Team:Newcastle/Team
Meet The Team
The Students
Alice Y Goddard
I've recently started my third and final year of Cellular and Molecular Biology. I joined iGEM because I wanted to learn skills from other disciplines and have a more immersive laboratory experience. In my spare time, I enjoy training at the local gymnastics club and am treasurer for the University's gymnastic team.
Karen Fung
I am Karen, of the House Biology, the First of Her Name, and Mother of an Arthrobacter species. I am an MBiol Cellular and Molecular student currently in my fourth year. I am interested in microbiology and synthetic biology. I joined the Newcastle iGEM team to enhance my skillset and work in a multi-disciplinary team. In my spare time, I enjoy going to tea houses and discovering new food markets.
Matthew James Rogan
Hi guys, I’m Matt! I’ve just finished my degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology and will start studying for a MRes in Biotechnology and Biodesign this year. I’m interested in crop sustainability, specifically in desiccation tolerant crops, and cell free systems. In normal life, I enjoy playing smash bros, watching makeup tutorials and replicating them with little success...
Connor Lewis Trotter
“Guess who’s back in the house? Pipettes click-clacking about”
RuPaul (paraphrased).
Since starting my 4th year of General Biology and being a member of last year’s iGEM team here at Newcastle, I have developed a great interest in Plant Biology – particularly RuBisCO and plant-microbe interactions. Outside of university, I am still fuelled by caffeine, but I have now also taken up ice skating, drawing and poetry. I can neither confirm nor deny reports that I am bad at all 3, however, I can confirm that I enjoy trying.
Emily Louise Walker
Hi I’m Emily. I’ve just completed the first year of my chemistry degree, outside of chemistry all I do is figure skating and watching netflix. I don’t really have a life. Woop.
Danielis Golubovskis
After finishing my first year of Computer Science I've decided to put my time to good use during the summer. That's where iGEM stepped in.
I've picked up Web Development during my first year and so I became the wiki person... 01010011 01000001 01010110 01000101 00100000 01001101 01000101
The Instructors
Jasmine Bird
I am a PhD student at Newcastle University, where I use a Synthetic Biology approach towards constructing optical biomaterials. I’m an iGEM alumni, taking part in 2015 as a first year Biological Sciences student on the Exeter team. I have been involved with iGEM every year since in some capacity, more recently as an instructor and measurement committee member. My main interests include cell free and making interesting DNA constructs.
Bradley Brown
I have been involved with iGEM twice as a team member, and have also advised previous teams. Currently I'm a PhD student investigating how high-level modularisation can be applied towards the development of synthetic biology systems.
Alba Iglesias Vilches
I'm a Biotechnology graduate student from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and a huge fan of iGEM. I participated in iGEM 2012 and 2013 as a student of Valencia Biocampus team, was advisor of Evry team in 2016 and instructor of Newcastle 2018 team. I am now at the end of my 3rd year of PhD at Newcastle University, where I apply Synthetic Biology approaches for the discovery of novel bioactive natural products.
Dr Colette Whitfield
I am a Research Associate in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University working with Dr Thomas Howard. My main research interests are materials designed at the nano-scale and utilising these materials for cell free synthetic biology.
Dr Alice Banks
I am a Research Associate working for Dr Thomas Howard in the Biological Engineering Group at Newcastle University. My current research looks at the potential of combining synthetic gene networks with functional materials to develop novel stimuli-responsive devices using cell-free protein synthesis. My work involves the exploration of large multifactorial design spaces using Design of Experiments, employing both automation and machine learning.
The PIs
Dr Thomas Howard
I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. I am interested in different aspects of the genetic and biochemical regulation of carbon flux in plants and microbes and am a keen advocate of research-led teaching. In 2012 I led the inaugural University of Exeter entry into the iGEM competition and I have been involved in iGEM ever since. I recently joined the newly formed iGEM Engineering Committee.
Dr Angel Goñi Moreno
I am a Lecturer in Synthetic Biology at the Newcastle University. I obtained my PhD in Computational Synthetic Biology from the Technical University of Madrid, Spain, in 2010. For my post-doctoral training I firstly moved to Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and then the National Centre for Biotechnology-CSIC (Spain) where I focused on understanding the dynamics of gene regulation for genetic Boolean circuits. I was appointed Lecturer at Newcastle in 2016, and won an EPSRC First Grant in 2017. One of my interest is on standardisation - I am Editor of the Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) and contributor to the Standard European Vector Architecture (SEVA).
Dr Jon Marles-Wright
I obtained my PhD in structural biology from the University of Oxford, where I focused on understanding how human immune receptors interact with their targets. For my post-doctoral training I moved to the University of Newcastle, where my research focus moved to bacterial cell biology. Following a two-year career development fellowship at the University of Newcastle, where I developed my interest in the structural basis of metabolic compartmentalisation within bacteria, I was appointed to a Chancellor’s Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh in 2012. I was appointed to his current position in June 2016. I am an active member of the synthetic biology community and was awarded a SynBio LEAP fellowship in 2015.
Dr Jem Stach
Principal research interests include the ecology of marine actinomycetes, (diversity, abundance and biogeography), novel natural products from marine actinomycetes, the application of peptide nucleic acids in species-specific bactericide and the development of antisense-based antibacterial screens. Abyssomicin made the National press including The Sun, and The Guardian. My Qualifications include a BSc in Microbiology and Biotechnology from the University of Kent in 1996 and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Kent in 2001. I'm also a member of both the Society of General Microbiology and the American Society for Microbiology.
Dr Dana Ofiteru
Senior Lecturer in Biochemical Engineering. Principal research interests include mathematical modelling of microbial communities, in particular individual based modelling of biofilms, and assembly and dynamics of bacterial populations.