Student teams iGEM Leiden and Delft win prizes in international biology competition

Both iGEM Team Leiden and iGEM Team Delft won prizes in the annual biology competition iGEM. Team Leiden presented a solution for making genetic modification safer. Team Delft developed a portable test kit that can show whether there is a shortage of vitamins with a small drop of blood, making invisible hunger visible.

The international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is the largest international student competition in the field of synthetic biology and is aimed at solving societal problems. More than 350 student teams participate. Medical Delta supports the interdisciplinary student teams from Leiden and Delft.

GMOs in the fight against climate change

The students of iGEM Leiden 2021 won a Gold Medal and the Best Safety & Security Award. The student team received the awards for their project DOPL LOCK, in which the team tries to make genetic modification safer. The use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is strictly regulated precisely because it lacks this safety sometimes. That is unfortunate, since GMOs could be useful allies in the fight against major environmental problems, according to the Leiden iGEM team. They therefore devised a smart chain lock for GMOs: the Double Plasmid Lock, or DOPL LOCK for short. With this smart lock, the team wants to ensure that GMOs cannot be released into nature, and can therefore be used more often against climate change or the nitrogen crisis.

For more information, read the Leiden University news item or visit the iGEM Team Leiden website.

Blood test to detect hidden hunger

With the so-called AptaVita, Team Delft made it to the second place at iGEM. Aptavita is a fast, cheap and accessible test kit to measure vitamin concentrations and detect deficiencies. Hidden hunger, caused by vitamin deficiencies, is a major problem worldwide. The WHO has indicated that it has difficulty gathering sufficient data on such shortages.

Team Delft has developed a vitamin test that is widely used - both in developed and developing countries. In developing countries in particular, this test can help to map out areas where there is little variation in the diet. This can be anticipated locally in order to promote the health of the local community. That is one of the reasons why the test has been developed in cooperation with local experts and doctors, with a focus on the country Uganda.

Team Delft came in second of the 350 participating teams. The team was also nominated for eight additional special awards, including the awards for 'best diagnostics' and 'best entrepreneurship'. Because of the nomination for the Safety & Security award, the students were also asked to record a video about the safety considerations within the project, which will be shown during a meeting of the United Nations.

More information about iGEM Team Delft can be found here.