Team:Exeter/The ExiGEM2012 Team

From 2012.igem.org

The ExiGEM2012 Team

The Exeter Undergraduate Team pictured above is joined by a Nuffield Foundation Student and is supported by a dedicated team of Post-Doctoral Staff from the University's Department of Biosciences, where the team have made their home for the summer. We have been pleased to support three Work Experience students from local 6th Form Colleges who have also contributed towards the project during their time with us.

We would also like to acknowledge the support from our close collaborators in both the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, and the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, along with the many others from within and around the University who have helped us to realise the potential of our iGEM project.

Our Nuffield Foundation Team Member
Chris Hack

I’m an A-level student from Honiton College studying Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths and hoping to go on and study Medicine. I’m working with the iGEM team for six weeks through the summer to get a better insight into the world of research and see what University life is like.

I play football on Sundays and try to play squash whenever I get the chance.

See Chris' bloggings on his iGEM experience here.

Our Post-Doctoral Support
Dr Thomas Howard

My research interests lie in understanding the regulation and organisation of metabolic pathways and networks. In particular I am interested in the flow of carbon, from its assimilation, its partitioning between metabolic fates and the subsequent biosynthesis of storage (fuel) reserves. I am interested in how these metabolic processes are coordinated between competing demands and in response to environmental perturbation.

My expertise includes biochemistry, molecular biology, photosynthetic carbon fixation, primary metabolism and metabolic engineering. As part of my approach to understanding metabolism I employ synthetic biology techniques to redesign and build metabolic pathways.

In addition to this research I am coordinating and supervising the University of Exeter’s inaugural entry into the iGEM competition and, as an off-shoot to this, I curate The 4th Domain - a synthetic biology blog for Exeter students.

Dr Christine Sambles

As a bioinformatician in the Wellcome Trust Biomedical Informatics Hub, I analyse genomic (Roche 454 and Illumina) and transcriptomic sequence data (Illumina RNAseq) of a range of organisms including yeasts, algae, higher plants, and bacteria. Processes include de novo and reference-guided assembly, metatranscriptomics, gene prediction, annotation, comparative genomics, co-expression networking, SNP analysis and phylogenetics.

I create and curate several databases and websites that utilise MySQL/PostgreSQL, PHP, HTML and Perl including genome browsers, transcriptome databases and LIMS.

Additionally I train PDRAs, PhD and undergraduate students in aspects of bioinformatics analyses, visualisation of complex data and programming and am an instructor for the Exeter iGEM 2012 team.

Dr Rafael Pena-Miller

I am a Mexican postdoctoral research fellow working with Prof. Robert Beardmore. My training is in mathematics and I am interested in using quantitative tools from engineering and mathematical systems theory to study microbial evolution.

My main research interest is to construct genetic and metabolic models of individual bacterial cells interacting through the environment. The purpose of these models is to predict population-level behavior from single-cell information with the aim of controlling complex ecological and evolutionary processes.

In particular, my research focuses on the design of optimal antibiotic deployment protocols that minimize conditions promoting the evolution of antimicrobial resistance.

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