|
|
| Line 200: |
Line 200: |
| | <div class="col-md-8 text-col-left"> | | <div class="col-md-8 text-col-left"> |
| | <h3>Pietu Roisko<br> | | <h3>Pietu Roisko<br> |
| - | <small>Pietu</small></h3> | + | <small>Peity</small></h3> |
| | <h4 class="university-title">Aalto University</h4> | | <h4 class="university-title">Aalto University</h4> |
| | <p> | | <p> |
| - | Pietu is a second year student in the School of Electrical Engineering, with a major in bionics and minor in product development. Specializing in medical technology. He also has skills and enthusiasm for fundraising and marketing. | + | I am a second year student in the School of Electrical Engineering. I’m majoring in bionics, i.e. combining engineering with existing biological systems. Measuring electrical signals in the human body is one of my key interests. |
| | + | </p> |
| | + | <p> |
| | + | My contribution to the team was more on the entrepreneurial side as biochemistry is not my field of study. I really enjoyed taking our work to the public via the Summer of Startups-programme. I worked much on the presentations we held, and did quite a lot of pitching too. |
| | + | </p> |
| | + | <p> |
| | + | Later in the summer I researched and built the LED rig we used to perform our measurements. I really enjoy building things. I enjoy coding too, but ended up programming very little, because we have so many great coders on our team. |
| | + | </p> |
| | + | <p> |
| | + | I did learn a whole lot of gene technology and lab-work on the side too. This was one really awesome project to be part of and i can assure that interdisciplinarity really took us far. |
| | + | </p> |
| | + | <p> |
| | + | <i>Keep it simple.</i> I enjoy photography, building things and programming. |
| | </p> | | </p> |
| | </div> | | </div> |
| Line 259: |
Line 271: |
| | <p> | | <p> |
| | A third year Mathematics and Theoretical Physics student in University of Helsinki. | | A third year Mathematics and Theoretical Physics student in University of Helsinki. |
| | + | </p> |
| | + | <p> |
| | My main responsibilities were to create a mathematical model with my colleague Otto Lamminpää, as well as to participate in the Summer of Startups incubator programme. I was also responsible for designing and writing our Business Plan with Mr. Lamminpää. Before the summer I had no previous experience in molecular biology and I have really learned a lot, cheers! | | My main responsibilities were to create a mathematical model with my colleague Otto Lamminpää, as well as to participate in the Summer of Startups incubator programme. I was also responsible for designing and writing our Business Plan with Mr. Lamminpää. Before the summer I had no previous experience in molecular biology and I have really learned a lot, cheers! |
| | </p> | | </p> |
| - |
| |
| | <p> | | <p> |
| | During the summer, me and Mr. Lamminpää ended up using most of our spare time walking around the city discussing mathematics and mysteries of life itself. | | During the summer, me and Mr. Lamminpää ended up using most of our spare time walking around the city discussing mathematics and mysteries of life itself. |
| Line 305: |
Line 318: |
| | <h2>Advisors and Mentors</h2> | | <h2>Advisors and Mentors</h2> |
| | <h3>Markus Linder, Professor, Aalto University</h3> | | <h3>Markus Linder, Professor, Aalto University</h3> |
| - | <p>Markus has helped us and believed in us from the start. During this project we have worked under his research group and got financial aid in lab costs.</p> | + | <p> |
| | + | Markus has helped us and believed in us from the start. During this project we have worked under his research group and got financial aid in lab costs. |
| | + | </p> |
| | <h3>Bartosz Gabryelczyk, M.Sc., VTT/Aalto University</h3> | | <h3>Bartosz Gabryelczyk, M.Sc., VTT/Aalto University</h3> |
| - | <p>Bartosz is the one who has helped us the most. He introduced us to every single step in the lab, eg. how to calculate the amount of DNA in different reactions, and how to prepare a gel for electrophoresis. He has also helped us with ordering kits, enzymes, oligos, synthesized parts etc. | + | <p> |
