Team 2018

Meet iGEM TU Eindhoven 2018!

Team Members

Tim van der Hek – Team Manager

Tim is the team manager for this team. This means that he is responsible for the general atmosphere of the team and keeps track of all of our deadlines. To keep everything running smoothly as a student team, he is also communicating with our university together with Sander. In the lab, Tim is part of the Cloning team of our lab squad and he is also part of acquisition. 70% of the time we know where he is and we can see him. The other 30%? Try looking in the vicinity of the coffee booth and you will find him.

 
 

Mick Verhagen – Secretary

Also known as Mr Secretary, Mick keeps track of all of our mails and updates our agendas with the average four to six meetings we have per week of our various subgroups. When he is not writing lovely letters, Mick can be found in the lab as a part of the Adhesion team of the lab squad. However, not only the lab squad is happy with Mick, also our Human Practices team is happy to have Mick on the team. And how do we achieve all of our lovely collaborations with other teams? Via Mick, the Collaboration Captain.

 

Yahav Rave – Finance Manager

Yahav is the Treasurer of our team. He is responsible for all of our money, which allows us to go to Boston! In the lab, Yahav leads with Mick the Adhesin squad. Aditionally, we have elected him to present at the Giant Jamboree. He travels on his motorcycle every day to Eindhoven for the team and we are very happy that he does that because we are glad to have him on the team!

 

Bruno Eijkens – Safety Manager

The guy that is keeping us all alive, it is our own Safety Officer Bruno. Bruno is responsible for all of the paperwork that allows the team to work with the biological materials required. Also he has done the Interlab studies for us. Right now, he is assisting Pim with Modeling and is part of our Human Practices squad.

 

Mariska Brüls – Biobrick Captain

Mariska is our Biobrick Captain. This means that she is responsible for all of the biobricks that we are handing in. Obviously, she is part of the Biobrick subgroup of our lab squad. She is also very fond of going to the gym and drinking tea.

 

Guido Oerlemans – Lab Captain

Guido is one of our two Lab Captains in charge of managing the lab work. He is almost never in the office but can always be found in the synthesis lab working on the hydrogel or the biolab working on the biobricks and protein expression.

 

Maxime van den Oetelaar – Lab Captain

Maxime, the other one of the two Lab Captains, is also in charge of managing all lab work. When not working on the planning of all experiment, she can be found in both the synthesis lab or in the biolab. Except for managing the lab work, she also plays an important role for the hydrogel synthesis, biobrick design, and protein expression experiments.

 

Laura van Hazendonk – Human Practices Manager

Laura is our lovely vegan Human Practices Manager. When she is not in the lab for the Cloning team, she can be found either at her desk on her laptop typing, or she is traveling to somewhere in the Netherlands to talk to a stakeholder or expert on the field that we are working on. She is the smallest person on the team but that does not matter, we love her anyway and is our favorite lawnmower.

 

Simone Twisk – Sponsor Coordinator

A project like iGEM would be nowhere without funding, and that’s what we have Simone for. Simone is our Sponsor Coordinator and is thus coordinating the Acquisition team to fund our project. She is also part of the Cloning team, Human Practices squad and is one of our two bachelor students. Side note, will eat Nutella without mercy and cookies are not safe around her either.

 

Weizhou Xing – Wiki Manager

Weizhou (or Tony as we call him) is our Wiki Captain. Without him, creating our wiki would have been much more difficult. Staying up late is daily business for Weizhou as the wiki requires a lot of time. Nonetheless we are very happy with him on the team!

 

Pim Joostens – Modeling Captain

Pim is our Modelling Captain and is therefore usually found behind his laptop. He is also helping Weizhou design the wiki and is in charge of the design of logos and banners. If Pim is not behind his laptop, he will either be at the coffee both next to Tim, or studying the science of nuclear fusion. In the lab he is assisting Maxime and Guido in the hydrogel team.

 

Sander Keij – Public Relations

To promote our project and organize events, we have Sander who is in charge of Public Relations. Organizing a Mini Jamboree, talking to newspapers and communicate between the University, our team and the other student teams Daily tasks for our PR guy. Next to PR, he is part of the Acquisition team and in the lab he can be found in the Cloning team. As Vice-Chairman he is also assisting Tim in managing the team. However on Thursday he can be found in the bar to serve beers to the rest of team. Thanks for that Sander, we need to relax as well!

 

Instructors

Dr. E. (Emilien) Dubuc

Emilien is a Postdoc in the department of Biomedical engineering and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS). His research focuses on the development of novel regulatory gene networks using in vitro transcription-translation systems. Emilien is a meticulous and systematic researcher and an enthusiastic instructor. During the many hours he has spent with us in and outside of the lab we have gained the skills and knowledge necessary to accomplish our project.

Dr. Shuaiqi Guo (Phil)

Phil is a Postdoc in the chemical biology group and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS). His research focuses on the Ice Binding Protein. His work on these proteins formed the foundation of our project. We spent a lot of time in the lab together and Phil has spent countless hours supervising and guiding us in and outside of the lab. We got to know Phil as a creative scientist with many innovative ideas.

Supervisors

Prof.dr.ir. L. (Luc) Brunsveld

Prof. dr. ir. Luc Brunsveld is a professor at our university. His main fields of research are mainly concerning chemical biology, like Biochemistry or Molecular Cell Biology. Besides lecturing students, he conducts research concerning protein-protein interactions. He also advises us during our iGEM project, which we are more than happy with!

Prof.dr. M. (Maarten) Merkx

Prof. dr. Maarten Merkx is an expert on protein sensors and leads the research group Protein Engineering operating at the interface of chemical biology and synthetic biology This year he is giving our team critical advice on how to achieve the goals we strive for.

Dr.ir. T.F.A. (Tom) de Greef

Dr.ir. Tom de Greef is an expert at modelling dynamic systems and synthetic circuits. Tom assisted us with the modelling part, gave us feedback and helped us find the information we need for our project. This often results in enough reading material to fill your day.