There are about 15 people total working with this blog this year! All the members of both teams have collaborated to create this website and support the blog. Other people might collaborate as well, by creating posts and sharing their thoughts. So there will be many different authors writing about different topics, which is one of the many aspects that make this blog special! You can always find the authorship of a post at the beginning of the entry.
On this page, you can find introductions of the people who are in charge of keeping the blog up and running. That way you can know a little bit more about us and the things we want to achieve.
Further down are the introductions of the people that wrote the posts from previous years.
TEAM 2022
Leïla Ouhamma
Team Lausanne
Hello! I’m Leïla!
I’m 21 years old and I’m a 2nd year student in Biology. I am interested in biostatistics, microbiology and engineering studies. Besides that, I’m a fan of rock climbing, hiking and travelling, always ready for new experiences.
Emy Saetre
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Hello! I’m Emy!
I am a student of biotechnology at Chalmers in Sweden. It was not an obvious choice, I am rarely absolutely sure about anything. But now I feel that I have found the right path for me. The world of biology, cells and genes is fascinating and iGEM have shown me that the possibilities of synthetic biology are endless. That is what I want to mediate by writing on this blog.
In my free time i enjoy collecting house plants (I am a big epipremnum enthusiast! <3) and reading as well as watching anime!
Rosalie Marguerat
Team Lausanne
Hello! I’m Rosalie!
I’m 22 years old. I’m in my second year of Biology. I love swimming, dancing but also mountains and aircrafts. In biology I like plants and microbiology.
Linus Storm
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Hi, I’m Linus!
I have recently finished my bachelor’s degree in biotechnology at Chalmers and will be starting my master’s degree in biotechnology this fall. A few things I enjoy are languages, music, singing when nobody can hear, videogames, and yodeling when everyone can hear (you can’t really yodel quietly).
My choices of education were not planned out at all, when I chose my program for high school I wondered and wondered what I could want to do with my life, and I couldn’t come up with an answer. So, on the last day before the application deadlide I just instinctively chose the natural sciences program – because I sort of liked math i guess? It ended up being a great choice for me though, as I enjoyed the courses a lot! It was during my high school years that I grew an interest for biology and chemistry, but I still enjoyed maths as well. Then, when it came to picking a university and degree I was again, very unsure. However, during my last year in high school I took a course in biotechnology where we got to do a lot of lab work – and I really liked putting science into practice. In the same course, we watched an infomercial of a biotech company that produced enzymes, and in that short video they showcased bioprospecting and it was very interesting to me. Hence, I searched for “biotechnology university” on google and found that it was actually a real program (lol), and now here I am.
Fun fact: biotechnology wasn’t my favorite subject in high school though – it was Spanish! I didn’t really know how to make a career out of liking spanish though, so it ended up just being an interest/hobby of mine 😛
Salomé Ifergan
Team Lausanne
Hello! I’m Salomé!
I’m 23 years old and I’ve been in Lausanne for 12 years. I’m a third year biology student interested in marine biology and plant biology. Next year I’ll be doing the BEC master at UNIL. I also love doing cocktails (specially tasting them), reading and having fun with my friends and family.
Alvin Ånestrand
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Hi, I am Alvin.
I am studying Engineering Mathematics at Chalmers. One day I got a mail that said that they were looking for people that wanted to participate in a competition in synthetic biology (the iGEM competition that all of us blog writers are participating in). I thought to myself: “I am not particularly interested in synthetic biology. I know very little about synthetic biology. I have no previous experience in working on this kind of project”. Well I ended up in the team anyway.
One of the reasons I joined was actually that I wanted to know if I would be fit for working with biotechnology. Not because I wanted to change tracks completely, but because I was thinking of doing interdisciplinary work in the future. I found out that I think biotechnology is interesting, but I found I was most suited for modelling and software as I thought it was a lot more interesting then wet lab.
Engaging in the competition really makes you realise that many competences are needed, in any given discipline.
Marta Marangoni
Team Lausanne
Hello! I’m Marta!
