This page is dedicated to everyone that helped us make the idea of synthetic, animal-free cow and platypus yogurt a reality.
Our Team Members
All experiments were conducted by our team members; in addition to the lab work, everybody was responsible for different parts of the project.
Fabian Brix - human practice cow and platypus team, survey team, fundraising, wet lab team, wiki team
Isabell Reim - social media, human practice cow team, fundraising, dry lab team, video team
Julia Kolozsy - wet and dry lab team, fundraising, human practice cow team, video team, wiki team
Julia Lange - wet lab team, fundraising, graphics team, video team
Lea Hellwig - team leader, project coordination and organization, wet and dry lab team, had the platypus idea, wiki team, video team, human practice cow and platypus team, pr/communications, graphics team
Luise Pinske - team leader, project coordination and organization, wet and dry lab team, wiki team, video team, human practice cow and platypus team, pr/communications
Marius Schnutenhaus - head of the wet and dry lab team, responsible for the part pages, wiki team, video team, human practice cow and platypus team
Michelle Lübbert - social media, human practices platypus team, dry lab team, wiki team
Viola Schniedenharn - human practice platypus team, survey team, wet and dry lab team, wiki team, video team
iGEM with its many aspects inside and outside the lab required not only motivated team members but also a lot of help from our PI, instructor, mentor, and advisors.
We are immensely grateful for all the support, advice, troubleshooting, and Pichia cells we received. The project wouldn't have been possible without you.
We want to thank...
Our Principal Investigator Prof. Dr. Dirk Tischler, Professor and Group Leader for Microbial Biotechnology at Ruhr-University Bochum.
This team wouldn't have been possible without Prof. Tischler agreeing to take the role as PI for the first iGEM Team at the Ruhr-University Bochum and offering us a lab space in his research group.
We also have to thank him for his advice in project management and his help to find sponsors.
Our Instructor Fabian Schultes, for his support, advice, and assistance in all stages of the project.
Advisors Anna Christina Ngo, for providing us with the Pichia pastoris x33 strain, troubleshooting when our cells didn't grow, sharing her protocols with us, and teaching us the method of electroporation. Julia Beukert, for her help in the lab, advice, and guidance throughout the project.
All members of the research group Microbial Biotechnology, but especially:
Artur Maier, for providing us with space in the cold storage and his support in troubleshooting.
Bürkan Kalaycik, for lending us his LB-Media, when we ran out of it.
Daniel Eggerichs, for sequencing our plasmids and helping us familiarize with the
operation of lab devices.
Doreen Hufnagel, for looking after our SDS gel.
Melody Haarmann, for general support, troubleshooting and sequencing.
Simon Hadewig, for his help in the lab and general upbeat attitude.
Our Mentor Prof. Dr. Boas Pucker, Professor for Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at TU Braunschweig, for guiding us as a new team with no prior iGEM-experience through all stages of the project.
We also have to thank him for his assistance with all our questions, his advice and tips regarding the project implementation.
Our Human Practice support
Dr. Knut Madden from Biogrammatics, for their Pichia-Protocols and advice on working with Pichia pastoris.
Dr. Thomas Gassler, for his advice regarding genome integration and the advantages of working with integrated vs. plasmid-based systems.
Geoff Williams, our platypus expert who showed us the connection between milk farming in Tasmania and the decreasing numbers of platypuses in the area.
Dr. Michael Krohn from the BrainAG, for his knowledge about brazzein and entrepreneurship.
Breanna Duffy from New Harvest, for information about cellular agriculture.
Dr. Britta Winterberg from Formo, for information about entrpreneurship and the production of synthetic milk
Our University and our Faculty
We would like to thank our university in general and the faculty of biology and biotechnology in particular for the opportunity to take part in iGEM and of course for their financial support.
Special thanks to Prof. Dr. Eckhard Hofmann, Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, who helped us in our search for lab space and for his general support of the project.
Dr. Christopher Grefen and Dr. Markus Piotrowski, who helped us prepare for our genetic engineering lessons when we visited the Waldstraßen high school.
Dr. Julia Bandow, for her tips concerning the implementation of Monotreme Lactation Protein (MLP) in our experiments and her general advice on working and testing the effects of antibiotics.
Our fellow iGEM teams, especially TU Darmstadt and Sorbonne U Paris, and in general every team that participated in collaborations and virtual meetups.
Our quadcopter expert Jannis Daut, for showing us our university from a bird's eye perspective and creating footage for our project video.
Our sponsors who helped us fund our project and supported us financially and with lab equipment.
Our university and our faculty
The Research Group Microbial Biotechnology
The Specialist Group "Food Microbiology & Hygiene" of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM), especially Dr. Katrin Muth and Prof. Dr. Franz Narberhaus
The research group Theoretical and Applied Biodiversity, especially Claudia Brefeld and Prof. Dr. Schaub, for lending us equipment
Evonik, for financial support
Eppendorf, for lending us equipment
Promega, and especially Dr. Julia Götsch for providing us with plasmid purification kits
Picard for financial support
SnapGene, Benchling, and Geneious Prime, for licenses of their software
