Students win in global competition
The winning project is ‘Reporter Fish’, which can detect metalcontaminated water
Pakistani students have won a silver medal at a prestigious biology competition held in Boston, United States, in which 300 teams from 42 countries participated.
The students were awarded the prize at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition that took place between November 9 and 13.
The 10-member team, known as iGEM Peshawar 2017, comprised of a diverse group of young scientists from Lahore, The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is the premiere student team competition in Synthetic Biology.
Started in 2003 as an independent study course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it turned into an international competition with 300 teams last year, reaching 42 countries and over 5,000 participants. Attock, Islamabad, Multan, Faisalabad, Khyber Agency, Nowshera, Charsadda, Peshawar, Swabi and Mardan.
However, only six of them were able to travel to the US. Mohammad Dawood, Ushma Farooq, Hassan Raza, Hassnain Qasim, Aisha Khan and Babar Nawaz represented the team.
The winning project, developed by Pakistani students, is a fish called ‘Reporter Fish’ made by building DNA circuits. This fish can detect metal-contaminated water by changing the colour of its body to caution those who are part of the fishing business.
“The project will have a direct impact on fish farmers and will also help to keep the fish in good health,” Dr Faisal Khan, who supervised the team and heads Cecos University’s Biosciences lab, told media.
The team also designed and developed a digital interface for the sensor system of the project, which will alert fish farmers through a mobile text message if any contaminated water has been detected.