I’m 22 years old and I’m a third year student in biology. I want to become a researcher in bio med, that’s why next year I’ll start my master in medical biology here at UNIL. Outside my studies I really like watching tv series, hanging out by the lake with friends and play beach volleyball.
Matilda Öjmertz
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Hello, I’m Matilda!
I am a 23-year-old biotechnology student at Chalmers in Sweden. I just finished my bachelor this year and will now start my master’s in biomedical engineering. I chose to study biotechnology because of my fascination for living systems, how they can be so complex whilst at the same time being very flexible and adaptable. Outside of my studies I like to pencil sketch, paint with acrylics, watch medical drama series and be out in nature.
Mehdi Naïah
Team Lausanne
Hi ! I’m Mehdi !
I’m 21 years old and I’m beginning my third year in Biology. I am interested in physiology, medicine and mathematics.
In my free time I like doing street-workout, playing the guitar and listening to metal music!
Jonatan Bertolozzi
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Hello, I’m Jonatan!
I’m studying my 3rd year in the biotechnology program at Chalmers University. I have always been a curious guy and I like to explore new field and topics. So I really enjoy the engineering approach to iGEM. My big passions outside of my studies are sports, economics and chess.
Michael Spädt
Team Freiburg
Hey! Michael here!
I’m 21 years old and am currently studying Biology and English in Freiburg (Germany) to become a teacher one day! But maybe I’ll change my mind and take the deep dive into science and research. In general, I am pretty bad at planning ahead further than two days, so even iGEM was somewhat of a spontaneous decision for me. But suddenly I found myself upon the nicest people I have met in a very long time.
Besides pipetting stuff in the lab, I especially like learning things! So, I would often jump into new challenges and hobbies like 3D-modelling or Graffiti, just to see how far I can go. However, there are a few constants in my life, which are my weaknesses for tea, cheese, and Disney movies! Oh, and sleep, that really is a literal weakness of mine as I am just reaaaaaally bad at waking up, so it might occasionally happen that I drop in late to some of our meeting, especially if they are during the early hours. As a little fun fact about myself: I really like eating lemons, just plain lemons without anything else.
Huge thanks go out to the iGEM Teams of Chalmers-Gothenburg and Lausanne for allowing us to help them with this awesome blog!
Leon-Samuel Icking
Team Freiburg
There are some who call me… Leon!
I’m 23 years old and currently doing my Master’s in Biochemistry and Biophysics in Freiburg, Germany. I originally come from the “northern” part of Germany but during my Abitur I thought “Biology is kinda cool (I was totally right) so why don’t I study it?”. Then I went and visited Freiburg, fell in love with the city and the people, did my Bachelor’s in Biology, and I found great interest in biochemistry, synthetic biology, and bioinformatics.
The choice to be part of this year’s iGEM team was pretty simple because Freiburg hasn’t had an iGEM team since 2019 and I was already interested in participating last year, but unfortunately there weren’t enough people to form a team. That was a blessing in disguise, because otherwise I wouldn’t have met so many great people who are participating in other teams this year and of course in our own team!
In my spare time (which has greatly tanked this year, I don’t know why) I like to read books about science, especially biology. In this respect, Ed Yong is my favourite author and I hope to meet him one day and talk to him about the diversity of animals. Otherwise, I try to improve my programming skills or play video or board games with friends. I’m also very into rock, punk rock and metal 🤘.
On “The Transcriptome” we will of course serve as active support for articles, but we are also responsible for the German website. So if you speak German and would like to distribute some articles about synthetic biology to your friends and family in Germany, feel free to check it out!
Anders Källberg
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Greetings! I’m Anders!
I’m a student at Chalmers and I’ve recently started my master’s degree in Biotechnology. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been held hostage by my curiosity, and I’ve played around with “experiments” as my dad use to call them. I threw together a makeshift laboratory with household appliances and household chemicals and tried to replicate what ever I saw online. To this day I still do these experiments at home – Sometimes I observe cool phenomena and annoy professors with weird questions about it. As you may understand getting to work independently in a real lab, thanks to joining iGEM, was an amazing experience.
