Meet Team Stuttgart 2017

Ina

Ina proves that coding isn't just a guys thing and keeps the men's quota in our modeling team low. Her lovely character aside she bakes and provides the team with splendid muffins, maintaining the team spirit!

name and age: Ina Katrin Eisenkolb, 24
what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: Modeling and Simulation, Website, Wiki
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? I really like about iGEM, that it provides the framework to find and develop own scientific ideas, even if this does not necessarily lead to a finished product.
what did iGEM teach you for life? How to successfully deal with obstacles in your way when you are the first paving that way.
other Interests: Sailing, reading, cooking/baking, sauna, traveling...

Anna-Lena

Anna-Lena is responsible for sponsoring and part of our wetlab team! As she knows the university inside out, helping the occasional lost fresher, she is a key-resource for allocating and finding hardware and spaces.

name and age: Anna-Lena Mayer, 24
what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: Sponsoring and making E. coli smell of lemons.
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? Teamwork and meeting teams from all over the world.
what did iGEM teach you for life? To never give up and that planning a project from the beginning can be a lots of fun.
other Interests: Sports (tennis), cooking

Georg

Georg is part of the Keratinase team and on a mission to rescue plugged pipes from nasty, clogging hairballs! He furthermore supports the sponsoring team where he helps to pimp our lab with new, fancy equipment!

name and age: Georg Singer, 22
what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: Sponsoring and turning E. coli into a keratin-destroyer.
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? Teamwork, networking with teams from all over the world and getting the chance to do scientific experiments my way and my pace.
what did iGEM teach you for life? How to get a No, turn it into a Maybe to a Yes.
other Interests: sports including football aka soccer, piano, mountaineering

Amatus

Amatus upkeeps the men's quota in our modeling team! He is in charge of keeping our website updated and simulation scripts running. No matter how stressed we sometimes are - he is a haven of tranquility providing peace and calmness to our team. Thank you Amatus!

name and age: Amatus, 25
what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: Modeling
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? I like the aspect to follow a project from beginning to end. I think synthetic biology is capable to provide solutions to a lot of today’s problems.
what did iGEM teach you for life? Not that much, so far ...
other Interests: Computers in general, playing instruments (violin, piano, guitar, ...) and watching series.

Heidi

Heidi is busy being in charge of many aspects of our project, including this page! She is part of the wetlab team where she helps out whenever needed, runs this wiki and is also part of the dry lab team! Here main task is taking care of E. coli's final integration when it's supposed to express alls our constructs. If you struggle with something or run out of time Heidi is always the first one that offers her help! Thank you Heidi! :-)

name and age: Heidi Muehl, 27
what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: Lab support, interlab study, extracellular expression of E. coli
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? To gain insight of a project development right from the start, international exchange of interests and knowledge with other iGEM-teams and of course the giant jamboree in Boston :-)
what did iGEM teach you for life? Everything is possible with the right team, don’t give up...
other Interests: family & friends, music & dancing, good pizza

Elke

Elke belongs to the wetlab team and is in charge of the visual layout and content of this wiki.

name and age: Elke Evgrafov, 29
what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: My focus in this project is the production of a charming rose-scent with the help of E.coli, and the visual layout and content of this wiki.
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? iGEM offers you the opportunity to develop and learn to work in a team towards one goal. My motivation at the project is the independent work in the laboratory on a self-imposed topic and the gathering of new experiences that go beyond the university everyday life.
what did iGEM teach you for life? Everything that belongs to an independent project, such as project development, -funding (sponsorship),-organization, laboratory work,... AND HTML :-)
other Interests: Diving, reading, sports

Nici

Nici is our team's crazy lady organizing everything be it Sponsorship, Human Practices, Interviews,... and of course fun activities for our team!

name and age: Nicole Buss, 25
what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: Wetlab (keratinases), sponsoring, human practices and marketing
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? The iGEM competition provides groups of students with the opportunity to establish their own scientific project from scratch and to create something completely new in an interdisciplinary and international environment. It’s a great chance to look behind the scenes what synthetic biology can offer and what will be possible in the nearby future.
what did iGEM teach you for life? Endurance, and that humor is all you need... that Youtube videos are a scientists best friend, that everything is feasible if you do it with the right people, that almost nothing can harm E.coli and that not everything is suitable for microwaves ...
other Interests: Sports, traveling, going on adventures, spreading love and joy...

