Team:TU-Munich/Team/Members

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{{Team:TU-Munich/Header}}
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{{Team:TU-Munich/TUM13_Menu}}
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=The Team=
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{{Team:TU-Munich/TUM13_Style}}
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Description of the team. [[File:TUM13_Gruppenfoto_iGEM.jpg|350px||right||]]
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----
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=Student Members=
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<div id="wikicontent-container">
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<div id="wikicontent">
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<!-- Start des Inhalts -->
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<div id="teamfield"><html>
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<a id="flo" class="bottom-right" href="#Florian_Albrecht"></a>
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<a id="johanna" class="bottom-right" href="#Johanna_Brueggenthies"></a>
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<a id="andreas" class="bottom" href="#Andreas-David_Brunner"></a>
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<a id="rosario" class="bottom-left" href="#Rosario_Ciccone"></a>
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<a id="katrin" class="bottom-left" href="#Katrin_Fischer"></a>
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<a id="fabian" class="right" href="#Fabian_Fr.C3.B6hlich"></a>
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<a id="louise" class="right" href="#Louise_Funke"></a>
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<a id="moss" class="front" href="#"></a>
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<a id="meike" class="left" href="#Dr._Meike_Mei.C3.9Fner"></a>
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<a id="volker" class="left" href="#Volker_Morath"></a>
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<a id="polte" class="top-right" href="#Ingmar_Polte"></a>
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<a id="leonie" class="top-right" href="#Leonie_Reichart"></a>
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<a id="philipp" class="top" href="#Philipp_Schneider"></a>
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<a id="jeff" class="top-left" href="#Dong-Jiunn_Jeffery_Truong"></a>
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<a id="chris" class="top-left" href="#Christopher_Wolf"></a>
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</html></div>
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===='''Andreas-David Brunner'''====
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== The TU-Munich iGEM team 2013 ==
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*Field of Study: MBT
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*Semester: Bachelor 4rd Semester
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===='''Christopher Wolf'''====
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[[File:TUM13_Gruppenfoto_iGEM.jpg|thumb|right|400px|'''Figure 1:''' Group picture]]
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*Field of Study: Mathematics (Cambridge University)
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This year's iGEM team is a quite interdisciplinary group consisting of students and advisors from the subjects Biochemistry, Molecular Biotechnology, Engineering and Mathematics. The team-forming was initiated by three students and two instructors who already participated in [https://2012.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich last year´s iGEM team] and who were looking for enthusiastic fellow campaigners to participate in iGEM 2013. The result was a team, consisting of 10 students and 3 instructors, willing to participate in a great contribution to the competition. To bridge the gap between old and new team members, we visited several folk festivals (luckily we're quite blessed with them in the greater Munich area) and had dinners together. The result was a dynamic group with fruitful relationships between the group members. Thus we have a very enjoyable working atmosphere and hopefully an equally successful participation in the iGEM competition.
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*Semester: Bachelor 6th Semester
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===='''Dong-Jiunn Jeffery Truong'''====
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We are very lucky and deeply grateful having the chance to work in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra, who holds the [http://biologische-chemie.userweb.mwn.de/index.html Chair of Biological Chemistry] at the Technical University of Munich. The team had full access to all laboratory equipment that was needed to realize our PhyscoFilter project. Without the help and support of Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra and his Team the project in its present form would not have been possible.
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*Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
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*Semester: M.Sc. 4rd Semester
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===='''Florian Albrecht'''====
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== Student Members ==
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*Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
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*Semester: Bachelor 4rd Semester
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===='''Ingmar Polte'''====
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<div class="box-left team">
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*Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
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==== Andreas-David Brunner ====
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*Semester: Bachelor 6th Semester
