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Team:Leeds/Team
From 2013.igem.org
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 | This is the first year that Leeds University has entered an iGEM team, but hope to build upon it each year. For now, the team consists of 8 students, 2 academic supervisors and a host of helpful people
 The StudentsComing from a variety of backgrounds, the team have written up some bios below to introduce you to who we are and what we do. We may be a small team, but we are definitely big on character! Emily Taylor
Jonah Ciccone Jonah is a third year Biochemist who is also passionate about art, music and karate. As well as bringing his scientific knowledge to the plate; Jonah has been put in charge of the team's artistic direction - a wise choice if you take a look through our YSB Escapades.
Joe Beton Joe is looking forward to making new discoveries, helping lead the Leeds iGEM team and have an exciting summer.
Jeni Shoesmith Jeni is from Yorkshire and is currently starting her second year studying Biochemistry at the University of Leeds. Jeni has a passion for nature and cares for multiple animals at home. She enjoys things such as knitting, sewing and cooking. Jeni has a wide range of skills and is always keen to make use of them. Both her passion for ethics and practical skills make her a valuable member of the iGEM team.
Oleg Karpov He wishes to pursue a career either in the professional sciences or run a surf shack on a beach in Mexico. Either or really.
Sabrina Knight Sabrina studied neuroscience at Leeds because she is interested in how we think, why we think and how it affects our behaviour. Of particular interest is neuropathology, or diseases affecting the brain, which Sabrina is hoping to study further at Imperial when she takes on her Masters. She joined the team because it offered novel and interesting research to get involved in. Although the Team's project does not focus on neurology currently, Sabrina still brings essential skills and 3 years worth of lab experience - not to mention a different viewpoint!
Daniel Burt (AKA Flipper)
Paul Turner Paul is a 4th year physicist at Leeds and enjoys the problem solving aspects of his degree the most. He has always had a keen interest in science, but is keen to see the practical applications. Some of his heroes include visionaries such as Elon Musk, Gordon Gould and Richard Feynman. Outside of university he enjoys Ten-pin bowling, volleyball, fencing and a few layman interests in history and photography. Paul is good at breaking down complex problems and explaining ideas and concepts to others - an essential skill when friends introduce you as "a physicist"! Other skills Paul brings to the iGEM team are physical experiment design and coding experience for the web and modelling development side of the project. As a physicist, he also brings an outside view of Synthetic Biology, and a different approach to measuring data.
The AcademicsThe iGEM team has gained some significant interest from quite a few academics based at Leeds University, and from multiple departments. The team only has two supervisors, but having so many great minds popping by the office certainly adds to the team's resources! Luke Bawazer You can watch his recent TED Talk from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BljY3_i3gfw TEDxWarwick here]
James Ross James Ross started out his adult life as a chef for seven years including a three year stint as Head Chef. A career change, to fulfill his childhood dreams, led him to the University of Liverpool for an undergraduate course in Molecular Biology with Industry in which he achieved a first class degree. During this time he completed a one year placement with Pfizer in X-ray Crystallography and biophysical characterisation of protein-ligand complexes. James also undertook a ten week summer studentship making cDNA libraries and conducting sequencing studies at the University of Liverpool. Upon completion of his undergraduate, James was awarded a four year Wellcome Trust sponsored PhD at the University of Leeds.
Sarah Deacon If she's not too busy in her lab, Dr. Deacon often pops by to check in on the team, and is a reassuring face to see - and not only because she often comes bearing gifts of fresh coffee and biscuits!
Michael McPherson Mike's Bio
Bruce Turnbull
Steve Evans Aside from being one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, Steve is also head of the eponymous [http://www.mnp.leeds.ac.uk/sdevans/Evans_Group.html Evans Group,] which focuses upon the physics of self organising molecular systems. OF particular interest at the moment are lipid microbubbles and membranes, and bio-functionalised inorganic surfaces. Study of the systems is varied, inlcuding the analysis of the physical transport of metabolites across systems which directly relates to our fundamental understanding of cellular biology and systems. Additonally, Professor Evans is interested in the manipulation of biological sensing mechanisms, with current work that has successfully incorporated bovine rhodopsin into an artificial membrane assembly for use in optical spectroscopic devices, and other work using actin filaments to create synthetic villi within Giant Unilamellar Vesicles.
Fiona Meldrum
Lorna Dougan After gaining her doctorate on aqueous alcohol solutions using neutron diffraction at Edinburgh, Lorna spent 3 years as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Biological Sciences at Columbia University, USA. Coming to Leeds in 2009, Dr. Dougan lectures in biological physics, and specializes in extremophiles - organisms that survive in extreme conditions. In 2010, Lorna received an ERC Fellowship, and now heads up the [http://www.mnp.leeds.ac.uk/ldougan/index.html Dougan Group]. The group does research in many different areas, from life in extreme environments, to single-molecule manipulation to molecular self assembly and even cryo-preservation. The group make extensive use of Atomic Force Microscopes to study protein folding within extremophiles, as well as multiple techniques for analysis of lipid or amphiphillic systems, which frequently self assemble. This is important for the study of life, as these self assembling systems are the pre-cursors to cell formation, while understanding the energy landscape of a protein highlights how it affects its properties in varying environments.
Chris Jones
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