I joined iGEM for the challenge of it all. I wanted to take the opportunity of developing a solution to a big societal problem and make the lives of other people better. The freedom to be creative and pursue wild ideas about something I’m passionate about was also a very attractive offer. I’m fascinated by the potential of synthetic biology. It’s still a developing field where the boundary of what’s possible is essentially the intersection between your knowledge and creativity – I love it!
TEAM 2021
Jana Naef
Team Lausanne
Hey, I’m Jana!
From an early age, I have been interested in science and was always fascinated by the complex ways in which life on this planet works.
I grew up in the German speaking part of Switzerland, moved to Lausanne with my family in middle school, and later studied abroad in the US for a year, discovering throughout this journey my love for languages as well. I will therefore try my best translating this blog into German to reach as many people as possible. In high school, I wrote a project about genetics to learn more about it and fell in love with the topic. A few years later and I’m now starting my third year bachelor, here, at the University of Lausanne and my interest in biology has only grown and continues to grow daily. This iGEM project was the perfect opportunity for me to learn about science and in a slightly different way, outside of lectures.
My hope for this blog is to share with you my passion for science. Have fun reading 🙂
Robin Nilsson
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
I am a nerd. Yes, not going to deny it. I like math and computer science especially when it can be applied in medical settings. Many evenings “disappears” just by me reading articles recently published or watching some kind of video applying some cool applied algorithm, mathematical model or robotic (all still within the medical sector of course). I work a lot, simply because I have successfully found what I want to work with and am currently pursuing it! So if you would start a conversation about my area of work I’m not going to stop talking (if I don’t notice that I am boring you to death hehe).
While biology is always closely related to what I work with I never really touched upon it, sitting behind the computer was enough for me. So how did I end up in iGEM, a synthetic biology competition? Don’t really know, it happened and here I am having great fun and learning new exciting stuff everyday. Never have I stood in a lab before and now I am doing complex gene modifications. Who would knew?
With my post(s) I hope to spark an interest in mathematics and computer science and how it can be applied in biochemistry settings. Hope you enjoy it!
Tiphaine Lainey
Team Lausanne
Greetings! I am Tiphaine. I come from France originally, but moved around with my family a bit until I ended up in Lausanne, Switzerland. This led me to the University of Lausanne, in which I enrolled to study Biology. I chose this subject because it became apparent to me that I could not go my whole life without further understanding the world around me. Now, I am about to enthusiastically embark on the final year of my bachelor’s degree.
During my time at university, I strive to discover the variety of subjects accessible to biologists, from molecular biology to ecology. To explore microbiology and synthetic biology, I joined the UNIL iGEM team, in the context of which we endeavor to inform and raise awareness about biological topics. In my writing, I aim to showcase the variety in Biology, with an emphasis on species conservation and the battle against climate change, subjects that I am extremely passionate about.
Edwin Eliasson
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Heyyyy I am Edwin, and I am part of the iGEM Chalmers-Gothenburg team. I am halfway through my MSc degree in biotechnology from Chalmers University of Technology, which I pursued after three very enjoyable years, both socially and educationally, at a bachelor’s in biotechnology. So how did I end up in this kind of biotech study bubble? Well, honestly just a coincidence! I have always been fascinated by science (Duh! like everyone else that pursue a similar field), especially biology and chemistry, so one night it happened I decided on biotechnology. And it was probably one of the better decisions in my life because I have not looked back ever since I set my foot on Chalmers the summer of 2017. So maybe I should say that it was luck instead of a coincidence. But hey, not like it matters hehe!
So yeah, anyways, with both a BSc and an MSc in biotechnology it may not be a surprise why I joined the iGEM competition. It has been a great experience with lots of fun and many new and exciting thing. Part of the project is this blog, which I am very excited about and hopefully, you are as well
Joaquim Barmaz
Team Lausanne
Hello, my name is Joaquim.
I come from Switzerland and study biology at the university of Lausanne, where I just finished the second year of my bachelor’s degree. Since I was a child, I was always fascinated by nature and all living things, so it was clear to me that I wanted to do something related to biology. I especially love everything related to molecular biology, as I am always amazed by the complex mechanisms which allow cells to thrive and how we can try to understand them. Moreover, I’m also really interested in how we can use biology in concrete and useful applications – this is what motivated me to take part in iGEM.
