Team work

Here you will find how our amazing team organized itself to optimize the overall functioning of the team!

Andreu Pascuet: Responsible for the design and characterization of the Intein Mediated T3-biosensor and the audiovisual communication. Besides, creator and host of the school engagement sessions.
Edu Suñé: Responsible for the design, implementation and characterization of the Intein Mediated T3-biosensor and future sensor improvements. Host of the podcast for public engagement.
Jan Pinyol: Responsible for future implementation and audiovisual communication. Also worked in wetlab research, entrepreneurship and human practices.
Jaume Puig: Responsible for the design, cloning and characterization of the lactone feedback circuit. Also worked on audiovisual communication and social networks tasks as a graphic designer.
June Monge: Responsible for integrated human practices and the turbidostat’s software development, implementation and calibration. Also worked in future implementation and audiovisual communication.
Marcos Chic: Responsible for the drylab part of the project: turbidostat design, development and experiments. Also worked in human practices, hosted the school engagement sessions and take part in the entrepreneurship development.
Miriam Caravaca: Responsible for the wiki programming, graphic design & social networks (instagram). Also worked on the design and implementation of the intein T3-biosensor in wetlab and animations in audiovisual tasks.
Nerea Alvarez de Eulate: Responsible for the wiki programming, turbidostat electronic circuit design and calibration experiments. Also worked in human practices and hosted the school engagement sessions.
Quim Martí: Responsible for modelling and the design, cloning and characterization of the lactone feedback circuit and the production of the podcast for public engagement. Also worked in wiki programming and human practices.
Tomas Berjaga: Responsible for modelling, the design, cloning and characterization of the lactone feedback circuit, bureaucracy, entrepreneurship and social networks (twitter). Also worked in the 3D printing and the calibrations stages of drylab experiments, human practices contacting and the production of the podcast for public engagement.

General support

Our team is very grateful to have received support from the following entities.

Experimental and Health Sciences Department (DCEXS) of University Pompeu Fabra (UPF), for providing us management help and funding.

Engineering in Information and Communication Technologies Department (DTIC) of UPF, for providing us with help and funding.

Biomedical Research Park of Barcelona (PRBB), for providing us common spaces and allowing us to participate in their scientific activities.

Experimental support

Our team was in close contact with these fantastic researchers who provided us with experimental support.

Our instructors: Avencia Sánchez-Mejías, Marc Güell, Sira Mogas, Dimitrije Ivančić, for graciously welcoming us to the iGEM competition and for giving us support and guidance throughout the project.

Javier Macia: director of the laboratory of Synthetic Biology for Biomedical Applications, for aiding us with the lactone circuit design and implementation.

Guillermo Nevot: PhD candidate at Translational Synthetic Biology Group, for mentoring us on the construction of our turbidostat, providing us with wetlab materials and advising in the cloning. We really appreciated your full-time engagement and the possibility to ask and discuss questions at any time.

Translational Synthetic Biology laboratory members: Nuria Rafel, Guillem Lopez-Grado, Nastassia Knödlseder, Jessica Jaraba and Maria Pallarès, for assisting us on our daily experiments and for helping us getting familiarized with the laboratory equipment and machineries.

Carlos Toscano: PhD candidate at Dynamical Systems Biology Lab, for helping us with the experimental and construct design.

Jordi Garcia Ojalvo, for advising us on the model construction and validation.

Òscar Fornas, head of Flow Cytometry Unit at Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, for his advice on directed evolution for a possible enhancement in the performance of our intein engineered bacteria and for his kind introduction to their flow cytometry machinery.

Hardware design support

Our team was very pleased for the kind hardware support from...

Laura Becerra & Aracelys Garcia: Postdoc and doctoral researchers at the Biomedical Electronics Research Group (BERG), for being kind enough to provide valuable feedback on the electronic circuit behind our turbidostat and for supporting the team with electronic material acquisition.

Mario Gomez: PhD candidate at BERG, for helping us in the implementation and design of the proportional-integrative-derivative (PID) controller.

Special thanks to

Our team was delighted and grateful to be able to share this experience with experts from different fields.

Dr. Ricard Torras: Former head of department of the Endocrinology Service at Hospital Mutua Terrassa and at the General Hospital of Catalonia. He broadened our knowledge on the physiology of the endocrine system and its pathology.

Dr. Albert Goday Arno: endocrinology section head of department in Parc de Salut Mar Hospital in Barcelona. He gave us valuable information regarding the physiological impact and the clinical viability that could our “Hormonic” device have in the future.

Catalan Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SCEN): Dra. Anna Casterres, Dra. Fina Biarnés, Dra. Mireia Mora (first vocal) and Dra. Alejandra Perez, for their expertise on the field and guidance on the possible implementation strategies.

Dr. Carles Zafon: member of the management board of the thyroid committee TIROSEEN within the Spanish Endocrinology and Nutrition Association (SEEN) and head of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital thyroid department, for helping us argue the relevance of our project by identifying possible groups that could benefit from this medical device.

Dr. Eric Fliers: member of the executive committee of the European Thyroid Association (ETA) and co-author of the European Thyroid Association (ETA) and Thyroid Federation International (TFI) Joint Position Statement on the Interchangeability of Levothyroxine Products in EU Countries article, for his help on the development of treatment bioequivalence testing and monitoring plan design.

Professor Vanesa Daza: member of the Wireless Communication Group within the department of Information and Communication Technology at the UPF, for her knowledge on wireless communication security, for the sealed transmission of health related data.

Carles Taulé Flores: Business Development Manager in Biotech, for helping us design Hormonic’s business plan and defining the key partners, activities and resources for our future journey.

Other mentionable support

Last but not least, thanks to...

Álvaro Baeza, for your kind supply and help with the 3d printer.

UPF Factoria, for the help in the recording and editing of the presentation video. Special thanks to Justí Torn for providing valuable feedback on the promotion video.

Regina Lopez, Cristina Fernández, Anna Almor and Dolors Bofías, for helping us with the managing of finances, payments and material and reagents acquisition.

iGEM Barcelona 2018 past participants: Carla Castignani, Dimitrije Ivančić, Guillem Lopez-Grado, Jordi Pla, Óscar Rodríguez, Laura Sans, Oriol Solà & Marta Vilademunt for their advice and personal experience in the competition. Special thanks to Jordi Pla & Laura Sanz, who provided advice and insight into the wiki design.