Team:UC Berkeley/Team/Aron Lau



MY NAME/NICKNAME

Aron Lau

MY STATS

Wet Team Undergrad Senior at UC Berkeley Major: Bioengineering 300 ligations and counting

WHAT LED ME TO SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

I have always been interested in engineering, especially modifying organsims. Synthetic biology occasionally gets a negative rep with people not working in science, but doing reading about the problems we can solve using genetic engineering got me impressed with synbio. (The actual reason is watching sci-fi movies with mutants with superpower) Though the chances of making the next X-men is unlikely, trying to make self lysing E.Coli that does something when you yell at it isn't so bad either.

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: IN MY WORDS

For me, a simplified way of looking at the organisms around is to looking at them as being made of parts. We can swap parts between organisms to make better organisms (thus speeding up evolution) or more useful organisms that serve our needs. In reality, organisms are systems of parts that have complex interactions (so it is not as easy as swapping out the video card on a desktop), but our synthetic bio knowledge should allow us to make less disruptive changes.

MY POSSIBLE FUTURE WITH SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

If I had a choice, I would like to engineer more complex organisms, which will hopefully be a reality in my lifetime.

MY GOALS WITH IGEM

The biggest goal of my experience is the metallic brick at the Jamboree in November. Aside from that, I wanted to learn more about synbio (I think I achieved this goal and more).

MY FAVORITE DNA SEQUENCE

Poly-A

LEAST FAVORITE DNA SEQUENCE

Sequences that don't turn out to be what I want them to be (yes, those sequences with point mutations, deletions, insertions)

MY DUMBEST LAB MISTAKE/COMPUTATIONAL ERROR

I heatshocked KCM thinking they were cells that I wanted to heatshock.

MY FAVORITE CHILDHOOD CARTOON

TMNT, Woody Woodpecker, Animaniacs, Beast Wars, Transformers, Fanstastic Four, Batman

MY FAVORITE FOOD

Spicy Crab Basil Chile Chicken