Team:Athens/Attributions
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MEDEA/Attributions ΜΕΔΕΑ
Attributions
“Grateful for small things, big things, and everything in between”
Students
Marilena De Pian is a member of the Dry Lab. She did some work on the team's software along with the other members of the Dry Lab, trying to figure out what Bioinformatics actually is. Her main contribution was on the creation of the wiki page, in which she spent more of her time making it what it is now.
Anastasios Galanis is a wet lab member, dubbed the team’s technician, but not really. He provided the wet lab with tips (and some tricks) during experiments. He was responsible, together with Theofano Zoumpou, for ordering materials for the lab and budgeting. He participated in the design and refinement of the project and its individual components. Together with Nikolaos Karvelas they designed most of the sequences needed for this project. He contributed to the submission of parts to the registry. He participated in human practices events in hopes to stimulate thinking in students and encouraging them to follow what inspires them. He initiated the Aptamers Hub collaboration together with other teams and he is the team’s representative for the Hub.
Theofano Zoumpou is a wet lab member, who focused on the design of the measurement system and protocol. She, also, worked for the team’s fundraising purposes, as well as in the team’s promotion and social media presence, where she was responsible for the Instagram account. What’s more, she helped with the team’s human practices, especially with the events and public engagement. Finally, she contributed to the creation of the wiki, coordinating the process.
Nikolaos Kalavros is the group’s reference manager. He has done some work in the Wet Lab but his main contribution to the project is in the Dry Lab and the Project Design. He is involved in the creation of the team’s software, the complete model, the design of the Morbidostat and the coding of the wiki. Fervently hating social media, he abstained from participating in anything involving fundraising or page management, only opting to participating in events that involved the communication of science.
Alexandra Karvela is a wet lab member. She helped with the fundraising processes and also took part in the human practices parts of the project, both in public engagement and interviews related to bioethics.
Nikolaos Karvelas was the official secretary of our group, keeping track of the deadlines and forms. He was also a wet lab member, taking part in the design of the circuit, the DNA sequences and all the experiments, as well as constructing the first draft of the single cell model. Ηe, also, participated in human practices work, especially in interviews, and helped with fundraising and wiki.
Iason Milionis is a member of the Dry Lab, and, as a person who really likes math, he devised our single-cell model using a non-linear system of differential equations, run all model simulations and extracted the modelling results. He also arranged most of our Human Practices Events & Public Outreach, and is in charge of our Facebook social media presence. On the Dry Lab context, he offered his coding experience on our Dry Lab Software Pipeline, dealing with the whole-coordination code, and optimized the internal electronic circuits of the morbidostat. Finally, he assisted fundraising, and enjoys learning wet lab techniques.
Iason Papadopoulos is a proud member of the Wet Lab. Outside of the lab he was involved in the Promotion of the Team & SynBio in general, Entrepreneurship & Business Plan, Human Practices, Graphic Design, and at all times tried to keep an eye out for Lab Safety.
Anna Maria Tsiatsiani is a wet lab member. She helped with human practices especially with the organization and performance of public education and with bioethics. She also helped with the searching of parameters for the modelling.
PIs, Instructors & Advisors
Spiros Efthimiopoulos: He is the PI of our team and we simply cannot thank him enough for all that he has done for us from the very beginning. Since day one, he has provided invaluable help and support, responding immediately and efficiently to the team’s needs. He facilitated our contact with possible sponsors and lab supplies companies, thus contributing in a crucial way in our fundraising efforts, and, also, assisted us greatly with the formal and legal procedures that our activity entailed!
Georgios Diallinas and Aspergillus Lab members: He is, along with Professor Efthimiopoulos, our Primary PI. We would like to thank him for allowing us to run our experiments in his lab’ s facilities, giving us access to all instruments and lab supplies, as well as all members of the lab, especially Gogo, Sofia, Mariangela and Pothos for their valuable assistance and scientific advice!
Sotirios Amillis played a major role in our wet lab work, as he was there at all times for us, offering much needed help, tips, advice and troubleshooting. He also provided us with enzymes, competent cells and much needed equipment.
Our sincere thanks to Professors Michael Koutsilieris, Anastasios Filippou, our PIs, and Panagiotis Lembessis, instructor of our team, for providing us with an excellent and fully equipped lab space to run our experiments, as well as immediate support and troubleshooting at all times!
Boas Pucker was our team’s mentor, as part of the iGEM 2019 Mentorship program! We thank him very much for the fruitful cooperation and we truly appreciate the time he dedicated to us, and, of course, his valuable guidance! Thank you Boas!
Scientific Support
Constantinos Stathopoulos, Professor of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine of the University of Patras, offered crucial advice regarding the design of our aptazymes and our protocols.
Ahmed H. Badran, Principal Investigator at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, proposed we incorporate the EvolvR system for directed evolution into our project, affecting decisively our final design.
