Team

Team Members

Jonathan Badal

Jonathan Badal is the Director of Strategy and runs the finance team at comiXology. ComiXology is the largest retailer and mobile app platform for digital comic books and had a successful exit to Amazon in 2014. Prior to comiXology, Jonathan was an analyst at the early-stage VC, Rose Tech Ventures.

Allison Birnbaum

Allison Birnbaum is a research assistant at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In addition, she is a volunteer at Genspace, and assists with laboratory instruction for classes and community events. Her background is in genetics and molecular biology, and though being outside in the sunshine is nice, she is a self-described lab rat. In the future she hopes to transition to do work into gene therapy and genetic engineering

Will Canine

Will Canine is an technologist, entrepreneur, and activist living in Brooklyn NY. He is the co-founder of OpenTrons Labworks, a company that designs and manufactures open-source, affordable lab automation equipment and maintains mix.bio, an online community for designing, sharing, and running automated protocols. He has been a Genspace member for nearly two years and loves sci-fi and distance running.

Giorgia Cannici

Giorgia Cannici is an architect by experience and education who in the past few years has become enchanted with the revolution that has been occurring in biotechnology and in nano- and micro- materials and device engineering, all of which are things she believes to be of seminal importance to architecture as a future discipline.

She is currently studying biotechnology at Harvard Extension school, and her dream it's to combine architecture, synthetic biology and material science in order to create advanced material for architectural application.

Dave Casey

Dave Casey is a computer engineer who has been taking an active role in adding DIYBio to his local community lab's curriculum. "Our lab has taught thousands of folks to solder, and we have built more 3D printers and micro-controlled blinky things than I can count. Wouldn't it be great if we could start to do the equivalent in biotech?" Dave is based in central Florida, is a member of FamiLAB, GenSpace, and BioCurious. He is also into 3D photography and building exotic musical instruments.

Christine Doan

I'm class of '11 at the University of Central Florida, M&M BS, now working on my Biotech MS here. I enjoy community service, football, live music, local eateries, beer, and science

Eric Fernandez

Eric Fernandez is currently attending Columbia University. He is a post baccalaureate in the biotechnology certificate program and upon completion will be pursuing doctorate programs in biology. His ultimate goal is to become a professor with a focus on researching cures for cancer and age related diseases.

Yuriy Fazylov

York college student on and off, fascinated by synthetic biology, terreforming, space science and anything cutting-edge.

Marty Goldin

Marty Goldin graduated way back in the last century with a degree in electrical engineering from Cornell. After a short stint in the technical world, he has spent most of his career in the world of real estate. Now through work with Genspace and the iGEM project, he is now rejoining the technical world in a new century.

Christal Gordon

Christal Gordon is an engineer. Her specialties include hardware design, prototyping, and programming. She has designed bio-inspired and bio-interfacing systems, high-speed electronics, and models of complex systems.

Karen Ingram

Karen Ingram is a designer, artist, and creative director who uses her skill set to promote scientific awareness. Ingram is a co-organizer of Brooklyn science cabaret, The Empiricist League and a board member of SXSW Interactive. She was an instructor on the subject of creative strategy for NYU SHERP’s pilot Entrepreneurial Science Journalism course. Her work has appeared in publications including titles from Die Gestalten (Berlin), Scientific American, and The FWA where she was named a "Digital Pioneer." Ingram is currently working with Natalie Kuldell, a bioengineer at MIT on Biobuilder, a synthetic biology teaching resource.

Christine Jackson

Christine Jackson is a Front End Web Designer / Developer from Long Island, NY. She is also is a science enthusiast with a love for biology. She is interested in seeing how current and future technology can help advance biotech in a way that could help solve environmental and health issues.

Max Jackson

Max Jackson is a graduate student in Neuroscience at UCF. He does work in the 'Hybrid Neural Systems' lab, in which he helps to create 'brains-on-a-chip' - neural cultures grown outside of the brain on micro-electrode arrays which are used to extend both medical studies and basic research. He also does work in consumer/hobbyist brain-machine interfacing, working with a group out of New York called OpenBCI. Max has a NFC computer chip implanted in his hand, which he uses to replace the functions of his wallet and keys.

*Jacinda Chen & Ramsez McCall

Ramsez: I'm a high school student who took a class at Genspace last summer, but never got the chance to take advantage of all that the lab had to offer due to time constraints. I joined the team because I want to learn more about biotechnology, and the biotechnology unit in my AP biology class was miniscule. I aspire to be on the level of Craig Venter someday, but for now, I really love being part of iGEM!

Ashley Quinn

Ashley Quinn is a designer and activist interested in the cross-section between art, science and technology. Through her work she bridges the gap between environmental awareness, human action, and behavior change by creating novel experiences and design interventions. Rooted in research-based practices with a focus on the environment and future-thinking, her projects are cross-disciplinary, drawing on her experience designing for the built world, the digital world, and everything in between.

Mentors

Ellen Jorgensen, Ph.D.

Ellen is an escapee from the biotechnology industry, where she spent the past 30 years in biomedical research. She went from directing a group searching for early biomarkers of tobacco-induced disease to chasing Chad the dachsund out of the community lab area. Believe it or not she is much happier now.