Christer Edvardsson
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
As a first-year student I developed an interest in enzyme chemistry after taking the fundamental biochemistry courses at GU. I decided to take cellular biology and asked the professors about doing any kind of summer project to get some extra laboratory experience. She recommended looking up iGEM and I’ve been excited to join ever since! I am currently finishing up my bachelor’s thesis project where I optimized a procedure for doing single-particle CryoEM on microtubule-associated proteins. I have an interest in Life Science applications and especially the interphase between biology and inorganic chemistry, like artificial catalytic centres and macromaterials based on protein- and cellular engineering. Here’s a secret, I actually started my academic career studying Science of Religion. Life can be kind of wibbly wobbly at times.
Stuff I think is cool: FoldIt, Yeast 2.0, Synthetic cells, Systems Chemistry
Science role models: Frances H. Arnold, Robert Morris Sapolsky, Addy Pross, James Gleick (with special mentions Kristina Hedfalk, Anne Farewell )
Mattia Gobbetti
Team Lausanne
Hi everybody!
I’m Mattia, born, fed and overgrown in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, in a small but outstandingly characteristic city called Lugano. Probably, since I was born (always in Lugano (fun emoji)), I felt a particular connection with nature and all the creatures surrounding me, passing from imagining to be able to transform in one of them (absolute no hours and hours of Ben Ten influence), until getting the chance to cuddle kangaroos in Australia. Well, yes, before “”””entirely”””” committing to my University, I spent 4 months in Australia. If I was mad before about the beauty of nature, I let you imagine what I felt after these incredible amazing astonishing overwhelming months.
So, let’s wrap it up: 3 years ago I started the Bachelor life in the faculty of Biology, starting with amazement about marine biology and now I just got the news that I graduated, ending up with an insane interest about genetics, immunology and bioengineering. I firstly committed to iGEM because I wanted to profit from my year off to better understand which path to follow for a future Master, but also to get a well-deserved holiday. However, this competition is turning out to be so fascinating that I’m not even thinking about my holidays! … well….ok… maybe a little..
While I will keep thinking about my holidays, I hope you will enjoy some super cool science and nature facts that we will talk about; and, who knows, you may find yourself to be part of the next iGEM team!!!!
Olof Dahlman
Team Chalmers-Gothenburg
Hi, I am Olof Dahlman and I’m a student at Gothenburg university approaching the end of my rather mixed masters in medicinal/organic chemistry and biochemistry. I have always liked building things, being a fan of lego when I was younger, and I was attracted to the notion of building the small things that make up life, first studying medicinal chemistry to understand how small molecules can be built and used to help us, during which I picked up a fascination about proteins, DNA and the metabolic pathways present in our bodies, which led me down the path of biochemistry. It was therefore very fortunate for me to discover iGEM when the summer came around, giving me a chance to do some very direct practical work in assembling a biological system using the tools I’d studied during my courses.
Writing for this blog as a part of iGEM will be an excellent way to not only share some of the things I’ve learned, but also spread some of the enthusiasm for building using the blocks of life I have.
TEAM 2020
Ilinca Dragan
Team Lausanne
To quote How I Met Your Mother, “nothing good happens after 2am”. Well, that’s a blatant lie, because I enrolled in biology one late summer night after 2am in 2017, and I haven’t looked back since.
Hi, I’m Ilinca and I’m currently reaching the end of my bachelor’s in biology in Lausanne, possibly one of the best choices I’ve made so far. Learning about the intricacies of all that surrounds us has been fascinating, and will continue to fascinate me, and now I want to share my knowledge with others. Much like some of my colleagues, I have always been intrigued by the possibility of life elsewhere (as well as how it came to be on Earth), and that has been one of my driving forces throughout my degree! I decided to join iGEM after doing an internship in the only synthetic biology lab at the UNIL and realising that the idea of engineering microorganisms is one of the best ways we have of answering these questions.
