ABOUT US
UMaryland iGEM is made of dedicated undergraduates who are passionate about improving the world through synthetic biology. They are from a variety of backgrounds, majors, and interest that contribute their talents through lab work, outreach, fundraising, wiki coding, video editing, social media, and photography.
UMaryland iGEM is lead by two faculty advisers: Dr. Edward Eisenstein in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering, and Dr. Jason Kahn in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. We were founded with the help of Dr. Boots Quimby, former Assistant Director of the Integrated Life Sciences Honors Program at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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2018 Team
Back row left to right: Dr. Edward Eisenstein (faculty mentor), Holly Bowman (iGEM NA ambassador), Collin Keating, Arjun Cherupalla, John Starkel, Chun Kit Loke, Rohith Battina, Chris Kuffner.
Front row left to right: Dr. Jason Kahn (faculty mentor), Mary Heng, Keerthana Srinivasan, SangHo Jee
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Members Not Pictured
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Daniel Zheng
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Jessica Boyer
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Tommy Liang
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Jason Chiang
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Daniel Trettel (graduate mentor)
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2017 Team
Richa is a sophomore Cell Biology and Genetics major at the University of Maryland who aspires to become a physician-scientist. She joined iGEM to gain research experience and explore synthetic biology applications with like-mided individuals. On campus, she is part of service organizations, Terrapin Trail Club, and the Club Triathlon team! In her free time, she enjoys eating good food, backpacking, listening to music, and hanging out with friends.
Joyce is a sophomore neurobiology & physiology major. She joined iGEM because she loved the concept of a student-ran research team that tackles real world issues with synthetic biology. In her free time, she loves to go play with her dog, go on hikes, and binge-watch Netflix.
Jacob is a Junior Biochemistry and Microbiology double major. He is particularly interested in studying genetics and the mechanisms underlying drug effectiveness. As a second year team member, Jacob has enjoyed assisting with new member training and managing the laboratory space. Outside of iGEM, Jacob spends his time reading, watching movies, and playing with his dog.
Rohith is a sophomore biochemistry major at UMD. He is interested in pursuing a career in the field of infectious diseases research. He enjoys doing iGEM because of its application to real world problems and how it fosters teamwork. In his spare time, he plays tennis and reads books.
Thea Orstein is a rising Junior at the University of Maryland, College Park, majoring in Bioengineering with a concentration in Biotechnology and Therapeutics Engineering. After graduating from UMD, She plans to pursue a PhD in Biophysics or Molecular Biology. This summer, she is working as a lab member and as a project developer on the UMaryland iGEM team. In her free time she enjoys running, hiking, and hanging out with friends.
Annie is a junior studying Neurobiology & Physiology major. She is interested in pursuing a career in the medical field. In addition to wet-lab work, she is involved with both the team’s high school education outreach and art work. Otherwise, she can be found discussing ethics, pursuing creative projects or working with physicians in an urgent care clinic.
Asha is a rising sophomore who is majoring in Biology with a minor in Religious Studies. This is her first year on the UMaryland iGEM team! In addition to her passion for synthetic biology, she is an avid writer and opinion columnist for the Diamondback Newspaper. She also helps with behavioral inhibition research at UMD's Child Development Lab. During her free time she enjoys traveling and watching true crime documentaries.
Chun Mun is majoring in Biochemistry and Cell Biology/Genetics. He is currently applying to MSTP programs, and hopes to pursue a career in medical research. Outside of class, Chun Mun enjoys playing music, watching Netflix, and sleeping.
Yuzhu is a sophomore biochemistry and microbiology major. She loves doing research and thought that iGEM would be a great way to further pursue that interest. Her other hobbies include trying out new foods and restaurants, going to the gym, and hanging out with friends.
Vaidehi is a rising junior in the University Honors Program at the University of Maryland, majoring in Bioengineering on the Therapeutics Engineering and Biotechnology track. She is a researcher on the UMaryland iGEM team and aids in the various projects that are being developed. She hopes to enter the biopharmaceutical industry after graduation and then eventually pursue a Master's Degree. In her free time she enjoys relaxing, enjoying new foods, and dancing.
Seth is a junior biochemistry major at the University of Maryland. Outside of science his favorite things to do are play basketball and write fiction. His favorite food is probably falafel on pita bread with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, lettuce, tahini, and hummus. His favorite animal is definitely the elephant. Another kind of interesting fact about him is that he is vegetarian. That's pretty much all you need to know about Seth!
"Cameron is a senior in Bioengineering. After graduating he plans to work as a consultant in the healthcare industry. He joined iGEM to get hands on lab experience and work on a project with real world applications. Outside of lab he enjoys sports, game of thrones, and just about anything outdoors.
