Prof. Michael Knop

Professor at ZMBH Heidelberg, Expert in yeast biology

Prof. Knop is one of the leading experts for yeast synthetic biology. He also studied signal transduction and evolution in yeast. Since the main chassis for our project was yeast his advice was of very hich use for us. Talking to Prof. Knop was very informative. Through his advice we were able to see our approach from a different angle. He encouraged us to use yeast as chassis and informed us about the benefits of yeast based systems. We wanted to create a tool for the biotechnological community. Since Prof. Knop told us that yeast is a very easy to handle and cheap organism we finally decidet to use it as our chassis.

Dr. Dorothea Kaufman

Study Program Manager & Senior Lecturer at IPMB Heidelberg

Talking to Dorothea Kaufman was a pleasure. As an expert in science communication and education she gave us fresh insights for our human practice approach. Following her advice we wanted to make science more open to the broad public. Following our motto "Make science visible!" we went outside the lab to talk to people about our project. We visited a school to show young students what could be accomplished with biotechnology. Furthermore we conducted several experiments to bring the wet lab work into their classroom and enable them to experience synthetic biology on their own.

Dr. Lorenz Adlung

Systems biologist and science enthusiast

Dr. Lorenz Adlung is not only a great expert in systems biology but also in science communication. He talked with us about antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) encouraging us to broaden the spectrum of our peptide sensing system. Acting on his advice we decidet not just to create a peptide sensor, but a tool that could easily be engineered to detect small peptides like certain AMPs. Beeing a well experienced expert in science slam we also asked him about public engagement and science communication. He told us that it is very important to inform people about our work to decrease the fear of synthetic biology and biotechnology. Therefore we carefully decided to talk to people on the open street and other public places, handing out flyers and postcards.[LINK DARMSTADTCOOP] This way we hope to change peoples negative opinion about biotechnology and decrease fear and ignorance.

Dr. Ingo Janausch

Biological Safety Officer for genetic engineering and synthetic biology

As a responsible team we wanted to make our work as safe as possible not only for us but also for fellow scientists, the broader community and of course the environment. For this reason we reached out to Dr. Ingo Janausch, safety officer for biology and genetic engineering.

Fellow researchers & community