Joining this blog project in the context of iGEM seemed like a natural step to take, as I am a firm believer in that science is for everyone, and that sci-comm is one of the most important things we can learn as aspiring scientists. I’m looking forward to sharing this experience with you!
Leticia Castillón
Team Gothenburg
I am Leti. I am a Spanish soon-to-be Biotechnologist currently studying my MSc at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. I came to Sweden almost three years ago on an Erasmus exchange and I never left (I am getting used to the cold by now). I started to study Biotechnology because I was interested in Medicine and I did not want to become a medical doctor. So, Biotech seemed a good middle ground where my interests met but, to be honest, I was not sure what to expect. Today I can say it was one of the best decisions I have ever made! Here in Gothenburg, I have joined the iGEM competition because I thought it was a nice way to learn how to apply everything that I have learned into a project. And as part of that project, this blog has been born. I am super excited to share with you everything we know about biotech!
Daniel Rodriguez
Team Lausanne
My name is Daniel Rodriguez and I am a Spanish-Swiss biology student. When I was a child, my biggest dream was to understand the stars and planets that surrounded us. Travelling through space, discovering exoplanets or understanding black holes were things that fascinated me. It was during my teenage years that I realized that you don’t have to look at the stars to be amazed and that there was still a lot to understand and discover on our good old Earth. Curiously, it was while listening to astrophysicists like Neil deGrasse Tyson or Carl Sagan that my interest in Biology was born. Other personalities such as Steve Irwin or Léo Grasset from the Youtube channel DirtyBiology also inspired me a lot. Therefore, in 2016, I decided to enrol in the Faculty of Biology at the Lausanne university. These studies have taught me to think in a scientific manner and to be critical about the world around me. When I was told about iGEM, I knew right away that I was going to enjoy it: learning, sharing, collaborating, reflecting … All the things I like! And here I am today writing on this blog with people as passionate as me. Hope you like the content!
Chirag
Team Gothenburg
Namaste, I am Chirag. I was born and brought up in a southwestern city of India called Mysore. It is also known as the royal city because of the amazing palace. As a child, I was always interested in human anatomy and was very keen to learn the mechanism of how our body works. Hence, I chose a biological background in my pre-university, and later I pursued my bachelor in biotechnology. Now, I’m a biotechnology Masters’s student at Chalmers University of Technology and also I’m part of the iGEM Gothenburg team. I chose to be in this as it is one of the best opportunities to learn and work as a team before stepping into the real competitive world. With my knowledge, I would like to inspire or bring awareness amongst the young minds who are looking for their future in the field of biotechnology.
Pablo Guridi Fernández
Team Lausanne
I am Pablo, born in a small village in northern Spain. I have always been fascinated by our world and life in all its forms. However, I was pretty lost when choosing what to study and it was not easy to finally decide on a biotechnology bachelor. I do not regret that decision. It seems life is about trying, and that’s what next brought me to Lausanne to study a Master in Molecular Life Sciences and Bioinformatics. The first time I heard about iGEM was during my bachelor, while studying abroad in Gothenburg, and the concept sounded really cool, but maybe not ideal for a transient Erasmus student that would leave the city before the end of the project. Two years later, the University of Lausanne happened to take part in the competition for the first time, what a lucky guy I am!
Julius Enerås
Team Gothenburg
Good day, my name is Julius. I’m a second-year double Bachelor-student in molecular biology and chemistry at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
I’ve always been fascinated with the workings of things and I’ve never been able to stop being curious. Of course, like most children interested in the unknown I was looking to astronomy, cosmology, and physics because -in many ways- physics is the matrix from which knowledge of reality is generated.
This went on for some time until I realized that ‘reality’ is very hard to define and that the definitions of reality that physicists were wrestling with weren’t the ones that concerned me.
See, I think that the reality we experience is best understood on a biological basis and by extension biochemical (which in a sense is a detailed investigation of biology).
