Team:Paris Bettencourt/Team

Undergrads:

Jean Cury

My current internship is about studying a synthetic recombination site of the integron system, at Pasteur Institute, Paris. This gives me a good insight into synthetic biology, and motivates me to participate in iGEM. What attracts me also in doing iGEM is the interdisciplinary team, the team reflexion, and everything about creating a team, organizing it, learning from other fields represented. Indeed, I truly believe that learning from your friends is a good way to improve your knowledge and satisfy your curiosity, that is why I organized meetings with my classmates in order to share what we’re doing in our internships, which are very different (but still related to biology). In addition to my internship, I'm following bioinformatics and arabic courses.

Dylan Iverson

I am a first year student of the Master of Biomedical Engineering at Paris Descartes. My undergraduate degree is Engineering Bachelor of Science: Chemical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara. I have done completed my first 2-month internship for M1 in neurobiology, and iGem will serve as my second internship. I discovered the topic of synthetic biology by taking Jake Wintermute’s course for the AIV Master. In contrast with biology students, I have more knowledge of mathematical modeling and chemistry. I am particularly interested in metabolic engineering. I hope to do what I can to make us all synthetic biology champions.

Zoran Marinkovic

I studied Molecular Biology at University of Zagreb (Croatia) and did a semester long exchange at Uppsala University (Sweden) where I studied Microbial and Evolutionary Genetics and Bioinformatics. Currently, I’m doing a 5 month long internship at INSERM U1001 under the supervision of Jake Wintermute tackling the question of bacterial aging using the synthetic biology approach. My primary interest is application of synthetic biology for creating bioproducts as well as using synthetic biology in fundamental research. Also, I’m quite interested in developing synthetic biology as a tool for creating living organisms from scratch as we build many non-living constructs today. I joined iGEM because I would like to experience and observe the process of generating ideas and creating a science project with a group of people which, I hope, will be interesting and fun to do. Of course, it has to be the Grand Prize winning one.

Claire Mayer

I think Synthetic Biology has a tremendous potential, and especially in medical and environmental applications. iGEM is my M1 internship. I wanted to join the iGEM team in order to work in a pluridisciplinary environment on an exciting synthetic biology project, and learn a lot from each participant, and let them learn from me. What do I do apart from studying? I am Co President of Paris Descartes’ Debating Club and I give lessons to an adult class in biology (in preparation of an exam called “le brevet adulte”). I love genetics and immunology.

Denis Samuylov

I finished my undergraduate studies in 2011 in Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University in Russia. I was learning technical and physical courses, e.g. Electrodynamics, Optics, Quantum Physics, Math, Statistics, Computer Sciences, Electronics… At the moment, I am in the first year of the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life Science (AIV) Master Program and I fell in love with Biology... or rather Synthetic Biology! So, with my interdisciplinary background I intend to apply my numerous skills to make humanity’s life better and save the world. I am deeply interested in fighting cancer and to participate in ecological projects. I am sure that participation in iGEM is a great possibility to meet interesting people, share my skills and to learn something new! And of course to have a fun summer while realizing useful project! As for my other interests, I love sports, dancing, music, nature and life!

Sarah Patriarche

I chose this master that gathers students of diverse backgrounds from around the world because I thought that my biology skills would be enriched while exposing myself to different people and subjects. That is part of what made me come often to the Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire. Through the courses and Synthetic Biology Club that I participated in there, I discovered iGEM. The creation of a concrete and useful original project, the fun, the diligent work and the diverse people all converging together to the same goal are some of the reasons why I want to be part of this adventure. After IGEM and between my first and second year of master I will probably do a one year trip around the world, working sometimes in labs, sometimes diverse jobs. After that I hope I’ll have a more enlightened vision of the world, our issues and natural treasures. I think this would help me to be a better scientist and human being.

Aishah Prastowo

Before my master I did Engineering Physics in Gadjah Mada University Indonesia. As my final project of my undergraduate, I studied microfluidics and did a project on low-cost microfluidic system for generating biomicrobubbles. Currently I am doing my internship about real-time control of gene expression in yeast. For me engineering is all about systems design and modeling, making innovation and troubleshooting, and so is synthetic biology. I hope I can learn both science and soft skills by participating in iGEM, while contributing my best for the team.

