Andrew Hessel

Hi!

I'm Andrew Hessel. I am one of the ambassadors with the iGEM program, working with Randy Rettberg.

iGEM Ambassador Stuff

Randy has created the iGEM ambassador program to help support the growing number of iGEM teams. While there's no fixed job description, our goal is to assist the participating groups in any way we can, keep information flowing, and help behind the scenes.

My immediate goals are to:

• absorb the current iGEM philosophies and goals
• master the wiki (it's fun!)
• review previous iGEM teams and projects
• determine which teams I will be responsible for and contact with them
• improve documentation
• help streamline backend workflow
• think about ways to improve everything

Electronic communication with me is best right now. I keep strange hours, so don't wait until morning if you need something fast. Here's how to reach me:

email: ahessel (at) gmail (dot) com (now with chat!) IM: sailingandrew@hotmail.com home: 416.848.1725 cell: 416.834.8310

Personal Blurb

My interest in synthetic biology stems from work I did in the early 1990's. I studied the genomes of and collated the available sequence information for various Salmonella species, creating genomic maps. But I wanted to do more than just decipher genomes. I wanted to create them, yet there was no practical way to write DNA code. I've had an eye on developments leading to this ever since.

The technology for writing DNA is growing more reliable and affordable every day. As genetic work shifts to being synthesized de novo we can expect to the appearance of a different sort of biology, and a different biological scientist. iGEM is important because it plants the seeds for this new field.