Team Contributions & Attributions
The success of NeuroSplice is built on the passion and dedication of every team member. Below is a detailed breakdown of the contributions from each individual and advisory group.
1. Team Leadership & Management
Shriya Anumarlu (Founder & Team Lead)
Shriya founded and led the 28-member CalUCSF iGEM team, helping establish the team’s structure, workflows, and the NeuroSplice project for its first competition cycle. She coordinated partnerships with the Sabatino Lab at UCSF’s Weill Neuroscience Institute and the Stahl Lab at UC Berkeley to support assay development and modeling guidance. For recruitment, she created the application, screened ~80 applicants, conducted interviews, and assigned accepted members to Wet Lab, Dry Lab, Wiki, Graphics/Media, and Human Practices based on skills and time commitment. She managed team finances by contacting 50+ companies for potential sponsorship, preparing outreach materials, securing the Zymo Research Grant, and raising about $10,000 for registration fees, wet-lab materials, and competition travel. She organized weekly meetings, increased frequency near deadlines, and set up shared folders and timelines so subteam leads could track tasks leading up to the iGEM freeze date. Scientifically, Shriya proposed the NeuroSplice RNA splice-variant diagnostic concept and worked closely with the Wet Lab Lead to refine experimental protocols. She performed plate-reader assays, TX-TL reactions, trigger/toehold tests, and troubleshooting iterations. She also worked with the Dry Lab Lead to design the sIL7R toehold switch sequences, review predicted folding models, and adjust designs based on simulation outputs. She helped assemble and test the team’s physical paper-based kit and contributed data figures, written sections, and edits for the wiki. She additionally assisted with wiki structuring and content review to ensure accuracy and clarity across pages. She also helped plan and edit the team’s video presentation, coordinating with subteam leads to ensure accurate scientific content and cohesive messaging. In outreach, she helped coordinate interviews with an MS specialist and a professor for the Human Practices section, participated in educational activities with students in Singapore, and met with Zymo Research representatives regarding sponsorship and materials support. At the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, Shriya delivered a conference-stage live talk, presenting in front of the full audience where all attending teams could listen and view the project. She also participated in booth sessions, speaking with more than 80 academic professionals and university teams from around the world, as well as company CEOs and startup founders, while helping demonstrate the team’s physical diagnostic prototype.
Krrishika Saxena (Assistant Team Coordinator & Wet Lab Lead)
As Assistant Team Coordinator and Wet Lab Lead, Krrishika supported both the scientific workflow and leadership of the NeuroSplice project. She assisted coordinating all 28 members across all teams of of the Wet Lab, Dry Lab, Human Practices, Media, and Tech, helping ensure experiments, modeling, and outreach progressed in sync. She led the wet-lab pipeline by drafting protocols for all ten trials, refining procedures based on results, and conducting extensive research on toehold switches, IL7R splice variants, and diagnostic assay design. In the lab, she led all experiments and trained members in pipetting, incubation steps, and fluorescence measurements to ensure accuracy and reproducibility. She also assisted in designing the sIL7R variant sequence used in the final construct as well as initiated the concept and work on the team’s physical diagnostic kit. In Dry Lab, she researched sequence variants, analyzed folding predictions, and worked alongside the Dry Lab Lead to refine and select the final sIL7R toehold switch design, including the GFP-reporter variant, ensuring that sequence choice aligned with both modeling outputs and wet-lab feasibility. Beyond the bench, she interviewed multiple sclerosis specialists to connect experimental decisions with clinical relevance, contributed to Human Practices materials, organized wet-lab data for the wiki, met with Zymo Research representatives regarding sponsorship, and contacted the UC Berkeley Stahl Lab to help secure team experimental workspace and resources. She also helped direct the creation of the team’s video presentation by organizing content, assigning roles, and ensuring the final presentation accurately reflected the experimental work. At the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, Krrishika delivered a conference-stage live talk, presenting in front of the full audience where all attending teams could listen and view the project. She also participated in booth sessions, speaking with more than 80 academic professionals and university teams from around the world, as well as company CEOs and startup founders, while helping demonstrate the team’s physical diagnostic prototype.
