Team

Meet the people behind our project

Members:


Elizaveta Shcherbinina

For her science is about discoveries that are made through hard work and would have been impossible without a good team. Elizaveta joined iGEM to learn new skills and explore the field of synthetic biology. Though her real discovery was what teamwork made her capable of and how she was able to bring her teammates further in response.

Portrait Émile Barbé

Émile likes the idea, that we are able to simulate a lot of processes from the real life on the computer. The possibility to combine Drylab work with the laboratory work brought him to iGEM.

Portrait Erva Keskin

As a master's student in Nanoscience, Erva brings laboratory experience from a variety of disciplines that she is happy to share. She joined IGEM because it gave her the opportunity to work on a project as part of a team and hone her laboratory skills while expanding her perspective on project planning and science communication.

Portrait Ferran Agulló i Manobens

Driven by curiosity, Ferran joined iGEM to meet like-minded students who share his excitment in synthetic biology. Since an iGEM project requires a wide diversity of tasks, he enjoyed the journey of learning grant writing, lab management and soft skills.

Portrait Garvit Sharma

Being in a multidisciplinary course like Nanoscience, Garvit got an opportunity to explore the field of Biology through a nanometer scale, and joining IGEM was one of these pursuits that gave him a chance to explore experimental biology with a diverse and skillful team, working together on the project while successfully gaining knowledge and skills to further diversify his expertise in this field.

Portrait Jakob Franz

Having no background in biology, Jakob joined iGEM to meet and work with people from other domains of science. He enjoys both learning new things and contributing with his skillset to projects like iGEM.

Portrait Jiajie Xiang

As biotechnologist, Jiajie is fascinated with the idea of solving problems by applying novel tools or products obtained from living organisms. In light of this, he joined iGEM because it provides him with a great opportunity to gain practical experience as well as broadening skills in other disciplines related to project planning and management such as financing, science communication, and administrative work.

Portrait Justina Jüttner

As a student of biochemistry, Justina is fascinated by the way molecules and their interactions create ever-changing metabolic pathways in cells and whole organisms. She joined iGEM because she always searches for opportunities to learn new things and spent more time in the lab. She also appreciated the opportunity to get more experience in project planning and experimental design.

Portrait Lars Kötter

Lars tackles problems by breaking them down into solvable smaller and smaller pieces – even if he gets sometimes lost in the details in the process. As one of the two master student of the team, he loves to share his experience with the younger members. What was most intriguing for him in the iGEM competetion was the opportunity to learn how to work as part of team and organize a project from scratch.

Portrait Laurentien Jungkamp

Coming from a background of chemistry and now studying biochemistry, Laurentien is intrigued with how molecules of all sizes interact with each other to enable - or, in the case of anatoxin A , disable - life. He joined iGEM to learn and expand his skillset in and beyond the lab, and, simply put, to make life more interesting.

Portrait Louis Funk

Encouraged by his fascination for biology, Louis didn’t want to miss the experience of working with concurring students to make an idea become reality. IGEM gave him the chance to learn from and with others how to work on an interdisciplinary science project.

Portrait Rafaela Gamboa von Groll

Rafaela is a biology student that always wondered how it is to work in a laboratory. Her idea was to spend all day in the lab. However, iGEM showed her that working on a project has many other aspects to consider, besides the science. Some aspects are human practices, finance, organizational skills, etc. All this is only possible with a great team. That is why Rafaela is so greatfull for the opportunity to work together with a amazing team and be able to learn from each of them.

Portrait Susan Tober

As a biology student, Susan likes how many complex mechanisms take place in organisms at any given time. She joined iGEM for the opportunity to work on a self-organized project and was glad to make new experiences such as writing articles about scientific topics.

PI:


Portrait Dr. Libera Lo Presti

As biotechnologist, mentor and scientific writer, Libera couldn´t help but joining a team of highly motivated and enthusiastic young students. She offered advice on the experimental design of the project but also help with more practical aspects like forms and regulations. She is persuaded that we are winners no matter which team which medal we get.

Mentors:


Portrait Aaron Refisch

Aarón is a long year’s participater in iGEM: he started as a team member in 2020 and then first became mentor in 2021, therefore he possesses a lot of knowledge about the way iGEM works and how to tackle which hurdles. His core competences are human practices and collaborations with other teams. He is also famously known for his affiliation for memes in his powerpoint presentations, which sometimes felt like lasting for ages.

Portrait Adrián Vojtaššák

Adrián is doing his master thesis in molecular plant sciences and was already part of last year’s iGEM team. With the experience he has gained as a member in many subteams, he was able to contribute a lot of useful knowledge and advice to this year’s team. He was always highly motivated and never lost patience. His skills as “Stocherkahnfahrer” and volleyball player were also of great use for team building activities.

Portrait Erik Zimmer

Erik currently finishes his masters in biochemistry and was the team leader of Tuebingen 2021 team. With this knowledge he decided to be a part of this year’s team again, this time as a mentor. Due to all his prior experience, he was of great help especially in the phase of the project planning in regards to cloning and wetlab advice. He always had an open ear for all arising questions during the course of the competition.

Portrait Inga Leske

Inga recently graduated as a Master in pharmaceutical sciences. She participated as a team member in iGEM 2021 and was motivated to join this year’s competition as a mentor. Her expertise in many soft skill areas like human practices, social media and finances came in very handy. Furthermore, she took part in the Hamburg iGEM meetup and connected to other teams.