| | + | Bartosz is the one who has helped us the most. He introduced us to every single step in the lab, eg. how to calculate the amount of DNA in different reactions, and how to prepare a gel for electrophoresis. He has also helped us with ordering kits, enzymes, oligos, synthesized parts etc. |
| | </p> | | </p> |
| | | | |
| Line 326: |
Line 342: |
| | <h3>People in the Lab</h3> | | <h3>People in the Lab</h3> |
| | <h4>Sanni Voutilainen, Ph.D., Aalto University</h4> | | <h4>Sanni Voutilainen, Ph.D., Aalto University</h4> |
| - | <p>During the last month before the Giant Jamboree, Sanni helped us with some clonings that we couldn’t get to work and as we were already busy with school courses. She also helped us with any urgent issues we had, such as figuring out how to send out our BioBricks. | + | <p> |
| | + | During the last month before the Giant Jamboree, Sanni helped us with some clonings that we couldn’t get to work and as we were already busy with school courses. She also helped us with any urgent issues we had, such as figuring out how to send out our BioBricks. |
| | </p> | | </p> |
| | | | |
| | <h4>Georg Schmidt, Ph.D., Aalto University</h4> | | <h4>Georg Schmidt, Ph.D., Aalto University</h4> |
| - | <p>Georg with his expertise in electroporations, ligations and PCRs has given us many tips on what sort of things need to be taken into consideration and how to improve the success rate in our cloning etc. We had many debugging sessions with him when our protocols didn’t work. | + | <p> |
| | + | Georg with his expertise in electroporations, ligations and PCRs has given us many tips on what sort of things need to be taken into consideration and how to improve the success rate in our cloning etc. We had many debugging sessions with him when our protocols didn’t work. |
| | </p> | | </p> |
| | | | |
Team
An enthusiastic team of nine people putting Finland on the map of synthetic biology.
The Team
We are a skillful and persistent group of nine Finns. We started as a group of students who didn't really know each other, assuming that we are going to spend our summer studying synthetic biology with strange collegues. We ended up getting a bunch of new friends and (in addition to studying synthetic biology) we just might have spent one of the best summers of our lives.
Our group is interdisciplinary and comes from University of Helsinki and Aalto University; the two big universities located in the capital of Finland, Helsinki. We have expertise in many different fields ranging from genetics to product development and from computer science to food technology.
Here's the link to our Official Team Profile.
From left to right: Niklas Itänen, Laura Laakso, Lassi Vapaakallio, Otto Lamminpää, Oskari Vinko, Martina Ikonen, Mikko Laine, Minttu Salmela, Pietu Roisko.
Team Members
You can find very different personalities in our nine-member team! Meet the members of Aalto-Helsinki!
Oskari Vinko
Captain
Aalto University
University of Helsinki
I’m a synthetic biology enthusiast with a mathematical background and crazy ideas. I’m definitely an optimist so often I need somebody to keep my feet on the ground. I’m very curious and one of the best entertainment is to find out how everything works. I also love to code but lately, I haven’t had too much time for that. In fall 2014 I started my Master’s studies in Biotechnology at ETH Zürich and I’m majoring Synthetic Biology.
In 2013 I heard about iGEM and I knew immediately that I want to participate it. I took an initiative to found the first-ever Finnish iGEM team and thus, I ended up being the team captain. This means I’m the jack-of-all-trades trying to peek my nose to everything but I’m not really getting things done. I’ve been writing tons of emails, funding applications and developed new ideas but pretty much all the credit of implementing them goes to the rest of our awesome team.
I used to play piano, frisbeegolf, do scouting and go cycling. Since I moved to Switzerland (this odd country with a weird set of languages not familiar to me) I’ve tried to enjoy cycling as much as possible because those other hobbies do not really work out here. After iGEM I’m going to look forward to try something new and get involved in new projects. And I already miss sauna and rye bread!
Minttu Salmela
Lab Rat
Aalto University
A fourth-year Chemical Engineering student majoring in bio and food technology.
