Building the FREDsense Team

Our team is composed of six students from diverse technical backgrounds, all who were members of the 2012 Calgary Collegiate iGEM team where this technology platform was initially developed from. To suppliment our skills we have also enlisted the aid of several key advisors from diverse technical, business, and legal backgrounds to sit on our advisory board and act to guide FREDsense Technologies as it develops.

Team Members

Our team consists of six members from diverse technical backgrounds. Each member played a critical role in developing the technology from the 2012 Calgary iGEM team and has played a significant role in playing multiple roles in business development of FREDsense Technologies.

Robert Mayall

I have just graduated with my Bachelors degree from the University of Calgary. This is my third year being involved with iGEM, and my first trip into the entrepreneurial category. I was heavily involved in the technical design of FRED and am the electrochemist for our group. I will continue my technical role as a member of FREDsense Technologies by focusing on the development of our platform technology.

Emily Hicks

This is my fourth summer in iGEM, which probably means that I really need to get a life. This summer I will be working on both team OSCAR and FRED as well as yelling at people in the lab for leaving the gel boxes open and moving the enzymes. I’ll no doubt be enjoying the late nights in the lab and hope to learn by the end of the season how to successfully carry a gel from the lab to the imager in one piece. In my spare time I enjoy beating David at flight control, collecting stuffed pandas and other important tasks.

Lisa Oberding

I have just graduated from the University of Calgary with a degree in Cellular, Molecular, and Microbial Biology. This is my first year with iGEM, which I got involved with as a chance to gain more research experience, learn about synthetic biology, and further define my research interests. Outside of the lab I enjoy snowboarding in the Rockies (sliding down the mountain on my face), camping (being chased by angry insects), reading, and drawing (possibly the only two safe hobbies I have- unless you count paper cuts). On the team this year I have mostly been a part of the desulfurization project, as well as helping out with a transposon library screen. And, as of yet, I have not set myself or anything else on fire.

Maggie Renaud-Young

I am in my fifth year of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology PhD program in the Southern Alberta Cancer Biology Research Grouphttps://2013.igem.org/Main_Page at the University of Calgary. The focus of my studies is the cellular response to obstructed DNA replication, and how disturbances to this process contribute to genome instability using the budding yeast model system. This is the second year that I have worked with iGEM and it is has been a great experience for me. I really enjoy the team approach of taking composite parts to build systems that can perform unique biological functions. I love the social aspect of being on the team and I especially look forward to attending the Jamborees.

David Lloyd

This is my fifth year being involved in iGEM in which time I have had the opportunity to work with the Alberta team for two years as an undergraduate, two years as a team advisor for Calgary Collegiate, and now with the Calgary Entrepreneurial Team. I have completed a BSc and MSc in Biochemistry and now am pursuing the FREDsense Technologies venture full time. I am very passionate for using my synthetic biology experience as a manager, euntreprenuer, and educator and hope to merge these passions into an exciting career in the future. iGEM has been an amazing opportunity and I greatly look forward to another year in the competition!

Iain George

I just completed my undergraduate degree in Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology at the University of Calgary. Currently, I work in Dr. Howard Ceri and Dr. Ray Turner labs studying how bacterial biofilms can be used to cleanup toxic environments. My research has focused two species of Pseudomonas that can interact with and possibly degrade naphthenic acids and chlorinated biphenyl while contending with heavy metal conditions. This fall I am beginning a Masters project studying functional genomics in yeast. This is my first year working with the team and it has given me the great chance to mentor my teammates and learn new skills. When I am not living in the lab, you'll find me in the amazing mountains and trying my hand at photography.

Patrick Wu

I am currently doing my Masters of Biomedical Technology at the University of Calgary. This is my fourth year as a participant of the iGEM competition, but my contributions this year are primarily towards construction of the Entrepreneurial team wiki. I am a keen proponent of user-centered design and I am always amazed at how people can combine engineering and biology together in the iGEM competition. In my spare time, I'm reading the latest tech news, playing video games, or I'll be asleep somewhere.

Advisors

Our advisory board consists of several technical, business, and law experts who were carefully selected to aid in devleoping FREDsense Technologies.

Dr. Lisa Gieg

I have been doing research in the field of environmental microbiology for about 20 years. I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, and worked for a dozen years as a PDF and Senior Researcher at the University of Oklahoma before coming to the University of Calgary as an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences. My research focuses on petroleum metabolism by microbes in the context of oil spill clean-up, microbial enhanced energy recovery, pipeline biocorrosion, and in oil sands tailings ponds remediation. This is my third year being involved with iGEM. It is a pleasure to work with dynamic, smart, and talented students and colleagues who are exploring the use of synthetic biology to develop products that can help solve real world problems.

