Team:MIT/Team
Meet Our Team
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Ellie Feng
Ellie Feng is a rising sophomore from San Diego, CA studying biological engineering. Her interest in synthetic biology stemmed from a summer camp where she engineered bacteria to smell like different fruits and she is most excited about synthetic biologyâs applications in human health and sustainability. Ellie will be working as part of the wet lab team, and in her free time, she enjoys dancing, discovering new music, and making terrible puns.
Emily Gan
Emily Gan is a rising sophomore studying Biological Engineering and Mathematics. Her interest in synthetic biology began with the algal microbiome at Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University, and developed into her passion for environmental bio-engineering. Through iGEM, she hopes to further develop her wet- and dry-lab skillsets and make a difference in science and society. In her free time, she likes to go to the gym and spend time outdoors.
Angela Gao
Angela Gao is a rising sophomore from Fremont, CA majoring in biology and chemistry. She is interested in the applications of synthetic biology to human health and is also excited about reaching out to other teams and to community members who are impacted by the teamâs project. Outside of iGEM, Angela enjoys stray cat photography and is an enthusiastic member of the Sport Taekwondo team.
Zoe Gotthold
Zoe Gotthold is a rising sophomore from Richland, WA. While she still hasnât figured out exactly what she wants to do with her life, her interests include math and studying infectious diseases. She is obsessed with penguins, and enjoys learning about the many ways synthetic biology can improve both human and environmental health.
Sabrina Meng
Sabrina Meng is a rising sophomore from San Diego, CA studying biological engineering and computer science. As a member of the iGEM team, she is looking forward to working on modeling and Wiki/website development. When Sabrina is not working on iGEM, she can be spotted figure skating at the ice rink, playing the violin or piano, hiking in the mountains, or in the kitchen trying very hard to cook a decent meal.
Sarah Pertsemlidis
Sarah Pertsemlidis is a rising junior studying biological engineering. Her love for synthetic biology was fostered in 20.129, which is essentially iGEM in class form, and was officially cemented when Ron Weiss told a random freshman who wasnât interested in bioengineering that they must only have half a brain. As part of the iGEM team, Sarah hopes to use her full brain, think a lot about design, foster collaboration with other iGEM teams, and remind the sophomores to have fun. She spends her free time playing tennis, getting boba, watching Fleabag, and calling her mom.
Alysse Pusey
Alysse Pusey is a rising sophomore at MIT and is interested in biological engineering. She discovered her passion for human health when she designed a computer program that assesses a patientâs breast cancer risk based on their family and medical history. She looks forward to gaining wet lab experience and collaborating with her teammates. In addition to iGEM, sheâs a member of the MIT NEET Living Machines thread.
Kenneth Wei
Kenneth is a rising junior from Mount Sinai, NY studying biological engineering. He hopes to use iGEM as a learning experience for designing experiments, circuits, and models in relation to synthetic biology. Outside of iGEM, he runs for the MIT varsity track and field team.
Jared Zheng
Jared Zheng is a rising sophomore from Largo, Maryland, studying computer science and molecular biology. He is interested in how computational methods can model complex physical and biological phenomena, and joined the iGEM team to explore how synthetic biology can be used to develop treatments in healthcare. He is interested in learning wet lab skills and applying his modeling skills. Outside of iGEM, Jared researches in the Zhang Lab, participates in Medlinks, and teaches for Chinatown Civics, but at home he enjoys playing the piano and cooking.
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Ron Weiss, Ph.D.
Ron Weiss is one of the pioneers of synthetic biology. He has been engaged in synthetic biology research since 1996 when he was a graduate student at MIT and where he helped set up a wet-lab in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. After completion of his PhD, Weiss joined the faculty at Princeton University, and recently returned to MIT to take on a tenured faculty position in the Department of Biological Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Deepak Mishra, Ph.D.
Deepak Mishra is a Postdoc and former Ph.D. student in Ron Weiss' Synthetic Biology Group. Prior to MIT, Deepak earned a B.Sc. in chemical engineering with a biomolecular engineering emphasis at Caltech. Deepak enjoys teaching immensely and has been involved in teaching 3 undergraduate/graduate academic courses, mentored over 100 students across 11 iGEM teams to date, and directly supervised several masterâs thesis students and undergraduate researchers. His research interests lie in the use of protein-protein interactions within synthetic biology both alone and in concert with other regulatory modalities for sophisticated circuit design.
Justin Buck, Ph.D.
Dr. Buck is a âBusineeristâ (Businessman + Engineer + Scientist = Busineeristâ˘); he is a life-long entrepreneur, engineer by training, and a scientist by [fortunate] accident. Justin was a co-founder of Cambrian Innovation, Inc., an environmental product and service company specializing in biological wastewater treatment for the industrial food and beverage market. In 2019, he joined the Departments of Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering at MIT as an Instructor, primarily focused on directing the new campus BioMakerspace. Justin received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines and his PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT.
Gael Chambonnier, Ph.D.
