Team:St Andrews/Team
Morganne Wilbourne
Senior Team Leader
Degree: 4th Year BSc Bio-molecular Science
iGEM Name: Supreme Leader
What amino acid are you: Tyrosine because I'm aromatic and smell nice
James Hammond
Team Leader
Degree: 4th Year BSc Biology and Mathematics
iGEM Name: Ligation Anti-Midas
What amino acid are you: I'm Phenylalanine because I enjoy cosy evenings and hearty food
Eleonora Shantsila
Modelling Team Leader
Degree: 3rd Year BSc Mathematics
iGEM Name: AI Adventurer
What amino acid are you: Cysteine. You are reliable and hold together many tough situations. But you have a sensitive side and can be reduced to tears
Cam Young
Wet Lab Leader
Degree: 4th Year BSc Molecular Biology
iGEM Name: Camye Best
What amino acid are you: Tyrosine, because the abbreviation sounds similar to the word tired, and I relate to that.
Ben Gillen
Modeller
Degree: 4th Year BSc Mathematics and Philosophy
iGEM Name: DSN6 Man
What amino acid are you: Glycine because I’m hip and cool
Gregor Vagg
Modeller
Degree: 3rd Year BSc Mathematics
iGEM Name: Python Snake
What amino acid are you: What's an amino acid?
Gordian Gruentuch
Modeller
Degree: 3rd Year BSc Biology and Mathematics
iGEM Name: Tupperware Hero
What amino acid: Lysine, the isopeptide bond's special ingredient!
Sarah Jackson
Modeller
Degree: 4th Year BSc Mathematics
iGEM Name: Jmol Wizard
What amino acid are you: Histidine - a personality quiz told me
Thomas Storey
Modeller
Degree: 5th Year MPhys Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
iGEM Name: Nvidia computer monkey
What amino acid are you: One that's trying it's best!
Amy Buck
Wet Lab/Human Practices
Degree: 3rd Year BSc Biology with French
iGEM Name: HP Hero
What amino acid are you: Glycine
Zsolt Semperger
Wet Lab
Degree: 3rd Year MBiochem
iGEM Name: The Supreme Protein Precipitator
What amino acid are you: I am se-methyl-D-selenocysteine. I am a selenocysteine because I am unique and exceptional. I am also a D amino acid since I am unusual and weird, and also often highly counterproductive.
Veronika Lachina
Wet Lab
Degree: 3rd Year BSc Molecular Biology
iGEM Name: DomAIn
What amino acid are you: Glycine, it has so many applications you wouldn’t expect because of its size and simplicity
Georgie Brown
Wet Lab
Degree: 4th year BSc Chemistry
iGEM Name: G Grande
What amino acid are you: Glycine, as I’m the ultimate G
Margarita Chalganova
Wet Lab
Degree: 2nd year MChem Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry
iGEM Name: Bossy Beaker
What amino acid are you: Histidine, A dynamic personality and the key in tricky situations; a person to rely on.
Jack Briggs
Instructor
I am currently studying a Masters of Science degree in Data-Intensive Analysis at the University of St. Andrews.
I have a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from St. Andrews, where I wrote a dissertation on the benefits of cooperative behaviour in microbial communities modelled with cellular automata.
V Anne Smith
Primary PI
I am a computational biologist, specializing in networks across many levels of biological organization, including genes, brains and ecosystems. I am interested in synthetic biology and in understanding the behavior of synthetic circuits; I initiated the first iGEM Teams at St Andrews many years ago and continue to be involved in its returned appearance.
Kirsten Bentley
Secondary PI
Dr Kirsten Bentley is a BBSRC research fellow based at the University of St Andrews School of Biology. She works on the molecular biology of positive strand RNA viruses, particularly Polio
Chris Hooley
Secondary PI
Dr Chris Hooley is a Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics and the Operations Director of the Scottish Doctoral Training Centre in Condensed Matter Physics (CM-CDT). His research focuses on collective behaviour in many-particle quantum systems, both in and out of equilibrium. In addition to this year’s, he was a staff member of the 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2018 St Andrews iGEM teams.
Uli Schwarz-Linek
Secondary PI
Dr Schwarz-Linek is a senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews School of Biology. His research focuses on using structural biology, biophysical techniques and protein chemistry to study protein-protein interactions at the host-pathogen interface, with a particular interest in Gram-positive surface proteins involved in bacterial adhesion to and invasion of host cells.
Clarissa Czekster
Secondary PI
I’m from Porto Alegre, Brazil, where I got BSc in Biology. I moved to the US to do a PhD working with tuberculosis, followed by a postdoc at Yale in chemical and synthetic biology. I came to the University of St Andrews almost four years ago to work on toxins from bacteria and mushroom. I am now working on finding the next generation antibiotics and in understanding how bacteria use chemical warfare to compete and cooperate with each other and with us. My group works with several enzymes that produce small molecules used in competition/cooperation, and our goal is to understand how these enzymes work and how we can modify them to our advantage.
Helder Ferreira
Secondary PI
I am a molecular biologist interested in chromatin dynamics and telomeres. I did my PhD in Dundee and a postdoc in Basel.
John Mitchell
Secondary PI
Dr John Mitchell is Reader in Chemistry at the Univeeristy of St Andrews. His research uses theoretical and machine learning techniques in pharmaceutical chemistry, condensed phase modelling, and structural bioinformatics. His group have worked extensively on prediction of bioactivity, solubility, melting point and hydrophobicity from chemical structure, using both informatics and theoretical chemistry methodologies. Recently they have developed novel applications of machine learning in computational biochemistry, such as drug side effect prediction, identifying athletic performance enhancers, and competing against a panel of human experts.