I am the second half of our lab team and I have been in charge of the wet lab with Martina. I have spent most of my days in the lab working with Biobricks and our dear bacteria.
I am also the Travel Manager of our team so I have been in charge of all the things related to Boston.
In the beginning of the summer I knew barely anything about gene technology, let alone synthetic biology, so it has been amazing to learn a whole bunch of new things and actually getting to do stuff in the lab on our own.
One hightlight of my summer was when we got our first sequencing results and we finally had concrete proof that we had actually managed to ligate pieces of DNA together. Before that we just had to have faith in ourselves and hope things were going the right way. Now I know why some people say that science is like a religion!
Music, puppies, travelling, a good cup of tea and sleeping in on a Sunday morning are my favourite things in the world.
Random Fun Fact: I can stand on my head.
Laura Laakso
Designer
University of Helsinki
I’m a fourth year student majoring in Molecular Biosciences and minoring in Computer Science. I’m also interested in art and design. In our iGEM team my main responsibility has been designing things; both the genetic switch and our own visual appearance.
I’d have the required skills to work in the laboratory, too, but I ended up spending most of the summer either researching, drawing or coding. I learned a lot about designing genetic mechanisms and also an enormous amount of css tricks. It was amazing to see that it was actually possible to do all the things that interest me for the same project, even though they seem so far apart at first.
Sometimes I entirely lose the sense of time and place while focusing on something interesting. I might fixate on a drawing, a game, a problem, or even studying, and completely forget everything else for a while. This is often useful, but sometimes also troublesome.
Lassi Vapaakallio
Cool Title
University of Helsinki
A third year Computer Science student with 2 years of biotech background.
My main responsibility was programming various software tools to help research and lab work, as well as developing our website and wiki. I also racked up a surprising amount of lab hours considering I had last worked in the lab 3 years ago.
I also did a bunch of bioinformatics. I found myself playing around with Geneious a lot, making primers, analysing sequencing results and building things virtually before we assemble them in the lab.
The coolest thing during the summer was making BioBrick Seeker and seeing what can be achieved by a group of students in a field that we barely knew anything about.
Random fun fact: I’m the 36th best pinball player in Finland.
I’m kind of a huge game enthusiast. I love spending time with people playing games, whether it’s card games, board games, pinball, table-top RPGs or all kinds of computer games.
I also play all sorts of drums.
Pietu Roisko
Peity
Aalto University
I am a second year student in the School of Electrical Engineering. I’m majoring in bionics, i.e. combining engineering with existing biological systems. Measuring electrical signals in the human body is one of my key interests.
My contribution to the team was more on the entrepreneurial side as biochemistry is not my field of study. I really enjoyed taking our work to the public via the Summer of Startups-programme. I worked much on the presentations we held, and did quite a lot of pitching too.
Later in the summer I researched and built the LED rig we used to perform our measurements. I really enjoy building things. I enjoy coding too, but ended up programming very little, because we have so many great coders on our team.
I did learn a whole lot of gene technology and lab-work on the side too. This was one really awesome project to be part of and i can assure that interdisciplinarity really took us far.
Keep it simple. I enjoy photography, building things and programming.
Martina Ikonen
BioBrick Master
Aalto University
I’m Bachelor of science (technology) in chemical engineering. This is my fourth year and I’m starting Master’s studies majoring bio- and food technology, at Aalto University.
I have spent the summer mostly in the wet lab and made loads of gel runs, ligations and transformations, that is, the cloning. My special skill is the Biobricks, as I had already had an introduction to them when making my Bachelor’s thesis last spring. So I knew the principles of the assembly techniques although I had never done any gene technology lab work before.
During the work with my thesis I regretted I would never know if Biobricks are useful in reality. The stroke of luck came in the form of an announcement to build up the first-ever Finnish iGEM team. In theory, Biobricks sounded like a cool way of making genetic engineering easier but now I really got an opportunity to do some hands-on work with Biobricks!
In my official hobbies I would include synchronized skating and scouting which both I have been into since I was a kid. In addition, I like knitting, spending time outside in the nature and geocaching. For sure I’m going to find some geocaches in Boston, too!
