Myra Ashraf is a current fourth-year undergraduate student studying Bioengineering: Biotechnology at UC San Diego. She is a research fellow at the J. Craig Venter Institute, where she has performed wet lab research, contributed to the creation of the iGEM promotional video, and connected with potential sponsors for the iGEM team. Her past research involved cancer immunotherapy and biosensor development, and she aims to get a Ph.D. in Bioengineering in the future. Myra’s favorite activity is creating new outfits for MACS using her impressive digital art skills!

Rridhisha Kumar is a Bioengineering: Biotechnology major in her senior year at UC San Diego and aims to pursue a Ph.D. in Bioengineering. She is currently a full-time research fellow at the J. Craig Venter Institute under the Suzuki Lab in the Synthetic Biology group. Rridhisha has performed wet lab research, directed the promotional video, and communicated with sponsors to facilitate this project. Rridhisha enjoys digital art, traveling home to India, and bantering with Myra over MACS’ outfits and animations.  

Parisa Shahabi is a Bioengineering: Biotechnology student in her senior year at UC San Diego, who will be pursuing a Master of Translation Medicine at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco after graduation. She is a current research fellow at JCVI, where she has performed wet lab work, fundraising, outreach exposure and content production for the MACS iGEM project. In addition to synthetic biology, her research experience includes cardiovascular biomechanics in the DVJ Lab at UC San Diego studying pulmonary arterial hypertension. Her hobbies include nail art, beach bonfires, Latin dancing, and attending music festivals!

Sarah Chittle is currently a fourth-year Bioengineering: Biotechnology student at UC San Diego. As a research fellow at JCVI, she has performed wet lab research and content production for the MACS project. Sarah also currently works as an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Aguado iBiomaterials Lab at UC San Diego researching sex differences in health and disease. After graduation, she will begin her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University with a focus in tissue engineering. In her free time Sarah likes to read books, salsa dance, do crafts, and drink LaCroix sparkling water.

Ella Kirwan is a current fourth-year Bioengineering: Biotechnology student at UC San Diego. She is currently a research fellow at JCVI and as a part of the iGEM JCVI-UCSD team she has assisted in GC-MS analysis as well as assisting in the TALE portion of the project. She also works on protein engineering as a part of the Moore Lab at UC San Diego and aims to pursue a PhD in Bioengineering. In her free time, she enjoys making pottery, crocheting, and expanding her sticker collection. She also enjoys running and is currently training for her first ultra marathon!

Dr. Yo Suzuki is a Principal Investigator of the iGEM JCVI-UCSD team and an associate professor at JCVI. Dr. Suzuki is a part of the Synthetic Biology group at JCVI, his research is focused on systematic investigation of gene functions in various organisms. Dr. Suzuki has guided the team throughout the creation of the MACS project with his expertise in the minimal cell. Dr. Suzuki received his undergraduate degree from Nagoya University in Japan and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Previous to joining JCVI, Dr. Suzuki was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and a research associate at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Dr. Immo Burkhardt is a Principal Investigator of the iGEM JCVI-UCSD team and a postdoctoral fellow at the Moore Lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Immo received his bachelor’s degree along with his master’s degree at the Technical University of Braunschweig. For pursuing his PhD he joined the group of Prof. Jeroen Dickschat at the University of Bonn to work in the fields of natural products chemistry and biosynthesis with a focus on fungal isoprenoids. He joined the Moore lab in October 2019, where he has been working on natural products research.

Dr. John Glass is a mentor to the iGEM JCVI-UCSD team, as well as a professor and the leader of the JCVI Synthetic Biology group. He is a part of the Venter Institute research group that created a synthetic bacterial cell and led the JCVI collaboration project with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Inc. and Synthetic Genomics, Inc. that created synthetic influenza virus vaccine strains. He has also led other projects at JCVI, including bacterial outer membrane vesicle based vaccine, genome transplantation, and Mycoplasma genitalium minimal genome projects. His expertise in molecular biology and microbial genomics have guided our team throughout the MACS project. Dr. Glass received his undergraduate degree in Biology and his graduate degrees in Genetics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a postdoctoral fellow and faculty member at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Before he joined JCVI, Dr. Glass directed a hepatitis C virology group and a microbial genomics group at Eli Lilly.