Meet the Student Leaders and Team Members behind LactoLock.
Born and raised in Georgia, USA. Attended Duke University for undergraduate, Georgia Institute of Technology for PhD. Been teaching at Georgia State University for 10 years. Currently Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Biology Department.
I hold a background in neuroscience and synthetic biology, with a strong interest in advancing interdisciplinary research and responsible scientific practice. One of my key accomplishments this year was assisting in the development of a structured framework that enhanced the team's research coordination and adherence to safety standards. Through this role, I aim to foster a culture of innovation, accountability, and collaborative excellence in scientific research.
My name is Saul, and I am a senior biology major at Georgia State University with aspirations of pursuing a career in industry research. My scientific interests lie in synthetic biology, microbiology, and biotechnology, where I aim to contribute to the development of innovative therapeutic solutions that will address real-world challenges. One of my most memorable accomplishments from this year's project was witnessing our idea evolve from a concept into a fully realized experiment. Having proposed the project and conducted the initial background research last year, seeing it all come together was incredibly rewarding and served as a constant source of motivation throughout the process.
I am pre-med and plan to go on and become a surgeon. My main hobbies are cooking, rock climbing, and filmmaking. I am an adrenaline junkie and love trying new things. My most memorable personal accomplishment in this year's project is being able to lead such a diverse and intelligent group of individuals.
I am passionate about biochemistry, nanochemistry, protein design, and synthesis, with a particular focus on pharmacology. In the future, I plan to pursue a doctorate in pharmacology and am currently focused on working either in the personalized medicine field, through a proteomic approach or regenerative pharmacology, where I can contribute to the optimization of bioengineered and regenerating tissues. One of my most memorable accomplishments from this year's project was teaching new members essential lab techniques and conducting experiments late into the summer nights. Although the hours were long and many of us were just getting to know each other, we turned the experience into a rewarding one; balancing serious work with moments of bonding, laughter, and even singing and dancing during our downtime.
I first got into genetic engineering after going to an iGEM summer camp at Lambert High School in seventh grade, and I've been hooked ever since. My goal is to earn a Ph.D. and keep doing research in this exciting, fast-growing field. This year, I'm proud of overcoming my fear of public speaking by giving class presentations about iGEM and helping recruit over 100 new members. I also learned HTML and CSS from scratch to build our team's wiki, which really showed me what I'm capable of when I push myself.
I am passionate about synthetic biology and aim to pursue research that connects science with society. A highlight of this year was leading human practices with BioBus, where we introduced synthetic biology to students in creative and engaging ways.
As vice president of the Synthetic Biology Club at Georgia State University and a co-leader of our iGEM team, I drove the overall project and experimental design, led comprehensive literature review, and planned plasmid construction. In particular, I designed three nisin expression plasmids and advised the biosafety strategy by proposing and refining a killswitch design. I executed molecular cloning and expression workflows, managed gene ordering, and coordinated sponsorships with GenScript and IDT. I also co-designed experiments for the culture group (strain selection, induction conditions, and quantification assays) and reviewed and refined the mathematical modeling framework to align assumptions and parameters with experimental constraints. In addition, alongside other officers, I organized multiple hands-on workshops that trained students in essential laboratory techniques and best practices.
I am a second-year neuroscience major with a minor in biology. I am interested in studying the intersections of neuroscience, medicine, and biotechnology, especially in ways that can lead to innovative treatments and healthcare advances. My most memorable accomplishment working on this year's iGEM team was learning how to use Snap Gene to create our initial kill switch plasmid and also running successful transformations.
My goal is to be a medical examiner in the future. In this project, my group spent a lot of time researching different mechanisms to design a killswitch.
I like algorithm and want to accomplish biological problems in the perspective of maths. In this year;s project, we succeeded in modeling the curve of the inhibition of ampicillin to E.coli. Although it is not tough work, I made my first step.
My name is David Hudgins, and I am a third-year biology major at Georgia State University with aspirations of pursuing graduate school in immunology. My academic interests are centered on synthetic microbiology, particularly the genetic recombination of probiotic species to combat harmful pathogens, such as demonstrated in our LactoLock project. This year, one of my most memorable accomplishments was establishing reproducible disk diffusion assays for nisin against Streptococcus mutans and helping to lay out a purification roadmap using cation-exchange chromatography and SDS-PAGE. These experiences strengthened my commitment to developing innovative microbial strategies that can serve as a foundation for next-generation therapeutics.
Hello everyone, my name is Ji Yingzhou. I am introverted and prefer tranquility. I am eager to deeply explore the mysteries of biology during my undergraduate study, and I hope to enter the palace of higher education to continue my study and constantly climb the peak of science. What's more, my most memorable accomplishment on working in this year's iGEM team is complete the liquid culture of Lactobacillus, E.coli, and S.mutans and measure the OD value at regular intervals.
I am an undergraduate student in biology and mathematics. Among the iGEM teams this year, the most memorable achievement for me was being able to work with the nisin team in the summer to transform the initial concept into a concrete implementation. Especially seeing the successful completion of our antibacterial experiment results just before the review, that sense of achievement was truly special.
Ni Hao! My name is Haichuan Long. I come from China and major in biology with a minor in statistics. I enjoy playing badminton, watching anime, and singing. I am interested in biological information and my future goal is to get a Ph.D in Biology. My most memorable personal accomplishment in this year's project is to finish the 54-hours OD test and get the curve chat.
I am a third-year neuroscience major with a minor in music. I am interested in the connections between neuroscience, biology, and medicine and I hope to pursue a career as either a neurologist or an anesthesiologist. My most memorable accomplishment this year was learning new lab techniques and applying them in our project. This experience not only improved my lab skills but also helped me appreciate the value of teamwork and shared learning in research.
As a junior biology major, I'm driven by my interest in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. My goal is to deepen my knowledge of genetic engineering and growth kinetics by actively engaging in lab research, which will build a practical foundation for my future in this field. My most memorable project moment this year was pulling an all-nighter with my teammates to measure the bacterial growth curve; seeing the final data felt incredibly rewarding.
I am interested in organic chemistry and plan to research in organic synthesis in the future. This year, I am satisfied with learning a lot in microorganisms culturing and human practice design. I am very proud of our project.
I'm Haoqi Wang, a undergraduate student major in biology and mathematics. I'm interested in the field of analyzing biological problems in the perspective of mathematical views. In the future, I want to work as in the field of mathematical biology. In this program, I'm responsible for creating the mathematical functions that will use to match our experiment data. Also, I have done the non dimensionlization and analyzing steady State solution to provide proper explanation to our program products' effect. This will guide our future research.
The most memorable achievement in this year's project was that I and other members of the culture team measured the absorbance of the bacteria at fixed hours for several consecutive days and eventually plotted the growth curve. At first, I thought it would be very difficult for us to finish, but in the end we made it! After graduating from my undergraduate program, I plan to pursue a postgraduate degree in biology. My future career goal is to have the opportunity to enter the pharmaceutical industry.
Hello! I am Jahin, an undergraduate neuroscience student minoring in ethics. I am interested in clinical neuroscience, neuropsychology, as well as microbiology. I aspire to either be a neuroscientist or a neurologist. My most memorable personal accomplishment from this year's project has to either be coding the navigation bar without it breaking OR having visible supernatant when I made a liquid culture of S. mutans by myself!
