Team:DTU-Denmark/Team
Team
Supervisors
Meet the wetlab team
Peter Bing Svendsen
Member of the team building team, video team, human practices and the wetlab group.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
I joined the team because it is a great opportunity to acquire new skills and it is always fun helping with a project that tries to create novel solutions.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
Anything that has to do with genetic engineering is a huge passion of mine. So to optimize and harness the power of microorganisms in order to create new drugs, enzymes or other biological products is something I find truly exciting.
What’s your biggest screw up in the kitchen?
I have killed yeast with hot water and salt while baking on separate occasion - which is hard to admit as a biotechnology student.
Victoria Visby Nissen
Member of the admin group and the wetlab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
I’m just a nerd who loves learning new things and thinks fungi are weirdly cool. iGEM is an unique opportunity to work with a group of great and very smart people and do research on a subject chosen based on our own interest.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
I find filamentous fungi to be cool (and a bit disgusting), because they can be used to solve so many different problems. I really think some of these biobased solutions can be used to make a more sustainable future.
What’s the dumbest way you have been injured?
I poured acetone (nail polish remover) in my hair, which dripped down on my face when I was 3 years old. My parents thought I had gotten it in my eyes and I ended up at the emergency room - luckily it hadn’t and I’m not blind today.
Timian Rindal
Member of the outreach group and the wetlab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
iGEM is a great opportunity to start and shape a project from scratch. Besides that it is an awesome way to meet new people and challenge yourself with something as interesting as synthetic biology.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
All the amazing things you can do with synthetic biology fascinates me. I have especially been attracted to the idea of tool development for synthetic biology. I like the idea of developing methods/tools that will help other scientists in their work.
What’s a body part you wouldn’t mind losing?
I think I could live without one of my little toes.
Daniel Bavnhøj
Member of the wiki group, the economy group and the wetlab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
It is a huge opportunity to get into a biotech start-up incubator where you meet a lot of interesting people nationally and internationally, get access to cutting edge technologies and dirty hands.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
Metabolic pathways are very interesting to study and engineer. I love the idea of being able to manipulate organisms for multiple purposes. Opportunities at scale. Genetic engineering - it's like playing with lego, just better!
What is the most supernatural thing you have ever experienced?
We once held a Christmas party at my parents house where Santa came in the window, not the chimney. Traumatic.
Cecilia Desiree Visti Graae
Member of the outreach team, human practices and the wetlab group.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
It seemed like a great opportunity to learn more about synthetic biology and get to work with different techniques in practice. Also meeting a bunch of new people both at DTU and internationally was a big, motivational factor!
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
My main interest is in biomanufacturing of products through fermentation. I find it a really exciting area with lots of future potential for more sustainable production.
What is the dumbest way that you have been injured?
In elementary school, I had a friend turn up one day with a broken toe because she tried to do a cartwheel in her room and hit a bookshelf. I got home that day and thought… I can totally do a cartwheel in here, whereafter I broke my toe and was too embarrassed to tell anyone for a few days so I just stumbled around in pain.
Martí Morera Gómez
Member of the wetlab team and the human practices team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
When I first heard about it it sounded like a great opportunity to participate in a project from beginning to end so I decided to join!
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
I find the possible applications in renewable fuels using synthetic biology very interesting, and a promising way to fix the world.
What is the dumbest way that you have been injured?
Broke a finger when trying to point in a map to decide where I would live when I grew up, and I pointed on water.
Lucas Levassor
Member of the video group, the economy group and the wetlab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
I’m really into synthetic biology and since iGEM is the biggest competition in synthetic biology it seemed like a place for me. Also getting to know more people in the field of synthetic biology drew me in.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
What really interests me is to make a sustainable future with synthetic biology - to make a long story short. I think engineering cell factories have a great potential in achieving that. Recently I have found fungi to be a treasure chest of new discoveries which overlaps perfectly with this year's project.
