In 2023, a team of ANU undergraduate students competed in the international competition called iGEM. They traveled to Paris to compete in the Jamboree, an annual event that attracts thousands of researchers, industry, start-ups and students each year. 

The team designed a system of metal sequestering compartments that can be delivered into native soil bacteria by bacteriophages. Thebacteriophages have been engineered to deliver heavy-metal binding proteins localised to encapsulin-nanocompartments; these proteins can capture and sequester heavy metals in the environment. Find out more by exploring their iGEM team wiki. 

ANU thanks our sponsors that have supported the students in competing in this competition: Bioplatforms Australia, ACT Government, the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, iGEM, the Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology, the Australasian Synthetic Biology Challenge, ANU Research School of Chemistry, ANU Research School of Biology, and ANU College of Science and Medicine. 

This image is a panorama of a mining area and provided for illustrative purposes only. Image by Nmastrom, CC-BY 4.0

Want to join iGEM in 2024?

We’re currently looking for student, postdoctoral and PI engagement for the 2024 ANU iGEM team (in previous years the team has concurrently participated in the Aus SynBio Challenge, which is taking a break this year). iGEM is an international synthetic biology competition for students that takes place over the entire academic year and concludes with a conference in Paris in early November. This is an article about this year’s teams experience.

The PI will host the team in their lab and help them develop their project. Last year’s team was mentored by Gaetan Burgio at JCSMR. The aim is to allow PIs from different schools to contribute to equitably mentoring the team in different years, so it would be great to have mentors from RSB, RSC and/or CPAS this year. Students will receive course credit for their participation via BIOL3188.

Five students from 2023 will be staying on to mentor the team and 10-15 third year students will be recruited at the beginning of Semester 1.

Please reach out to jack.dalton@anu.edu.au, Gaetan.burgio@anu.edu.au or Joseph.Brock@anu.edu.au if you are interested or would like more information.