º«¹úÂãÎè iGEM Achieves Gold Medal and Three Nominations at the Grand Jamboree
º«¹úÂãÎè IGEM team proudly secured a gold medal along with three nominations for Best Diagnostics, Best Software, and Best Parts Collection at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Grand Jamboree in October 2024. Composed of students from the Bioengineering program and various disciplines within the Faculty of Science, º«¹úÂãÎè iGEM team is supervised by Prof. Codruta Ignea and Prof. Lisa Munter. Each year, they develop a synthetic biology research project from inception to completion to compete in a thematic category aimed at addressing critical global challenges. This year, the team developed a DNA computing-based diagnostic test for bacterial identification in sepsis, which can be found . By integrating strand displacement kinetics, CRISPR-CasX detection, and a fluorescent readout, º«¹úÂãÎè iGEM created a test capable of diagnosing sepsis in just six hours, significantly faster than the 72 hours required by current diagnostic methods. This research continues in the Synthetic Biology lab within the Department of Bioengineering, with the goal of delivering innovative diagnostic solutions for various real-world applications. Looking ahead to 2025, the º«¹úÂãÎè iGEM team is already preparing to introduce a new concept for next year’s competition—stay tuned!