What are the best and worst purchases you’ve ever made?
Ironically, a 1200 DKK alpaca wool sweatshirt I bought in the middle of the night at Roskilde festival, is my worst and best purchase.
Christine Pedersen
Member of human practices and the wetlab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
I joined iGEM because I think it is a golden opportunity to work and learn more about synthetic biology, and at the same time meet a lot of new people that love the same thing.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
I love the idea of using microbes as sustainable producers of compounds that the world needs. I think it is amazing that you can use what nature has already created and optimize them to help humans live a more sustainable life.
What is the dumbest way that you have been injured?
I am that type that stumbles over a flat surface, bumps into every corner possible and falls on my bike for no reason. And then I like to whine about it. So I guess it was the day before my exam where I was biking with a speed of about 0 km/h, I fell (off course) and sprained my wrist. Imagine how I was doing as a waitress!
Bira Aziz Khan
Member of the economy group and the wetlab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
I joined iGEM because I wanted to learn and practice the use of genetic tools. Moreover, I could use this opportunity to develop interpersonal skills, mostly related to project management and teamwork with highly educated people in this field.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
I am mainly interested in developing new treatments for harmful diseases, such as Cancer, through the genetic engineering route.
What’s your biggest screw up in the kitchen?
I broke a set of 12 freshly new cups right after we brought them home.
Meet the drylab team
Niels MK
Member of the admin team, economy-, teambuilding- and wiki group and the drylab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
iGEM is a great chance to unite with other fantastic scientists, set our individual ambitions aside and do great science for the good of the world.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
Synthetic biology is exciting because nature has been developing all these amazing microscopic machines that do all sorts of wonderful things. We just have to figure out how to use them. So I guess I’m interested in understanding biological systems, so they can be harnessed and used.
What sorts of fun stuff do you do in your spare time?
My favourite pastime is arguing intensely with my friends about things that don’t matter at all. I also enjoy taking care of my many plants, when I don’t feel like arguing.
Cecilie Amalie Neijendam Thystrup
Member of the outreach team, video-, teambuilding- and wiki group and the drylab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
I joined iGEM because I wanted to be a part of a project where I could challenge many areas of my interests and work together with an awesome team of people.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
My passion is mostly for the human body and how we can learn to understand how different diseases affect us. I am mostly interested in epidemiology and all the computational stuff behind it.
Was the dress gold/white or blue/black?
Gold and white and I will fight anyone who disagrees!
Clara Drachmann
Member of the admin team, teambuilding- and wiki group and the drylab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
I thought iGEM would be a great opportunity to do project work in a team of dedicated people and to get to do modelling within a subject that differs a lot from what I am used to.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
My main interests, actually, do not lie within synthetic biology, but rather within modelling of immunological processes and understanding how they act to help the development of immunotherapy. However, it is fun to explore a very different field of interest!
Was the dress gold/white or blue/black?
Blue and black - just come get me, Cecilie!
Margrethe Mærsk-Møller
Member of the admin group, the outreach group and the drylab team.
Why did you join iGEM this year?
It sounded like a fun opportunity to work on a larger project with a group of interesting people.
What’s your interest area in synthetic biology or bioscience?
I love learning and figuring out how things work, so my interest is very broad. I come from an applied maths background and find biological systems fascinating and sometimes baffling in their intricacy. Understanding biology through patterns (maths) makes sense to me.
What’s your biggest screw up in the kitchen?
Not in an actual kitchen but once, at a scout camp, I managed to drop an entire salt container into a pot of stew. We managed to fish most of it out, but it was still horrible.
Meet the supervisors
Chris Workman
Associate Professor, DTU Bioengineering
Henrik Toft-Simonsen
Associate Professor, DTU Bioengineering
Fabiano Jares Contesini
Postdoc., DTU Bioengineering
Kyle Rothschild-Mancinelli
PhD., DTU Bioengineering
