Biological Sciences

iGEM success for Edinburgh students

Edinburgh's student team for the 2015 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) have brought home a gold medal and trophy.

Edinburgh's student team for the 2015 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) have brought home a gold medal and trophy. Our 'Class-A-FiED' team put on a fantastic performance at the Giant Jamboree in Boston this week and won a gold medal for their entry in the competition, which featured 259 teams from across the globe. They also won the award for ‘Best Integrated Policy and Practices’ at undergraduate level. The team created a cell-free, paper-based biosensor that can test for the purity of recreational and unregulated drugs such as heroin, MDMA or diet pills, to avoid potential harm from contaminants or overdose. The team were also nominated for best undergraduate team in the Health and Medicine track of the competition. The team is made up of students from the Schools of Biology, Chemistry, Informatics and Philosophy. They were supported by Chancellor’s Fellow  Jon Marles-Wright and Lecturer Louise Horsfall, and were aided over the summer by an EastBio PhD student, Elliott Chapman from Chancellor’s Fellow Liz Bayne's lab, who was undertaking a professional internship.

This is the latest in a long line of success by Edinburgh’s iGEM teams. Perhaps most notable was the ‘Best Real-World Application’ winning team of 2006, supported by Professors Chris French and Alistair Elfick. The team designed a whole-cell biosensor that responds to arsenic by producing a measurable pH change which can be easily detected. The sensor detects contamination to the WHO standard of 10ppb arsenic. It is cheap and easy to use, and is ideal for use in testing drinking water in countries such as Bangladesh where arsenic contamination is a serious problem. The 2006 team featured amongst its student members Patrick Cai, who has now returned to the School as a Chancellor’s Fellow and co-Director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry.

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology and the development of an open community, education and collaboration. For more on iGEM, visit http://igem.org/About