The third-ever Washington University in St. Louis iGEM team is composed of five undergraduate students majoring in biology, biochemistry and biomedical engineering. With the help of two mentors, Dr. Joe Jez and Dr. Gautam Dantas, and several graduate students (Brian Landry, Bert Berla, and Larry Page), the team developed and carried out a project of its own devising – namely, the synthesis of the components of saffron in the vector Synechocystis. This year’s team was assembled at the beginning of the spring semester. Through weekly Wednesday morning meetings, the team brainstormed ideas with the mentors, eventually forming a concrete plan to be implemented over the summer. With most of the planning done during the semester, the team was free to spend the summer first ironing out the finer details of the project and then implementing the project. Click on any picture below to see the corresponding student profile.