Meet Nicholas McCarty, co-founder of Iowa iGEM. Nicholas is a biochemistry and microbiology major. During his time at the University of Iowa, he has done cardiovascular and autophagy research, molecular biology, gene sequencing, and microRNA assays. He joined the Iowa iGEM team to gain experience in synthetic biology because he thinks manipulating bacteria is neat! Fun fact: He used to play the saxophone but has given it up due to noise complaints from the neighbors.