Meet the Team
We're a team of young, highly-motivated and ambitious scientists with skills across biology, chemistry, computer science, design and mechanical engineering.
Team
"We are friendly butterflies"
Melissa is a student at Aalto University pursuing a Master's Degree in Biosystem and Biomaterials with a minor in Health Technologies. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Bioproducts at Aalto University with a minor in Molecular Biology at the University of Helsinki in Espoo, Finland.
IGEM FAVORITE:
All the new lab skills she has learnt.
Melissa Hendrén
Team Leader
Veera Kurki
Team Leader
"Convinced, concerned, confused"
Veera is a student at the University of Helsinki and started her Master's Degree in Genetics and Molecular Biosciences this summer. She recently received a Bachelor's Degree in Molecular Biosciences at the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland.
IGEM FAVORITE:
Suddenly standing in the lab for 5 hours instead of the planned 2 hours
Amna Gul
"But isn't it common to see naked people around here?"
Amna is a student at Aalto University pursuing a Master's Degree in Biological and Chemical Engineering for Sustainable Bioeconomy. She received a Bachelor's Degree with honours in Biotechnology at University of Peshawar in Peshawar, Pakistan.
IGEM FAVORITE:
Working on her Master's thesis in parallel
Lilith Heiland
"We are a team of students that don't know what the heck is going on in their life."
Lilith is a student at the University of Helsinki pursuing a Master's Degree in Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology with a minor in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Jacobs University Bremen, in Bremen, Germany
IGEM FAVORITE:
All the chocolate in the office
Mari Keskiivari
"It's not easy peasy lemon squeezy; it's hard lemon, difficult."
Mari is a student at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University pursuing Bachelor's Degrees in Food Sciences and Design, respectively with a minor in Psychology.
IGEM FAVORITE:
Was experimenting with professional camera equipment
Zsófia Hesketh
"Salt takes up so much space"
Zsófia is a student at the University of Helsinki pursuing a Master's Degree in Translational Medicine with a minor in Infection Biology. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Law with a minor in Medical Ethics at Cambridge University, in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
IGEM FAVORITE:
Volunteering for all the tasks the others already chose for her.
Anniina Könönen
"Also, being positive is better. I still need to work on that."
Anniina is a student at the University of Helsinki pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Molecular Biosciences.
IGEM FAVORITE:
All the chemistry calculations the team could not do by themselves.
Diogo Dias
"We don't necessarily need their faces; their bodies would be enough"
Diogo is a student at the University of Helsinki pursuing a PhD in FIMM and EMBL. He recently finished his Master's Degree in Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science at the Instituto Superior de Tecnologias Avançadas in Lisbon, Portugal.
IGEM FAVORITE:
Office dog Hugo.
Hanna Nebelung
"But that's how clinical trials work; you take a bunch of people, stab them and apply your medicine."
Hanna is a student at the University of Helsinki pursuing a Master's Degree in Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine. She received a Bachelor's Degree in Bioinformatics at Saarland University, in Saarbrücken, Germany.
IGEM FAVORITE:
The 9 € ticket to travel to the European Conference.
Joose Lankia
"Don't quote me on this."
Joose is a student at Aalto University pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. During Fall he started a second Bachelor's Degree programme in Science.
IGEM FAVORITE:
Flexible working hours.
Our Principal Investigators and Advisors
Heli Viskari
Heli is a Lecturer at Aalto University, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems. She has been involved as iGEM team advisor since 2015. Her professional field of expertise includes molecular genetics and synthetic biology, cell and molecular biology in general.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FAVORITE:
The multidisciplinarity. It's fantastic that people from many different and very diverse fields can join their forces to lead the world towards
more sustainable future.
iGEM FAVORITE:
The new brilliant ideas that the iGEM teams come up with. It's very rewarding to see the development of our own team and its members during the year, how they build and execute the project. Also the togetherness of the whole iGEM community is great
Markus Linder
Markus is a Professor of Biomolecular Materials at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems at the Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering, and the leader of the Biomolecular Materials research group. His research combines synthetic biology and materials, studying novel biosynthetic production as well as interactions between living and non-living systems. He was part of Aalto-Helsinki since its start in 2014.
FAVORITE iGEM PROJECT:
chromoproteins from 2012 of the Uppsala team
iGEM FAVORITE:
All the different participants
Sesilja Aranko
Sesilja is a staff scientist at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems at Aalto University.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FAVORITE:
How synthetic biology allows us to learn from and mimic nature, but also to reassemble and redesign the pieces and
biological systems
iGEM FAVORITE:
Being able to to hear about the ideas and to follow the development of the iGEM teams. It is impressive how the teams manage to take over challenging and innovative projects in a very short time
Ville Paavilainen
Ville is a university researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology in the University of Helsinki, and the leader of the Proteostasis and chemical Biology research group. His research focuses on the secretory pathway and the biogenesis of proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FAVORITE:
The use of cutting edge molecular biology to develop new applications and molecules.
iGEM FAVORITE:
The power of motivated student teams in iGEM for tackling really challenging problems every year is inspiring.
Our Mentors
Ilse Kaaja
Ilse is an iGEM alumni from 2019. She is working in the Hematological Genetics lab at UH and studies inherited bone marrow failure syndromes and their progression in leukemia. She would be happy to work with medical innovations to make an impact.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FAVORITE:
The potential to solve some of the most burning challenges that society faces today. “Only imagination is your limit [in synthetic biology]”.
Juuso Taskinen
Juuso is currently in his PhD studies at UH focusing on the function of membrane contact sites in endothelial cells through high-throughput omics methods. He hopes that he'll be able to work on applied projects in the future that have an emphasis on omics.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FAVORITE:
Molecular sticks you can use to poke at individual genes and see what happens.
Rishi Banerjee
Rishi is currently in his PhD working on neonatal mitochondrial disease, GRACILE syndrome. He would like to work in the R&D division of a pharmaceutical company in future.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FAVORITE:
By redesigning organisms through engineering, we can use them for various purposes by introducing new abilities.
Sami Jalil
Sami is finalising his PhD in the Doctoral Programme in Biomedicine. He researches and develops gene-editing therapies seeking to correct genetic mutations. In the future, he would like to work in a team performing clinical trials of gene-editing therapies.
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY FAVORITE:
Directed evolution applied to the creation or improvement of proteins. It already yielded priceless tolls for the gene-editing field and will surely be crucial in the future.