SangHo is a junior biochemistry and cell biology major at UMD. He coded the wiki, led the hardware project, and led the outreach efforts of the banana project. He is interested in synthetic biology of eukaroytic systems, and is pushing for UMaryland iGEM to move beyond single E. coli to thinking about interacting populations and engineering yeast.
Cynthia is a senior with a double major in bioengineering and criminal justice. After she graduates, she hopes to go on to medical school to become a neurosurgeon. She joined iGEM because she likes that students get to choose their own research topic, based on their analysis of what real life problems synthetic biology could help combat. Apart from science, she likes anything involving criminal law.
Deven is a junior bioengineering major on the pre-medical track. With a desire to explore synthetic biology, he found iGEM had the perfect goals for him. iGEM also provided a first-hand look at how these principles of biology and engineering could be applied to actual, beneficial goals in the world, and he was happy to see such a passionate, determined team around him at the University of Maryland. Deven is also the president of an a cappella group and assists with a biophysics lab on campus.
Members Not Pictured
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Monica Chu
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Paveen Ravi
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2016 Team
Ben is a sophomore pursuing a double-degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science. At this point in college, he still does not know his career path, but hopes that the experience of iGEM will help to give him some ideas. Outside of school, Ben can be found playing cards or board games with friends, reading, or slack-lining. Very recently, he has developed an interest in snorkeling and scuba diving.
Paula is a rising sophomore studying bioengineering. She hopes to further her studies in graduate school and pursue a career in academia. Her hobbies include long distance running, singing, and playing logic games. On campus she is involved with the Resident Hall Association and is a part of the Integrated Life Sciences living-learning program. She loves dogs, especially corgis, and bunnies, especially Angora rabbits.
Chaoyang is a sophomore studying Neurobiology and Physiology with a minor in Music Performance in the Integrated Life Sciences Program. Aspiring to become a surgeon one day, He has researched 2 summers at an Adult Stem Cell lab at the NIH and hopes to contribute his lab experience to the iGEM team. Chaoyang also enjoys taking artsy pictures and loves hanging out with friends.
Chris is a sophomore bioengineer who has been lucky enough to grow up surrounded by biotechnology. Before going to UMD, Chris lived in Massachusetts near Kendall Square and had the privilege to start an iGEM team at his own high school. This year, Chris built the DIY ultra low freezer for a cheap way to preserve competent cells, something his high school team did not have. When Chris isn’t working on biotech he is probably skating, eating, or both.
Subhashini Arumugam is a sophomore bioengineering major that aspires to go to medical school someday. Besides science, she is very interested in learning languages, writing, and political activism. She is also very passionate about dance, yoga, making breakfast, and taking naps. She hopes to gain research experience and exposure to the many facets of synthetic biology through iGEM, and looks forward to contributing to the team's outreach projects.
Maria is a sophomore Neurobiology and Physiology major. She is passionate about science, friendship, and getting enough sleep. Her likes include the color green, movies and documentaries, and making great guacamole. Her dislikes include getting stuck in traffic, spinach, and writing bios.
Jacob Premo is a sophomore currently majoring in biochemistry and microbiology. He joined the UMaryland iGEM team in hopes of working with his peers on meaningful and unique research topics. After his undergraduate career, Jacob plans to pursue a PhD which he would like to put to use developing new medicines. Outside of his academic and research life Jacob enjoys reading books and watching sports.
SangHo is a sophomore biochemistry and neurobiology & physiology double major in the Integrated Life Sciences program, who primarily joined iGEM to work on their wiki and website design, while gaining exposure to how the wet labs work. He hopes to one day attend medical school in the future but is interested in research as well. Outside of iGEM he enjoys web programming, reading the news, and playing video games.
Chun Mun Loke likes science. He likes science so much, he joined the iGEM team and is now leading it. At the University of Maryland, his studies many science subjects. For a career, he'd like to go into a field of science, likely biomedical research, and assist in the rapidly advancing field to save lives, so people can do more science. In his spare time, he watches Netflix shows about science, like House MD.
Seth is a sophomore biochemistry major at the University of Maryland. Outside of science his favorite things to do are play basketball and write fiction. His favorite food is probably falafel on pita bread with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, lettuce, tahini, and hummus. His favorite animal is definitely the elephant. Another kind of interesting fact about him is that he is vegetarian. That's pretty much all you need to know about Seth!
Presenting Nan Zhang! Nan is a sophomore majoring in Neurology & Physiology and is also a part of the ILS program in the Honors College. Aside from her strong focus in science, Nan has a great passion for art and devotes her spare time to arts, crafts and sculpture, therefore she brings an artistic touch in addition to years of research experience. She hopes to be able to unite different disciplines like engineering, graphic design, and wet lab work in research.
