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UCL iGEM team win award, commendation and gold medal in Boston

11 November 2019

Congratulations! UCL's iGEM (international genetically engineered machine) team who attended the 2019 competition in Boston have won Best New Basic Part, along with a Gold Medal and Special Commendation for Safety

UCL international genetic engineered machines competition team 2019

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a worldwide synthetic biology competition that was initially aimed at undergraduate university students but has since expanded to include divisions for high school students, entrepreneurs, and community laboratories, as well as 'overgraduates'.

UCL Biochemical Engineering has been supporting the iGEM competition for several years by hosting research over the summer. Over the summer of 2019 the team, led by Dr Stefanie Frank, Dr Kenth Gustafsson and Prof Chris Barnes, carried out research in our labs as well as conducting outreach work such as presenting at the UCL Open Day in September." This hard work culminated in a jamboree at Boston where we’re proud to announce that the team achieved the following:

  • Best New Basic Part Winners
  • iGEM Gold Medal Winners
  • Special Commendation for Safety

As well as receiving nominations for 

Team member Saverio Charalambous said: “iGEM throughout its entirety was a fantastic experience!!! Getting to work with a multidisciplinary team, interacting with the public, stakeholders and experts and incorporating their feedback for the creation of an optimised solution to a real-world challenge, allows you to develop multiple skills required in the modern working environment! The giant Jamboree was great, as we got to interact with multinational teams and interact with them in discussions for the potential of synthetic biology to help the world into all its aspects from manufacturing, to energy, sustainability, therapeutics and many others! A big collaborating community was once again created!”

Want to find out more?

Listen to this podcast featuring members of the UCL iGEM team talking about their work.

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