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<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/3/31/TUM13_andi.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/a/a5/TUM13_andi-anim.gif" /></div></html>
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'''Codename:'''<br />
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Master of QuikChange
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===='''Johanna Brueggenthies'''====
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'''Field of Study:'''<br />
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*Field of Study: Biochemistry
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Molecular Biotechnology
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*Semester: Bachelor 4rd Semester
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===='''Katrin Fischer'''====
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'''Semester:'''<br />
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*Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
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Bachelor 4th Semester
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*Semester: Bachelor 4rd Semester
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===='''Leonie Reichart'''====
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What kind of character do you need to get a “master” grade in the 4th bachelor's semester? Due to his amount of perfect processed Quikchanges, with his diligence and inexorable endurance, Andi really deserved his codename as “Master of Quickchange”. For advancing our project in different fields, including establishing and maintaining the contact between different iGEM Teams, Andi is one of our connecting persons who travelled for example through four cities within 3 days. Next to this, Andi is a very cooperative, high flying and humorous character. In the end of our project his power was mainly invested in the preparation, execution and planning of the Educational-Kits and performing the experiment to prove the existence of cut-off membrane constructs. 
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*Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
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</div>
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*Semester: Bachelor 2st Semester
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===='''Louise Funke'''====
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<div class="box-right team">
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*Field of Study: Biochemistry
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*Semester: Bachelor 4rd Semester
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===='''Philipp Schneider'''====
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==== Christopher Wolf ====
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*Field of Study: Engineering
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<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/1/1b/TUM13_chris.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/9/9b/TUM13_chris-anim.gif" /></div></html>
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*Semester: Bachelor 6th Semester
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'''Codename:'''<br />
 +
Wolverine
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===='''Rosario Ciccone'''====
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'''Field of Study:'''<br />
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*Field of Study: Biochemistry
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Mathematics<br>(Cambridge University)
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*Semester: Bachelor 4rd Semester
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=Instructors=
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'''Semester:'''<br />
 +
Bachelor 6th semester
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===='''Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra'''====
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Christopher just recently finished his Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge this summer. In the team he mainly took care of modeling and programming tasks, but beyond that he also showed a genuine interest in the work in the lab. This enabled him to make even more essential contributions to the project as he was able to solve biological problems as well as disputes in the team from his mathematical perspective.  
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Since 1998 Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra is Full Professor at the [http://www.tum.de Technische Universität München], where he heads the [http://www.lrz.de/~Biologische-Chemie/index.html Institute of Biological Chemistry]. He is internationally renowned for his comprehensive experience and his pioneering contributions in the fields of molecular biotechnology and protein engineering. In addition to his scientific excellence he strives to apply and economically utilize academic results, and to date he founded two start-ups. He advises our iGEM team scientifically and offers laboratory places at his chair.
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</div>
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===='''Volker Morath'''====
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<div class="box-left team">
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==== Dong-Jiunn Jeffery Truong ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/52/TUM13_jeff.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/5d/TUM13_jeff-anim.gif" /></div></html>
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'''Codename:'''<br />
 +
24/7-Jeff
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===='''Fabian Fröhlich'''====
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'''Field of Study:'''<br />
 +
Molecular Biotechnology
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=Advisors=
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'''Semester:'''<br />
 +
Master 3rd semester
 +
 
