Cristina Vilanova

I am a biotechnologist currently doing my PhD at the Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology unit of the ICBiBE (UV). My work in the lab consists in implementing different systems biology - and "omics" - based approaches to the bioprospection of natural habitats.

Lucas J. Morales

I am a biotechnologist.
I am hardworking, cheerful, motivated and like to laugh. My hobbies are playing guitar, reading, watching series and computing.
I found very interesting the part of modeling applied to biology.

Guillermo Zafrilla

Hi! I´m Guillermo Zafrilla Requena but everybody in lab calls me Zafri. I think that I´m a freak of technologic or mechanic devices like engines, computers, etc. I joined iGEM because I love doing science and designing new lab devices is a funny challenge for me. I´m very happy this year because it´s my first time as advisor in my team. My professional interests are industrial biotechnology, bioreactors and chemical engineering. I hope that my team will have good results in the Giant Jamboree at Boston!!

Manel Porcar

I lead the Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology lab in the Cavanilles Institute (University of Valencia, Spain). I am the coordinator of the Valencia Biocampus Project. The competition is a very challenging experience; I have been involved in six iGEM editions. I believe that Synthetic Biology will experience many important changes in a close -and fascinating- future: engineering principles will not be taken for granted and evolutionary approaches might replace hype as the driving force of SynBio.

Juli Peretó

I am an evolutionary biochemist working at the University of Valencia, at the Cavanilles Institute for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology. I try to teach metabolism to biotechnologists and I am a passionate of the studies on the origin of life and the history of the ideas on the natural origin and the artificial synthesis of life. The last three years I was the director of the international summer school “Origin, Evolution and Future of the Biosphere” (Erasmus Intensive Programme) and rencently I was named Fellow of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life.

Violeta Beltrán

As a lawyer, I specialize in Intellectual Property and Information Technology. I used to work at the Spanish National Research Council (in Spanish, CSIC), the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. In particular, I used to work at the Deputy Vice-presidency for Knowledge Transfer in technology transfer issues. Currently I am the lead of the Legal Affairs division at Biopolis, S.L., a biotech company and one of the few spin-off companies of CSIC.

Daniel Ramón Vidal

I made my PhD working at the Dep. of Molecular Genetics of the pharmaceutical company Antibióticos S.A. Then I moved to the Univ. of Wageningen as a post-doc. I was Professor of Food Tech at CSIC and UV. Currently I am CEO of Biópolis S.L. My interests are microbial biotech and the production of microbial metabolites. I'm author of more than 100 articles and co-author of 30 patents. I've obtained the European Prize of Divulgation, the Prize of the Danone Institute, and the National Price in Technology Transfer.

Marta Tortajada

I am a chemical engineer, specialized in automatics and system engineering, particularly fond of systems biology. I work in applied biotechnology in the company Biopolis, in projects related to the production of microorganisms and valuable metabolites, such as recombinant proteins, active pharmaceutical ingredients, alcohols and microbial polymers.

Carlos Peña

Carlos P. Garay is an Associate Researcher at the IFIC Particle Physics Institute of the Spanish Research Council since 2006.
From 2002 to 2006, he was a Long-Term member of the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Dr. Garay is an expert in solar neutrino physics, with contributions on a variety of topics in Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology. His current interest focuses on the dynamics of complex systems - in particular, microbiota.