Naren is a Graduate Student in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his undergraduate degree in Industrial Biotechnology from St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, Anna University, India. He works in the intersection of synthetic biology, metabolic engineering and biomaterials, involving assembly of enzyme cascades on various interfaces to generate small molecules and engineering microbes to display novel phenotypes in response to small molecules.
2015 Team
After leading last year's inaugural iGEM team to a gold award last year, Iowis returned this year to further grow the team. Outside of iGEM, he studies the characteristics of DNA looping protein in Dr. Kahn's lab. He has had the entire periodic table memorized since 8th grade. Outside of lab, he loves reading manga, watching sports (as a Boston sports fan), and following the global politics. He recently visited India last winter and Germany last summer.
Steph is a senior at the University of Maryland researching mechanosensitive channels in bacteria. When she's not in the lab, you can find her wandering organic farms trying to find her spirit animal or exploring the rocky paths of the local Billy Goat Trail. After earning a Ph.D. in molecular/evolutionary genetics, Steph hopes to head a lab at a research institution.
Standing at 190 cm, Kevin is the tallest Asian on the team. He joined iGEM because of its fast-paced, multidisciplinary, problem solving nature, as well as its connections to entrepreneurship. He is the founder of SuperScore Inc., and serves on the national board of Kids Are Scientists Too. He hopes to attain a MD/MBA someday. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys boxing, parkour, and reading.
Hailing from Singapore and Australia, Chun Mun's strong interest in genetic engineering prompted him to join iGEM. He hopes to conduct research in this field after attaining an MD/PhD. Outside of school, he is a self proclaimed piano prodigy, having won consecutive local competitions and finalizing in international ones. He can solve a Rubik's cube in a very slow average of 17 seconds and is an avid video gamer. He is actually not a weeaboo as some aspects of his profile may suggest.
Aditya is a senior at the University of Maryland who is studying Bioengineering. Aditya brings five years of wet lab research experience including one prior year with Maryland's iGEM team. This year, Aditya's main foci are the design of an inexpensive and effective PCR machine and modeling metabolic pathways of engineered E.coli. In his free time, Aditya enjoys the movies, making food for the team, and visiting cows.
Rob is currently a junior Bioengineering major. He joined iGEM because of its innovative, creative nature and how it addresses so many different aspects of synthetic biology. Outside of the iGEM lab and our human practices efforts, he enjoys reading about virtually anything, learning about vegetarian cooking recipes, being out in nature, exploring his new found hobby of SCUBA diving with the Maryland Terrafins, exploring, learning about issues in Bioethics, and spending time with his friends.
Kimia is a sophomore majoring in Physiology & Neurobiology and on the pre-med track. She is considering pursuing obstetrics in the future. She would like to travel and apply her knowledge to developing countries or disaster relief. Beyond that, she has interests in nutrition and business. Kimia is a student photographer for the Honors College and plays on the Women's Ultimate Frisbee Team. Her favorite way to spend her free time is staying active in nature, such as jogging.
Adam is a senior Physiology & Neurobiology major at the University of Maryland. This is his first research experience and exposure to synthetic biology. In the future he hopes to attend medical school and pursue more research opportunities. Outside of the lab, he is a huge news junkie and loves following politics. He also enjoys traveling, weight lifting, and browsing reddit.
Juhye is a sophomore Physiology & Neurobiology major in the Integrated Life Sciences Honors Program. Currently, she is a member of an epidemiology lab at UMD focusing on creating a support program for Korean breast cancer patients, in addition to iGEM. She hopes to attend medical school after graduation to become either a dermatologist or an oncologist. Outside of school, she enjoys reading, dancing, and binge watching countless crime and cooking shows.
Dylan is a sophomore Physiology & Neurobiology and Mathematics double major in the Integrated Life Sciences honors program. Dylan was heavily involved in the design of various components of the team’s PCR machine. He's not sure what he wants to do out of college yet, and he hopes his experience with iGEM will help shape this decision. This is his second research experience and first wet-lab experience. Outside iGEM, he is a member of the University of Maryland Gymkana Troupe.
Samiha Ahmed is a sophomore Physiology & Neurobiology and Public Health Sciences double major in the Integrated Life Sciences Honors Program. She hopes to go to medical school one day, and she loves all things arts and crafts related. Outside of the science world, she works on board for United Muslim Relief, a global humanitarian organization that provides aid and relief globally. She also works with kids, having been a Sunday school teaching assistant and a volunteer at a hospital.
Dania is a sophomore Microbiology and Computer Science major in the Integrated Life Sciences Honors Program. After graduating, she hopes to attend medical school to become a neurologist. Outside of school, Dania enjoys reading, watching TV and sleeping.
Sarah is a sophomore and member of the Gemstone Honors Program. She was predominantly involved in the Wiki design. In addition to iGEM, she works in a Microfluidics Chemistry lab and enjoys finding as much free food as possible. Post graduation, Sarah hopes to pursue a career in industry working as an engineer at a large company. Outside of academics, Sarah like playing the ukulele and exercising.
