for his contribution to the article on Hans Jonas in Tertio.
Thank you to Flore's dad for the artwork on our flyer and key-chain gadget - it will travel the world through iGEM.
The wiki team would like to thank Jan Luts for his help in designing the wiki page. If you also want an awesome site like this one, you can contact him via his LinkedIn account.