Gael is a Postdoc in Pr. Jacquin Niles Lab at MIT BE where he studies the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. He obtained his Ph.D at Aix-Marseille University where he worked on a regulation system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa under the supervision of Pr. Christophe Bordi. Overall, Gael is interested in using SynBio approaches to decipher regulatory systems in human pathogens and to develop new tools to study them.
Emre Ergecen
Emre Ergecen is a Ph.D student at MIT EECS. He is interested in the intersection of microscopy and nanotechnology. He current research is on developing novel microscopy techniques that can enable stain free imaging. Emre obtained his B.S in EE and Physics from Middle East Technical University. Outside the lab, he is involved in the Graduate Student Council at MIT and serves as the alumni relations subcommittee chair.
Justin Kaskow
Justin Kaskow is a Ph.D. student studying Chemical Engineering at MIT. He obtained his B.A.Sc. in Engineering Chemistry at Queenâs University and worked in industry to improve protein purification processes used in vaccine manufacturing. His current research explores strategies for the controlled delivery of immunotherapies to treat melanoma, combining his interests in protein and polymer science. In his free time, Justin enjoys cooking and playing board games.
Erin Kim
Erin Kim is a junior at Phillips Academy. She was part of the 2020 MIT iGEM Team and is a 2021 After iGEM Ambassador to North America. Erin is currently studying microbiological techniques focusing on bacterial virulence factors important in burn wound infections as well as burn related data analysis in the Rahme Lab at MGH. At her school, Erin is the Co-President of the Science Club and Classics Club, a Peer Listener, and a Student Alumni Representative. Some of her passions include sustainability, robotics, and reciting poems!
Pin-Kuang Lai, Ph.D.
Pin-Kuang Lai is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the department of chemical engineering at MIT. He will become an assistant professor at Stevens Institute of Technology starting in August 2021. He is interested in applying synthetic biology to produce new therapeutics to combat antimicrobial resistant bacteria and superbugs. His PhD and postdoc works focus on developing computational and experimental approaches to study antimicrobial peptides and antibody drug stability.
Evan Qu
Evan Qu is a Ph.D. student in the Lieberman lab at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and an NSF Graduate Fellow. His work and research interests focus on better understanding complex microbial communities and improving our ability to engineer them. He obtained his B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied the physiology and ecology of extremophiles at the dry limit for life. His current research focuses on understanding the evolution of commensals in the human microbiome. Evan has had a long-standing interest in synthetic and open-access biology, previously being involved in the creation of an iGEM team and biology makerspace at Johns Hopkins. Outside of the lab, you can find Evan sailing on the Charles River or fermenting various foods and drinks at home.
Rachel Shen
Rachel is a 2022 majoring in Biology and minoring in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. She was part of the 2020 MIT iGEM team and helped initiate the 2021 iGEM team. Rachel is interested in how cell and organism level biology guides the environment at larger scales. She is currently working in the Babbin Lab, studying carbon diffusion in sinking marine particles.
Ang (Andy) Tu, Ph.D.
Andy Tu is a MIT alumnus of the Ph.D program at the Department of Biological Engineering. He studied under Dr. J. Christopher Love at the Koch Institute, where he developed platforms for high-throughput single-cell sequencing of immune cells. After his graduation in 2020, he joined Immunitas Therapeutics to identify and develop novel cancer immunotherapeutics using high-throughput transcriptomics and protein engineering. Overall, he is interested in application of data science in immunogenomics. In his free time, Andy enjoys cooking, exercising, and visiting museums.
Erika Wirachman
Erika Wirachman is a Microbiology Ph.D. student in the Grossman Lab at MIT. Her current research focuses on integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs), a type of mobile genetic element that transfers from one cell to another via conjugation. In particular, she is interested in learning how they function and investigating the fitness effects they confer to their bacterial hosts. She obtained her B.A. in Molecular & Cell Biology at UC Berkeley, where she studied the effect of nitric oxide on the biofilm formation and virulence factor production of the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae. In her free time, Erika enjoys cooking, baking, and crocheting.
Melody Wu
Melody is a 2022 at MIT studying bioengineering and minoring in design and environment & sustainability. She was on the 2019 MIT iGEM team, advised the 2020 team and was an After iGEM ambassador, and initiated the 2021 iGEM team with the BioMakers. Sheâs now in the Shalek Lab working on spatial barcoding for single-cell omics. She enjoys trying new food, listening to podcasts about public health/planetary health, and creating art (@one.touch.melody)!
Ellen Zhong
Ellen Zhong is in the Computational and Systems Biology Ph.D. program at MIT. Her current research focuses on developing machine learning methods for 3D reconstruction of protein structure from cryo-EM images. Prior to MIT, she was a research associate and scientific programmer at D. E. Shaw Research, where she worked on algorithms and infrastructure for performing free energy calculations via Anton supercomputers. She is a recipient of an NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship. Outside of work, she enjoys rock climbing, travel, and cooking elaborate meals.