Elias Augestad

I was finishing my third year in the Master Program in Biotechnology at NTNU in Trondheim, when I joined the iGEM team. My education has so far consisted of courses in molecular biology and chemistry. I have now moved to Denmark where I have started on my master degree in Biotechnology at the University of Copenhagen.

I joined the iGEM team with some knowledge of the principles behind synthetic biology, but I knew little about what kind of methods and techniques that were used. I feel now that I have learned a lot, both theoretically and practically, from this project and I´m really glad I got the opportunity to be part of NTNU´s iGEM team 2014.

Ronja Hesthammer

I joined the NTNU iGEM team as I was finishing my Master’s degree in Biotechnology. My specialization was biopolymer chemistry, however, my thesis was on characterizing of enzymes produced by micro-organisms in oil reservoirs. I have now moved to Bergen, a different city in Norway, and started my Ph.D. at the University of Bergen (UiB). My research here focuses on tetrahydrobiopterin as a key factor in the pathophysiology of diving.

The project our team chose to work with is of great importance in our society today, and I’m very glad to be a part of it. I have gotten to practice several methods during this iGEM participation, and learned some new ones. It has also been very exciting to work with the rest of the team members of our small, but extremely nice team.

Pål Røynestad

I joined the NTNU iGEM team towards the end of my third year of NTNU's 5 year integrated master's degree program in Biotechnology. I am now in my fourth year, and have just started working on my master's thesis. My thesis involves developing a new genome-scale metabolic modelling approach to study patterns of adaptation when using a massively-parallel experimental evolution platform.

Going into the project, my knowledge of iGEM and synthetic biology was limited, but the learning experience has been very rewarding, even with all the frustration involved.

Camilla Marstrander Reehorst

I completed my Master of Science degree in 2014 at Norwegian University of Science and Technology located in Trondheim. My specialisation was biopolymer chemistry and the focus of my master thesis was drug penetration and bioavailability through the mucus barrier. My main research area interest is medical biotechnology. I have now moved to Melbourne, Australia, and will hopefully commence a PhD at the University of Melbourne within the medical field from the start of 2015.

In relation to my focus area, the iGEM project has been rather peripheral; however, I have enjoyed the new techniques and experiences. I also think that as a researcher it pays off to have an basic understanding about the mechanics of multiple research areas, not only the one you’ve submerged yourself in.

Eivind Bøe Drejer

I'm currently finishing my master's degree in Biotechnology, specializing in Systems Biology. My master thesis involves metabolic modelling of Salmonella enterica during osmotic stress, and is done in collaboration with the Institute for Food Research in Norwich, UK. I have been interested in science from an early age, and settled on biotechnology in 2010. Synthetic biology has fascinated me ever since I started understanding the complex dynamics that govern cells. Being able to design new functions for living cells is a testimony to how far the science has come, and I am proud to play a small part in it.

Working on designing an expression system for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 has been exciting and educating. I have thoroughly enjoyed the iGEM experience so far, and can't wait to see what the other teams have accomplished.

Line Aanerud Omtvedt

I finished my Master of Science degree in Biotechnology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in June 2014. My specialization was biopolymer chemistry, and I worked extensively with alginate in my master project. In October I started my Ph.D. at the same university. My Ph.D. research is about the modification of marine polysaccharides and biomaterials, under the MARPOL group.

The research done with iGEM has been a great learning experience for me, as synthetic biology is not a research field I have focused on before. I think it is very important to gain insight into different areas of science, and feel that iGEM has greatly contributed to this. I am very happy I got the opportunity to participate in the 2014 iGEM competition.

Jacob Lamb

I started my research in a laboratory at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand with Professor Julian Eaton-Rye and Associate Professor Martin Hohmann-Marriott. I completed of my Master of Science degree in 2012 in the field of Biochemistry, focusing on renewable energy studies in photosynthetic organisms. I then moved to Trondheim, Norway to undertake a Ph.D. research fellowship under the supervision of Associate Professor Martin Hohmann-Marriott in the department of Biotechnology, at NTNU. My Ph.D. research looks at using cyanobacteria (and other photosynthetic organisms) as a source of energy/biofuels.

As a consequence, this iGEM project our team has undertaken is of up-most interest for me personally, as I believe that photosynthesis holds the solution to a lot of the problems our society will face in the coming years.

HyeWon Lee

I graduated NTNU with my undergraduate program in biopolymerchemistry and master thesis in biopolymerphysics. I moved back to my home country in the summer, and am now working in the R&D department of a pharmaceutical company, Greencross corp..

It was unfortunate that O could only join the iGEM team for a short period. I am very proud of our team and wish them all the best of luck for the jamboree.

Rahmi Lale - Microbial Biotechnology

I have obtained my PhD degree in 2009, within the field of microbial biotechnology. Currently, I am working as a researcher at the Department of Biotechnology, NTNU.

My main research focus areas are bacterial transcriptional and translational regulation, synthetic biology/metabolic engineering and metagenome/biodiscovery.

I have been working with various organisms including E. coli, mesophilic and psychrophilic Pseudomonas sp., Streptomyces sp, Shewanella sp., Pseudoalteromonas sp., Synechocystis sp., lactic acid bacteria, and yeast.

Prof. Eivind Almaas - Systems- and network biology

During the last few years, network approaches have shown great promise as new tools to analyze and understand complex systems. In biology, network formulations of a system naturally appear in situations ranging from food webs in ecology to biochemical interactions in molecular biology. In particular in the cell, the variety of interactions between genes, proteins and metabolites are well captured by a complex network description. My research is focused on developing both general and specific methods to understand the principles behind the design and organization of biological systems.

There is close connection between systems and synthetic biology, and the iGEM competition is a natural arena to explore this tight relationship.

Assoc. Prof. Martin F. Hohmann-Marriott - Photosynthesis and bioenergetics

Research interests:
Photosynthesis & bioenergetics
Ecosystem-scale energy generation
Renewable energy
Nano-scale imaging techniques
Evolution of bioenergetic systems & Astrobiology