Team:Paris Bettencourt/Team

Who we are

Students:

Idonnya Aghoghogbe

Clovis Basier

1st year in Licence Frontières du Vivant, at Université Paris Descartes.
I’m currently doing a bachelor in biology, chemistry and physics at the Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire de Paris. I’m new in the research world but extremely motivated to learn and to succeed. I am very interested in the interdisciplinarity of biology, especially in genetics and synthetic biology which are likely to be a really huge field in science soon, as it’s beginning to grow fast. I enjoy doing challenging experiences as much as work in team and I’m sure that IGEM will be a great one.

Camelia Bancherif

What I love in Synthetic Biology is that we can be creative in Sciences and not only in Arts. iGEM project should be the dream of every undergraduate student who wants to become a researcher: create our own project, work with a brilliant team and have a lot of fun! I am also volunteer at “Médecins du monde” (Doctor’s of the World) where I make Thin-layer Chromatography to analyse drugs. I like dancing, theater, playing guitar, reading and diving to admire the beauty of the ocean!

Marguerite Benony

Aude Bernheim

2nd year AIV Master student. 3rd Year AgroParisTech, Paris Institute of Life sciences
I am a French 23 years old girl currently completing an engineering degree in life sciences by studying interdiscplinary research at the Centre de Rechercherches Interdisciplinaires. I am curious about pretty much everything, but focused on some precised issues right now : synthetic biology, bacteria genetics and genomics, public policies, gender and science. I think, biology, and especially synthetic biology will be at the heart of several revolutions in the 21st century. But biology has to be open, explained, regulated to be accepted by everyone. iGEM allows us to tackle amazing research questions while asking ourselves the feasability of our project, and its impact on the world. This new way of learning highly motivates me and is at the center of new thinking about education, the way of doing science and the way of presenting science to large public. I definitely think that more people (and especially women) would go into science if they knew it would be so much fun, creative and useful!

Matthew Deyell

1st year AIV Master student Université Paris Diderot
I obtained my BSc. in Cellular, Molecular and Microbiology at the University of Calgary, Canada. Afterwhich I worked as a research associate at the University of Leicester, UK working on genome and population dynamics in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. I am very interested in bridging approaches and techniques from various fields to tackle complex problems in biology. I am a highly problem motivated scientist and enjoy experimental design, as such I am excited at the prospect to take part in this years iGEM competition. The iGEM competition is the ideal place to branch out into exciting new fields, enhance and broaden our skill set and showcase our talent and ideas in an international setting.

Sebastian Jaramillo-Riveri

1st year AIV Master student at Université Paris Descartes

Nicolas Koutsoubelis

1st year AIV Master student at Université Paris Descartes
I am from Germany and biologist by training. Synthetic Biology is a very interdisciplinary and emerging field in Science. It offers many possibilities for the future. The iGEM competition is a main driving force for the visions of Synthetic Biology. I like the creativity, group work, interaction and exchanges about Science that are part of the competition process. As the CRI is a place for visions and future project, I am really looking forward to work with the team on a visionary project that will further form Synthetic Biology.

Vincent Libis

6th year pharmacy student and M2 AIV student
I started learning pharmacy at Strasbourg University to become a researcher and as I was specializing in therapeutic innovation based on biotechnology I heard about synthetic biology. I became more and more convinced that this young field had a huge potential for fighting human diseases and I eventually came to Paris to study it intensively through internships in laboratories and through the AIV master. By doing iGEM I hope to have the chance to show creativity in applying the concepts I have learnt so far and to take advantage of the exciting working context of a truly interdisciplinary and multinational team.

Anne Löchner

1st year AIV Master student at Université Paris Descartes
I am biologist from Germany and I am now in the AIV Master. Since I heard the first time of Synthetic Biology and iGEM, I wanted to participate in this challenging competition. I think the iGEM Team at the CRI is a great group as it has lots of potential as we are a group of students from many different backgrounds and nationalities. As Synthetic Biology is aswell very interdisciplinary I am looking forward to work on an exciting project with the team and learn more about science and the emerging field of Synthetic Biology.

Sarah Zahra

First year Biomedical Engineering Master - Paris Descartes & Paris Tech Institute
I have a bachelor in biomedical sciences and I like to explore the interface between different disciplines, and that is why I enrolled in the master. I also got the chance to follow synthetic and computational biology in the AIV track at the CRI, which made me discover what an amazing field synthetic biology is! One of my goals is to try to adress the bottleneck of therapies through synthetic biology tools. But I am also interested in exploring new perspectives that sythetic biology allowed us to open. I am looking forward for the iGEM teamwork, because I am sure we are going to have a very exciting experiment, on both the scientific and the human level!

Yonatan Zegman

1st year AIV Master student at Université Paris Descartes
I come from sunny Tel Aviv, Israel. I Have a B.Sc in Biotechnology. I spent my first year of master learning the fields of system's biology and synthetic biology. I Love the creativity that Synthetic biology brought to this field and I appreciate the opportunity for free thinking. I like the competitive nature of iGEM and I think it will help us produce a beautiful project.

Advisors:

Ariel Lindner

Zoran Marinkovic

2nd year AIV Master student
I am a second year student in the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life Sciences (AIV) Master program at Paris Descartes University. I studied Molecular Biology at University of Zagreb (Croatia) and did a semester long exchange at Uppsala University (Sweden) where I studied Microbial and Evolutionary Genetics and Bioinformatics. I spent almost whole last year working on application of synthetic biology in fundamental research and participating in iGEM as a part of the Paris Bettencourt team on a highly noticed and successful project. My primary scientific interest is application of synthetic biology for creating bioproducts as well as using synthetic biology in fundamental research. Also, I’m quite interested in developing synthetic biology as a tool for creating living organisms from scratch as we build many non-living constructs today. I joined iGEM team again this year because I had a lot of fun last year and because it is a unique research opportunity that only rare get to experience.

Oleg Mikhajilov

2nd year AIV Master student at Université Paris Diderot and final year at MINES ParisTech
I'm a biophysics student at Ecole des Mines, ParisTech with some theoretical background (Bachelor of theoretical physics, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia). My main research interest is biophysics, bioengineering and synthetic biology. I already have experience in iGEM, I was a member of Paris-Bettencourt 2011 iGEM team. Now I’m eager to try the role as an adviser.

Denis Samuylov

2nd year AIV Master student at Université Paris Diderot
Completing my undergraduate in Physics and Telecommunication, I switched to biology. So now, I am the second year master student of the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life Science Master Program. Last year, I have learnt enormously being a part of the Paris-Bettencourt 2012 iGEM team. This year, I would like to try a new role being an adviser and share my experience with a new generation of igemers.

Mathias Toulouze

Jake Wintermute

Postdoctoral Researcher
I’m a postdoc at the CRI and I teach the Synthetic Biology course for first-year master’s students. I did my Ph.D. in Pam Silver’s lab in the Harvard Systems Biology department. My research interests include aging, evolution, metabolism and of course Synthetic Biology. This will be my second year as an iGEM advisor and I expect very good science from this team!