A motivated and enthusiastic individual who is the guiding light of our team. Meet Michiel, the multi-tasker. I can assure you that you cant find a better leader if you go searching for one in broad daylight with a candle (or a glowing algae for that matter). He is doing a dual Master(because apparently one is not enough)in Process Biotechnology and Bio-informatics. Our taskmaster is interested in determining the origin of single cell Aspergillus niger by comparative transcriptome analysis. Also, he is modelling the production of the drug, lovastatin in A. niger. And he is setting up a database for secondary metabolite backbone enzymes in Aspergilli! Phew. In his remaining time he likes to cook, read European history, watch movies and get drunk in the weekends. He regrets, long hours of bench work, long hours of desk work, shaving his beard, travelling everyday to work with our supervisor Mark, life in general.

PS- A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. We believe that Michiel will lead this team on their way to Boston.

Skinny Indian boy who works till midnight, no time to eat every day. Haha, just for humorous effect. (Actually it is the working profile for all of us igemers.) For him, IGEM is a challenging experience and quite a lot of fun. He’s quite a dynamic and open minded partner, work reaaally hard and ready to help others. Additional, a high-effective dreamer. He could always shock us by so many fantastic ideas during lunch meeting. “What I cannot build, I cannot understand. ” is his motto and exactly what he did for his research. Well groomed hair means there would be a presentation. For the rest chaotic hair days, which equals to reading a lot of articles or just watching too much TV series & football matches. ;)
PS: Thanks for your shared solutions, plates and cells, Shreyans!

This Bsc Molecular life sciences was born 04-09-1990. From the moment she could walk she knew it: I want to be part of the iGem competition! Her reason to join this year was that she had to do a Bsc thesis and really liked the opportunity of designing your own project and working both individually and as a team. The most awesome moments for her were when she made a picture of her actin-GFP fusion and the group activities. Her hobbies are diverse: horseback riding, ultimate frisbee, playing guitar and transforming fungi. Summarized in ‘one sentence’: iGem is a really awesome competition where you learn a lot & have a lot of fun, where you can work both individually but mostly as a team.

When describing iGEM with 3 words Emiel ten Buren would describe it as a “really awesome experience”. Emiel, who was born on 16.12.1990, is a master student in the field of biochemistry and did his bachelor in molecular life science. Currently he is working on the chromoproteins we got from Uppsala and Braunschweig to optimize them for A. niger. Next to the practical work he is our hard working secretary and sponsoring person. When asking him why he joined the iGEM team he says that he wants to learn more about synthetic biology and likes the idea of doing it in a competitive way such as iGEM. It might be obvious that Emiel is eager to do his job well. There are a lot of things he likes about iGEM, including the team activities such as going bowling or playing pool. But he also enjoyed attending the molecular interactions symposium in Berlin for a poster presentation.

When you meet Emiel outside of the laboratory you will find a person that likes to do weird Dutch sports such as Knotsbal, football or unihockey. Next to that he likes to read books, play games with friends, watch series, play pool etc.

Being one of the more experienced students in our team, she has already finished her thesis at virology. Her work is of vital importance, also to our project, as she is working on lovastatin biosynthesis. At the same time she is also concerned with Human Practices and will be presenting at the Jamboree. Her motivation, charisma and gentle voice make her a true addition to the team and excellent spokeswoman at the Jamboree.

There is no doubt that the most optimistic person in 2013 Wageningen iGEM group is Vincen. You will be impressed by his enthusiasm and vigour. As a Msc student from Medical Biotechnology Programme, he loves this field and plans to continue the research as PhD. Vincen joined iGEM team at the very beginning and also introduced two members to participate. He can always come up with innovative ideas, including Gibson Assembling to produce lovastatin from Aspergillus Niger. “to be able to work and solve problems indepently as a scientist" is the most valuable thing he've learned during iGEM. If you want to know more about him, contact him via e-mail: vincen.wu@wur.nl.

You better watch out when Jingjing is around, as our safety manager she kept us in check during the summer. She is a biotechnology master student from China and together with Emiel she has been working on the chromoproteins, a colourful project that fits her personality. Jingjing is always cheerful in and out of the lab and very willing to help you out. She started out with iGEM because it is fun to do and innovative, also it enables you to come up with new ideas and then make it come true yourself. Next to that she finds that the biobrick parts are meaningful to synthetic biology. In her spare time Jingjing ejoys playing the guzheng, a chinese instrument, and the accordion or go travelling. The highlight of iGEM for her will be when Aspergillus shows colours.

With only 7 people in iGEM, Denny was the 8th and last person to join. What a wonderful number, because #8 means lucky in chinese and that is what we needed, she indeed delivered. She is studying food biotechnology, even though she doesn’t have enough lab experience, she was eager and determine to learn everything she can during her stay in iGEM, like really restlessly eager. She told me that there’s only one word to describe iGEM “AMAZING!!!!!”, and that’s the attitude I like within iGEM. Feel like talking with this person? Email her at ying.deng@wur.nl.