Team:TPHS SanDiego/Team

We are the Torrey Pines High School Synthetic Biology Team. We are intelligent students devoted to working with bacteria and expanding our synthetic biology knowledge. The group of us are deeply interested in the general study of synthetic biology and are always looking for ways to test our knowledge and strengthen it. We are always pushing our teammates to be better. We are honored to be competing in the 2013 iGEM High School Competition and are looking forward to June 28th!

Tareq is a hip and spry junior at TPHS who wants to major in bioengineering, but that doesn’t distract people from the simple fact that he’s the best at everything he does. Everything he touches turns to gold simply because every aspect of his personality is flawless, particularly his modesty.

Mokhshan is a svelte junior at TPHS who aspires to delve head first into a medicine-related field. Through useful suggestions and practical solutions, Mokhshan is able to boost the teams’ confidence by boosting our chances of success. At times he may frighten you, what with the black belt in Taekwondo, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly and seems to always greet the team optimistically with “So I’ve been thinking about an idea…”

Brian is an amazing junior at TPHS who amazingly aspires to fly towards the amazing field of Chemistry and Engineering. He is amazingly deep. Brian likes to baffle and stupefy his amazing friends with amazingly intangibly deep philosophy, hence earning him the most amazing nickname: "The Philosopher". Ladies say Brian is cute, but he doesn't approve. He is too amazingly good for them. Isn't it amazing?

Brandon is a junior at TPHS who wants to major in Bioengineering. He never ceases to put smiles on the faces of those he interacts with. Through good will and contagious catch phrases such as "dabes" and "next level" Brandon is able to charm the team and lighten the mood, even in the darkest of times. His constant lethargy reminds us of how important sleep really is, as is displayed in the somewhat unflattering portrait above.

Gha Young likes things

Brandon likes things

Spencer is an enigmatic second year PhD student who refuses to add Tareq on Facebook because it would "ruin the students' ability to respect him as a mentor." When Spencer isn't making decisions unbecoming of a role model you'll find him training for triathlons or playing beach volleyball. Just kidding, you will actually find him in the Hasty Lab working on quorum sensing genetic circuits for microfluidic devices, or sitting at his computer uploading photos to Instagram updating his lab notebook. Spencer was on the 2011 Berkeley iGEM team and is happy to be back in a different role and spreading his love for Synthetic Biology.

Simply put, John is the Most Interesting Man in the World. Alternatively put, he used to be a helicopter snowboarding instructor. If that hasn't convinced you, John got his BA in Rhetoric when he was 20, then lived in a truck for 2 years at the bottom of Mt. _______ where he recorded snowfall for avalanche studies while flirting with the idea of becoming a professional snowboarder. Instead, he decided getting a BS in Chemical Engineering in 3 years was a more fitting challenge. John was on the 2011 Wisconsin-Madison iGem team and remembers seeing Spencer in his stupid checkered inspector hat and thinking "What a doofus!"