 +
'''Former participation in:'''<br />
 +
[https://2012.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich TU_Munich 2012]
 +
 
 +
'''Motto:'''<br />
 +
''The happier we get,<br>the less we see.''
 +
 
 +
If I would just have three words to describe Jeff, these words would be: '''What a Gen(e)ious!!!''' There is nobody in the team who can mess with him on DNA-Level. His enthusiasm for the project goes so far, that he can sleep 3 hours per night – one week straight, when there is urgent work to be done. After getting in touch with the idea of iGEM, Jeffery was immediately infected by the idea of synthetic biology. He has a keen interest in optogenetics and signaling, which made him the perfect fit to work on our safety mechanism. Besides to his enormous wisdom, he is one of the most uncomplicated and down-to-earth people we ever got acquainted with.
 +
</div>
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 +
<div class="box-right team">
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 +
==== Florian Albrecht ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/c/cf/TUM13_flo.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/e/ea/TUM13_flo-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Codename:'''<br />
 +
Floh
 +
 
 +
'''Field of Study:'''<br />
 +
Molecular Biotechnology
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:'''<br />
 +
Bachelor 4th semester
 +
 
 +
'''Motto:'''<br />
 +
''Coca Cola is my water!''
 +
 
 +
His extraordinary skills in nearly every situation enrich the team enormously. Lab, programing and mechanical skills are just some to mention. Florian is a reflective person, who is just talking as much as needed, nevertheless he is always up for a funny claim. As a consequence to his versatility he was especially involved in programming our wiki, building of filter prototypes and purifying proteins, if necessary the whole night long. One of his special characteristics is his coca cola consumption, true to the motto: “Coca Cola is my water!”
 +
</div>
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 +
<div class="box-left team" style="height: 670px;">
 +
 
 +
==== Ingmar Polte ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/e/e2/TUM13_polte.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/6/6c/TUM13_polte-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Codename:'''<br>
 +
47000 xg -Polte
 +
 
 +
'''Field of Study:'''<br>
 +
Molecular Biotechnology
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:'''<br>
 +
Bachelor 6th semester
 +
 
 +
'''Former participation:'''<br>
 +
[https://2012.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich TU_Munich 2012]
 +
 
 +
'''Motto:'''<br>
 +
We need more rpm!!!
 +
 
 +
At first glance Ingmar seems to be wrong in the laboratory, because you can easily mix him up with a manager of a joint-stock company, but at second glance you recognize him being the “Usain Bolt” of the laboratory. There is nothing which can not be managed and organized by him until time is used optimally, even if he is forced to run between the photo laboratory (first floor) checking a result of a gel electrophoresis and heat-shocking bacteria of a transformation (ground floor) in parallel. Ingmar is always motivated, helping in every situation as good as he can and managed to finish his bachelors thesis in Bioprocess Engineering besides iGEM. Last but definitely not least, we have to mention a hobby of Ingmar, which is called: “Destroy Falcon Tubes in an ultra-centrifuge at 47000 xg during a midi-prep and still try to extract the plasmid-pellet!”
 +
</div>
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<div class="box-right team" style="height: 670px;">
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 +
==== Johanna Brueggenthies ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/52/TUM13_johanna.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/f/ff/TUM13_johanna-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Codename:'''<br>
 +
The Gel
 +
 
 +
'''Field of Study:'''<br>
 +
Biochemistry
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:'''<br>
 +
Bachelor 4th semester
 +
 
 +
Johanna is the “Sunshine” of our labteam, who always has a positive attitude, spreads good feelings in the lab and is always ready for a laugh. Next to her precise work in the lab she was responsible for advancing our project in different fields including establishment and maintenance of the downright good contact between different iGEM teams. Johanna is one of our connecting persons who traveled several times through Germany, for example to Berlin, to participate at the „Biotechnology 2020+ Conference of the Ministry of Research and Education“. In addition to her successfully carried out moss transformation in Freiburg Johanna played a key role in the constructive expansion of our human practice work. Her communicative and friendly nature was extremely helpful to win selveral experts for interviews. Near to the end of our project, she ardently worked ambitious on writing articles for the wiki which was a great contribution to the project and really helped us finishing the wiki in a timely fashion.
 +
</div>
 +
<div class="box-right team">
 +
 
 +
==== Katrin Fischer ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/3/3c/TUM13_katrin.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/6/6c/TUM13_katrin-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Codename:'''<br>
 +
Microwave-Katrin
 +
 
 +
'''Field of Study:'''<br>
 +
Biochemistry
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:'''<br>
 +
Bachelor 4th semester
 +
 
 +
'''Former participation:'''<br>
 +
[https://2012.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich TU_Munich 2012]
 +
 
 +
There is the rumor that Katrin snatched Hermiones Time-Turner, as she manages to hold a students job in a lab group and is successfully studying Biochemistry while working hard for iGEM. Katrin is a very focused and thoughtful person, who has the right ideas at the right time. If you got the chance to admire our team poster at the „Biotechnology 2020+ Conference of the Ministry of Research and Education“ in Berlin, you were admiring the work of Katrin. Her skills in using graphic applications are superlative and were mixed up with the work of a trained illustrator. Her lab skills and graphics experience really pushes the team to new boundaries.
 +
</div>
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 +
<div class="box-left team">
 +
 
