Jeffrey Shu, a recent graduate from Abraham Lincoln High School, is currently studying as a freshman at UC Berkeley and intending to major in Molecular and Cell Biology. Jeffrey was drawn to iGEM for its innovative approach to collaborative science and its exciting opportunity to try new things. When not in the lab, you can find him cleaning and organizing things, curling up reading a good book, obsessively binge-watching shows and movies on his bucket list, or loudly singing show tunes in the shower. Jeffrey is excited to start his new life in college and be a part of such an exciting scientific venture alongside his amazing teammates.

Eric Wong is a second year student with the UCSF-UCB iGEM team. Like many of his teammates, he is also an Abraham Lincoln High School alumnus. Eric currently attends the College of San Mateo and is interested in transferring to either UC-Berkeley or UC-Davis to study Molecular Cell Biology. iGEM gave him the opportunity to dive straight into hands-on, innovative research that he would otherwise not have been able to do. He feels that it has been a pleasure to be a part of this enormous community where people all work together to discover and create things we never imagined or thought possible.

Robert Wong is a recent graduate from Abraham Lincoln High School and is currently at College of San Mateo. He plans to move onto UC Davis or UC Berkeley after finishing his GE’s at CSM. Right now he’s headed in the direction of Molecular Cell Biology as a major and hopes to eventually earn his PhD. In his free time he likes to find good food places. “I'M A BIG FOODIE!”

Ianto Lin Xi is a fourth year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in immunology. Outside of iGEM, Ianto works at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, where he can be found programming pipelines to analyze sequencing data. He is also a coordinator at the Berkeley Free Clinic, where he manages the routine operations of the Men’s STI Clinic. In his free time, Ianto forgoes the stability of the earth and prefers to dangle dangerously from rocks.

Born and raised as a 2nd generation immigrant, George Yip has adopted both Chinese and American cultures. He is a recent graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School and has his road paved towards CSM. The idea of learning and gathering knowledge was an essential motivator for him to join iGEM. Real world experience and the trials of everyday scientists are seldom found in literature, and George is certain that being a participant in the world of science will further reinforce his understanding of this field as well as open up insights for him to investigate.

Michael Broeker is a Junior Specialist with UCSF’s Center for Systems & Synthetic Biology, as well as a practicing sculptor. He is a specialist in feeder-free, serum-free stem cell culture, and is currently helping Post-docs realize a project that uses the CRISPRi system in mammalian cells.

Kevin Hartman is a second year Bioinformatics PhD student at UCSF. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology in Chemical Engineering. Following that, he worked in the biofuels industry for two years. He helped the iGEM team develop data analysis computational tools.

Zairan Liu is a second year graduate student at University of California, San Francisco. She is part of the integrated program of quantitative biology (iPQB) and just joined the Weiner lab. With interest in systems and synthetic biology, she wants to study development of early zebrafish embryos using optogenetic tools.

Leonardo Morsut is a postdoctoral fellow in Wendell Lim Lab at UCSF where he is developing new synthetic biology tools to control mammalian cell-cell communication and behavior. He is fascinated by the enthusiasm that the iGEM teams bring to the lab each year and happy to witness their original contributions to research.

Anusuya Ramasubramanian is a fourth year Bioengineering Ph.D. student in the UCSF/UC Berkeley joint program, where she works at the nexus of tissue engineering, biomaterials and synthetic biology. She has an undergraduate degree in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Having participated in iGEM twice as an undergrad at Stanford - once as team member and once as a mentor - she couldn't help but get involved with iGEM as a graduate student. This is Anusuya's second year mentoring the UCSF iGEM team. Mentoring this team, which has a unique mix of high school and undergraduate members, has been an incredibly enriching and rewarding experience. Anusuya has been really impressed with the progress of this year's team and can't wait to see the impact of their work at the Jamboree and beyond!