Julianne Rieders

I earned my B.A. at Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr Pa, where I studied biology and East Asian studies. I am primarily interested in molecular therapeutics, and believe that the application of synthetic and systems biology to this field will allow for the development of safer more efficient treatments. I am currently involved in a hardcore synthetic biology project working with both bacterial and mammalian cells. Participating in iGEM is an ideal opportunity to apply and share my skills in this field, as well as expand my skill set, in an exciting and competitive environment.

Ernest Mordret

By the end of high school, I had quite a hard time choosing between biology studies and the classical engineering track. Thus, iGEM and synthetic biology are a way to use this engineering approach in order to serve my passion for biology. I am deeply interested in the robustness of synthetic gene circuits and in the development of innovative directed evolution strategies. During my internships and theoretical trainings, I acquired skills in population genetics, molecular biology and microfluidics, and I will try to bring as much energy, commitment, suggestions and solutions as possible for the team!

Guillaume Villain

I am really interested in synthetic biology, modeling of biological systems, education, directed evolution and protein engineering. I would like especially to know more about extremophilic protein, which is why I am doing an internship in the institute of physico-chemical biology (IBPC, Paris) in a bioinformatics laboratory to study molecular modeling of extremophilic protein. I love interdisciplinarity and I think iGEM is a fantastic opportunity to learn a lot about synthetic biology and sciences in an innovative way.

Advisors:

Ariel Lindner

INSERM tenured senior researcher and co-director of the AIV master, has graduated from the Hebrew University (Jerusalem, Israel) "Amirim" interdisciplinary program with major in Chemistry and received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) in Chemical Immunology for his work on catalytic antibodies as enzyme models, antibody conformational changes and directed evolution. After a research period at the Scripps Institute (California, USA), he received EMBO and Marie Curie fellowships to pursue postdoctoral work in Paris. His study interest evolve around applying Physical, Chemical and Biological approaches to study variability between clonal individuals. he si an associate professor at the Paris Descartes university faculty of Medicine (2008/9) and serves as the director of studies of the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI).

Antoine Decrulle

I’m a first year PhD student working on synthetic biology. My interest for this field started 3 years ago when i did the first year of the AIV master program and participated to the iGEM Paris team in 2010. I have to say that this experience of research influenced me a lot during the past two years. Last year I decided to share my experience of synthetic biology and of the iGEM competition by advising the paris iGEM team 2011. This was a great experience for me that’s why I decided to keep doing it this year for the new Paris 2012 team.

Aleksandra Nivina

My interest in iGEM began in 2010 when I participated in this competition as a member of the Paris team. It was a wonderful way to learn Synthetic biology and get a hands-on experience in a research project. In fact, I liked this “scientific adventure” so much that it’s now my second year as an adviser. During this summer, I’m still finishing my undergraduate studies, but hopefully will start a PhD on a synthetic biology related project by autumn.

Babak Nichabouri

As pharmacy student, I have a great interest in biotechnology for life and health sciences. Participating to iGEM last year was for me a great experience in term of learning about science. It could has been done with the formidable help of my previous advisors. I would now like to share my knowledge and experience with the members of the next team.

Jake Wintermute

I'm a postdoctoral researcher working at the Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire. I also teach the Synthetic Biology course for the AIV master's students. My Ph.D. comes from the Systems Biology department at Harvard, where I graduated in 2011. I have been an iGEM fan and groupie for many years, but this will be my first time personally involved with a team. I am looking forward to taking this team to MIT and showing everyone a great time in Boston!

Yifan Yang

I’m a PhD student from the FdV (Frontières du Vivant) PhD school and INSERM U1001, working on the evolutionary and systems biology of bacterial aging. Trained in an interdisciplinary undergraduate program as a biologist and a mathematician in Peking University, I participated in iGEM 2007 as an initiating member of the PKU iGEM team, which won the Grand Prize in MIT. After spending a year in Caltech, I joined François Taddei’s group in Paris since 2009. I helped mentoring the 2010 & 2011 Paris iGEM teams, and will do the same this year. I hope as experience grows, I would do a better job both in organizing to help the team be more effective, and in mentoring to help the members to realize their own ideas.

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