Attributions

Team Members

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Alessio Barca

Alessio served as this year’s team UFlorida iGEM captain. At the end of last year’s iGEM cycle, the team was only left with two members, including himself. Throughout the initial portion of the iGEM cycle, Alessio recruited 15 new members to become a part of the iGEM team. In addition, our primary PI at the time had stepped down from his position, so Alessio began a search for a new PI and laboratory space, which eventually led our team to be adopted by Dr. Jing Pan. Throughout the competition cycle, Alessio collaborated with Dr. Pan and his team of graduate students to set up and optimize our new laboratory space, acquire materials necessary for experimentation, and become familiar with lab instrumentation that would be used by the team members. In addition, Alessio worked closely with Dr. Donnelly to lead the team’s fundraising efforts, complete key deliverables, and recruit individuals for our wiki design team.

George VanVeckhoven

Our Dry Lab division lead, George Vanveckhoven, led efforts in developing a user guide for the ODIGOS software produced by the high school iGEM team GunnVistaPingry_US, who won a gold medal in 2020. Along with producing this user guide, George helped work with the Wet Lab division and broke down the experiment into different potential mathematical equations for the various steps. These equations could be implemented into a model given the proper data and assumptions. George also was a major component to the design and final publication of the team wiki page.

Makenna Myrick

Our Human Practices lead, Makenna Myrick, spearheaded collaborations with Lambert high school as well as facilitated discussions concerning the reach and efficacy of the project as a whole. She led a team of 5 to aid in literature collection related to current treatments of glioblastomas and compiled information from each member to create the official write ups for the medal criteria. She spoke at the Lambert high school summer camp as a part of the ongoing partnership between the two teams, and served as a sounding board for Lambert’s project throughout the summer.

Eden Goldenberg

Our Wet Lab division lead, Eden Goldenberg, provided our team with the idea and vision for the research project she conceptualized. She worked very closely with our team’s members to ensure they all had a solid grasp of the project description and the various experimental methods we would employ. Having a background in cellular and molecular biology and genetics research, Eden laid out the framework for how we would tackle our project. Namely, she was able to identify four target gRNA sequences for the EGFRvIII mutation and how we would use a CRISPRi system to induce a therapeutic change in glioblastoma cells. She helped push the dry lab team to work with guide RNA predictive software, which could estimate which of the four guide RNA’s selected would yield the most accurate CRISPR Cas-9/Exon containing complex model while simultaneously limiting the number of off-target mutations in the resulting GBM cell line.

Neeley Delamata

Neeley was a member of the dry lab team and helped contribute to the creation of the dry lab plan and found additional literature. She helped finalize the user guide for the ODIGOS software based on the findings of her two colleagues within the team and combined them into one user guide.

Crissy Williams

Crissy was a member of the dry lab team and helped compile the literature featuring mathematical models for cancer treatments and tumor proliferation. This included reaching out to professors for their expert opinions on the proposed modeling systems. She also helped develop the user guide for the ODIGOS software.

Neha Kashyap

Neha was an integral member of the wet lab division for this year’s competition. She worked closely with Alessio and Dr. Pan to craft responses for UF’s Environmental Health and Safety questions regarding the biosafety and ethics of our project. This included responses elaborating on the replication incompetency of second-generation lentiviruses, as well as the inherent risks to lab personnel and/or the environment posed by research material. Neha also assisted Eden and Yongchen with the design process of the forward and reverse primer sequences for the EGFRvIII gRNA that is ligated onto the CRISPRi backbone.

Lucas Kromholz

Lucas engaged in the team’s project by extracting background research regarding the use of viruses as vectors and the angiogenic mechanisms of tumor growth and development. His review and presentation of this research was useful in narrowing our team’s research aim and methodology. In addition, Lucas also aided in the formation of the project’s wiki as he was a major contributor to the background portion.

Drew Goldsmith

Drew’s experience in cellular research aided in the creation of lab protocol and procedures. His exploration of nanoparticles contributed to the decision to use lentiviral vectors as the best option to deliver the Crispr-Cas9 system, and how the lysogenic cycle would integrate the corrected mutation for generations of cells.

Marko Mikunovic

Marko has a background in wet lab practices involving genetic modification and genetic tools to improve crop production, reduce inputs, and boost sustainable agriculture. He also helped research background information on epigenetics and how to target certain genetic sequences through various means, primarily plasmids. This additional information that he gathered helped the wet lab team during decision meetings on which method/way to go with our overall project.

Rachell Hawkes

Rachell has a strong background in cell culturing and wet lab practices. She drafted information about targeting specific gene sequences through plasmids. This allowed the team to consider what direction to take the project by identifying the pathway and experimentation that comes along with using plasmids, as well as how viable it would be for our specific research.

Haisley Smith

Haisley acted as a member of the human practices team. Her contributions include, but are not limited to collaborating on project goals, investigating the benefits of the project, and connecting with members of the patient population. Specifically, Haisley interviewed a glioblastoma patient and discussed details about their diagnosis and treatment in order to derive an ethical foundation for the project.

Izabela Zmirska

Izabela engaged with the human practices team through her investigation on the clinical applications of viral vector therapy in glioblastoma treatment. Specifically, she assessed the ideal time to implement viral vectors in the Stupp Protocol. Izabela also researched the survival rate of current glioblastoma patients and their demographics in the United States.

Jessica Kuehler

Jessica played a role on the human practice team. She engaged in preliminary research of past publications that used viral vectors to treat pediatric glioblastomas. Further, she assessed the risks associated with using this method for pediatric patients and looked into the success with using viral vectors in addition to radiation for treatment. Jessica attended meetings with Lambert Highschool to discuss fundraising ideas and problem troubleshooting in the lab. Specifically, she spoke at a summer camp hosted by Lambert to give guidance to upcoming college applicants and their interest in the science field.

Logan Spiegelman

Logan engaged in the team’s project through both the brainstorming stages and the empirical, day-to-day aspects of his role. More specifically, he collected and summarized initial research on viral vectors, glioblastoma and, but not limited to, treatments for pediatric glioblastoma as opposed to that of adult patients. Additionally, Logan actively communicated with our partner team at Lambert High School, attending meetings with their students and coordinating specifics of our partnership.

Caiden Brooks

Caiden participated in the human practices team by working closely with the collaborations division. She actively sought out new teams to collaborate with and reached out to a scientific professional for guidance about our project. Additionally, Caiden attended meetings with the fundraising subdivision of the team. She researched and applied to a grant that would help further our research, while also relieving some of the financial stress.