Our Team

Sierra Tackett

I am a junior Biochemistry major at Wisconsin Lutheran College. I have been involved in iGEM since 2013. I began as a laboratory technician and summer camp group leader. This year, I have directed the team with our overall project and summer camp. I coordinated speakers, activities, and housing for our camp students. I have worked to oversee all aspects of the project to ensure completion including lab work, our survey, human practices research, website, and data modeling. I have also learned a great deal about securing funding for scientific research. This has been a challenging yet rewarding leadership experience for me, and I look forward to applying what I have learned to a career as an MD or MD/PhD.

Christa Winslow

I am junior at WLC majoring in biochemistry. I am excited to be a part of iGem because it represents the ingenuity and collaboration of young scientists to actually create projects with real world applications. It is a great opportunity to really own a project outside of class and it has challenged me to become more competent in the lab and grow in my knowledge of biology in general. This year I was active in lab work, background research, the summer camp, poster design, and the presentation for our project. In addition to iGEM-related work, I have participated in coral reef research in Grenada and research on maize gametophyte development at WLC. I hope to end up doing genetic research or working for a biotechnology company developing GM products with medical applications.

​When not working in the lab (let’s be real; this is a rare occurrence) I may be found at track practice running hurdles, sketching wildlife, reading a recent fictional novel, SCUBA diving, or catching a movie with my friends.

Anna Garvey

I am a Junior Biochemistry student at Wisconsin Lutheran College. As one of the Lab Managers for the iGEM team, my responsibilities included dividing up lab work, designing primers, and overseeing the lab technicians and their progress. My main role was spending countless hours in the lab and preforming a never ending set of experiments that moved our project forward. Though the process seemed unending, these hours were my favorite part of my experience with iGEM. Not only did I get to greatly expand my practical knowledge of laboratory techniques, but I also solidified my choice in attending graduate school and obtaining my PhD.

Beyond direct lab work, I lead the committee that designed and filled the presentation poster, and was one of two lab directors for the Synthetic Biology Summer Camp. The responsibilities included prepping and instructing the lab portion of the curriculum, and reinforcing concepts taught earlier in the camp. We were also given time to get to know the students outside of the lab, which was quite enlightening. Teaching these students, and watching their opinion of science change was a very inspiring and exciting experience for me. I mean, leaving an impact is the whole goal, right?

When I am not in lab, working, or doing homework I enjoy reading a vast array of books, sitting in coffee shops, thinking about life, and occasionally writing. Ultimately, I hope to publish a book one day. In the near future, I plan on attending graduate school to obtain my PhD. Honestly, I don’t know what I want to do yet, or where I want to go, but I know that I want to strive to lead a happy life and I suppose that is all I need.

Matthew Mortensen

I am currently a Junior Biochemistry major attending WLC, and I am a lab manager on this year’s iGEM team; this involved things like dividing and delegating the in-lab workload, designing primers, troubleshooting experiments, and most often just doing the nitty-gritty lab work that needed to be done. Outside of the lab, my main contribution to the team was the design and implementation of our wiki page from scratch- included in this was mostly trial-and-error based relearning of HTML, color schemes, and CSS (thanks w3cschools). I also wrote some and proofread many of the pages for the summer-camp binder. My favorite responsibility was being one of the two lab instructors for our synthetic biology summer camp. As lab instructors we did prep work for labs, went through (sometimes) short lectures on the theoretical basis of the experiments we were performing, and finally guided the group through the planned procedures. All of our procedures worked this year which was great fun, and during the down-time between steps we were able to review and reinforce some of the concepts learned that day.

Outside of the lab, when I have time, I enjoy exploring new types of music, comic books, the occasional video game, long walks to just organize my thoughts, Radio Lab, and Netflix. In the future I hope to pursue a career in science by attending graduate school, although I am not truly sure of what I specifically want to do just yet. In the nearer future I’m very excited to participate on next year’s iGEM team, as we will be starting the process of finding and planning for a new project soon.

Jacob Jodat

I am a sophomore majoring in biochemistry. I aspire to attend medical school after college I contributed to the project by doing lab work on the safety mechanism, researching the future direction of the project, identifying cultures that could use the final product, and helping at the summer camp. I enjoys science because the topics are very interesting to me and there is always more to learn. Outside of science I compete in cross country and track, and enjoy watching Netflix in my spare time.

Zach Birner

My name is Zach Birner, I am a junior biochemistry major here at Wisconsin Lutheran College. My overall educational goal is to become a physician though I am unsure of which specialty. To achieve this goal I became an EMT for clinical experience, and joined iGEM to get experience in the lab. Beyond that I would one day like to return to Zambia, where I grew up, and perform aid work. When I am not doing homework or lab work, I enjoy doing outdoor activities such as playing tennis, biking and jogging, as well as playing ping pong. On our iGEM team I served as a lab technician working to create the parts. My specific job was attempting to transform our secretion pump onto a different plasmid.

Ryan George

I am a Biochemistry major at WLC. My intent is to attend medical school after I leave WLC to become a physician. I joined iGEM in order to further his knowledge in basic laboratory techniques and gain general research experience. In my free time, I enjoy reading, camping, and gaming. I also work on campus as a sound technician, am a dental assistant, and a medical scribe. I contributed to the content and formulation of the website, helped with the summer camp, and assisted in the lab as needed.

Josiah Ricke

​​My name is Josiah Ricke and I am a lab tech on the iGEM team. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to improve my interpersonal skills by being part of a team, as well as being able to apply some of the things I've learned in class. After undergrad I am thinking of attending med school or the jedi academy. In my free time I enjoy spending time with friends and family.

Cody Dziuk

I am a Biomedical Engineer from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) planning on graduating in spring of 2015. After graduation I will assume a job in the biomedical sector; working towards becoming a professionally certified engineer. I joined iGEM to enhance my understanding of mathematical modeling techniques/approaches. In my free time I play bass guitar Conniption, a popular metal band in the Milwaukee area. We recently won a Wisconsin Area Music Industry award for best hard rock/metal band of 2014. I am the developer of the Matlab enzyme kinetics model used by the team.

Lakaysha Blacksher

Lakaysha Blacksher is the Research Assistant to the Professor of Anthropology (Dr. Ned Farley) at WLC. She graduated from Saint Francis High School in 2012, and is currently a junior studying Biological Anthropology with an intended minor in Spanish. Her involvement with this year's project is based in Human Practices; exploring the cultural boundaries and effects of introducing biotechnology to developing countries. Her hobbies include billiards, music, reading, and crying before exams. She hopes to use her degree to become a Forensic Investigator or professor of Anthropology. She intends to stay on with WLC's iGEM team until graduation, and also plans to publish several articles, including a study on Roman-era metallurgy.

Advisors

Dr. James Henkel

I specialize in microbial pathogenesis and microbial toxins. I utilize biochemistry and cell biology to determine virulence factors necessary for bacterial infections. I am currently studying small GTPase mechanisms of action in Chlamydia trachomatis infections, but I am truly interested in how microbes interact for good or for ill with the human body. I also like animals and want to have a pet octopus named BoBo.

Dr. John Werner

I am an assistant professor in the Biology Department at Wisconsin Lutheran College. I have also been an advisor for the iGEM team for the last three years. My research interests are microbiology-related, mostly focusing on the subcellular organization of bacteria and bacteriophage discovery and characterization. In my spare time I enjoy sleeping and having a nice malt at Gilles. I also relish long walks on the beach at sunset and hope to have a pet cat someday, whom I will name Moose or Waffles.

Special thanks

Dr. Leanne Olson

Dr. Andrew Mundt

Dr. Kevin Glaeske