ALEXANDRU
WHO ARE YOU?
Hi, I am Alexandru and I am a masters student at the University of Edinburgh
WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?
Reading: I enjoy reading books from all kinds of genre ranging from classic literature to sci-fi
as long as the author has done a great job at captivating my attention from the start.
Numismatics: I have been collecting coins for quite a while now and it includes thousands of
different coins. In my opinion, each coin has a story behind its appearance, and it motivates
me to go and research those time periods and thus I familiarise with the history of various
countries.
WHY ARE YOU PARTICIPATING IN IGEM?
My primary goal is acquiring new skills that will be useful for my career. In my opinion, the
best way to achieve that is to get out of your comfort zone and iGEM seemed like a very
good opportunity. Moreover, I got invested in the overall idea of the project and that kept
motivating me to continue to dedicate myself to the project.
EDUCATION
I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at the Cardiff University, UK. I also
recently completed my dissertation for my Master’s degree in Synthetic Biology and
Biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
I had a 9 months internship at the BioArt Laboratories in Eindhoven, Netherlands. I studied
techniques to extract lipids and fatty acids from waste material at the waste water treatment
plant in Eindhoven as a potential raw material for biodiesel production.
WHAT PERSON DO YOU WANT TO BE/ASPIRE?
I want to be a successful scientist and obtain answers to as many biological questions as I
can ask.
DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN 3 WORDS
Responsible, punctual, and witty
WHY DO YOU LIKE BIOLOGY?
It is the subject I am the best at and I enjoying exploring and studying it.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO STUDY BIOLOGY?
Besides the fact that I like biology, I believe that it can have a great impact on the lives of
many people. Moreover, with the development of computation and automation, biology is
capable of making huge developmental leaps and I want to be a part of it and contribute.
HOW YOUR PROJECT/DISSERTATION INTEGRATES WITH THE OTHER TEAM
MEMBERS PROJECTS?
My project is a piece of the puzzle in the entire biosensor system that our team developed. It
is supposed to be a decoder module that receives the RNA signals and computes them
using logic gates to give out an expected signal.
WHY IS YOUR PROJECT USEFUL?
My project is useful for when the number of analytes in the biosensor increases up to the
point where there are no available orthogonal fluorescent outputs to signal a new analyte.
For example, if the system has 5 analytes, it will need 5 distinct fluorescent signals to help
distinguish between the analyte species, however it can be simplified by using a decoder.
Instead of displaying five different fluorescent signals, the decoder is capable of encoding
the input so that the presence of a particular fluorescent RNA can indicate the presence of
not one but multiple inputs.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY?
Synthetic biology is a rebranding of the biotechnology; however, I think there is a great
potential. For decades biologist have tried to understand how different cell components
work, and now using synthetic biology we can finally make efforts to try and assemble simple
biological constructs that will have a predictable behaviour based on the information we
acquired for so long.
WHY DO YOU THINK A UNIVERSAL BIOSENSOR IS USEFUL?
An affordable biosensor is a very powerful tool. It can give people the means to test and
make a choice themselves whether to use a product or not rather than relying on more
sophisticated data. Information is knowledge and affordable and simple to use biosensors
are very powerful tools that can be used to acquire a lot of information.
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