Members overview

Ernst Bank

Name: Ernst Bank

Study: Msc. Biomolecular Siences, VU Amsterdam

iGEM job: Knowledge master, wiki design, graphical designer, software guru

About: Jack of all trades, put him behind a computer to ‘make it fly’ put him in the lab and it will also fly followed by alot of crashing and burning (better in theory than in practice). Next to studying Biomolecular Siences (1e year) also interested in computers, programming, physics, graphical design and not to be seen as a total nerd also likes swimming, biking and partying :P.

Motivation for iGEM: Opportunity to do an ambitions project in a much shorter time span than a normal internship, also the chance to work on improving synthetic biology and the prospect of increasing teamwork skills by working in an interdisciplinary team.

Future perspectives: Hopes to work in a social setting on ambitious bioinformatics projects where team effort is paramount to success.

Glenn Groenewegen

Name: Glenn Groenewegen

Study: Biomolecular Sciences, VU

iGEM job: Chief of Laboratorial Relations and Experiments

About: First years master student with a focus on cell biology. Besides studying very much into music and producing his own. Otherwise sports and cooking belong to his interests.

Motivation for iGEM: Wants to grab the chance on creating something real for himself and actually realizing this on the boundary of science.

Future perspectives: Sees himself working with companies on equally innovative projects.

Maarten Reijnders

Name: Maarten Reijnders

Study: MSc Bioinformatics, VU University Amsterdam

iGEM job: Wiki Chief Editor, software guru, poster/presentation manager

About yourself: BSc Bioinformatician and currently doing a Masters in the same subject, with the focus on the Artificial Intelligence side. Can be characterized as a nerd. Likes to visit concerts and music festivals and is also interested in (watching) sports.

Motivation for iGEM: iGEM is the perfect preparation for a career in science. Doing a normal internship requires you to help in a PhD students project, or at best have your own sub-project inside an existing project. Doing iGEM as a replacement for your internship gives the added bonus of having to think about every stage of a project, from brainstorming to eventually getting results, and of course human outreach. As a Bioinformatician it is also very important to be able to adapt to biologists in a project environment, for which iGEM is a perfect learning ground.

Future perspectives: After iGEM i will do something completely different, starting my internship in Wageningen where i will study protein homology using machine learning techniques. The plan is to start my PhD after my study, but direction and place is still unknown.

Maarten Slagter

Name: Maarten Slagter

Study: MSc Systems Biology & Bioinformatics

iGEM job: Modeling master

About yourself: Broadly interested guy, enjoys all the usual stuff: sports (rowing, biking, running), reading, tasty food, some partying, watching series etc. Fascinated by the effects of music on people and effective harmony, studied at a Jazz-conservatory for a year.

Motivation for iGEM: Got excited about the idea of thinking about biological engineering and having the Parts Registry readily available to be able to construct virtually anything. Turns out modifying an E.coli cell is not as straight-forward as programming a computer! But fortunately all modelling theory and software is easily accessible and I’m learning a lot of microbiology and mathematics as we go.

Future perspectives: I’d like to research cell signalling either in collaboration with experimentalists or in a more fundamentally-oriented environment.

Matias Mendeville

Name: Matias Mendeville

Study: Msc Bioinformatics/Systems Biology

iGEM job: iGEM Amsterdam 2012 CEO, funding, human outreach and practices, public relations About yourself: Born in Amsterdam, son of musicians, since a kid a lot into football. At the moment spending most of his time on investigating the complex and beautiful world of biology.

Motivation for iGEM: The right kind of project to experience science from a new perspective, compared to the usual academic way of reading books and attending lectures. Likes the challenge of working in a team.

Future perspectives: Will work on a bioinformatics internship after iGEM. Will follow developments in biotechnology and will consider different job-opportunities or doing a PhD. Curious on where he will find himself in 5 years. Perhaps coaching a football team =)

Tania Quirin

Name: Marie Ann Christine Tania Quirin

Study: MSc Biomolecular Science (2nd Year)

iGEM job: Safety manager, lab guru
About yourself: Easy-going personality, enjoys all types of discoveries through travelling. Oh and, haven’t you heard about my parties?!?

Motivation for iGEM: I like the concept of iGEM because it delves into other aspects of the scientific society. It differs tremendously from a ‘traditional’ internship in terms of societal impact and also include equally important activities such as the human outreach and funding. Hence, it develops the personality, enhances knowledge and creates a useful list of contacts for a future career. Nonetheless, my main contribution to our iGEM 2012 Amsterdam team........being one of the two “lab heroes” :)

Future perspectives: Would like to pursue a PhD in Virology.