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The Team, The Team, The Team...

University of Michigan iGEM Team

The Advisors

Marc “MC.AMMER” Ammerlaan has been an iGEM advisor for 4 years. When Marc isn’t watching Van Persie’s 2014 World Cup header over and over again he teaches Introduction to Biology Lab, Introduction to Microbiology Lab and Genetics at the University of Michigan. Marc has been essential in boosting the team's confidence when our project and experiment hit a brick wall. He is also known to comfort our team members with pizza when we are spending late nights working on the wiki.
Spirit Animal: Lion

Anuj Kumar is a team advisor and faculty member in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology here at Michigan where he has become a yeast guru. Known across campus for his Genetics course, Anuj is a die hard Detroit Tigers Fan and uses his old tickets as wallpaper for his office. After years of working on cellular processes in yeast, our team members can attest he is quite the FUN-GUY.

Our team’s medaled veteran, Mike Ferguson is a walking encyclopedia of iGEM knowledge and wisdom. When searching for the protocol for a double digest, one has to look no further than Mike for the correct procedure. One look in his eyes, and you know the correct amounts of enzyme, DNA, buffer, meat stick, and water. When all hope is lost, he will venture to the deepest and darkest places of the Undergraduate Science Building to help you find gels, dyes, enzymes, plates… and courage… as long as you don’t make a mess. His interests lay in the magical realm of regenerative medicine, but he always finds time to help those in need of basic molecular biology techniques. Mike, we salute you.
Spirit animal: Jack Link’s Sasquatch

Josh “Satan” Abramson: As a veteran of the Michigan lab team for somewhere between 4 and 40 years Josh has moved on to become an adviser. Controversial debater at heart, he is known for engaging the religious leaders that troll the University of Michigan campus. Outside of iGEM, he enjoys tree climbing, playing pranks on his professors, and computer games.
Spirit Animal: Neanderthal

Send Kaitlyn an email to get all of this info

The Students

Our fearless president, Drew “Ginger Boy” Dunham is a Senior studying Microbiology in the DiRita Lab at Michigan. His disability of being a ginger does nothing to hold him back. Instead he uses it as motivation to guide our harrowing expeditions, learn html from scratch, and collaborate with teams around the globe. As president, he is truly “the one ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and, in the darkness, bind them.”
Spirit Animal: Teddy Bear

The Sam to Drew’s Frodo, our vice-president Raoul "Moosehunter" Martin is an artist in the realm of structural biology and protein purification. Working to uncover the designs of proteins in order to better understand structure/function relationship, this “Moosehunter” is a true interdisciplinary researcher spanning the realms of physics, chemistry, and biology.
Spirit animal: Moose

One of the rare veterans, Jonah "Bloopers" Sementkowski’s cloning expertise proved very beneficial when training new members and throughout the summer. Jonah is our team’s CFO/treasurer and keeps all his treasurer business under a rainbow. A Cell Molecular Biology major, Jonah plans on attending a Masters in Public Health program in the Fall.
Spirit Animal: House cat

Cristina Castillo speaks in a sinuous and sultry tongue about her latest cloning experiment. Rather like a snake charmer, the group is hypnotized by her tales of ribosomal binding sites and constitutive promoters. A former student at Arizona State University, she was sometimes accused of being a spy until quickly proving her valor and loyalty to Team Michigan. One of the team members most likely to be transforming bacteria until 1 AM, and then returning to the lab at 8 AM, she represents the dedication of the Michigan spirit. She also known for her awesome unlimited meal plan (which she shares) and great Spanish homework assistance. Cristina is studying Cell and Molecular Biology and Biomedical Engineering in a joint bachelors/masters program.
Spirit Animal: Penguin

A biomedical engineer at heart, Michael not only models biological systems, but calculates his meager amounts of sleep to balance course load, iGEM, independent research, and beard grooming. Grooming his beard to perfection is not all he does, as he can load an agarose gel without spilling a single drop of DNA. Never without a stick of Orbitz gum for the weary at heart, our modeling guru is always prepared for whatever the journey holds.
Spirit Animal: Lynx

Christine Hathaway, a member of the most awesome lab group, was sure to be found in the lab at all hours of the day. Christine is also known for her Thai heritage, and we are certain she was a most adorable half-baby. Christine is a materials science engineer who would one day like get her PhD and continue doing amazing research.
Spirit Animal: Walrus