The reasoning for this we’ll have to get into in a later post but essentially, you won’t experience reality without a body. This became evident as AI-engineers attempted to build quasi-consciousness as it became entirely ineffectual if there isn’t a mechanism with which said consciousness can interact with the world (search: Mind-Body Problem by Jonathan Westphal if this sparked curiosity).
I don’t know what’s the hen or the egg in this impasse but our biochemical makeup radically influences our experience and behaviour and our behaviour, in turn, influences our biochemical makeup. These questions and their implications have driven me to try to understand the workings of the beautiful and terrifying human being and that is why I’m here talking to you right now.
This project that we’re doing is going to increase the understanding of the underlying mechanisms and structures within which these mechanisms are at work for everyone involved.
Meaning you, myself, and my comrades here on the Transcriptome. Thank you for your time, and welcome.
Elise Eray
Team Lausanne
My name is Elise Eray and I’m a bachelor biology student. I was always interested in science and nature in general. During my high school, I made a project about the problems of bacteria resistance to antibiotics. I actually had the occasion to go to a lab, do some experiments for a few days and then present my results. I always found the various mechanisms and theories linked to biology fascinating, but after this experiment, I was sure that I wanted to continue in this field, to learn even more about them. And here I am, now in my third year of bachelor, and ever more passionate about science! I had never heard about iGEM before, but I was directly interested in the project. It is a unique possibility to develop such a project in a team, to learn new things and to collaborate with other teams! With this blog, I hope that we would be able to share a bit of our passion while sharing some news or theories. Enjoy the reading!
Albin Ekborg
Team Gothenburg
Hello! My name is Albin, and I am a biotechnology freshman at Chalmers University of Technology. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to do science. In pre-school, I would draw up all of the planets in our solar system and dream of uncovering the mysteries of the cosmos as a space-scientist. Slowly but surely, as I got older, my appreciation for the space-pebble known as Earth grew, and with it, my appreciation for the inner mechanisms of life. The complexity of tellurian (read: Earthen) life absolutely blows my mind, and every time I read about cellular mechanisms I feel a little bit like that child looking up at the stars – amazed.
Jakub Korzeniowski
Team Lausanne
I’m Kuba and I came to study at University of Lausanne 2 years ago. I grew up in Poland, and after a gap year at the end of high school I started the adventure of studying abroad. Although it was not an easy decision, right now I’m a biologist in-the-making! I’m looking to the future with a much better idea of what I want to do in life. I joined the UNIL’s iGEM team to try my best at a specific project, learn all I can along the way, and get a taste of how it is to work in this field. I always enjoyed communicating with other people in foreign languages, so the idea of a multilingual blog fits right in!
Thierry Marti
Team Lausanne
Hey there! I’m Thierry, a soon-to-be-graduated Food Science student from ETH Zurich. If it’s the first time you hear about food science you might think it must be basically another name for nutrition (or at least that’s what I thought when I enrolled). Turns out it’s actually a vast field which also encompasses quite a bit of microbiology and biotechnology, and that’s where I discovered how microbes can be used to create amazing foods, like cheese, and to improve the health of our guts! I was then completely amazed by how using creative genetic engineering techniques it was possible to further expand the capabilities of these bugs to produce some of our most valuable medicines. That’s why when I came across iGEM I knew that it would be the perfect opportunity to immerse myself in the world of synthetic biology, and thanks to a happy series of coincidences I was able to join the team of UNILausanne! I hope that with my contributions to this blog, I will be able to spark in you the enthusiasm for the unbelievable interplay of microbes and food!
Sara Ezzat
Team Lausanne
Hello! My name is Sara and I just finished my bachelor’s in biology at the University of Lausanne. I chose biology after I met a passionate bio teacher during High School. He allowed me to realize how much the life can be complex at all scales: either microscopic or macroscopic. What’s more, I became aware of how those two components were linked.
By doing biology, I wanted to discover more connections between these two worlds, which is the interesting part of biology! I was surprised when I heard about iGEM because I could design this bond instead of observing it. This convinced me to take part in this project!
Because I fell in love with natural sciences thanks to my teacher, I felt very engaged to share the scientific knowledge. And what better way to do it than a blog! I hope you would find pleasure while reading.