Dr. Robert Lawrence Mallach

Dr. Sean Caffry

I currently work for Genome Alberta and I manage a large genomics research project (www.hydrocarbonmetagenomics.com) that is investigating how to use the microbes, genes, enzymes, and pathways indigenous to hydrocarbon resource environments to make energy extraction more efficient and less environmentally impactful. I obtained a Ph.D. in Functional Genomics from the University of Calgary and I am now working towards obtaining an MBA from the Haskayne School of Business. My MBA studies are focused on technology transfer and this is also how I hope to assist the iGEM team. This is my first year of involvement with the iGEM and it has a pleasure to be associated with such a motivated and creative team.

John Mackay

John Mackay is Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mosaic Capital Corp. Mr. Mackay is also a partner of Agcapita Partners L.P., an agricultural investment firm. John has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur taking his first company public in 1988 which was ultimately acquired by Bendix. He spent 11 years as a lawyer, and was a Partner at McCarthy Tetrault LLP in the Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions group, where he was involved with over $1 billion worth of transactions. Over the past ten years John has been involved in starting, acquiring and running many successful private and public companies in a wide variety of businesses both domestic and international. Johns’ involvement in these businesses include corporate finance, strategic development, business plan execution, M&A execution and litigation. He is past Chair of the Securities Law Subsection of the Canadian Bar Association and is a past member of the Securities Advisory Committee to the Alberta Securities Commission. John received a Bachelor of Law (Honours) from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom in 1993 and has been a member of the Law Society of Alberta since 1994.

Dr. Chris Dambrowitz

Chris Dambrowitz is Director of Bioindustrial Strategic Initiatives for the Alberta-based Biorefining Conversions Network (BCN), an industrial-academic collaborative network developing novel bioproducts and bioprocesses. He currently coordinates an initiative to establish the Alberta BioFoundry, utilizing synthetic biology and bioanalytical platforms to address economically-important opportunities within Alberta's resources-based industrial sectors. Joining BCN from his recent position as Director - Planning & Development with the Alberta Research & Innovation Authority (ARIA) Secretariat, Chris also served as Director of Alberta Ingenuity's Accelerators Program and was the founding Program Director of the Alberta Prion Research Institute. This complements his project management and technology development experience in the bioanalytical and biotechnology industries, including positions with MDS Sciex and Genome Prairie (Concord ON), Blue Heron Biotechnology (Bothell WA), Visible Genetics (Toronto ON) and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (Chalk River ON). Chris received his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Alberta, performing his doctoral research in the bioanalytical instrumentation laboratory of Dr. Norm Dovichi.

Dr. Anwar Haq

A multi-disciplinary professional with over thirteen years academic and medical research, market development, Intellectual Properties (IP) and project management and business incubation experience. As an Executive Director to the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases, Dr Haq’s primary role is to help create and then implement and evaluate strategic business plan of the Institute ensuring that programs stay relevant and operationally and fiscally sustainable. He provides successful leadership in advancing marketing and brand stewardship to best manage the stakeholders’ experience with the Institute. He is a primary resource person and point of contact for the Institute on the organizational, operational and fiscal policies and procedures related to the Faculty of Medicine at University of Calgary, Alberta Health Services (AHS) and its allies. Currently Dr Haq is also pursuing his Master in Public Policy at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. His major interest lies in healthcare research investments policy implications and innovation gap in the industry. He is an active community volunteer for science outreach, community engagement-focused organization/s, Not-for-profit fund raising and social marketing. He is one of the 62 Senators at the University of Calgary where he sits on various committees. He also sits on Steering Committee for the Calgary Youth Science Fair and a founding member of Just-Vote – an organization aimed to promote the role of public in democratic process and importance of voting. He is member of Canadian Association for Management Consultants (CAMC), National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) and Canadian Association for Business Incubation (CABI).

Dr. Navneet Sharma

Dr. Navneet Sharma is working as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary (Alberta). He has over 20 years of experience working in biotech / pharmaceutical industry as well as academia after completing his Ph.D. in 1993. He has worked in the areas of process development, quality assurance, regulatory affairs as well as bio-manufacturing. In research he has contributed a lot by publishing research papers in the journals of international repute like PLoS One, Biological Chemistry, Vaccine and Molecular Reproduction & Development. Besides he has been involved in teaching business aspects and regulatory affairs to biomedical technology students. He has helped a lot of students in their research & business projects and has co-guided many. He volunteers a lot of his extra time to the activities of organizations such as Calgary Youth Science Fair (CYSF), Heart and Stroke Foundation and Sanofi BioGenius Challenge Canada (SBCC).