Members

Students

Chloé Shan

Swiss knife (litteraly everywhere)

Chloé Shan

Bachelor student running on a coffee deficit, passionate about birds, yet somehow finished in a synthetic biology contest.

Strength: Like a Swiss Army knife, handy in almost any situation, except maybe opening jars.

Weakness: Aesthetics design, let's just say I can make it functional, not fashionable

Elisa Krasensky

Lab Manager - REE & Te Wet Lab - Education

Elisa Krasensky

Master student, with constant knees problems. Some says it's because of the extreme sports I do but I'm really not sure...

Strength: Photosynthesis

Weakness: Still carry a bit of organic chemistry PTSD from my biochemistry bachelor's degree

Emma Castelli

Team Leader - REE Wet Lab - Entrepreneurship

Emma Castelli

MLS Master student with heavy impostor syndrome and inferiority complexes cuz she does not have a Bachelor’s in Biology.

Strength: has not one but three cell maps in her head (one per cell type) and every time anyone asks biological questions she just explains the movie of the process in her head

Weakness: She explains the ENTIRE “movie” but the peeps were just looking for the trailer

Hugo Marchant

Webmaster - Dry lab

Hugo Marchant

Bachelor student, taking more interest in synthetic biology as time goes on.

Strength: Perfect british accent !

Weakness: Sometimes too easy going...

Ilhaan Yaasin Xasan

Content creation and Education

Ilhaan Yaasin Xasan

Just a biology student on a side quest.

Strength: optimistic and good vibes

Weakness: too many side quests...

Jérémie Ducrocq

Lab Manager - Te & REE Wet lab

Jérémie Ducrocq

Master student, have a passion for pipetting and Suze (try it it's the best beverage !)

Strength: Pokemon league champion

Weakness: Always forgot where things are in the freezer

Julien Vujevic Martinez

Team Leader - REE Wet Lab - Entrepreneurship

Julien Vujevic Martinez

Master student, wants to lead the project to a great sucess !

Strength: Superpower to always randomly weigh and mesure precisely to the µL.

Weakness: Prepare chemistry solutions and assay with 3 hours of chemistry knowledge, pH ? Never heard of

Lisa Mauron

Video Production - Education

Lisa Mauron

Bachelor student living with 78 plants, 4 cats and 3 humans.

Strength: Can revive any plant

Weakness: Can't stop thinking about plants (and hopefully bacteria sometimes)

Michaël Schwendimann

Dry lab - REE Wet Lab

Michaël Schwendimann

Freezing Bachelor student powered by Blévita.

Strength: I love to crack my head on a hard problem, even if I get usually more damage than the problem...

Weakness: Open questions like this one (never ask me what I want without giving me 2-3 options, and even then I may panick)

Paul Lachat

Treasurer - Te Wet Lab - Dry Lab

Paul Lachat

MLS master student in Microbiology. I do sport so i can do more apero.

Strength: Key player at pétanque during the lunch break

Weakness: Old and grumpy on the mornings

Tian You

Dry Lab

Tian You

MLS master student in bioinformatics，Time Person of the Year 2006，The Recipient of the 2008 Touching China Special Award，Co-winners of the 2019 United Nations Champions of the Earth Award (Don't believe me? Google it.)

Strength: Like many Chinese people, I'm a good cook.

Weakness: Not very intelligent due to limited IQ

Xulia Maillot Rodriguez

Education Manager - Human Practices - REE Wet Lab

Xulia Maillot Rodriguez

Netflix, Disney+, PrimeVideo, AppleTV+, Canal+, I got them all

Strength: My brain is basically a popcorn machine, ideas popping nonstop, let’s biologywatch the movie

Weakness: Instead of watching the movie, you'll find me exploring the movie theater

Yvan Marbach

Te Wet Lab

Yvan Marbach

I'm a Bachelor's student intrested in synthetic biology. I just joined the team (kind of like spawning in a new world) and I love teamwork and creating cool stuff together.

Strength: Always ready to go !

Weakness: Loading, please wait...

PI

Yolanda Schaerli

Primary PI

Yolanda Schaerli

Professor of Synthetic Biology. Passionate about teaching bacteria new gene expression tricks and students how to do synthetic biology.

Strength:After six years of leading an iGEM team, I think I have decoded the genetic code of the competition. Ready to win it? Absolutely.

Weakness:My days refuse to stretch beyond 24 hours, and my weeks are stingy with just 7 days. I have filed a formal complaint with the laws of physics. Still pending.

Instructors

Albane Schmid

Instructor

Albane Schmid

Phd student who can quote “The office” by heart and has many passions, from competitive swimming and surfing to playing the cello. Oh right, and biology of course!

Strength:Positivity and perseverance both in the lab and in life.

Weakness: Endless indecision over trivial things like color palettes...

Astri Kusumawardhani

Instructor

Astri Kusumawardhani

Instructor of the team and postdoc at Yolanda Schaerli's lab. Mom of 4: 2 kiddos and 2 cats. Overall a very random person - I am passionate about synthetic biology, food, dungeons and dragons, and aircrash investigation.

Strength:Proficient in molecular cloning; knows a lot of very random, very niche stuffs.

Weakness:Low dexterity and hand to eye coordination; hates any cardio related activities.

Georgia Petsiou

Instructor

Georgia Petsiou

PhD student who finds joy in the gut microbiome, ballet shoes, and freshly baked bread. Can talk for hours about synthetic biology—or sourdough.

Strength:Relentless positivity and curiosity.

Weakness:Perfectionism (the never-ending kind).

Jung Hun Park

Instructor

Jung Hun Park

Happy PhD student working with pattern formation and synthetic biology.

Strength:I'm very good at spending money in LEGO and board games!

Weakness: Somehow I am short on money in the end of the month.

Advisor

Prajwal Padmanabha

Advisor

Prajwal Padmanabha

Postdoc, but more a wannabe microbial ecologist. Studying how statistical physics tools can help in studying bacterial communities.

Strength:None

Weakness:Many