Team:British Columbia/Team

Gurpal Bisra I am an engineering physics student interested in pursuing bioengineering. I joined the iGEM team to further develop my biological skills and apply my engineering skills to a real life biological problem. I have traveled to 14 countries so far and my thirst for adventure never ceases! For our wet lab component, I developed a yeast cell to contain the mutant erg20-2 gene instead of the wild type erg20 gene and made yeast bio-bricks for both genes. I also helped develop plasmids that contain the K6R-HMG2 and IDI1 genes. My contribution to the modeling component was to simulate the biochemical pathways for our genetically engineered yeasts. I programmed simulations using the SimBiology Toolkit in MATLAB. Furthermore, I am assisting Jacob Toth and Joe Ho develop another model which shows the spread of the pine beetle using ARCGIS.

Daisy Ji

Marianne Park

Vicki Ma

Joe Ho I am a 4th year science student at UBC, with the interest of virology and molecular genetics. I'm excited to discover what synthetic biology means to me, to my community, and to the world. For me, science is about making connections and iGEM is a great starting point!

Samuel Wu

Jacob Toth I am a biochemistry student at UBC going into my second year. I joined iGEM to get involved in the world-changing field of synthetic biology, and I am very excited about our project! Outside of science, other interests of mine include playing my violin, studying philosophy, and enjoying nature.

Laura Bain I have many loves in life including: snowboarding, windsurfing, sailing, biking, gardening... AND Biology! I am pumped to be on this year's iGEM team because we are a diverse bunch and have so much to learn from each other! I am very enthusiastic about biology and passionate for people so it is a natural fit for me to be spearheading the Human Practices aspect of our project. I am keen to engage the community in discussions about synthetic biology in non-traditional ways... Creative art projects, videos, forums, roadside chats... Also, It is especially exciting to be partnering with Science World in mentoring and educating Vancouver high school students. We hope to inspire these teenagers to pursue future opportunities in Science... and maybe even a 2012 Vancouver Highschool iGEM team!

Alina Chan I am a PhD student in the Hieter lab utilizing yeast as a model eukaryote to research chromosomal instability. This is my second year with the UBC iGEM team and I'm super excited that the team's using yeast to produce monoterpenes. (Boston, here we come!) My main wet lab role is to train team members in the art of working with yeast. I also help with general troubleshooting and experimental design.

Rafael Saer I am a PhD student in the Beatty lab, studying the ramifications of aliphatic side chain mutations on the rate of primary electron transfer events in bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers. This is my second year being a Graduate advisor for iGEM. My purpose in the team is to provide advice during the meetings as well as troubleshooting assistance to any wet lab issues that may arise. I often find myself being a gopher for sundry reagents and buffers that the iGEM team may require....

Joanne Fox
Michael Smith Laboratories and Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Leonard Foster
Centre for High Throughput Biology and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Phil Hieter
Michael Smith Laboratories and Department of Medical Genetics

The University of British Columbia, established in 1908, educates a student population of 50,000 on major campuses in two cities and holds an international reputation for excellence in advanced research and learning.

The largest campus is 30 minutes from the heart of downtown Vancouver, a spectacular campus that is a 'must-see' for any visitor to the city -- where snow-capped mountains meet ocean, and breathtaking vistas greet you around every corner.

The Vancouver campus boasts some of the city's best attractions and recreation facilities, including the Museum of Anthropology, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, and endless opportunities to explore forested trails in the adjoining 763-hectare Pacific Spirit Regional Park.

In 1987, the University of British Columbia established Canada's first interdisciplinary biotechnology unit. Under the visionary leadership of Dr. Michael Smith, the Michael Smith Laboratories was created and a gifted team of young scientists were recruited.

The MSL places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary interaction and has approximately 250 research personnel in molecular genetics, fermentation and bio-process engineering, plant and forestry genetics and bioinformatics. Awards from prestigious national and international organizations continually recognize the faculty for their excellence.

Vancouver, one of the world's most spectacular cities, is renowned for its incomparable natural beauty and cultural diversity. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people have called the area now known as Vancouver home. Their history and cultural traditions, upholding a deep respect for nature and humanity, are tightly woven into the city's cultural fabric.

Today, Vancouver's cosmopolitan appeal can be attributed to its international population of citizens; there are Aboriginal populations as well as British descendants, Chinese, Japanese, German, Indo-Pakistani, French, Italian, Dutch, Scandinavian, Ukrainian, Filipino and Greek, among other diverse nationalities. As a world-class city, Vancouver continues to draw the world's great nations together in a celebration of human spirit and achievement.