Team:NTNU Trondheim/Team

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The Team

File:Teambilde.png

We are nine students from different study programmes that were brought together by our advisor, Eivind Almaas, to work on this project during the summer. Six of us are biotechnologists, so our team consists mainly of wetlab people. The last three students on the team have background in mathematics, physics and information technology, so we also have someone to take care of the modeling.

This is the first time a university in Norway is competing in iGEM, so we are all really happy to be on the first norwegian iGEM team ever.

Most of us have not been working much with synthetic biology before, so we are all learning a lot. And since synthetic biology is a relatively new and very interesting field, we are all excited to get the opportunity to be learning more about the subject.

When we first got together, we came up with several projects we would like to work on. After a lot of discussion we decided to make the stress sensor, mainly because we all thought the idea was really cool, and because the stress sensor had more interesting modeling aproaches than the other projects we had thought about. The stress sensor also seemed like a proper challenge, and since we all like a challenge, we went for it.

Until now, we've been having fun mainly on the lab, and not so much fun outside the lab, thanks to the crappy weather in Trondheim. Still, some days the weather has been nice, and on those days we have been barbequing.


Student members


Anders Halgunset

Anders Halgunset
  • Biography:
ASL: 26, B, T-town
  • Fun fact:
  • Favourite lab procedure:

Gunvor Røkke

Gunvor Røkke
  • Biography:
I am 23 years old, and about to start my fifth year of studies on the master programme of industrial chemistry and biotechnology. My field of study is biotechnology. Even though I have never been working with synthetic biology before, I have had lab courses in practically every chemistry and biotechnology course I have attended, so I have already spent quite a lot of time in the lab. Working independently on the lab have been a great experience for me, and I have already learned a lot, both about lab work and about syntethic biology in general.

My main interest outside of academia is playing violin. I have been playing since I was five years old, and I am currently leading the folk music orchestra of the students association in Trondheim.

  • Fun fact:
Is able to whistle and hum in two-part harmony with herself!
  • Favourite lab procedure:
Isolation of DNA from bacteria, and gel electrophoresis.

Jon Andreas Lorentzen

Jon Andreas Lorentzen
  • Biography:
Studieprogram, rolle på laget, hvis det er noen, hobbyer, etc...
  • Fun fact:
  • Favourite lab procedure:

Eirik Selsaas

Eirik Selsaas
  • Biography:

I am 24 years old and have recently finished my masters thesis in biotechnology here at NTNU. The aim of my thesis was to characterize genes in Pseudomonas fluorescens that influence biosynthesis of alginate. My best field of knowledge is in prokaryotic genetics, but I also have knowledge about most other fields of molecular biology and biochemistry. My favorite type of work in iGEM is to design new systems and find out how to make them. Besides the fun I'm having working with biotechnology, I have some things that I like to do whenever I'm not at the lab. I like to go skiing (yes, I'm Norwegian), play soccer, play guitar and hang out with friends

  • Fun fact:
  • Favourite lab procedure:

The moment you look at your gel, and all the DNA-fragments look correct.


Espen Bang Leistad

Espen Bang Leistad
  • Biography:
Studieprogram, rolle på laget, hvis det er noen, hobbyer, etc...
  • Fun fact:
  • Favourite lab procedure:

Christian Page

Christian Page
  • Biography:
Studieprogram, rolle på laget, hvis det er noen, hobbyer, etc...
  • Fun fact:
Is able to memorize 15 digits of pi and e.
  • Favourite lab procedure:
Turning on the PCR machine, and writing on the blackboard

Henrik Fahre Lutro

Henrik Fahre Lutro
  • Biography:
Studieprogram, rolle på laget, hvis det er noen, hobbyer, etc...
  • Fun fact:
  • Favourite lab procedure:

Adrian Ertsås Naas

Adrian Ertsås Naas
  • Biography:
I'm 25, and will be starting my 5th year of Biotechnology at NTNU next semester. I've been doing lab-work for my master's thesis for half a year already, and will continue this fall. The project is on expression in E. coli, so I already had some experience with cloning techniques and lab-work before we started the iGEM project.

I joined the iGEM project because I saw it as a great oppurtunity to get more experience in the lab, and also in planning experiments and working more independently. Of course, the thought of putting together genes of our own choice to creae something cool was also a big motivator!

  • Fun fact:
The strain of E. coli we're using was isolated from his hair.
  • Favourite lab procedure:
Growing culture to OD X +/- 0,01.

Tormund S. Haus

Tormund S. Haus
  • Biography:
Studieprogram, rolle på laget, hvis det er noen, hobbyer, etc...
  • Fun fact:
  • Favourite lab procedure:

Advisors and instructors


Eivind Almaas

Eivind Almaas
  • Biography:
Utdanning, forskningsinteresser, hobbyer...
  • Fun fact:

Rahmi Lale

Rahmi Lale
  • Biography:
Utdanning, forskningsinteresser, hobbyer...
  • Fun fact:

Marius Eidsaa

Marius Eidsaa
  • Biography:
Utdanning, forskningsinteresser, hobbyer...
  • Fun fact:

Martin Gimmestad

Martin Gimmestad
  • Biography:
Utdanning, forskningsinteresser, hobbyer...
  • Fun fact:

Svein Valla

Svein Valla
  • Biography:
Utdanning, forskningsinteresser, hobbyer...
  • Fun fact: