Hello! I am Jeffrey, a rising senior majoring in Biology and minoring in Public Health. I am working with Ben to develop a light regulated transcriptional mechanism. When I’m not spending copious amounts of time in lab, I can be found working on applications for medical school, playing Ultimate Frisbee, tossing frisbees, and any other activity relating to frisbees. I enjoy cooking, reading and late night/early morning runs around campus.
Benjamin Huang
Oh hey there! I'm Ben, a rising sophomore who is planning on majoring in Biomedical Engineering. I am part of the group that is working on gene expression with light. Outside of lab, I am the web designer for our iGEM team. It is the first time I am coding in html and css so there is a big learning curve, but it is a lot of fun regardless. In my free time, I like to go to the gym, watch netflix, and am attempting to learn to cook!
Caroline Focht
Hello there! I'm Caroline, and I am a rising sophomore majoring in chemistry with a biochemistry concentration. This summer, I am working with Richard to get a nif cluster from a cyanobacteria working in E. coli . When not doing lab work, I work on the team's social media presence and outreach program. We're filming a short web series for our YouTube channel, so you should check it out! When I can tear myself away from those things, I enjoy watching period dramas, trying out new restaurants, taking a jog in the early evening, and talking to friends.
Richard Li
Hola! My name's Richard. I am a rising sophomore majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics. I work on attempting to express nif clusters from cyanobacteria in E. coli strains in various environmental conditions. As lab manager of the iGEM team for WashU, I enjoy interactions with scholars in institutions as well as with prokaryotic cells in media. Viewing our team's job as inception of agricultural future, I am glad to be one of the members here. Out of lab, my interests range from reading to aviation, and I am also a puppy lover.
Hi! I'm Bert- a PhD candidate in the Pakrasi lab. I am working to apply techniques developed to optimize the operation of chemical reactors to get more useful stuff out of our favorite micro-reactors: cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria created most of the organic material that time and geological forces turned into the fossil fuels we rely on to meet our energy and materials needs today. I believe that engineered cyanobacterial strains can play a major part in meeting those needs in the future. I am working to create those strains. In my life outside the lab, I like to build things, ride and race my bicycle, and hang out with my wife Jenny, our baby girl Evan, and the handsomest dog in the world, Monster.
Dr. Deng Liu
I'm Deng, a postdoc researching in the Pakrasi lab. I am interested in the research on cyanobacteria, especially on the synthetic biology and transcriptional regulation in cyanobacteria. At present, I am responsible for the nitrogen fixation project in the lab. Because of the various species of cyanobacteria, it is possible to make the non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria to fix nitrogen under the control of circadian clock as some diazotrophic cyanobacteria show in nature. In this work, many experimental approaches are used, such as molecular biology, biochemistry, genetic engineering and so on.
Cheryl Immethun
Hi, I’m Cheryl, a PhD candidate in the Moon Research Group. I am developing synthetic biology tools for cyanobacteria, mainly utilizing transcriptional regulation. Through their millions of years of evolution, cyanobacteria have developed amazing capabilities that I would like to employ for societal needs. By unlocking the secrets of nitrogen fixation in a photosynthetic cell, we could one day transform agriculture to keep up with the demands of our ever expanding population. My passions are solving puzzles (in and out of the lab,) as well as exciting students about the mysteries of science and helping them develop the tools to become society’s problem solvers.
Andrew Ng
I am a rising senior majoring in Biomedical Engineering and am an alumnus of WashU iGEM 2012. Currently I am working on engineering cyanobacteria to better produce proteins in the Pakrasi Lab. I hope to attend graduate school to pursue a PhD in Bioengineering after graduation. Outside of the lab I can be found reading, biking, or cooking.
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