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Team members
Wytse van den Berg - Chairman
I am a master student at the TU/e. My interests are mostly in Organic Chemistry and it was therefore a logical choice for me to join the iGEM competition. I like that iGEM offers a lot of freedom in defining you own project. I will be the chairman of our team this year and it will be my responsibility to lead the meetings and keep track of the overall planning in our project. Furthermore, I will keep my self busy with, besides lab work, sponsoring and modeling of our project. Besides iGEM I go for runs 3 times a week, I practice windsurfing and I also work as a tutor at the university.
Ralf Philipsen - Secretary
I am following the master Biomedical Engineering and am mostly interested in areas such as protein engineering and molecular biology. After having studied this for years, I would like to apply this knowledge in a broad project like iGEM, where we have a lot of freedom to determine what we want to do. Therefore, we have the possibility of designing completely new systems and my goal is of course to make sure these will also function properly. After iGEM I would also like to continue with our work in my graduation project. As secretary, I will be largely responsible for maintaining contact with the many people we meet during our project, but I will also spend a lot of time in the lab and with Human Practices, where we’ll translate our research area to the society. Apart from iGEM I also work as a tutor to teach and help high school students.
Leon Haas - Treasurer
I am following the master Biomedical Engineering at the TU/e with a focus on protein engineering. I would like to incorporate the knowledge and skills I learned at the bachelors and masters so far in an innovative project. With iGEM we get the opportunity to choose what we want to do and try to make a new step forward. I am the treasurer of this year’s team which means that besides working on the lab I am responsible for sponsoring. This combined will give me a lot of experience and skills which will probably also prove useful for my thesis. Besides working in the lab and on finances I can also be found in and around the water. I really like to go windsurfing, canoeing and sailing. Additionally I was board of the Umbrella association for all student sports association in Eindhoven.
Nathalie van de Laar - Wiki chief
My name is Nathalie van de Laar and I am a master student biomedical engineering. My main topic is chemical biology. I am mostly interested in protein-protein interactions. The most interesting part of iGEM for me is the possibility to learn something completely new and develop new skills. One of my responsibilities is our website. This is something I never did before and I like learning to work on this. I am also responsible for everything concerning public relations. Next to that I am part of the team that is responsible for the Human Practices. In the absence of Wytse, I am chairman.
When I am not working at the lab or with the wiki, I like to play piano. Next to that running and swimming are my main ways to relax.
Marle Vleugels - Chief Human Practices
My name is Marle Vleugels and I am a second year’s master student Chemical Engineering, following the MSMC track. My main responsibility within this iGEM team is Human Practices and Safety, but I also work at the lab and I’ve been busy with sponsoring. For me, iGEM is a great opportunity to broaden my scientific knowledge and skills in the area of synthetic biology. Next to that, working in an interdisciplinairy team on such a challenging and broad project appealed to me. If I am not running around at the lab, you might find me running outside or on a treadmill, preferably with some sun shining. But of course, I also like to do things a bit less active in my spare time like going to the ‘borrel’ (having drinks with my friends) while enjoying some craft beer, or searching Netflix for some shows I haven’t seen yet (which is pretty rare).
Sebastiaan Hamers - Lab chief
As part of the iGEM team have been responsible for activities in the lab. Therefore I’ve seen how our project has developed over the summer starting with cloning activities and subsequent protein expression, purification and performing assays. We’ve had a big trial and error process and I can say I’ve learned a lot. I hope to pass on of this knowledge to the next iGEM team when they will appear in our labs. After the iGEM competition I will continue with research on this topic of inducing phase separation in the group of Luc Brunsveld under the watchful eye of Lenne.
Besides that there must also be some time for relaxation purposes which I tend to fill in with judo and a bit of kickboxing. Two sports with also a big factor of trial and error. Although the errors might be more noticeable than when working in the lab.
Laura van Smeden - Modeling chief
This is my second time as a member of an iGEM team. I also participated in 2015 and it was such a nice and informative experience, that I could not resist joining an iGEM team again. It is very nice to have experience and know some pitfalls, which will hopefully help with preventing them. Furthermore, receiving the bachelor degree in Biomedical Engineering helped with getting more experienced with modelling. This is also the reason why this time, my role as an iGEM team member is being the Modeling captain. Fortunately, I can also still spend some time working in the lab and designing presentations. Next to iGEM, I thought first years students Calculus and how to work in the lab during a Biochemistry course. After iGEM, I will continue with finishing my master in Biomedical Engineering by starting with my graduation project, which is a combination of Chemical Biology and Molecular Biosensing for Medical Diagnostics.
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