Team:Wisconsin-Madison/advisors

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Matt Copeland, PhD
I grew up in a van down by the river, sustaining myself primarily on a diet of government cheese. When I wasn't reeling from diet-induced vitamin deficiencies I managed to complete college and get a B.A. in Biochemistry from McDaniel College (Westminster, MD). I then moved to Wisconsin to get closer to the source of my government cheese and attend graduate school in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For my thesis, I studied the swarming motility of enteric bacteria, completing my PhD under the guidance of Dr. Douglas Weibel in February 2012. I thought these little microbes were pretty gnarly and wanted to engineer them to do novel things, like save the planet or make a bigger, better cheese, so I pursued a post-doctoral position with Dr. Brian Pfleger in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. I began my postdoc in May 2012 and eagerly agreed to be one of the iGEM advisors for this year's UW team. When I'm not mentoring or seeking my next morsel of cheesy sustenance, I'm working on developing novel transcription factors for the regulation of metabolic pathways in E. coli.

Brian F. Pfleger, PhD is from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of University of Wisconsin Madison. His lab's current interest is using synthetic biology to engineer sustainable chemical processes and to improve human health. He believes synthetic biology is an emerging biotechnology field that combines elements of engineering, mathematics, biochemistry, and biology to synthesize novel systems from characterized biological components. His research lab integrates these scientific disciplines to engineer chemical production platforms in microorganisms. The lab’s work strives to characterize new biological components, synthesize novel activities and novel molecules from cataloged components, and provide tools to analyze biological systems. His long term vision of the chemical industry involves the use of modern biotechnology, and specifically synthetic biology, to engineer systems where the spectrum of fuels, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals we use can be produced from renewable sources such as biomass or CO2.

In addition to his full time research laboratory, he advises a team of undergraduates that competes in the international Genetically Engineered Machines competition. He has advised a team of UW-Madison students each year since 2008. In that time, he has introduced synthetic biology to 31 undergraduates, 10 of which are now pursuing graduate degrees in science and/or medicine.