Team:LMU-TUM Munich/Team
The TU and LMU Munich team 2016
This year we have an especially diverse Team, since it was formed by bringing together students from Munich’s most important Universities. The Ludwigs-Maximilian University and the Technical University of Munich decided to look for interested students to participate at this year’s Giant Jamboree. That’s how the two Instructors of this year working at the chair of biological Chemistry at the WZW from the TUM gathered together ten Students from the TUM and six students of the LMU to work together. The outcome was a perfectly mixed team from members with experience in molecular biology, mechanics and even electronics. We were very lucky to be able to match together while working at the lab and we truly enjoyed the time spent together. It was also evident how each of us could support the project with our diverse skills.
Thanks to the imminent support of Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra and his team at the chair of biological chemistry we were able to accomplish our experiments and biological works in his well equipped laboratory.
Student Members
Clemens Ries
Field of Study:Biology
Semester:
Master 3rd semester
University:
Technische Universität München
Every time we wanted to know anything about cloning, Clemens was the best person to approach from the team. With his extensive experience in molecular biology due to his multiple jobs as student assistant at various investigation centers, he was able to keep the backbone of the project always straight. Trustworthy, honest and a ready-to-help person describes him perfectly. One of his best skills is rhetoric; indeed, he was capable of explaining us everything in the best possible manner. One word you'll hear him saying very often is hervorragend!, which in german means brilliant! or outstanding!, so you get an idea of the positive energy he transmits.
Enes Uğur
Field of Study:
Biochemistry
Semester:
Master 2nd semester
University:
Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München
Our Kill-Switch guy, in cloning of safety mechanisms theres no one who can beat him. AKA the „Philosopher“ in our team; he has a broad knowledge in all areas and also beyond science; he will always come up with a well balanced and profound opinion. He was always prepared to make a transformation at evening. He did a lot for the debate and big part of the organization of it. Enes is compassionate and communicative, he likes to converse in a peaceful and clear manner. As a Student he is good involved in research and student activities.
Christoph Gruber
Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology
Semester:
Master 4th semester
University:
Technische Universität München
He definitely has an awful lot of enthusiam and he was also always up to improve our project in any possible way. In this he was consistently materializing ideas regarding any project/challenge. Multi-tasker and business man, motivation keeper and entrepeneurship are the words to describe him. With his constructive an critical mind he constantly kept an eye on every aspect of the project, from the cloning to the human practice.
Madeleine Premm
Field of Study:
Biology
Semester:
Bachelor 5th semester
University:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
She has no restraints when it comes to annoying people (e.g. calling 10000x times/h) in order to get what WE need. Full of joie de vivre. In organizing and precision she is the best one. Was it organizing the trips, planning and experiment or an event she could always make the best plan with a no possibility of going wrong. With her humor and her funny sarcasm she always filled the lab with the perfect amount of chill.
Javier Luna-Mazari
Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology
Semester:
Bachelor 3rd semester
University:
Technische Universität München
Javi ist our little stylish latin boy. As the only second semster bachelor student it was not always easy for him to stay on track, but since has a curious and open mind he never hesitated asking for help and on the other hand offering his assistance for the every day lab duties. By the way, there are no better SDS gels than those handmade by Javier. Seriously he's very gentle and helpful and would never say no to a favor. It feels like he's speaking a thousand languages fluently which is quite nice when you're in Paris chatting with the uber driver. One more outstanding thing about him - which might come from his mexican roots - is that he's always chill and never in a bad mood, reminding us on taking live less seriously.
Elena Fajardo-Ruiz
Field of Study:
Biology
Semester:
Bachelor 5th semester
University:
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
¡Olé! Despite the few ;) kilometres to the Canary Islands Elena fortunately made her way to Munich to share all her Biology superpowers with the team. With her enthusiastic and tough personality she didn´t hesitate when it came to taking responsibility over challenging parts of the project, such as keeping cells alive without oxygen. We also benefited from her grasping her diplomatic expertise to represent the team wherever was needed. However, when being in the lab you wouldn´t convince Elena of cloning anything unless she knew what was “in there”. Further lessons we learned - daily must-haves: polo shirt and espresso!
Julian Hofmann
Field of Study:
Biochemistry
Semester:
Bachelor 4th semester
University:
Technische Universität München
He may look a little serious at first but Julian has a lot of Interesting things to tell you. He has a broad spectrum of subjects and topics from which he knows about because of his curiosity.Caution: If you don't stop him from talking he won't. In school he would have had the nickname dictionary. And he earns it. This was a great advantage while participating with our team. If you'd like to know why why a certain molecular biology experiment works the way it does, he can explain you the scientific reason. He helped the team with many aspects from the project, from wiki and html through cloning, video making and taking care of the outreach part.
Manuel Trauner
Field of Study:
Biochemie
Semester:
Master 3rd semester
University:
Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München
Manuel is our authentic bavarian guy when it comes to his accent, character and dedication. He likes to fight against the Windows/MAC empire by convincing you about the benefits of linux. He is also modest and a super nice guy, though he knows a lot, he never shows off. In the team he was busy with the interlab project and in the production and analysis of proteins, where he discovered some cools skills he didn't know he has.
Vivien Lechner
Field of Study:
Chemistry
Semester:
Master 1st semester
University:
Technische Universität München
Still waters run deep! Vivien is a really pleasant company as she is super nice and modest. She has some impressive capabilities in chemistry and did some amazing work with 3D modelling in maya. She is kind talented and easy-going. When Vivien gets an assignment, there is no further need in supervising her a lot, she so self-reliant and accurate, you can be sure she get's it done. She is also very good with the english language, since she has lived some time as a child in the USA.
