Team:Peshawar/Attributions
Attributions
Andrew Hessel
Andrew is a futurist and catalyst in biological technologies. He is one the leaders and great contributor to Synthetic Biology.
We thank him for giving us generous amount of time from his busy schedule. He not only uplifted our spirits and discussed the positives of our project, but also pointed out some of the negatives and helped us in stamping them out. He also suggested us some valuable strategies on how to best carry out human practices.
Dr. Muhammad Fahim
Dr. Fahim is a Metabolic Engineer and a Professor at Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Peshawar. He has been involved with us from the very beginning; he was in the panel that selected the 12 candidates for the iGEM team.
He also helped the team in short–listing various project ideas that we pitched. Furthermore, his workshop on Trends in Life Sciences got us familiarized with ethical issues and environmental impact of GMOs.
Prof. Muhammad Hamid Zaman
Prof. Zaman is HHMI Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University. He is actively engaged in bringing quality engineering education in several developing nations. He is currently involved in setting up biomedical engineering departments at universities in Kenya, Zambia, Uganda and Ethiopia.
We thank him for giving us time out of his busy schedule, for motivating us, and for writing a brilliant piece about us in the Express Tribune .
Dr. Muhammad Illyas
Dr. Ilyas is an Assistant Professor at Centre for Human Genetics Hazara University Pakistan. He did his PhD from University of the Punjab specialising in Bioinformatics and Human Genomics. In Spring 2015, he joined Laboratory for Personalized Medicine at Harvard Medical School USA as a Visiting Research Fellow.
Illyas was very helpful in scoring the 200 candidates that applied to be a part of the iGEM Peshawar Team.
Dr. Johar Ali
Dr. Johar is the Head of Genomics Science Centre at RMI Peshawar. He is the only Pakistani who was the part of high profile Human Genome Project. He works in the areas of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology but his specialty is in Cancer Genomics.
We had an inspiring session with Dr. Johar. He shared some motivating tips to be successful in life. He also gave a brief introduction of GMOs and the related ethical concerns.
Dr. Natasha Anwar
Dr. Natasha is a virologist and a molecular biologist by training. She did her PhD from Imperial College London and also holds a PGD in Bioethics.
We thank her for being helpful and giving us time out of her busy schedule. We had an informative Skype session with her in which we discussed all bioethical concerns related to our project.
Dr. Mukhtar Ullah
Dr. Mukhtar is an Associate Professor at NUCES FAST Islamabad. He is a skillful programmer and bioinformatician with expertise in mathematical modeling, simulation, and signal processing.
He helped us in mathematical modeling by pointing us to various resources that made it easy for us to understand mathematical modelling and simulation of biological systems.
Prof. Zabta Khan Shinwari
Prof. Shinwari heads the Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He is the winner of the 2015 UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science.
Dr. Zabta discussed the ethical issues related to our project and gave us valuable advice on how to solve them.
Muhammad Siraj
Siraj is an entrepreneur and the creator of mobile app, Holla. He also works at AIESEC — an international non–profit organization that provides young people with leadership development, and cross–cultural internship and volunteer exchange experiences across the globe.
Siraj shared his marketing experience with us and gave us useful tips on how sell our project and enhance our social media presence.
Salman Ahmad
Salman Ahmad is a communication expert and a co–founder of Peshawar 2.0 — a social enterprise aimed at building a startup community in Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.
Salman helped us interview all twelve iGEMers to select the top four that would best represent the team in Boston.
Faaiz Ahmed
Faaiz is Social Media Trainer at Women Digital League and also Community Manager at Blimp Digital Marketing, Peshawar.
He gave us some important tips and tricks on how to have a stronger social media presence and establish ones' own Brand using social media.
Carlos Alejandro Meza
Carlos works at Centro de Technologia e Innovaction, Mexico. He is an experienced iGEMer having participated thrice in the competition.
We thank him for helping us understand different types of assemblies and the use of Biobricks.
Adnan Fazal
Adnan is an Education Management Professional with rich experience in the education sector, working with renowned organisations including the British Council. He has worked extensively on education projects involving schools, colleges, national and international universities. Presently, he is working as the STEM Outreach Coordinator at Institute of integrative Biosciences, CECOS University, Peshawar.
