Local iGem teams earn gold, silver at ‘Giant Jamboree’ in Boston
Lethbridge science students showed their international-calibre pedigree by taking home gold medals at the collegiate level and silver medals at the high school level at the recent 2018 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition in Boston.
More than 300 teams took part in the iGem “Giant Jamboree” competition, which focuses on synthetic biology-based ways of trying to solve real-world problems using non-conventional techniques.
At the collegiate level, the 12member team and four faculty advisers devised a “protein nano-compartment” called P22 which could successfully encapsulate species-specific toxins to target and kill specific organisms without environmental spillover or contamination. The target in this case was the invasive species known as zebra or quagga mussels, which has caused widespread damage in agricultural irrigation canals and other waterways across Canada and the United States.
For the high school category, 16 Lethbridge students from Winston Churchill, Lethbridge Collegiate Institute, Chinook and Catholic Central High School built a molecular binding protein derived from bacteria for a project called “CU Later,” which was designed to take heavy metal out of tailing ponds in oilsands production fields.
Luke Saville of the U of L iGem team said the experience in Boston was inspiring, and one which he and his fellow collegiate and high school participants will never forget.
“There was a lot of work involved, and it was a great team effort,” he said.
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