Team:UCSD Software/Teaml

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UCSD’s iGEM team will join over 200 teams from across the country for a chance to compete for the BioBrick trophy.

UCSD’s computational iGEM team will focus on recruiting a team from a wide range of academic disciplines in order to expose students to interdisciplinary research. iGEM team members will have a chance to work closely with mentors during the summer, fostering a diverse skillset necessary for interdisciplinary fields such as Systems Biology. In addition to acquiring technical skills while working on the iGEM project, students in iGEM will also refine their presentation skills – typically iGEM students present their work in: an oral presentation at the iGEM World Jamboree, on a research poster, online wiki, and ocassionally, a submission to an academic journal. Participation in UCSD’s iGEM team will raise not only students’ confidence in their research abilities, but also their awareness of opportunities in emerging fields including Systems Biology.

Meet the Team

Huwate (Kwat) Yeerna (Ernar)

  • Math, Bioengineering: Bioinformatics,
    2015

Collaboration was the theme of this past spring, summer, and this fall.

We have created a computational synthetic biology tool, SBiDer, that fosters collaboration among the global synthetic biology community. SBiDer also has a potential to bridge between other fields of biology and the field of synthetic biology by enabling ontological interpretations of biochemical reactions as well as genetic interactions. Furthermore, SBiDer database can become the first universal database for the field of synthetic biology. Lastly, we have minimized the barriers for collaborative development of SBiDer by modularly engineering SBiDer on an open source platform. We encourage the global community to extend, develop, and optimize SBiDer - together.

Our team has developed SBiDer from the ground up, and my primary tasks have been the engineering of the database and the search algorithm. Engineering the database and the search algorithm were daunting tasks that challenged me in many ways. Yet, I embraced the challenge. The more arduous the project became, the harder I worked. As a result, this assiduous process has provided me with a fantastic opportunity to improve my skills in computer programming, bioinformatics, and mathematical modeling. Now, I truly appreciate the value of the challenges that I faced and the priceless opportunity of this education.

Developing SBiDer codes was hard, and effectively leading a groups of people was even harder. Technical challenges not only made me a critical thinker, but also harnessed my skills as leader that ultimately made me a better scientist. In the process of interacting with my teammates, I felt a maturation of myself. I have learned to be more conscious about others’ struggles. I learned to sacrifice for others in developing the project, which is key in teamwork. I learned a lot about proper teamwork ethics. Looking back, I am surprised how much I have learned about communication, effective leadership, project development, and more. I believe these skills have made me a better scientist. Without working together, we would not have been able to develop SBiDer. SBiDer is a result of our communal effort.

I believe that science and collaboration are closely intertwined, for collaboration fundamentally advances science. I am grateful for the opportunity in developing SBiDer and working with my team: Joaquin, Jenhan, Justin, Ben, Ryan, Andreas, KP, Lauren, Valeriy, Gary, Fernando, Luyao, and Rohit. I learned tremendously from the collaboration that was coalesced with the science. And finally, we made SBiDer. The past seven months have been filled with learning opportunities, arising in unexpected manners that have led a an enjoyable and fruitful journey.

I hope the community enjoys SBiDer and can contribute to its further development.
All in all, collaboration was not only the theme of this past spring, summer, and this fall, but it will be the theme of my life.

Joaquin Reyna

  • Bioengineering: Bioinformatics, 2015

Valeriy Sosnovskiy

  • Biochemistry, Computer Science, 2015

Lauren Crudup

  • Bioengineering, 2015

Gary Le

  • Human Biology, Business, 2017

Kartikeya Puri

  • Computer Science, 2016