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Team

Team members

We are a diverse and passionate group of students united by a common goal: to innovate and advance the field of synthetic biology. Our team consists of undergraduates and graduates from various disciplines, including Biology, Biotechnology, Engineering, and Computer Science. This multidisciplinary approach enables us to tackle complex challenges from multiple perspectives, fostering creativity and collaboration.

At iGEM, we believe in the power of teamwork and knowledge sharing. Our members bring unique skills and insights, whether it's designing genetic circuits, developing computational models, or engaging with the community. Together, we are dedicated to developing cutting-edge solutions that address real-world problems, particularly in health and environmental sustainability.

We are excited to embark on this journey, aiming not only to compete but also to inspire and educate others about the potential of synthetic biology.

Santiago Ramos
Team Leader, Head of Human Practices

BSc in Biotechnology

Santi is always looking for new things to discover, and that’s what brought him to iGEM in the first place (last year). He also loves a good challenge. But as a result of these two factors, he is pretty much always in a rush, stressed and sleep-deprived. Last year he repeatedly said that he wouldn’t participate again, but here he is, ready for the next round.

Ares Font
Team leader,Co-Head of Wet lab

BSc in Biotechnology

Ares has a tendency of liking complicated things, which is why she loves neuroscience and immunology. Being part of Reneurish this year has been a really exciting challenge for her, but she can’t wait for the Jamboree to be over so she can stop having iGEM-related dreams.

Jaume Ros
Head of Enterpreneurship

BSc in Biomedical Sciences

Jaume has a bit of a ‘god complex,’ and when he realized that with synthetic biology he could engineer nature to solve real-world problems, he didn’t hesitate: in his first year of university, he help found the iGEM UB team. After all, if gods can create worlds, Jaume can at least program cells.

Andrea Camí
Head of Engineering

BSc in Biomedical Sciences

Andrea had a wide range of interests, but her true passion was always biomedicine. When iGEM came along, it gave her the perfect chance to dive into the world of synthetic biology and explore how living systems could be engineered to solve real-world health problems.

Marc Magem
Head of Communication, Wet Lab

BSc in Biotechnology

Marc has always been intrigued by the possibilities that biotechnology offers, which naturally led him to join the iGEM team. Although biomedicine wasn’t his primary focus, neuroscience quickly captured his attention. Despite his passion for science, Marc unexpectedly became the team’s audiovisuals guy—not because of any particular expertise, but rather because he took on the less exciting role of managing the team’s social media.

Luna Goulet
Co-Head of Wet Lab

MSc in Translational Medecine

Luna is passionate about exploring the intersections of human health and space biology, fascinated by how science can improve life both on Earth and in space. Her curiosity drives her to understand how we can keep astronauts healthy, while also solving critical challenges in human health. As a coffee-fueled iGEM veteran, she’s exited to bring her experience from last year into new and innovative projects. And while she loves diving into complex science, she believes you can always bring a bit of style and creativity to the lab!

Marc Fabrellas
Wet Lab

BSc in Biotechnology

Marc’s devotion to being occupied with his hands on living organisms brought him to iGEM as the perfect excuse to engineer bacteria. Despite not being particularly driven to human-related sciences at first, after seeing a neuron’s plate firing simultaneously, he found their charming side.

Sergi Fornós
Treasury Head, Wet Lab

BSc in Biotechnology

Sergi had always been fascinated by the origins of life at its most basic level, so when Biotechnology crossed his path, it became his ideal playground for exploring the limits of biology. Human sciences weren’t really his thing, but digging into the mysteries of how life sparked into existence captured his imagination, and suddenly, everything else seemed a little less exciting in comparison.

Emma Esquirol
Wet Lab

BSc in Biomedicine

Emma loves science in all its facets, but especially the area of Biomedicine. She is really interested in the nervous system and neurodegenerative diseases. When she found out about iGEM UB, she felt that she had to join the team. In the end, a normal summer for Emma consists of spending more time in the lab than with her family and friends.

Àlex Roger
Web Developer

BSc in Computer Science

Àlex isn’t sure how he ended up in a synthetic biology competition like iGEM. His lab skills are questionable at best, but give him a webpage, and he can work magic. That’s why he’s on the wiki team, translating all the science into something that actually looks good online. He might not know how to edit genomes, but he can definitely edit HTML, so that makes him useful here.

Irene Agudo Zamora
Head of Education and member of Human Practices

BSc in Physics

Irene doesn’t even know exactly what she is doing here. She always gets involved in some project, it’s not holidays if she has no work. She doesn’t know much of anything but knows a bit of everything, that's why she could be useful in this iGem team, helping here and there.

Alba Cartró
Education and Human Practices

BSc in Biotechnology

Alba loves to be busy and even more with enriching experiences such as iGEM. She also really likes to spread science and can’t wait to meet new people at the jamboree: although she has already been to Paris, the trip was definitely the final push to apply to this year’s team!

Laila Olivella
Entrepreneurship

BSc in Chemistry & Business Administration

Laila has always had a unique mix of interests—chemistry and business. While most people saw them as two separate worlds, she found excitement in blending them together. When she joined iGEM, it wasn’t just about taking part in science research, but also about creating opportunities and thinking big.

Team PIs

Gemma Marfany
Professor of Genetics

Gemma Marfany is Professor of Genetics at the Universitat of Barcelona (UB) and CIBERER. She leads a research group working on rare diseases that cause blindness due to retinal neurodegeneration. Her group identifies causative genes and characterises their function in health and disease by using gene-edited mouse models as well as retinal organoids differentiated from patient-derived hiPSCs. The final aim is to design an effective gene or cell therapy to treat these incurable diseases. She is the PI of the IGEM project, and the representative of the UB-IGEM’s team at the institutional level. More info at https://webgrec.ub.edu/webpages/000011/ang/gmarfany.ub.edu.html

Daniel Tornero
Associate Professor

Daniel Tornero has a PhD in Neuroscience, and has more than twenty years of experience in this field. His scientific interest has been focused on exploring new strategies for the study and treatment of neurological diseases. Since 2019, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Barcelona and Head of the Neural Stem Cells and Brain Damage laboratory. His projects focus on the study of repair mechanisms associated with cell therapies applied to brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases. He also participates in projects related to the development of models, both in vivo and in vitro, that help to understand neurodegenerative processes and diseases that affect neurodevelopment.

Ana Sevilla
Associate professor

Ana Sevilla is Assistant Professor at the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology at the University of Barcelona (UB). Her scientific career has been focused on understanding the regulatory networks of stem cells and their neural differentiation pathways. Her group Stem Cells, Development and Disease, develops complex brain organoids models as avatars for better understanding brain tumor invasion and neurodegenerative diseases involved in neurodevelopment.

Instructors

Alba Ortega
Postdoctoral researcher

Alba Ortega is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Neural Stem Cells and Brain Damage. After completing a PhD in Biomedicine studying the mechanisms of adult neural plasticity, she is now focused on developing 3D models to investigate the connections between different brain regions and model neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. As part of the iGEM project, she has provided technical expertise and scientific advice to support the group’s research.

Niuska Álvarez
PhD candidate

Niuska Alvarez is a PhD student at the University of Barcelona, in the lab of Ana Sevilla. She is involved in creating a comprehensive platform for glioblastoma drug screening using brain organoids and various cell culture systems, including 2D and 3D platforms. Her expertise includes molecular biology techniques, DNA editing, cellular biology, and stem cells. Additionally, she contributes to the iGEM team by providing insights and support to help guide their research.