Source: School of Life Sciences

On October 6 and 7, the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) 2012 Asia Regional Jamboree was held at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), sponsored by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Under the guidance of teachers from School of Life Sciences, the software team SYSU-Software won gold medal and the experiment team SYSU-China won silver medal in Asia region. SYSU-Software is through to the iGEM 2012 World Championship Jamboree to be held in MIT in November.

The SYSU-Software team is made up of Jiang Shan, Chen Shuo, Guo Jiexin and eleven other undergraduates from School of Life Sciences, School of Information Science and Technology, School of Software, and School of Mathematics & Computational Science. The experiment team SYSU-China is composed of Ye Chang, Wang Kai, Fang Jiashou and ten other undergraduates from School of Life Sciences.

SYSU-Software has successfully developed a novel software platform, BiArkit, to solve one of the most challenging problems for synthetic biologists - how to integrate high throughput biological information to design artificial organisms automatically. This platform enables researchers to design and construct synthetic organisms based on the engineering hierarchical levels from genes, parts to systems.

The project of SYSU-China is to simulate the properties of stem cell in bacteria. By simulating the differentiation of the “stem switch”, which can regulate different cell densities and the stages of bacteria through a “QS-related toggle switch” and cell cycle control modules, the team finally achieved its goal. This system not only has theoretical significance but also can be applied to the process of fermentation to improve the efficiency. From the formation of ideas and the very first design to the final presentations, members of the two teams have worked for nearly a whole year, demonstrating the positive enterprising spirit, teamwork and rigorous attitude toward scientific research of SYSU students.

iGEM started in January of 2003 at MIT and grew internationally in 2005 with an aim to promote the study, communication and cooperation in Synthetic Biology among undergraduate university students from different countries. Over 170 teams worldwide participated in the competition this year. 57 teams from universities in Asia region including Sun Yat-sen University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, China Science and Technology University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Hong Kong, and Tokyo Institute of Technology, competed in the iGEM 2012 Asia Regional Jamboree, with 20 teams advancing to World Championship.