Pavel is a senior and member of the Integrated Life Sciences Honors Program at UMD, originally from the distant land of Russia. Outside of iGEM, he also has another internship at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, where he works with thyroid cells. Outside of academics and scientific work, his hobbies include video games, model kits, fencing, anime, and writing science-fiction stories.
Kara is a sophomore Bioengineering major at the University of Maryland. While at this point in time she isn't sure what exactly she plans to do in the future, she hopes that experiences like iGEM will help her to find her interests and give her more exposure to the many careers related to biology. Outside of school, she enjoys running and keeping up with track & field. She also enjoys doing kung fu (martial arts) and just recently started indoor rock climbing this summer.
George is a senior Bioengineering major and Statistics minor at the University of Maryland. He hopes to attend medical school. In his time outside of the classroom, he enjoys running, playing basketball, and taking long naps in the library when he really should be studying. Recently, he has also been occupied with self-learning new computer programming languages. He says to expect big things from UMD iGEM this year – go Terps!
2014 Team
After graduation headed to the United States Navy. This will be my fourth year in a wet lab environment and second year as an on campus researcher. On the weekends you will find me in the outdoors, hiking, climbing or kayaking.
Andrew Zhao is currently a sophomore in bioengineering, with plans to continue studies in the field after his undergraduate years. Andrew joined iGEM as his first practical research experience in the lab and hopes to contribute as much as he learns.The fact that the students are given so much autonomy over the project is also really appealing. One of my hobbies is yo-yoing and I know (only) a handful of tricks - they're simple but they look cool!
I was attracted to iGEM's innovative approach of inspiring undergraduate students to lead and conduct exciting research in the growing field of synthetic biology. As a student and team member, I joined out of interest to learn about laboratory procedure to create BioBricks, to work towards a humanitarian goal alongside our research efforts, and to develop an awesome research project to combat the decreasing numbers of oysters in our local Chesapeake Bay.
Camila is a junior Bioengineering major at UMD, and iGEM has been an incredible first experience working in a wet lab. She has really enjoyed being part of the team and taking part in this student-run research project. In addition to iGEM, Camila loves playing soccer, acting in theatre productions, and fencing sabre for the UMD club team.
After finishing college and graduate school, I plan on going into research in genetics, preferable involving medical research and/or genetic engineering. I joined iGEM to expand my experience working in the lab and to apply my skills to novel genetics work, in addition to my existing interest in the techniques required here. My ultimate goal with both this team and my own work as a whole is to make a truly important contribution to both the field of genetics and to people's everyday lives. Fun f
I am a junior Biochemistry/Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics double major at the University of Maryland, College Park. My interests lie in scientific research as well as science education. I have also served as a tutor in the biological and physical sciences since my time in high school and I currently hold a position at the university as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA). To commemorate my middle school science teacher's retirement, I committed the periodic table to memory.
Chris Euerle is a junior majoring in Computer Science and Neurobiology/Physiology. In addition to iGEM, he also enjoys playing soccer, guitar, and piano.
I'm planning on going to dental school after my undergraduate degree. I'm participating iGem because I want to have an hands-on experience in the lab, and modifying bacteria for competition seemed like an interesting and unique way to get that experience. It's super cool that in less than a year, we'll have some kind of a product to show for all of our work. iGem is my first research experience and has been an invaluable part of my education.
Pursuing a graduate degree, then a career in biomedical engineering, hopefully reaching management. I'm participating in iGem because I'm fascinated with the impact we can make on the world as only college students. Fun fact: I've free climbed a 30 ft cliff outdoors with no ropes or harness.
Navadeep is a graduate student in the Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His research interests lie in computational modeling of intracellular metabolic network and metabolic flux analysis. He is an avid trivia player and also enjoys playing badminton, cricket and rugby. He also has prior experience with website creation and has been an invaluable resource for wiki development.
Tanya Gordonov is a graduate student in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. Her research focuses on using synthetic biology and electrochemistry to develop two-way communication between biology and electronics. She has always been interested in iGEM and is happy to be part of UMD’s exciting endeavor.
Advisors
Dr. Edward Eisenstein is a Fellow in the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research and an Associate Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland. Trained in modern structural enzymology, his current research interests are focused on protein and biosystem engineering for discovery and application in plants and microorganisms.
Dr. Jason D. Kahn is a biophysical chemist who studies protein-nucleic acid interaction and engineering. He is best known for studies of DNA looping, bending, twisting, and cyclization, as well as hybridization thermodynamics for modified bases. He teaches a variety of chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology courses, which he credits for initiating his interest in synthetic biology. Dr. Kahn was a graduate student at UC Berkeley and a post-doc at Yale before coming to Maryland in 1994.