Team Members
Jordan Kassanoff
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology
Jordan designed the genetic constructs for crtE-TDS-MBP and T5AT, found background research, helped write the grants and informational texts, and assembled both TDS2-MBP and crtE-TDS-MBP in the wet lab.
Maya Nelson
Biochemistry & Public Health
Maya is a Student Leader who contributed to background research and conceptualization, lab maintenance, project administration, safety, fundraising, data curation and analysis, project visualization, and wet lab construction of the crte-TDS-MBP-RUBY construct and T5-alpha-hydroxylase genes in e. coli and soybeans.
Lea Hibbard
Chemical & Biological Engineering
Lea contributed to wiki design, development, and content as well as background research, gene assembly of the crte-TDS-MBP-RUBY construct in E. coli, and project presentation.
David Birkhaeuser
MCDB & Spanish for the Professions
David contributed to construct design, background research, wet lab work, and bean surgery, focusing primarily on integrating the taxadiene synthase 2 gene into soybean.
Lindsey Neukirch
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology & Public Health
Lindsey is one of the Student Leaders who contributed to background research, experimental design, fundraising, project administration, wet lab construction of the crte-TDS-MBP-RUBY construct, the crte-TDS2-MBP-RUBY construct, and the T5-alpha-hydroxylase construct. Lindsey also helped with the integration of the gene constructs into soybeans through agrobacterium transfection.
Natalie Golovanov
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology
Natalie contributed to writing and producing the team video, background research and conceptualization in designing the constructs, project administration, fundraising, and wet lab construction for the TDS2-CRTE-RUBY construct in E. Coli.
Zani Liddell
Integrative Physiology
Zani contributed lab/project support and advice, wet lab construction of the crte-TDS-MBP-RUBY construct and the T5-alpha-hydroxylase construct.
Julia Shoobe
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology
Julia contributed to wet lab work, project management, and construct designs, with primary focus on crtE-TDS-MBP-RUBY, T5AT, and TDS2-MBP.
Elena Statham
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology
Elena contributed to wet lab work, project management, and construct designs, with primary focus on T5AT, and cytoTDS2-MBP construct.
Sydney Patten
Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology
Sydney contributed our team’s awesome T-shirt design, background research and conceptualization in designing the constructs, fundraising, and wet lab construction for the TDS2-CRTE-RUBY construct in E. Coli.
Faculty Member Contributions
Dr. Brian DeDecker
We’d like to thank our PI Brian Dedecker for his project and fundraising advice, and lab support. Dr. Dedecker has been the principle investigator for the iGEM team since 2016.
Simon Kalmus
We’d like to thank Simon Kalmus for his expertise and support in lab technique. Although all coding sequences, final plasmids, and plant cultures were constructed and conducted by iGEM students, we learned how to do these protocols from Simon. Additionally, Simon was integral in helping us learn about reporter genes GFP and RUBY.
Hongying Zhong from Guangxi-U-iGEM team
We’d like to thank Hongying Zhong, the advisor from the Guangxi-U-iGEM team, for running GC-mass spectroscopy samples for us. Her expertise in this field will allow us accurately and precisely to test our designs.
Lab Dogs
We’d like to thank our lab dogs Ilya Kalmus and Beau DeDecker for their infinite love and support. By sitting nicely in their beds in the office space of our lab, they thoughtfully and carefully oversaw our lab work. See our Team page for pictures!
Class & Previous Member Contributions
CU Boulder has an offered course with our PI, Dr. DeDecker, called MCDB 3000. In this class, students get lab and experimental design experience. The past few semesters, students have worked on various parts of the taxol project for class and some students have transitioned into full time team members listed above. We would like to thank previous class members for their help in digitally and physically designing/constructing some of the genes we are using for our project.
We would also like to thank previous members of the iGEM team in 2021 and the summer of 2022 who aided us in wet lab work, gene construction, and design. These include members who have since left the lab and/or have graduated and we hope they continue to do incredible things!
Sponsors
We would like to thank our sponsors, as shown below for their support on our project. We could not have done this project nor been such a part of the iGEM competition without the support and funding of these groups.