Jan Böhning
Field of Study:
Biochemistry
Semester:
Master 3rd semester
University:
LMU
A biochemist from the bottom of his heart with passion for structural biology. Broad knowledge and experience in protein work made him a reliable contact person in the lab but beware since sarcasm is the language he knows the best. He doesn't take things too seriously but in the meantime has always a critical view on results and beyond. He always came up with great ideas and well-conceived opinions. As the giant that he is, it’s not always simple for him in the lab with the little benches and the low hanging emergency shower handles not yet mentioned the photographer that would have loved cutting him a little shorter to fit the frame. But Jan knows compensating that with his new mac.
Luisa Krumwiede
Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology
Semester:
Bachelor 5th semester
University:
Technische Universität München
Luisa is doubtless the life and soul at the lab. With her vivid personality she is always prepared to tell a good joke or make you smile with a story. Perseverance is her best attribute, Luisa was most of the time taking care of our fragile cells at the cell culture. Like a mother she took care of them and did all necessary experiments to keep them alive and working. Her engagement since she was in High School gave her a lot of experience in the cell culture.
Niklas Armbrust
Field of Study:Molecular Biotechnology
Semester:
Bachelor 5th semester
University:
Technische Universität München
Niklas - or better: the Proteinator - was simply born for proteinbiochemistry. His heart is beating for the lab and it makes you smile when he's happy about experiments that worked out well. His lab-learning-curve was the biggest of all since he never hesitated challenging the scrary and expensive Äkta or fermenter machines. Staying 'til noon or coming into the lab on the weekend was totally normal for him as a night owl any way, but watch out facing him before 9 a.m. it's just not his time for being awake already.
Moritz Münst
Field of Study:
Biochemistry
Semester:
Master 3rd semester
University:
TUM
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Michael Schön
Field of Study:
Engineering Science
Semester:
Bachelor 3rd semester
University:
Technische Universität München
We were desperatly searching for a real engineer to make a bioprinter out of our casual one. And there he was! As if he was made for the job he simply fixed everything, from the design of our own syringe pump to the repair of our beloved coffee can, and for sure a lot more stuff that is not quite clear to us biologists. On the other hand he also had a big interest in the biological part already being excited about holding a pipette. Much to our amusement he was saying things like:"I have no idea, I'm only the mechanician"
Peter Benedikt von Niebelschütz
Field of Study:
Media Informatics
Semester:
Master 1st semester
University:
LMU
Peter came late to the party. He doesn't have the faintest idea about synthethic biology, but was willing to help the team out with the wiki.
Hallie Knight Hughes
Field of Study:
Biochemistry
Semester:
Master 3rd semester
University:
TUM
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Principal Investigator
Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra
Chair:
Biological Chemistry TUM WZW
Since 1998 Prof. Dr. Arne Skerra is Full Professor at the [http://www.tum.de Technische Universität München], where he heads the [http://biologische-chemie.userweb.mwn.de/ Institute of Biological Chemistry]. He is internationally renowned for his comprehensive experience and his pioneering contributions in the fields of molecular biotechnology and protein engineering. In addition to his scientific excellence he strives to apply and economically utilize academic results, and to date he founded two start-ups. He advises our iGEM team scientifically and offers laboratory places at his chair.
Prof. Kirsten Jung
Chair:
Chair of Microbiology at the LMU
- Coordinator of the DFG of the key program [http://www.spp1617.de/ SPP 1617].
- Spokeswoman of the graduation college [http://www.grk2062.uni-muenchen.de/index.html GRK 2062] “Molecular Principles of Synthetic Biology”.
- Member of the board of the Excellency cluster [http://www.cipsm.de/en/index.html CiPSM] “Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich”.
- Mentor at the faculty for biology [http://www.mikrobiologie.biologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/kjung/jung_k/lmumentoring/index.html LMUMentoring].
Instructors
Andreas Reichert
Position:
PhD student at the chair of Biological Chemistry TUM WZW.
Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology
Together with Volker, Andi was advising the whole experiments and teaching us the different methods of molecular biology and how to use all the equipment at the chair of biological chemistry. While mentoring us we have learnt a lot of new things from him and we got a better understanding and how to properly use what we got at the laboratory.
Volker Morath
Position:
PhD student at the chair of Biological Chemistry TUM WZW.
Field of Study:
Biology (graduated)
Former Participation:
Freiburg 2010, TU_Munich 2012, TU_Munich 2013
After participating three times in iGEM, once in Freiburg, twice in Munich, Volker is now once again supervising this year's iGEM team. From his previous participation he has gained lots of useful experience in order to keep us always on the right track.
Philipp Pfingstag
Position:
Research associate and PhD candidate at the Dr. Theo Schöller Chair in Technology and Innovation Management (Prof. Dr. Joachim Henkel)
Field of Study:
Synthethic biology
Philipp is in charge of taking care of the human practices and outreach of the team.
Dong-Jiunn Jeffery Truong
Field of Study:
Molecular Biotechnology
Position:
PhD student at the Helmholtz Zentrum München.
Former participation in:
TU_Munich 2012, TU_Munich 2013
After participating for the first time in iGEM on 2012, Jeffery was sure it would not be the last time he was going to participate. He has a keen interest in optogenetics and signaling, which made him the perfect fit to work on our safety mechanism. Besides to his enormous wisdom, he is one of the most uncomplicated and down-to-earth people we ever got acquainted with.
