• Introduction
  • Home
  • The Team
  • Photo Gallery
• Our Project
  • Results Summary
  • Selection System
  • In-Vitro Characterization
  • In-Vivo Characterization
  • Microfluidics
  • Data
  • Attributions
• Tools
  • Gibson Assembly
  • MITOMI
• Notebook
  • Protocols
  • May
  • June
  • July
  • August
  • September
  • October
• Considerations
  • Human Practices
  • Safety
• Acknowledgements
  • Sponsors
  • Partners

Our Team

In the early days, alongside learning chip alignment and cloning procedures, we tried to pose for some group pictures:

The undergrads

Alessandro

a.k.a the PCR ninja

Origin of Replication: Bari, Italy

Studies: Biotechnology

Major Goal in Life: wants to break the Guinness World Record for tractor-pulling. His current record stands at 355 yards and 8 inches.

Hobby: numismatics, philately

Specialization: Acclimatizing to the swiss way of life (like lunch at 12:00) and understanding EPFL geography

Clara

a.k.a the clean room ninja

Origin of Replication : Bucharest, Romania

Studies: Microtechnology

Major Goal in Life: radio-controlled mice

Hobby: wizardry and the dark arts

Specialization: Lives in the cleanroom and actually undestands microfluidics

Douglas

a.k.a the coding ninja

Origin of Replication: Chablais, Switzerland

Studies: Materials Science

Major Goal in Life: terraforming Pluto and making it the Solar System's largest yellow cucumber exporter

Hobby: watching re-runs of Coronation Street in Indonesian

Specialization: Fights with rocks, can do a PCR 3 times without getting angry, rides the bull like a bowss.

Lilia

a.k.a the MITOMI ninja

Origin of Replication: Saratov, Russia

Studies: Bioengineering

Major Goal in Life: finding a megalodon tooth whilst pruning her prize-winning roses

Hobby: teaching her pet bear to make the perfect cappuccino drink

Specialization: Queen of competent cells and medium preparation, trapper of molecular interactions between DNA and TetR

Nadine

a.k.a the primer design ninja

Origin of Replication: Lausanne, Switzerland

Studies: Life Sciences

Major Goal in Life: travelling back in time and marrying Atilla the Hun

Hobby: fashion design, especially menswear for Swiss loggers and other alpine outdoorsmen

Specialization: takes care of the twitter account, specialized in non-working Gibson assemblies

Vincent

a.k.a the cloning ninja

Origin of Replication: Dallas, Texas

Studies: Computational and Applied Mathematics

Major Goal in Life: reaching his third consecutive highlining-with-stilts world championship

Hobby: improving the explosive impact of menthos-in-coke devices

Specialization: Gibson master, likes making cell cultures during the weekends

The teaching assistants

Henrike

Origin of Replication: Osnabruck, Germany

Lab: Laboratory of Biological Network Characterization

Major Goal in Life: combining beer and coffee into a new drink called Beefee. Coffeer was already taken.

Hobby: co-owner of the world's largest lemur population outside of Madagascar; she is currently involved in a massive project to teach her lemurs how to swing dance.

Zodiac: Woodpecker

Matt

Origin of Replication: Florida, USA

Lab: Laboratory of Biological Network Characterization

Major Goal in Life: play Beethoven's Fifth using the didjeridoo... with his nostrils

Hobby: studying the effects of electrotrance music on the Icelandic walrus populations. No conclusions yet.

Zodiac: Marmot

Alina

Origin of Replication: Ukraine

Lab: Lab of Systems Biology and Genetics

Major Goal in Life: Ghost-riding-the-whip in her 1960's Thunderbird with the subwoofers blaring out the opening sections of The Nutcracker

Hobby: breeding a new artificial Minotaur for the disciplining of unruly children

Zodiac: Sea cucumber

Irina

Lab: Lab of Systems Biology and Genetics

Origin of Replication: Switzerland

Major Goal in Life: do the Kon-Tiki thing on Lake Geneva

Hobby: prominent member of Bolshoi ballet, substitute member of Snoop Dogg's dance crew

Zodiac: Barn owl

The advisors

Bart Deplancke

Lab: Director of the Lab for Systems Biology and Genetics

Major Goal in Life: playing the role of the Ewok leader in the upcoming 3D Star Wars release

Hobby: Squaring the circle

Sebastian Maerkl

Lab: Director of the Lab for Biological Network Characterization

Major Goal in Life: solving the murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie got it wrong.

Hobby: producing lip dubs of 80's pop songs