Synthetic biology team take gold

A UCL student team has won gold in a prestigious synthetic biology design competition for undergraduates across the globe. Team advisor Dr Darren Nesbeth ( UCL Biochemical Engineering ) describes how the winning entry could reduce the cost of manufacturing medicines, and what the students gained from the experience. ?A UCL student team has won gold in a prestigious synthetic biology design competition for undergraduates, competing against 128 other leading universities across the globe. The team, drawn from a number of departments at UCL, won the gold medal at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM), an annual, undergraduate synthetic biology design competition run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The triumph built on UCL's success in 2009, when the student team took silver the first year UCL entered the competition. The UCL team - called 'Project Hypoxon' - set out to reduce the financial and environmental cost of manufacturing medicines by genetically re-programming the E. coli cells in which many modern medicines are made. These E. coli cells are currently controlled by the addition of chemicals which trigger drug production.