We would like to thank the B.S.R.C. "Alexander Fleming" and especially Sofia Grammenoudi, Operator of the Flow Cytometry facility, for allowing us to use the flow cytometer for our terminators characterization measurements.
Stamatios G. Damalas, PhD Candidate, Laboratory of Systems & Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University offered us frequently advice on design issues of our project, more specifically the selection module and how to introduce the genetic circuit into our bacteria.
Fragkiskos Kolisis, General Director of OMIC ENGINE, Emeritus Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, advised us during our brainstorming phase and assisted with our fundraising.
Marianna Antonelou, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, offered us advice on one of our four initial ideas concerning artificial hemoglobin production.
Jacob Enk and Benjamin Steil, senior scientists at Arbor Biosciences, helped us with the design of appropriate gRNAs for the myNGS Guides, which were important for the sequencing of our aptamers.
Rafael Kourdis, Electrical & Computer Engineering student at the National Technical University of Athens, helped us with the 3D printing of the morbidostat's parts.
Financial Support - Contributions
Meletios Dimopoulos - NKUA: Meletios Dimopoulos is the Rector of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. He played a key role in our success as he covered the expenses for our team’s registration, as well as promoting our team. We are truly grateful for his support!
Nektarios Koziris - ECE NTUA: Nektarios Koziris is the Dean of the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. He has been very supportive of our initiative, already since the formation of our team. He contributed very efficiently in promoting our work and publicizing our events throughout the NTUA community, but, most importantly, he actively supported us by covering a considerable amount of our registration fees and travel expenses!
Aikaterini Krithinaki offered voluntary assistance with PR and fundraising issues, greatly facilitating the finding and management of funds for our travel and accommodation expenses.
Giannis Chatzibeis, founder of the first and biggest Greek crowdfunding platform, Give&Fund, offered us invaluable support, tips and advice for maximizing the success of our crowdfunding campaign. Thank you!
We would, also, like to thank Irene Sagkriotou from BIOLine Scientific and Aggeliki Stathakopoulou from Lab Supplies Scientific for our nice cooperation regarding our lab supplies and consumables.
Human Practices
Constantinos Stathopoulos, apart from the advice on our project design, also informed us about his experience with using SELEX and its limitations, as well as the importance of basic science for the scientific community.
Vassiliki Molaki, Advisor for the National Bioethics Committee, discussed bioethics issues arising from synthetic biology in general and from our project, and directed our actions on the field of human practices.
Professor Konstantinos Mathaiopoulos, Head of the OMIC ENGINE Scientific Committee, gave us insight into the needs of the field of synthetic biology in Greece and discussed safety and bioethics issues of our project.
Konstantinos Vavitsas, Senior Research Associate at the University of Athens, OMIC ENGINE’s communications editor and columnist on Synthetic Biology in EUSynBio and Plos SynBio (among others), offered us valuable insight on access to science and more specifically synthetic biology, as well as invited us to write an article for EUSynBio and helped us during our preparations for the Jamboree.
Apostolos Papalois, Director of Experimental Research Center of ELPEN Pharmaceuticals, discussed with us about various aspects of Synthetic Biology and Science in general, and offered his viewpoint on the prospect of our work in pharmaceutics and laboratories.
We would like to give special thanks to the members of the previous Greek iGEM teams for their vitally important mentoring, advice and help in every stage of our journey!
iGEM Athens 2018: Maria Litsa, Leda Katopodi, Nelly Kanata, Giannis Ntekas
iGEM Thessaloniki 2018: Yvoni Giannoula
iGEM Greece 2017: Asteris Arampatzis, Eugene Ballhysa, Charis Giannitsis, Thanasis TheocharisVassiliki (Lila) Koumandou, Lecturer of Biotechnology at the Agricultural University of Athens and in charge of Cafe Scientifique Athens events invited our team to host May’s event.
Eleni Grammatikopoulou, coordinator of the Science Reactors team and responsible for Science Communication, invited our team at the Researchers’ Night event held at the Hellenic World facilities.
Alex DeHaven, from the OSF - Center for Open Science, gave us solid advice and useful tips on how to promote free access to Science trough our work.
Promotion
Vasilis Kotsikoris, Deputy Director of OMIC ENGINE, was our contact person with the infrastructure and helped us with human practices and communication of our work.
Marnie Papamatthaiou, Journalist, interviewed us for the newspaper “Ta Nea”, one of the most highly circulated newspapers in Greece.
Georgia Skamagka, part of the Publication team of the Athens Voice newspaper, helped us publish our article in Athens Voice.
Asimakis Talamagkas, Treasurer of the Panhellenic Union of Bioscientists, supported us and offered advice on the promotion of our work.
Aris Papalampidis, medical student at the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, created the wonderful video that appears on our home page.
Panagiotis Mitrousis, graphics designer, created our project's logo.
Mariana Georgoulopoulou, student at the School of Architecture at National Technical University of Athens, created our first team logo.
Sponsors
