14 October 2013
Dundee team crowned European champions
A team of students from the University of Dundee have been crowned European champions in a prestigious international
competition designed to advance science and education.
Ten students from the University won the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) European Jamboree in Lyon
and will now go forward to the World Final in Boston on 1st November. They also received an additional award for delivering
the Best Presentation at the event, which featured around 60 other student teams from universities across Europe.
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 Jamborees but this is 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.
Staff advisor Professor Tracy Palmer congratulated the winning team, saying, 'We are very proud of the students for
their achievements. Their predecessors did exceptionally well winning Gold Medals in each of the past two years and now
they have gone one better by being named as overall European champions.
'Their project is innovative and has a very important real-world application. This is an amazing achievement and I am sure
they will be fine ambassadors for the University when they go forward to the global finals in Boston. Here's hoping they
can wow the judges once again and take the world crown.'
Professor Frank Sargent, Associate Dean for Research-Led Teaching, added, "Dundee students have proven themselves to be
the best in Europe at this type of modern interdisciplinary science. It really helps to raise the profile of Dundee
while at the same time inspiring students into research careers. These guys are the future of scientific research
and innovation."
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:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
