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Team

The team has doubled its size compared to 2010, to reach two main objectives: reinforce the different fields that work together in a Synthetic Biology project and give the chance to other professors and students to participate in the contest, making the UPO a prominent university in this area.

Instructors

Fernando Govantes Romero (Microbiology)

Over the years evolved to be called Fernan and then Fer... I may end up losing my name altogether. I am the grandfather of the team and I run the Foundational Advances subteam. Best known for my secular knowledge on bacterial strain genotypes, transposons and other genetic gimmicks, as well ancient protocols and media recipes.

Luis Merino Cabañas (Systems engineering)

What's doing a roboticist with a bunch of biotechnologists? Surprisingly (actually, not so) the same as before: engineering. I'm co-advising the dry-lab with my colleague Manuel (master of MATLAB and huge models). After a fast immersion last year into the (very) basics of genetic engineering, I'm still enjoying learning a lot of new things and the possibilities we have to manipulate or create new biological robots. And I met some of the creators of ARPANET in the way!!!

Manuel Béjar Domínguez (Systems engineering)

Antonio Jesús Pérez Pulido (Bioinformatics)

I am the motorized man in the group, and I don't walk but I am going on my wheels. The sequence and structure analyses are my expertise, using and developing bioinformatics tools.

Antonio Prado Moreno (Animal physiology)

Víctor Álvarez Tallada (Genetics)

This is Victor, I am one of the new supervisors recruited (on my way to the toilet !!) for this year iGem adventure. Genetics is what I enjoy the most. I give advice to Felix and Yolanda; together we are what they call "V subteam".

Rafael Rodríguez Daga (Genetics)

I am a full professor of Genetics at the University Pablo de Olavide in Seville. I have joined the UPO-Sevilla Team this year. I supervise Paola in the experimental designing and construction of the epigenetic bistable using fission yeast S. pombe as model organism.

Undergrads

Adrián Arellano Davín (Biotechnology)

If you look for somebody who really loves science and learning, it is Adrián. He will read every book he can get his hands on. He is a physicist enthusiast and a renowned go player. Adrián was the first in discovering iGEM and we have to thank him for passing on us his passion for learning beyond the degree. This year he jumped to the DryLab and he is doing great visual and parametric simulations.

David Caballero Pradas (Biotechnology)

He is a non-stopping man and the engine of the team. David is always working and thinking about every detail that can make our project better. Some people say that he never sleeps. He plays the electric-guitar and loves rollerblading. Also, he is becoming famous because of his many performances in TV. David is working in the Foundational Advance project of the team, a transposon based system to deliver BioBricks into microbial genomes.

Paola Gallardo Palomo (Biotechnology)

This quick-moving and hard-working woman could do an iGEM project by herself. Her evil look is legendary and you don’t want to disturb her when she is focused. Her not-speak-much and think-fast style is the behavior that a young scientist should subscribe. Paola managed most of our founding and is working on bistability in the epigenetic level, regulating transcription by chromatin compacting in fission yeast.

Yolanda Elisabet Gonzalez Flores (Biotechnology)

I am Yolanda, also called Yoly or even Yolibeth by my friends. I am the errant iGEMer, as this year I'll spend half of the summer working in Santander. I am a bio-geek and a T4 phage lover, and I have joint the team this year. I'm working with Felix on the optimization of the bistable by proteolysis and asRNA.

José Gutiérrez Tabuenca (Computer engineering)

What is the result of mixing Software Engineering and Synthetic Biology? This is me. After years learning about software programming, I have joined the iGEM UPO team in order to learn and to try to share my knowledge with this new amazing discipline. Together with my iGEM partners, I've developed the BioBrick Creator software tool to help creating BioBricks, saving a lot of time in the process. I hope to help iGEM teams in the future with this new software tool.

Jesús Jiménez Sobrado (Industrial engineering)

I'm the last incorporation to the group. Proteases, ribosomes or polypeptides were such a nightmare to me. I'm an engineering student and all of this is really far from me. Altough I came with no idea about biology or genetic, I've been learning... so I tried to make a good work. When I first met the group, it seemed to me quite insane... finally I found I became one of them.

Amalia Martinez Segura (Biotechnology)

I'm yet one more of the newbies in the team, and one more Biotechnology student. I define myself as a curious person, which makes me read every book I can get my hands on. I spend the rest of my spare time playing videogames and watching films and TV shows. My duty in the team is to describe the behavior of the basic biestable to its last detail, so we can show how the performance improves when adding the modifications the other subteams are working on.

Aída Moreno Moral (Biotechnology)

After years of carrying my huge friend (the double bass), I moved from music to Biological Sciences, which as not many may know, aren't completely different fields as they can look! As a bassist I learned that complex systems always start from good bases. I am one of the new acquisitions of the UPO-iGEM team. So what do I do? I juggle between the dry and wet labs, performing bioinformatics analyses while also trying to assist in the dry lab's biological issues.

Luis Eduardo Pavón (Computer engineering)

This is my second year in iGEM competition. I belong to Dry Lab and this time I design this wonderful Wiki and the cute Logo. This time, I've been working around Sinthetic Biology, I've learnt many words: "promotor", "terminator", "ribosome binding site"... although I still don't know the meaning of them all.

Félix Reyes Martín (Biotechnology)

Probably, i'm the laziest member of the team, at least that's what my friends usually say. However, when it comes to working in the lab, i always intent to give the best of myself. This is my second year in UPO sevilla team and although last year I worked really hard on it, I'm feeling even more eager this year. I belong to the V's subteam (a little group inside wet lab workers) and we will try to set up some improvements in the classic toggle switch.