Davie has played a key role in both the modeling and lab teams. When he isn’t stressing over grad school apps, Dave is sure to be found cloning and planning how to do experiments to get modeling data. Dave is yet another musically gifted team member who introduced the lab team to Wilco. When Dave isn’t busy gloating about how great he is, he often fails to remember to submit his image links to the wiki, leaving Drew, Jenn, Raoul and Cristina to do his work for him.
Spirit Animal: Ravi

Jenn "JK" Knister worked on cloning and modeling. Another member of “Group Awesome,” she was sure to be in lab when she wasn’t working two research jobs over the summer. She is a proud ultimate frisbee bum and Senior in the joint CMB/Biomedical Engineering degree program at Michigan. Jenn’s uncanny determination will likely lead her to start her own biotech company, possibly named JenTeK
Spirit Animal: Wolf

Chris Parker played a key role on the modeling team. When he isn’t singing for the glee club, fixing random computers around campus, or making the team delicious homemade bread, he is found building cell compartment models using differential equations to models secretions rates of OsmY. Chris is an Chemical Engineering aspiring to be a doctor.
Spirit Animal: Dog

Jessica Johnson is a mystical ginger who faithfully attends the meetings. Not only is she involved in the magical world of synthetic biology but she paints houses, plays the saxaphone, has a love for insects, and is pursuing a BS in Biomedical Engineering. She hopes to either go to medical school or become a biomedical engineer. Either way, she’s kicking (slamming?) butt and making a difference in the world. You go girl!
Spirit Animal: Komodo Dragon

Jon Heiselman is a biomedical engineer and computer science minor who was always sure to skype in from his internship in Texas to help the modeling team. Jon is another adorable half-baby. He is also the only person on Earth who is allergic to chicken. His love of statistical mechanics is infectious and other team members can attest that he is an awesome IA (instructional aide). When he graduates Jon will go to graduate school and continue his work on curing cancer.
Spirit Animal: Chipmunk

Becca "The Ballerina" Loechli, a lifelong ballet dancer, also holds her own in the lab, finding time in her busy schedule for synthetic biology... as long as she has a ride of course. Upon walking into the lab, she welcomes all with a contagious smile that will melt their heart. Her great work ethic makes her an invaluable member of our team. Studying biochemistry, Becca plans to attend medical school in the future while continuing her dance activities, since medical school students need more activities in their lives.
Spirit animal: Fox

Jeremy "Peanut" Kuo is known for his pipetting technique, love of peanuts, and habit of creeping on other iGEM members from his daytime job in the Chemistry building. An integral part of our work with Covance, Jeremy is also a skilled saxophone player and ex-marching band member. Despite his love of peanuts, he for some reason squirms aways whenever his fellow team members throw peanuts at him. Jeremy is a Microbiology and Music double major who hopes to one day cure cancer.
Spirit animal: Armadillo

Kelly's love of biology soon morphed into a love of coding. Initially a member of the lab team, Kelly defected to the Michigan Software team where she was an integral part of the team. Kelly is also the most fashionable member of the IGEM team, but don’t let her frilly looks deceive you; she is also a member of the Michigan Rifle Team. Kelly is also progressively developing her League of Legend skills to round out the day with a bit of everything.
Spirit Animal: Otter

Sam “Cigbutt Sam” Kohley, as he is known on the streets of Detroit, is a crucial member of our lab research team. You may ask how he got his nickname, “Cigbutt Sam.” When asked how he wants to die, he replied that he would prefer skydiving out of an airplane and landing in a volcano, like a “Cigbutt.” Never afraid to be honest and say “No, I didn’t add the ethidium bromide,” Sam loves to longboard and brings livelihood to the lab. He will be pursuing a career in industry after graduation this year.
Spirit Animal: Gazelle

NEED TO WRITE UP NICK

NEED TO WRITE UP ANNE

NEED TO WRITE UP MALCOLM

Always the practical jokester, Ravi never misses an opportunity to give a “if I were an enzyme, I’d be DNA helicase...” joke. Between studying neuroscience and reading Russian literature, Ravi still found time throughout the summer to do some old-fashioned cloning. While transforming cells, the topics of good vs. evil, religion, and crime and punishment never fail to arise when discussing with this eccentric scholar. Just be careful who you tell that, “will a little more alcohol catalyze this reaction, baby?” joke to Ravi.
Spirit Animal: Hyena