Cati

Cati is part of the sponsoring and wetlab team.

what are you studying: Technical Biology (M. Sc.)
your iGEM tasks: mostly sponsoring, lab works (esterases and signal peptides) and human practices, but there is no strict assignment of tasks
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? I like the fact that iGEM is a competition but nevertheless people are working together instead of against each other. It’s more important to achieve scientific and personal progress than winning a prize.
what did iGEM teach you for life? If you ask people for help, you can receive help. A few months ago I did not think that I would speak to so many people in so little time, receiving so much support.
other Interests: Goas and techno festivals, flea markets (for records), fitness and traveling

Benjamin

Benjamin is the backup of the modeling team.

name and age: Benjamin, 25
what are you studying: Engineering Cybernetics (applied to vehicles & autonomous systems), Graduate
your iGEM tasks: Modeling. Yes, Both.
what do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? Genesis 3:5
what did iGEM teach you for life? If you wanna meet woman, major in biology
other Interests: E-Guitar & Composing; Magic Realism; Science-Fiction; Cold Countries, Seasons and Beers; Watching The Bachelorette while talking about quantum field theory

Advisors

Sebastian

Name and age: Sebastian Grenz, 30
What are you studying: Currently: PhD student at Institute of Biochemical Engineering in Stuttgart, Previously: M.Sc. Genome based Systems Biology in Bielefeld, B.Sc. Bioinformatics and Genome Research in Bielefeld
Your iGEM tasks: Advisor, providing experience and help for the team.
What do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? Working independently on an own project from start to finish.
Previous iGEM experiences: You can accomplish great things working together as a team.
Other Interests: Travel, soccer and other sports, Netflix

Robert

Name and age: Robert Nitschel, 29
What are you studying: Currently: I am doing my PhD thesis at the Institute of Biochemical Engineering about synthetic biology with Pseudomonas putida. Previously: I have studied Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology in the Netherlands until 2015
Your iGEM tasks: I am one the PhD students that are supervising the daily labwork and helping the team out with their problems and questions.
What do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? I love the concept of iGEM. The idea, to help students and giving them the opportunity to find their own solution for biological or even social-/ economical problem by using synthetic biology, is great.
Previous iGEM experiences: iGEM taught me to work a as a team and that no challenge is great enough to be solved.
Other Interests: Reading Fantasy, Mountain biking, Gaming

Adrian

Name and age: Adrian Eilingsfeld, 28
What are you studying: Currently: PhD student at the Institute of Biochemical Engineering in Stuttgart on scale-up heterogeneity. Previously: M. Sc. in Biomolecular Engineering at Technische Universität Darmstadt and M. Sc. in Space Studies at the International Space University.
Your iGEM tasks: Advisor and versatile latchkey kid enabling the students in working outside of work hours and on weekends. Mostly making sure that the students do not set their socks ablaze.
What do you like about iGEM/synthetic biology? The perspective of working on a self-imposed project leading to a deeper understanding on how science is done in a real-world environment.
Previous iGEM experiences: Founding year at TU Darmstadt and fool-in-charge of the wiki back in the days.
Other Interests: Other than rocketry nothing that I would like to share with the internet.

Principal Investigators (PIs)

PD Dr. rer. nat. Martin Siemann-Herzberg (Primary PI)

PD Dr. rer. nat. Martin Siemann-Herzberg is deputy director and academic teacher at the Institute of Biochemical Engineering at the University of Stuttgart. His research focuses on Metabolic Engineering and Systems Biology with regard to its use for technical purposes.
Together with former iGEM participants he spearheaded the idea to start the first iGEM Team at the University of Stuttgart. He always believed in our idea, stayed positive and motivating us in all kinds of situations during the project. He also provided massive support with technical and organizational problems.

We would like to thank you for all your support.

Dr. rer. nat. Bastian Blombach (Secondary PI)

We are very happy to call him our Secondary PI and thankful for the support of our team! Besides his research and academic teaching position at the Institute of Biochemical Engineering at the University of Stuttgart Dr. rer. nat. Bastian Blombach is also member of the SRCSB (Stuttgart Research Center Systems Biology). His work focuses on Metabolic Engineering and Molecular Biotechnology.

Team:Stuttgart/Team