Saketh Machiraju (Tech Team Lead)
Developed and designed the entire wiki using Flask, Tailwind CSS, Python, and JavaScript. Integrated all text, graphics, and visual assets into a cohesive, responsive design. Led debugging and functionality improvements with other tech team members.
Aadya Matthew (Dry Lab Lead)
Led the Dry Lab team, overseeing toehold switch trials from design to in silico validation. Conducted initial dataset and literature mining (PubMed, NCBI, RefSeq) to identify IL7R exon 6 skipping as the most reliable neurological splice variant target. Designed the initial toehold–amilCP construct, embedding RBS and AUG sequences within a stable hairpin structure and testing stability using NUPACK and RNAstructure. Optimized switch architecture across multiple iterations, extending trigger length, refining buffer regions, and modifying GC content to reduce leakiness. Maintained detailed SnapGene visualizations and sequence documentation, ensuring accuracy and traceability for all constructs. Coordinated closely with the wet lab team to translate computational models into experimental protocols for sIL7R detection. At the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, Aadya delivered a conference-stage live talk, presenting in front of the full audience where all attending teams could listen and view the project. She also participated in booth sessions.
Scarlett Huang (Human Practices Lead)
Scheduled meetings, created slides for presentations, managed task sheets and deadlines, and organized documentation of all HP activities. Developed detailed spreadsheets to track potential, contacted, and confirmed stakeholders, including schools and health organizations. Drafted interview questions, consent forms, and four stakeholder-specific surveys, as well as two professional outreach emails for interviews and surveys. Contacted 20+ stakeholders and 10–12 schools, securing multiple interviews and arranging a preschool presentation at the Singapore American School. Co-developed a children’s book and poem for preschool outreach with the Media team and assisted in drafting the Ethics and Safety section. At the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, Scarlett delivered a conference-stage live talk, presenting in front of the full audience where all attending teams could listen and view the project. She also participated in booth sessions.
Kirsten Chan (Graphic & Media Design Team Lead)
Directed the Media Team and oversaw content creation and outreach. Designed the official CalUCSF iGEM team logo representing the project. Created 20+ social media posts for the main CalUCSF Instagram page. Illustrated a children’s book on neurological disorders and caregiving to those with neurodegenerative diseases. Presented and distributed the book to 50+ children as part of community education efforts.
2. Wet Lab: Experiments and Data
Poorvi Thairani
Researched successful team wikis to generate design and organizational strategies. Proposed initial UI and graphic concepts to enhance readability and navigation. Contributed to writing and documentation for both wet lab and dry lab teams. Assisted with data analysis for wet lab.
Sriya Yenne
Assisted with Trial 2 execution, including pipetting and NanoDrop measurements. Recorded experimental data and documented progress. Photographed each stage of the trial to support lab records and reporting.
Pinaki Pramanik
Contributed to the wet lab efforts and helped create toehold mechanism diagrams and visualizations for the wiki's Project and Design pages.
Khushi Kangle
Assisted in analyzing and graphing results for five of the ten wet lab trials to support data visualization and interpretation. Performed an educational poem for kindergarten students, teaching them about the brain and raising awareness of neurodegenerative diseases in an engaging, age-appropriate way. Also assisted on the tech team.
Sindhuja Bokkisam
Assisted in analyzing wet lab data and creating graphs to visualize experimental results. Helped conduct interviews with a multiple sclerosis (MS) specialist to gather expert insights for Human Practices research.
Sanoja Sobhani
Sanoja contributed to stakeholder outreach by assisting with the specialist interview, where she asked several questions and took notes throughout the discussion. She also helped develop the team’s 15-minute presentation video. In the laboratory, she supported wet lab efforts by helping with experimental trials, documenting procedures through photographs, and assisting with the analysis and graphing of experimental data using Excel.