 +
==== Louise Funke ====
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<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/6/64/TUM13_louise.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/2/24/TUM13_louise-anim.gif" /></div></html>
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'''Codename:'''<br>
 +
Dances with Wolves
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 +
'''Field of Study:'''<br>
 +
Biochemistry
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:'''<br>
 +
Bachelor 4th semester
 +
 
 +
'''Motto:'''<br>
 +
''Come on!''
 +
 
 +
Although Louise is only in her 4th semester, with the lab experience she earned during a voluntary internship at the Biochemistry faculty at Cambridge University, she is able to work independently and with great efficiency. With her precise lab work and incredible dedication she propels our project forward, keeping track of any loose ends. When experiments failed, she always cheered the team up with her infectious smile and reminded us to keep the big picture in mind. In our team her main responsibility was the enzyme EreB, its characterization and ''in vivo'' experiments.
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</div>
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<div class="box-right team">
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==== Philipp Schneider ====
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<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/d/d1/TUM13_philipp.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/a/aa/TUM13_philipp-anim.gif" /></div></html>
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'''Codename:'''<br>
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Phil-no-Mitrella
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'''Field of Study:'''<br>
 +
Engineering
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:'''<br>
 +
Bachelor 6th semester
 +
 
 +
'''iGEM-Motto:'''<br>
 +
''Desoxyri....whaat?!''
 +
 
 +
Philipp is an Engineering student, who finishes his bachelor thesis this winter. Although he virtually had no real contact with the subject, he showed great interest in synthetic biology. Sometimes it was hard for him to follow our conversations about gene design and protein interactions, but he was a quick learner and in turn he could teach us a lot about engineering principles we did not know about!
 +
</div>
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 +
<div class="box-left team">
 +
 
 +
==== Rosario Ciccone ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/4/4c/TUM13-rosario.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/f/f9/TUM13_rosario-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Codename:'''<br>
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Eagle Eye
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 +
'''Field of Study:'''<br>
 +
Biochemistry
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:'''<br>
 +
Bachelor 4th semester
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 +
'''Motto:'''<br>
 +
''Pew, pew, pew!''
 +
 
 +
Rosario is a very friendly and helpful person, who mini-prepped more bacteria than the whole team together during iGEM. It is the first time for him participating in this competition and working on a project independently besides university. As you may mention referring to his name, Rosario is half Italian, half German, but representing the real Italian spirit, gesticulating and talking loudly if he is upset or enthusiastic about a new idea. His laugh is absolutely intoxicating, which is always creating an enjoyable atmosphere. Towards the end of the project, Rosario was mainly occupied with the purification of our effector proteins, to be sure that we are performing our experiments and characterizations with non contaminated proteins.
 +
</div>
 +
 
 +
== Principal Investigator ==
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<div class="box-center team"  style="height: 320px;">
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==== Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra ====
 +
[[File:TUM13_ASK.png|frameless|200px]]
 +
'''Chair:''' Biological Chemistry TUM WZW
 +
 
 +
Since 1998 Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra is Full Professor at the [http://www.tum.de Technische Universität München], where he heads the [http://www.lrz.de/~Biologische-Chemie/index.html Institute of Biological Chemistry]. He is internationally renowned for his comprehensive experience and his pioneering contributions in the fields of molecular biotechnology and protein engineering.
 +
 
 +
In addition to his scientific excellence he strives to apply and economically utilize academic results, and to date he founded two start-ups. He advises our iGEM team scientifically and offers laboratory places at his chair.
 +
 
 +
</div>
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 +
== Instructors ==
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 +
<div class="box-center team" style="height: 400px;">
 +
==== Leonie Reichart ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/b/bf/TUM13_leonie.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/7/70/TUM13_leonie-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Codename:''' Lab-Mom
 +
 
