News Articles - College of Engineering

Gold Medal for iGEM Team

Photo Courtesy of iGEM and David Appleyard

The USU BIE International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) team received a Gold Medal at the iGEM 2009 Jamboree for their project and presentation, BioBricks without Borders: Investigating a Multi-host BioBrick Vector and Secretion of Cellular Products.

The Jamboree was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge from October 30 - November 2, and attended by 1,200 competitors, with 111 teams from the US, Europe, Canada, Asia, and Australia registered to compete. The United States alone was represented by 36 different teams.

The USU team used biological parts from a synthetic biology kit designed specifically for the competition to design a biological system to operate in living cells. Most of their research and work was done from May through October. They looked to “…develop improved production and harvesting methods of proteins and other products in multiple organisms using the standardized BioBrick system.” Two main focuses of their research were to investigate broad host-range vectors for production of compounds in organisms other than E. coli, and develop a library of fusion-compatible BioBrick parts for targeting compounds for secretion.

In order to complete the project, students did laboratory research including modifying and testing multiple broad-host range vectors, culturing cyanobacteria, conducting the tri-parental mating procedure, coordinating the wiki, and preparing the presentation among many other activities.

At the Jamboree, Sean Bedingfield (freshman), Alex Hatch (sophomore), and Cole Peterson (sophomore) presented. Other team members include Rachel Jackson (undergraduate), Junling Huo (PhD student), graduate advisors Elisabeth Linton, Trent Mortensen, and Brad Henrie, and five high school students: Garrett Hinton, Jeff Karren, Jody Jerez, Hyan Jin Kim, and Tyrell Rupp. Dr. Charles Miller is the faculty advisor, with support from Department Head Ron Sims and College of Engineering Dean Scott Hinton. For more information, visit the iGEM team website, or email Dr. Charles Miller.