Team:TU-Munich/Team/Members

Our iGEM team is mainly made up of two groups who met in the beginning of summer and xxx. Five students who already participated together with our two instructors in last year´s iGEM competition and a circle of friends studying in their 4th bachelor semester who heard of last years iGEM project and were enthusiastic to join.

• Master of QuikChange
• Field of Study: MBT
• Semester: Bachelor 4rd semester

• Field of Study: Mathematics (Cambridge University)
• Semester: Bachelor 6th semester
• Christopher is a mathematician, who studied at cambridge university, finishing his bachelor this summer with outstanding success. We expected him to be really good in programming and solving mathematical problems, but what happened was nearly unbelievable. He solved mathematical problems as fast as lightning, so we often had the feeling that he was underutilized with the problems we offered him. For him it is the first time working in a biochemical laboratory and participating at iGEM, but as the whole team could see, he was really interested and enthusiastic in the idea of working aside from the computer.

• 24/7
• Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
• Semester: Masters 4th semester
• 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. The continued results of his bachelor thesis was published in “Nature Medicine”, which underline his extraordinary skills as a scientist. His enthusiasm for Science goes so far, that he can sleep 3 hours per night - one week long, if he needs to finish a sub-project of us. After getting in touch with the idea of iGEM, Jeffery was immediately infected by the idea of synthetic biology. He is very interested in Optogenetics and Signalling, too, which represent a very powerful combination translated to synthetic biology. In reference to these interests, our Safety Mechanism was developed by Jeff, which is a light inducible kill switch. Due to his enormous wisdom, he is one of the most uncomplicated and down-to-earth people I got acquainted with.
• Former participation in TU_Munich 2012 team
• The happier we get, the less we see.

• Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
• Semester: Bachelor 4rd semester
• It is the first time for him participating in iGEM. 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. One of his special characteristic is his coca cola consumption, true to the motto: “Coca Cola is my water!”

• 47000 xg -polte
• Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
• Semester: Bachelor 6th semester
• Former participation in TU_Munich 2012 team
• 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 recognise him being the “Usain Bolt” of the laboratory. Further on it is the second for him participating at iGEM. 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) 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. At least, I have to mention a hobby of Ingmar, which is called: “Destroy Falcon Tubes in an ultra-centrifuge at 47000g during a midiprep and either try to extract the plasmid-pellet!”

• The Gel-Penetrator
• Field of Study: Biochemistry
• Semester: Bachelor 4rd semester

• Microwave-Katrin
• Field of Study: Molecular Biotechnology
• Semester: Bachelor 4rd semester
• Former participation in TU_Munich 2012 team
• The whole team is often asking theirselves if Katrin posesses a 48 hours day, or if she is just working as fast as lightning, because besides iGEM she manages to hold a students job in a lab group and ist succesfully studying Biochemistry. It is her second time participating in 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 Ministery of Research and Education“in Berlin, you were admiring the work of Katrin. Her skills in using graphic applications are superlative and was mixed up with the work of a trained illustrator. Her lab skills and graphics experience really pushes the team to new boundaries.

• Dances with Wolves
• Field of Study: Biochemistry
• Semester: Bachelor 4rd semester
• Louise is one of our biochemistry students. During the application process of our iGEM Team, she was able to score with her lab experience she earned during a voluntary internship at the biochemistry faculty at Cambridge University. In the lab, she stays always focused on her work, although we sometimes try to neck her while she tries to prepare the thousandth DNA sequencing tube.

• Field of Study: Engineering
• Semester: Bachelor 6th semester
• Phillip is an Engineering student, who finishes his bachelor thesis this summer. He is very interested in synthetic biology, although it is sometimes hard for him to follow our conversations about genedesign and other stuff during our team meetings. As an engineer he is always mentioning new aspects which are integrated in our project. His Main task is to build and to program a gadget which you can use for observing different conditions of our moss filter and to fit them.

• Eagle Eye
• Field of Study: Biochemistry
• Semester: Bachelor 4rd semester
• Rosario is a very friendly and helpful person, who miniprepped 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 refering 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.

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.

• 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. She is involved in attracting and contacting sponsors for our team, so we can handle the emerging costs during our project. Due to her organising skills, she posesses a sense for inconsistencies in the team, which she always approaches and solves.

• Despite to her career at university, which is just running two terms, she is able to rely on her three year study as a biological technical assistent. Leonie is a very ambitious and scrupulous person which often manifests itself through her "mother-like" behaviour in the lab. The first thing she is doing every day after entering the lab is to tidy up every lab bench and to sterilize them with one houndred litres of Isopropanol! Every bachelor and master student of us was able to learn from her referring to precise lab techniques. This is the reason why she introduced the bachelor students to every single step working with DNA and cell culture techniques. Due to her lab skills, Leonie is a very friendly, open-minded person, who is always in a catchy good-mood.

Volker is one of our Instructors. First, one has to say that he is writing his PhD thesis at the Skerra lab, spending nearly one third of his official PhD thesis time in iGEM. It is the third time for him participating in iGEM, so he has a vulnerable treasure trove of experience we can fall back on. During his studies of Biology in Freiburg, he was able to establish many contacs to Professors, for example to Professor Reski, who is supporting us in a fantastic way concerning the moss Physcomitrella patens. Freiburg 2010 and TU_Munich 2012.

Fabian is our Teamleader. The reasons why he was chosen to hold this position in the team are not only his irresistible charisma, authority and analytical way of thinking he earned during his mathematical studies, but also his calmness and abilitiy to solve stand-off situations. His tasks outside of science include organising flights to the jambories, team meetings, accomodations and inspiring sponsors for our trend-setting project. Modeling experimental data, 3D-Graphics and movies are mastered by him in an exemplary way. As you can see, Fabian is an outstanding personality who is essential for the whole team. [ https://2011.igem.org/Team:TU_Munich TU_Munich 2011] and TU_Munich 2012.