We are grateful for helping us in our human practices by connecting us with the educational institutes and taking care of all the arrangements.
Abida Zulfiqar
Abida holds an MPhil in Immunology and Virology from The National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad. She is currently a full–time Research Associate at IIB working on the systems biology of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Abida helped us in general lab techniques and assisted us in performing different laboratory protocols. She also helped us interview all twelve iGEMers to select the top four that would best represent the team in Boston.
Humaira Akhtar
Humaira is a Lecturer at the Institute of Integrative Biosciences and a Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Faisal Khan where she works on the network biology of Hepatitis C virus. Humaira received her MPhil degree from Agriculture University Peshawar where she investigated the role of various Brassica genotypes in bioremediation of heavy metals from contaminated soil.
Humaira trained us in basic lab tools. She also helped us in preparing our stock solutions and optimizing lab protocols.
Rabail Durrani
Rabail is a secretary at International Society for Computational Biology, RSG Pakistan. She is currently studying at the National University of Science and Technology and doing her research in the field of Health Biotechnology.
She was with us for a week helping us out in molecular biology tutorial, boosting our energy, and constantly promoting our team on social media.
Muhammad Uzair
Uzair is a Biotechnology graduate at the Institute of Integrative Biosciences. He is also a General Secretory at International Society for Computational Biology, RSG Pakistan.
Uzair gave us hands–on practice on how to operate various lab equipment. He also guided us on lab safety issues.
Zia ur Rehman
Zia ur Rahman is a doctorol student at Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of Punjab where he is involved in developing a recombinant drug for targeted therapy of cancer.
We are thankful to Zia for saving our time by providing us some chemicals from his lab when our vendors were out of stock.
Ayaz
Abida holds an MPhil in Immunology and Virology from The National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad. She is currently a full–time Research Associate at IIB working on the systems biology of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Abida helped us in general lab techniques and assisting us in performing different laboratory protocols.
Muhammad Waqas
Muhammad Waqas hold an MS degree in Biotechnology. His research focuses on Molecular Dynamic Simulations and Molecular Docking.
Waqas helped us in modeling and simulation. He briefed us about GenoCAD and other modeling and simulation packages.
Team Technion Israel
Team Technion has been very helpful to us in various aspects of iGEM competition. They made significant contribution in our mathematical modeling and lab protocol optimization. They reviewed and modified equations, and fine–tuned our modeling parameters. They also translated system equations into Matlab code for simulation as none of us were well–versed in MATLAB. They provided us the time frames for lab work. They were generous to share lab protocols and help us troubleshoot the steps that weren't yielding any results.
Team Vilnius Lithuania
Team Vilnius gave us an overview of iGEM Competition and its different aspects. They shared ideas about human practices and public outreach. They elaborated the iGEM lab work in quite detail, which helped us in making a detailed experimental plan and schedule.
Team METU Turkey 2010
In iGEM 2010, METU Turkey developed an 'E-CO Sensor' — a bacterial sensor with enhanced dynamic range for detection of carbon monoxide using E.coli. The CO–sensing module in our device is based on the promoters pCooF, pCooM, and the transcription factor CooA they developed in 2010.
We would like to thank Cihan Tastan and Dr. Can Ozen for their help and support when we faced a major stumbling block.
Team IIT Kharagpur India
Our collaboration with the IIT team has been limited to Skype sessions. We shared insights about effective human practices. We discussed construct designs and exchanged thoughts on improving it.
The Dawood Foundation
The Dawood Foundation is an educational foundation in Pakistan whose main focus is to support and promote educational initiatives in the field of science, technology, and research. This year, they organized 'Magnifi-Science' — a three-day science fair of gigantic proportion in Karachi where we set up our 'Bio-Machines Lab' and shared Synthetic Biology with almost 4500 students, teachers, parents, and other members of the community.
We would like to thank the Dawood Foundation and Ms. Sabrina Dawood for supporting our endeavour and providing us with the space and opportunity to spread SynBio awareness at such a scale in Pakistan.
Reach Us
Institute of Integrative Biosciences,
CECOS University of IT & Emerging Sciences,
Phase 6, F-5, Hayatabad, Peshawar, Pakistan
iib@cecos.edu.pk
+92 91 5860291
Our Partners
