5 November
Dundee iGEM team take two prizes at World Final
A team of students from the University of Dundee have taken two prizes at the World Final of a prestigious international
competition designed to advance science and education.
The ten students from the University had already won the European Jamboree of the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered
Machine) competition in Lyon last month.
They went forward to the World Final in Boston over the past weekend and are returning with two prizes - Best Presentation
and the 'iGEMers Prize', given to the project voted best by the students taking part.
Staff advisor Professor Tracy Palmer congratulated the winning team, saying, 'This has been an amazing experience for
our students and we are delighted that they have performed so well and are coming home with two of the big prizes
from the event.
The overall first prize was taken by Heidelberg, who Dundee had beaten in the European event. 'There are different
judges for the World Final so the results can change from the European event to the overall event,' explained
Professor Palmer.
'The judges were extremely impressed with the presentation skills of the Dundee team, which will come as no surprise
to anyone who has seen the students engaging with public and the media. It is great as well to be recognised by their
peers in the competition with the iGEMers Prize.'
This is the third year Dundee has been represented in the highly competitive, worldwide, iGEM Competition
aimed at undergraduate university students. Dundee won successive gold medals at the 2011 and 2012 European
Jamborees but this year was the first time they have been named as overall winners.
The competition requires students to use a kit of biological parts (issued by iGEM at the beginning of the summer)
and to use these (and new parts of their own design) to build biological systems and operate them in living cells at
laboratories in their own universities.
The Dundee team has devised a project called 'Toxi-Mop' which uses synthetic biology to engineer harmless
laboratory strains of bacteria to 'clean up' water that has become contaminated with toxic algal blooms. The
local value of this became apparent in the summer when the warm weather led to algal blooms in Clatto Reservoir
and in the boating pond at Camperdown Country Park.
The team has also built a device ('the Mop-topus') that can be housed permanently at a lake or pond, which
will continuously monitor the temperature, pH and light levels that can be used to predict the likelihood of
future algal blooms.
The 2013 Dundee inter-collegiate team comprises 10 undergraduate students: Kyle Harrison (applied computing),
Nasir Ahmad (physics), Craig Johnston (mathematics), Rachel Findlay (mathematical biology), as well as Christopher
Earl, Philip Rodger, Ewa Grabowiecka, Kyle Buchan, John Allan and Alice Rowan from Life Sciences.
The iGEM Foundation, which runs the competition, seeks to promote the advancement of science and education by
developing an open community of students and practitioners in schools, laboratories, research institutes, and industry
- in particular by involving students and the public in the development of the new field of synthetic biology.
For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902 |
