• Student Members
• Ralf Beer
• Tania Christiansen
• Konrad Herbst
• Nikos Ignatiadis
• Ilia Kats
• Johanna Meichsner
• Nils Kurzawa
• Sophie Rabe
• Anja Riedel
• Joshua Sachs
• Julia Schessner
• Florian Schmidt
• Philipp Walch
• Advisors
• Lorenz Adlung
• Katharina Genreith
• Fanny Georgi
• Tim Heineman
• Charles Imbusch
• Hannah Meyer
• Dominik Niopek
• Instructors
• Prof. Dr. Roland Eils
• Dr. Barbara DiVentura
• Attributions

Also in 2013, a highly motivated team of 13 undergraduate students of the University of Heidelberg enrolled in programs of Molecular Biotechnology and Systems Biology, is taking up the challenge to compete with 222 other teams from all over the world. Find out more about our team members below!

Ralf Beer - Mr. Sarcasm

Ralf is a 6^th semester bachelor student of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg. After an internship and practical trainings, iGEM is the first big opportunity to get real insights and expertise in the design and realization of scientific projects for him. Since there is almost no time for anything else until the Jamboree is over, he will be grateful to spend more time making music as a percussionist and doing something where fresh air, daylight and beautiful landscapes are involved, afterwards.

Tania Christiansen - Mrs. Design

Tania is a 2^nd year bachelor student of the Heidelberg’s program of Molecular Biotechnology. Following iGEM, she is going to stay in the US for an internship, before she’ll move on to Aarhus, Denmark, where she’s going to study for a semester. She focused on the module shuffling subproject and also worked on the team's website, where she revealed her talent for nice designs. To her, iGEM meant many weeks of work where she learnt of course a lot in the wet lab but also how tricky a project can be and how the project was something dynamicly changing. Everyone had to adapt to new results, problems and situations and Tania believes that this is exactly the interesting thing about iGem and the Team's project.

Konrad Herbst - Mr. Coffee

Apart from participating in iGEM this summer, Konrad finished his Bachelor thesis in Molecular Biotechnology and is going to continue with his master studies in late autumn. He is not only curious about science and nature but also (computer) technology and engineering. A good start in the morning strongly correlates with his first coffee, optimal when applied in group with some of the other team members. The rest of the day mainly consists of experiments for the Indigoidine subproject and computer work.

Nikos Ignatiadis - The Greek

Double majoring in Molecular Biotechnology and Mathematics, Nikos is very interested in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding biology. Previously, he applied this interdisciplinarity by working with constraints-based models of metabolism. Having also had experience with synthetic biology by designing a modular system for in-vivo mutagenesis, he is now very excited to join the iGEM team of Heidelberg. iGEM is a unique opportunity to put everything into practice in an environment promoting open science and collaborative effort. Nikos is also fascinated by the biology of Indigoidine, non-ribosomal peptides, as well as their modularity.

Ilia Kats - The Force

Ilia has received his Bachelor's degree in Biosciences at the University of Heidelberg, where he is now studying Systems Biology in his 2^nd master semester. As a Linux user, he has contributed to several open source projects, most notably KDE NetworkManager and simpleSTORM, gaining experience in C++ programming and software design. He did several internships in Heidelberg's labs over the past years, working both in bioinformatics as well as molecular biology. And yes, he is a nerdy geek. So don’t mess with him or your laptop might suddenly refuse to cooperate.

Johanna Meichner - Ms. Athletic

Johanna is currently studying Molecular Biotechnology in the 6^th bachelor semester in Heidelberg. During the past three years, she completed different internships (3 in total) in different laboratories all over the world (Berlin and Bogotá). Besides the fascinating theme of Life Science, she is hooked on sports like climbing, running, swimming and many more. She also likes reading various kinds of books and journals and cooking vegetarian food! Hanna is a great lab mate, stubborn enough to make anything work.

Nils Kurzawa - Mr. Caffeine / Ilia's Padawan

Nils just finished his 4^th bachelor semester in Molecular Biotechnology. He is fascinated by the idea of iGEM and Synthetic Biology, as he likes the idea of standardizing biological parts and being able to engineer biological systems. He is pretty excited to support the team as well in the software project as in one of the wet lab projects. He hopes to have a nice summer with all the team members and looks forward to learn a lot more about Synthetic Biology, programming and organizing own projects. Nils is good fun and always makes you smile, whether on purpose or not. Apart from science, Nils is interested in all kinds of sports, photography and making music.

Sophie Rabe - Ms. Sunshine

Sophie just recieved her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg and is going to continue with the Master’ program in autumn. She has already done several internships and has been working as student research assistant for over a year now. Sophie was part of the Delftibactin project, where she worked on assembling the DelRest plasmid.

Anja Riedel - The Pup

Anja is studying Molecular Biotechnology, too. During iGEM, she not only became a coffee drinker, but also found out how long she actually can survive with a maximum of 6 h of sleep per day. If she is not in the computer cabinet or in the lab, she is at the phone, acquiring money - or trying to. She is really happy to do the fifth semester of her Bachelor's degree, because there will be a lot of internships. She hopes to be able to use the experiences she made during iGEM.

Joshua Sachs - The Firefighter

Joshua received recently his Bachelor's degree in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg. At several institutes and companies, he gained practical wet lab know-how and bioinformatics skills. He is very dedicated to the field of synthetic biology and the development of new integrated systems for the design of novel applications. Being in charge of a whole project with all its challenges is a great experience for him, which he would not want to miss. Following iGEM, he is planning to travel to several countries around the globe until proceeding with his studies.

Julia Schessner - The Bee

Florian Schmidt - The Optimus Prime(r)

Flo just started his 5^th bachelor semester in Molecular Biotechnology. He is enthusiastic to unveil the opportunities of synthetic biology. Florian is part of the Deltibactin project were he worked on cloning-strategies, primer design, amplification and assembly of DelRest and DelH. Apart from iGEM and science he can often be found on the badminton court. Furthermore he loves sportscars, formula 1 and "The Simpsons".

Philipp Walch - Mr. Nice Guy