 +
'''Field of Study:''' Molecular Biotechnology
 +
 
 +
'''Semester:''' Bachelor 2nd Semester, trained Technical Assistant
 +
 
 +
Leonie is a very ambitious and scrupulous person which often manifests itself through her "mother-like" behavior in the lab. Before starting her career at university, she worked as lab technician for several years and was able to teach us a lot, relying on her years of experience. Every single one of us was able to learn from her precise lab techniques and she introduced the bachelor students to every step of working with DNA and cell cultures.
 +
</div>
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 +
<div class="box-center team" style="height: 300px;">
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 +
==== Volker Morath ====
 +
[[File:TUM13_volker.jpg|frameless|300px]]
 +
 
 +
'''Codename:''' <span id="swolker"></span>
 +
 
 +
'''Position:''' PhD student at the chair of Biological Chemistry TUM WZW
 +
 
 +
'''Field of Study:''' Biology (graduated)
 +
 
 +
'''Former Participation:''' [https://2010.igem.org/Team:Freiburg_Bioware Freiburg 2010]  [https://2012.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich TU_Munich 2012].
 +
 
 +
After participating two times in iGEM, once in Freiburg, once in Munich, Volker is now supervising this years iGEM team. From his previous participation he gathered a venerable treasure trove of experience we could fall back on.
 +
</div>
 +
 
 +
<div class="box-center team" style="height: 400px;">
 +
 
 +
==== Fabian Fröhlich ====
 +
<html><div class="portrait"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/50/TUM13_fabian.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/d/d1/TUM13_fabian-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Codename:''' Alfred J. Kwak
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 +
'''Position:''' PhD student at the Institute of Computational Biology at the Helmholtzzentrum Munich
 +
 
 +
'''Field of study:''' Mathematics in Bioscience (graduated)
 +
 
 +
'''Former Participation:''' [https://2011.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich TU_Munich 2011] [https://2012.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich TU_Munich 2012]
 +
 
 +
Fabian also already participated two times in the iGEM competition and is supervising the team this year. Besides supervising the modeling work, he always assisted us in team meetings with his authority, analytical way of thinking and ability to solve stand-off situations.
 +
</div>
 +
 
 +
== Advisors ==
 +
 
 +
<div class="box-center team" style="height: 270px;">
 +
==== Dr. Meike Meißner ====
 +
<html><div class="landscape"><img class="top" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/b/b3/TUM13_meike.gif" /><img class="bottom" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/5/5e/TUM13_meike-anim.gif" /></div></html>
 +
'''Position:''' Coordinator of the degree course Molecular Biotechnology at TU Munich, Weihenstephan
 +
 
 +
'''Field of Study:''' Biology (graduated)
 +
 
 +
Meike is the coordinator of the degree course „Molecular Biotechnology“ at the Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan (WZW) of the Technical University of Munich and supports us during iGEM as much as she can. Due to her position as contact person for the degree course, she had a good sense for infighting in the team, which she always approached and solved.
 +
</div>
 +
 
 +
<div class="box-center team" style="height: 350px;">
 +
 
 +
====Prof. Dr. Ralf Reski====
 +
[[File:TUM13_Picture_Reski.jpg|frameless|200px]]
 +
Prof. Dr. Reski is a German professor for plant biotechnology and former dean of the biology faculty at [http://www.uni-freiburg.de/start-en.html?set_language=en Albert-Ludwig University, Freiburg]. His research of genetics, proteins, metabolism and peculiarities of moss cell development uses the highly efficient homologous recombination for the production of knockout moss in order to investigate unknown genes and their functions with a prospect on potential applications in agriculture and forestry. Prof. Reski´s research also includes the production of complex biopharmaceuticals in moss bioreactors (molecular farming) and he co-founded the Greenovation Biotech GmbH. He also created the [http://www.moss-stock-center.org International Moss Stock Center (IMSC)], a biobank that stores and distributes moss plants from all around the world.
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<div class="visualClear"></div>
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</div>
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<div class="box-center team" style="height: 330px;">
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 +
====Dr. Gertrud Wiedemann====
 +
[[File:Gertrud.jpg|frameless|200px]]
 +
Dr. Gertrud Wiedemann is a postdoc at the Reski plant biotechnology lab. She kindly took the time and patience to teach us the protoplast transformation method, supervised both our transformation sessions and advised us on procedure details.
 +
</div>
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<link href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:TU-Munich/TUM13_teamfield.css?action=raw&ctype=text/css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
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{{Team:TU-Munich/TUM13_Footer}}