Prithika Poomaran
Logged weekly updates in the shared lab notebook. Drafted and finalized iGEM Wiki templates and content outlines. Assisted with drafting experiment summaries and write-ups, and completed wet lab data analysis.
Richard Kim
Assisted with wet lab trial execution and data collection. Created high-quality toehold mechanism diagrams for project visuals. Contributed to wet lab documentation and record keeping.
3. Dry Lab: Computational Design and Modeling
Arjun Gurjar
Evaluated two different exon splicing diseases, found their consensus sequences and disease associated sequences. After focusing on IL7R, documented the exon 6 sequence and used NUPACK to predict RNA secondary structure for the mRNA. Used NUPACK again to verify the secondary structure of the finalized toehold sequence.
Azhahini Krishnamoorthy
Member of Dry Lab.
Garv Goswami
Helped troubleshoot and resolve wiki code, formatting, and page functionality issues. Ensured consistency, accessibility, and smooth navigation across wiki pages. Assisted with dry lab work, including toehold sequence design, verification, and documentation.
Radha Paravastu
Member of Dry Lab Team and assisted with emailing stakeholders for human practices.
Shravan Balaji
Contributed to the Dry Lab team by completing Phases 1 and 2, focusing on genome sequence isolation and data analysis. Used NUPACK and other tools to process and refine DNA sequences for use by the Wet Lab team.
Sia Jain
Completed Phase 2, focusing on computational design, data interpretation, and refinement of the toehold model.
Sophia Jiang
Sophia conducted research on disorder-associated splice variants and identified target sequences using resources such as PubMed and related genomic databases. She used NUPACK to visualize candidate toehold designs generated from team data and cross-checked sequence information for accuracy, including comparative research on different AmilCP variants. She also help organized and visualized wet lab data from the CalUCSF team using Excel to support downstream analysis. During project finalization, she contributed to outreach efforts by editing the CalUCSF introduction video using video-editing software.
4. Human Practices & Outreach
Dean Tat
Conducted academic paper research for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Diagnostic tools. Found 15 UCSF physician stakeholders and connected the HP team with one for an interview. Helped present about neurological diseases and the brain to school kids.
Harkirat Batth
Harikrat help create the outreach presentation slides for the preschool engagement activity. She also help conduct interviews for stakeholder outreach, drawing on her research into RNA-based diagnostics and neurological diseases to tailor questions.
Parmis Broumandi
Researched the ethics and societal impact of RNA-based diagnostics, identified and contacted multiple stakeholders, and helped draft interview questions and surveys. Also helped create Instagram posts, outreach visuals, and helped design the project logo.
Khushi Kangle
Performed an educational poem for kindergarten students, teaching them about the brain and raising awareness of neurodegenerative diseases in an engaging, age-appropriate way.
5. Design, Graphics, & Media
Sharika Pattanshetty
Communicated with leads to provide graphics support. Designed graphics for the wiki and Instagram posts.
Azhahini Krishnamoorthy
Illustrated splice variants, TX-TL, and color detection visuals. Created graphics and posts; assisted with video and photo documentation.
Parmis Broumandi
Helped create Instagram posts, outreach visuals, and helped design the project logo.
6. Tech & Wiki Development
Garv Goswami
Helped troubleshoot and resolve wiki code, formatting, and page functionality issues, ensuring consistency, accessibility, and smooth navigation across wiki pages. Also assisted with dry lab work, including toehold sequence design, verification, and documentation.
Khushi Kangle
Assisted on the tech team with general support and troubleshooting.
7. Sponsorship & Administration
Diya Rajani (Finance Manager)
Led fundraising, budgeting, and financial planning for UC Berkeley’s iGEM team. Created a funding tracker for outreach to departments, sponsors, and grant programs. Drafted sponsorship materials and managed communication with potential donors. Developed a recognition plan and budget framework to ensure transparency and sustainability. Also took professional photos of the group.
NeuroSplice is a student-led project. All core project work was performed by the student team, clearly demarcated in Sections 1 through 6.