Team:Vilnius-Lithuania/Attributions
Attributions
Primary PI
Prof. Meškys was an excellent PI, who always had professional insights and provided guidance regarding the idea of the project, potential applications, and troubleshooting. His multidisciplinary knowledge and good humor led us through every step of the “Colight” journey.
Secondary PI
Dr. Baltriukienė broadened our understanding by providing theoretical and practical knowledge of working with more complex organisms than E. coli. Her mentorship helped us to improve our project further than from being a purely fundamental one, which was very helpful when communicating with the general public.
Founder of the team Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM
As an experienced iGEMer, Dainius was there for us when we needed input on the project’s idea and the competition itself, especially fulfilling the competition criteria. Also, as an employee of Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, he helped us to bridge the gap between business and academia.
Prof. Sužiedėlienė has been a supporter of Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM teams from the very start. We thank her for the opportunity to work on our project in her laboratory, and providing all the necessary equipment. We are also grateful for her advice on the molecular techniques and experiments.
Junior Assistant and Ph.D. candidate K. Kvederavičiūtė supported us in designing our approach to in silico metagenomic mining. She also helped us to link our computers to a computer class to increase the processing power for our software and acted as a mentor during our annual Biohackathon: Lab issues event.
Lina Bivainienė was the person at Vilnius University who helped us with the organization of the public events, such as BioHackathon or the Student for one day. Lina supported us on Marketing and PR strategy, and was always looking for the best ways to represent us on the social media and at the University.
Project support and advice
Dr. Remigijus Skirgaila– R&D Senior Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics – gave feedback and valuable advice on our project’s idea and development from the business point of view, which was extremely helpful at the very beginning.
Mr. Irmantas Rokaitis – MSc student of biochemistry – advised on lab safety, shared his experience and helped to plan out EMSA experiments.
Public Relations support
Mrs. Aistė Skrebytė - Head of Rector’s Office at Vilnius University
Aistė Skrebytė was the person we could rely on at the Vilnius University Rector’s office. She helped our team with all the financial questions - team’s registration, Giant Jamboree fee payments, flight tickets. She was always there for our team and tried to find the best solutions for our organizational difficulties.
Mr. Ervinas Spūdys – Head of Public Relations at Vilniaus University
Ervinas Spūdys consulted us on all the questions related to public relations, representation, and communication on social media.
Mrs. Diana Razinskaitė
Diana Razinskaitė helped us to solve all the financial procedures and difficulties related to participation in the Giant Jamboree and traveling to Boston.
Mrs. Vilma Zarankaitė
Vilma Zarankaitė helped us to organize all our visits to schools and consulted with our representation on social media.
Mr. Egidijus Jaseliūnas – Communication Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics - was the one who offered and encouraged us on the development of a strategic plan. Also, he gave us feedback on how to implement the public relations actions on promoting our Human Practices.
Mrs. Evelina Markauskė - Senior Business Excellence Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics - supported us by sharing her professional technical knowledge on strategic planning issues, mainly focusing on laboratory, HP, and PR agendas.
Human practices support
Mrs. Milda Varnauskaitė – a professional storyteller – conducted a storytelling workshop for people in science-related fields; also helped the team to improve public speaking skills and prepare for the final presentation at the Giant Jamboree.
Mrs. Eglė Daunienė – moderated our team-building activities and gave valuable tips on how to successfully perform as a team.
Dr. Grita Skujienė – offered helpful pointers for the Human Practices GMO model survey by providing example surveys of how social studies are performed.
Prof. Vydas Čekanavičius - consulted the team on mathematical modeling used in HP model.
Software support
Dr. Darius Kazlauskas – introduced us to the basics and current struggles in the field of in silico metagenomics, especially the MG-RAST database, and helped during the first steps of the software development.
Dr. Justas Dapkūnas – consulted the team on protein modeling, possible bioinformatics tools for our project, provided valuable feedback and ideas for further software development, and acted as a mentor during our Biohackaton.
Modeling support
Prof. Olga Štikonienė and Prof. Artūras Štikonas - shared their knowledge on system dynamics, mathematical biology, and stochastic differential equations.
Prof. Saulius Bagdonas advised us on photophysics, photochemistry, and photokinetics. He also taught our team members to calculate effective light intensities for wet-lab experiments.