Latest revision as of 21:53, 12 November 2013


The TU-Munich iGEM team 2013

Figure 1: Group picture

This year's iGEM team is a quite interdisciplinary group consisting of students and advisors from the subjects Biochemistry, Molecular Biotechnology, Engineering and Mathematics. The team-forming was initiated by three students and two instructors who already participated in last year´s iGEM team and who were looking for enthusiastic fellow campaigners to participate in iGEM 2013. The result was a team, consisting of 10 students and 3 instructors, willing to participate in a great contribution to the competition. To bridge the gap between old and new team members, we visited several folk festivals (luckily we're quite blessed with them in the greater Munich area) and had dinners together. The result was a dynamic group with fruitful relationships between the group members. Thus we have a very enjoyable working atmosphere and hopefully an equally successful participation in the iGEM competition.

We are very lucky and deeply grateful having the chance to work in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra, who holds the [http://biologische-chemie.userweb.mwn.de/index.html Chair of Biological Chemistry] at the Technical University of Munich. The team had full access to all laboratory equipment that was needed to realize our PhyscoFilter project. Without the help and support of Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra and his Team the project in its present form would not have been possible.

Student Members

Andreas-David Brunner

Codename:
Master of QuikChange

Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology

Semester:
Bachelor 4th Semester

What kind of character do you need to get a “master” grade in the 4th bachelor's semester? Due to his amount of perfect processed Quikchanges, with his diligence and inexorable endurance, Andi really deserved his codename as “Master of Quickchange”. For advancing our project in different fields, including establishing and maintaining the contact between different iGEM Teams, Andi is one of our connecting persons who travelled for example through four cities within 3 days. Next to this, Andi is a very cooperative, high flying and humorous character. In the end of our project his power was mainly invested in the preparation, execution and planning of the Educational-Kits and performing the experiment to prove the existence of cut-off membrane constructs.

Christopher Wolf

Codename:
Wolverine

Field of Study:
Mathematics
(Cambridge University)

Semester:
Bachelor 6th semester

Christopher just recently finished his Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge this summer. In the team he mainly took care of modeling and programming tasks, but beyond that he also showed a genuine interest in the work in the lab. This enabled him to make even more essential contributions to the project as he was able to solve biological problems as well as disputes in the team from his mathematical perspective.

Dong-Jiunn Jeffery Truong

Codename:
24/7-Jeff

Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology

Semester:
Master 3rd semester

Former participation in:
TU_Munich 2012

Motto:
The happier we get,
the less we see.

If I would just have three words to describe Jeff, these words would be: What a Gen(e)ious!!! There is nobody in the team who can mess with him on DNA-Level. His enthusiasm for the project goes so far, that he can sleep 3 hours per night – one week straight, when there is urgent work to be done. After getting in touch with the idea of iGEM, Jeffery was immediately infected by the idea of synthetic biology. He has a keen interest in optogenetics and signaling, which made him the perfect fit to work on our safety mechanism. Besides to his enormous wisdom, he is one of the most uncomplicated and down-to-earth people we ever got acquainted with.

Florian Albrecht

Codename:
Floh

Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology

Semester:
Bachelor 4th semester

Motto:
Coca Cola is my water!

