Meet the Research Team

Timothy Yu | Bioengineering 2020
Co-President

I joined iGEM as a first year in Fall 2016. Since then, I have helped design and carry out the VMAX and Inducible Library projects. Previously, I was a consultant at a precision medicine startup called RowAnalytics, where I assisted the Bioinformatics team. Before that, I worked in the lab of Mary Mullins at the University of Pennsylvania, where I studied early embryonic cell fates in zebrafish. In my free time, I enjoy playing basketball and hiking.

Winnie Liu | MCDB + Biomedical Research Minor 2020 
Co-President

I joined iGEM as a first year in Fall 2016. Since then, I have been involved in both VMAX and Inducible Library projects. Additionally, I am a coordinator for both UCLA Emergency Medicine Research Associates (EMRA) and the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic. Outside of iGEM, I work in the Arispe Lab, where I analyze the effects of hyperlipidemia on the Notch signaling pathway to better understand cardiovascular disease. In my free time, I like to graphic design, play volleyball, and spend time with my two dogs! 

Grace Bower | MIMG + Biomedical Research Minor 2020
VMAX Project Manager 

 ​I've been a member of iGEM since the Fall of 2016, focusing on FACS for the VMAX and Inducible Library projects. Outside of iGEM, I am the co-president and librarian for the ENIGMA Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Gaming club. Most recently, I interned at Merck Research Lab working on refining methods for evaluating tumor uptake of antibodies and tracking CD8 T cells. ​In my free time, I like to read, knit and run.

Jeremy Shek | Biochemistry 2020
INDUCE Project Manager

I am the newest member of iGEM who just joined Spring 2018. Throughout the summer I've been working on the Inducible Library project. I've worked in the Molecular Screening Shared Resource (MSSR) previously and am also currently working on identifying and synthesizing caspase family protein inhibitors for characterizing their role in T-cell and immune system activation in the Backus Lab. When I'm not working in lab or in class you can catch me eating, sleeping, watching a myriad of TV shows, or training for triathlons.

Guillaume Urtecho 
Team Advisor

​I am a PhD student in the Molecular Biology Interdisciplinary Program at UCLA. I received my B.S. in Genetics at The University of California, Davis, where I worked in the Laboratory of Simon Chan. In this position, I developed novel biotechnologies for plant breeding by manipulating chromosomes. In addition, I worked with Stanley Fields of the University of Washington where I used a directed evolution approach to enhance alcohol tolerance in yeast. My current research interests are in creating platforms for studying genetic architecture and applying high-throughput gene synthesis techniques.

Jessica Davis
Team Advisor 

I am a graduate student in the BMSB graduate program with a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of California Santa Barbara. I previously characterized cooperative binding specificity of D. melanogaster Hox transcription factors in the Reich Lab. I joined the Kosuri lab in 2015 and have since focused on developing an in vivo reporter assay that can be used to dissect the structure of large enhancer regions in mESCs.

Sri Kosuri
Faculty Advisor

​I am an Assistant Professor at UCLA in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. I was previously a member of the Advanced Technology Team in the Synthetic Biology Platform at the Wyss Institute. I was a postdoc in George Church's lab in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute from 2009-2011. From 2007-2009, I was the first employee of a biofuel startup called Joule Unlimited. I got my ScD in Biological Engineering at MIT in Drew Endy's lab and worked on understanding the development of a simple virus (T7) that infects E. coli.