Otto Lamminpää
Mathematical Modeling Agent
University of Helsinki
A third year Mathematics and Theoretical Physics student in University of Helsinki with an additional year of experience in chemistry from University of Turku. With my colleague Mr. Itänen, I shared the responsibility of designing and creating both mathematical and business models for our project. I also did programming for our simulation, worked in lab creating electrocompetent cells and participated in the Summer of Startups.
Although you can often find me lost in thought, I’m generally quite outgoing and spend most of my time discussing recent topics with my colleagues and sampling fine brews, such as coffees and ales.
Niklas Itänen
Mathematical Supermodel
University of Helsinki
A third year Mathematics and Theoretical Physics student in University of Helsinki.
My main responsibilities were to create a mathematical model with my colleague Otto Lamminpää, as well as to participate in the Summer of Startups incubator programme. I was also responsible for designing and writing our Business Plan with Mr. Lamminpää. Before the summer I had no previous experience in molecular biology and I have really learned a lot, cheers!
During the summer, me and Mr. Lamminpää ended up using most of our spare time walking around the city discussing mathematics and mysteries of life itself.
Mikko Laine
Media Guru
Aalto University
I'm a fifth-year Bachelor of Science (Technology) in chemical engineering. I major in bioprocess technology and minor in economy.
In this project I’ve been in charge of the communications. My main task has been stirring a bustle in the media; both traditional and social. My job has included updating Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube accounts and writing a blog on our website. I’ve also been contacting Finnish press and written few stories in relevant magazines.
My interests cover a wide area of different fields; from biochemistry and gene technology to communications and influencing. I have also given the team members tips in performance, since I have quite a lot performing experience. Likewise the other members, I have also been a little bit all over the place, sometimes working in laboratory and sometimes attending the Summer of Startups program. I also wrote, directed and produced our teaser video to Demo Day.
The summer has been a fantastic experience! Learning about gene circuits and BioBricks has been very interesting, but also taking a sneak peek in communication on the field has been educational.
I have a wide range of hobbies; theatre, singing, dancing and writing are just a few to mention. I’m also involved in student associations. I rarely just stand still!
Random fun fact: I host a kids’ tv channel in Finland
Advisors and Mentors
Markus Linder, Professor, Aalto University
Markus has helped us and believed in us from the start. During this project we have worked under his research group and got financial aid in lab costs.
Bartosz Gabryelczyk, M.Sc., VTT/Aalto University
Bartosz is the one who has helped us the most. He introduced us to every single step in the lab, eg. how to calculate the amount of DNA in different reactions, and how to prepare a gel for electrophoresis. He has also helped us with ordering kits, enzymes, oligos, synthesized parts etc.
Attributions
Help with the Business Point of View
SoS
BSUM
People in the Lab
Sanni Voutilainen, Ph.D., Aalto University
During the last month before the Giant Jamboree, Sanni helped us with some clonings that we couldn’t get to work and as we were already busy with school courses. She also helped us with any urgent issues we had, such as figuring out how to send out our BioBricks.
Georg Schmidt, Ph.D., Aalto University
Georg with his expertise in electroporations, ligations and PCRs has given us many tips on what sort of things need to be taken into consideration and how to improve the success rate in our cloning etc. We had many debugging sessions with him when our protocols didn’t work.
Photographers
Tanja Maria
Tanja Maria kindly let us use her photos. The photos ended up being a fairly large part of our wiki's appearance! You can find more art by Tanja Maria from here: http://i-see-faces.deviantart.com/.
Stewart Dowden
Stewart took some pictures of our lab and office in action and we got to use the photos, too! You can browse through his photos on his website.
Sponsors
We want to thank our sponsors for all the support they've given us. In the beginning there was no guarantee that we'd get any support at all. Even if we expected that we might get some support, the amount of people offering their help far exceeded our expectations.
From the following list you can find all our partners, what/who they are and what they did for/with us. A big thank you to all!
"