His extraordinary skills in nearly every situation enrich the team enormously. Lab, programing and mechanical skills are just some to mention. Florian is a reflective person, who is just talking as much as needed, nevertheless he is always up for a funny claim. As a consequence to his versatility he was especially involved in programming our wiki, building of filter prototypes and purifying proteins, if necessary the whole night long. One of his special characteristics is his coca cola consumption, true to the motto: “Coca Cola is my water!”

Ingmar Polte

Codename:
47000 xg -Polte

Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology

Semester:
Bachelor 6th semester

Former participation:
TU_Munich 2012

Motto:
We need more rpm!!!

At first glance Ingmar seems to be wrong in the laboratory, because you can easily mix him up with a manager of a joint-stock company, but at second glance you recognize him being the “Usain Bolt” of the laboratory. There is nothing which can not be managed and organized by him until time is used optimally, even if he is forced to run between the photo laboratory (first floor) checking a result of a gel electrophoresis and heat-shocking bacteria of a transformation (ground floor) in parallel. Ingmar is always motivated, helping in every situation as good as he can and managed to finish his bachelors thesis in Bioprocess Engineering besides iGEM. Last but definitely not least, we have to mention a hobby of Ingmar, which is called: “Destroy Falcon Tubes in an ultra-centrifuge at 47000 xg during a midi-prep and still try to extract the plasmid-pellet!”

Johanna Brueggenthies

Codename:
The Gel

Field of Study:
Biochemistry

Semester:
Bachelor 4th semester

Johanna is the “Sunshine” of our labteam, who always has a positive attitude, spreads good feelings in the lab and is always ready for a laugh. Next to her precise work in the lab she was responsible for advancing our project in different fields including establishment and maintenance of the downright good contact between different iGEM teams. Johanna is one of our connecting persons who traveled several times through Germany, for example to Berlin, to participate at the „Biotechnology 2020+ Conference of the Ministry of Research and Education“. In addition to her successfully carried out moss transformation in Freiburg Johanna played a key role in the constructive expansion of our human practice work. Her communicative and friendly nature was extremely helpful to win selveral experts for interviews. Near to the end of our project, she ardently worked ambitious on writing articles for the wiki which was a great contribution to the project and really helped us finishing the wiki in a timely fashion.

Katrin Fischer

Codename:
Microwave-Katrin

Field of Study:
Biochemistry

Semester:
Bachelor 4th semester

Former participation:
TU_Munich 2012

There is the rumor that Katrin snatched Hermiones Time-Turner, as she manages to hold a students job in a lab group and is successfully studying Biochemistry while working hard for iGEM. Katrin is a very focused and thoughtful person, who has the right ideas at the right time. If you got the chance to admire our team poster at the „Biotechnology 2020+ Conference of the Ministry of Research and Education“ in Berlin, you were admiring the work of Katrin. Her skills in using graphic applications are superlative and were mixed up with the work of a trained illustrator. Her lab skills and graphics experience really pushes the team to new boundaries.

Louise Funke

Codename:
Dances with Wolves

Field of Study:
Biochemistry

Semester:
Bachelor 4th semester

Motto:
Come on!

Although Louise is only in her 4th semester, with the lab experience she earned during a voluntary internship at the Biochemistry faculty at Cambridge University, she is able to work independently and with great efficiency. With her precise lab work and incredible dedication she propels our project forward, keeping track of any loose ends. When experiments failed, she always cheered the team up with her infectious smile and reminded us to keep the big picture in mind. In our team her main responsibility was the enzyme EreB, its characterization and in vivo experiments.

Philipp Schneider

Codename:
Phil-no-Mitrella

Field of Study:
Engineering

Semester:
Bachelor 6th semester

iGEM-Motto:
Desoxyri....whaat?!

Philipp is an Engineering student, who finishes his bachelor thesis this winter. Although he virtually had no real contact with the subject, he showed great interest in synthetic biology. Sometimes it was hard for him to follow our conversations about gene design and protein interactions, but he was a quick learner and in turn he could teach us a lot about engineering principles we did not know about!

Rosario Ciccone

Codename:
Eagle Eye

Field of Study:
Biochemistry

Semester:
Bachelor 4th semester

Motto:
Pew, pew, pew!

Rosario is a very friendly and helpful person, who mini-prepped more bacteria than the whole team together during iGEM. It is the first time for him participating in this competition and working on a project independently besides university. As you may mention referring to his name, Rosario is half Italian, half German, but representing the real Italian spirit, gesticulating and talking loudly if he is upset or enthusiastic about a new idea. His laugh is absolutely intoxicating, which is always creating an enjoyable atmosphere. Towards the end of the project, Rosario was mainly occupied with the purification of our effector proteins, to be sure that we are performing our experiments and characterizations with non contaminated proteins.

Principal Investigator

Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra

TUM13 ASK.png Chair: Biological Chemistry TUM WZW

Since 1998 Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra is Full Professor at the [http://www.tum.de Technische Universität München], where he heads the [http://www.lrz.de/~Biologische-Chemie/index.html Institute of Biological Chemistry]. He is internationally renowned for his comprehensive experience and his pioneering contributions in the fields of molecular biotechnology and protein engineering.

In addition to his scientific excellence he strives to apply and economically utilize academic results, and to date he founded two start-ups. He advises our iGEM team scientifically and offers laboratory places at his chair.

Instructors

Leonie Reichart

Codename: Lab-Mom

Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology

Semester: Bachelor 2nd Semester, trained Technical Assistant

Leonie is a very ambitious and scrupulous person which often manifests itself through her "mother-like" behavior in the lab. Before starting her career at university, she worked as lab technician for several years and was able to teach us a lot, relying on her years of experience. Every single one of us was able to learn from her precise lab techniques and she introduced the bachelor students to every step of working with DNA and cell cultures.

Volker Morath

TUM13 volker.jpg

Codename:

Position: PhD student at the chair of Biological Chemistry TUM WZW

Field of Study: Biology (graduated)

Former Participation: Freiburg 2010 TU_Munich 2012.

After participating two times in iGEM, once in Freiburg, once in Munich, Volker is now supervising this years iGEM team. From his previous participation he gathered a venerable treasure trove of experience we could fall back on.

Fabian Fröhlich

Codename: Alfred J. Kwak

Position: PhD student at the Institute of Computational Biology at the Helmholtzzentrum Munich

Field of study: Mathematics in Bioscience (graduated)

Former Participation: TU_Munich 2011 TU_Munich 2012

Fabian also already participated two times in the iGEM competition and is supervising the team this year. Besides supervising the modeling work, he always assisted us in team meetings with his authority, analytical way of thinking and ability to solve stand-off situations.

Advisors

Dr. Meike Meißner

Position: Coordinator of the degree course Molecular Biotechnology at TU Munich, Weihenstephan

Field of Study: Biology (graduated)

Meike is the coordinator of the degree course „Molecular Biotechnology“ at the Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan (WZW) of the Technical University of Munich and supports us during iGEM as much as she can. Due to her position as contact person for the degree course, she had a good sense for infighting in the team, which she always approached and solved.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Reski

TUM13 Picture Reski.jpg Prof. Dr. Reski is a German professor for plant biotechnology and former dean of the biology faculty at [http://www.uni-freiburg.de/start-en.html?set_language=en Albert-Ludwig University, Freiburg]. His research of genetics, proteins, metabolism and peculiarities of moss cell development uses the highly efficient homologous recombination for the production of knockout moss in order to investigate unknown genes and their functions with a prospect on potential applications in agriculture and forestry. Prof. Reski´s research also includes the production of complex biopharmaceuticals in moss bioreactors (molecular farming) and he co-founded the Greenovation Biotech GmbH. He also created the [http://www.moss-stock-center.org International Moss Stock Center (IMSC)], a biobank that stores and distributes moss plants from all around the world.

Dr. Gertrud Wiedemann

Gertrud.jpg Dr. Gertrud Wiedemann is a postdoc at the Reski plant biotechnology lab. She kindly took the time and patience to teach us the protoplast transformation method, supervised both our transformation sessions and advised us on procedure details.

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