A few days ago, the global finals of iGEM 2020 were held online in the pandemic. With their relentless efforts and careful preparation, 20 DUT undergraduates competed with 256 teams from 44 countries and regions and won a gold medal. The students are from School of Bioengineering, School of Economics and Management, School of Software Technology, School of Mathematical Sciences, School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, School of Architecture & Fine Art, International School of Information Science & Engineering. Their supervisors are Prof. Yang Jun, Prof. Zhu Zhiwei, Senior Engineer Zilihan, and Associate Prof. Xu Li from School of Bioengineering.

iGEM was established by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003. It is a top international undergraduate science and technology competition focusing on synthetic biology and covering multiple disciplines such as biology, computer science, mathematics, and art. The tasks include biological experiments, mathematical modeling, social survey, website and poster design, publicity, English speeches, etc. The teams are required to use standard biological modules to construct genetic circuits, build effective mathematical models, and then realize the prediction and manipulation of artificial biological system.

DUT winning project is Reboot T4. According to the concept of synthetic biology, it uses big genome of T4 to produce new synthetic phages through modular design, reassembly in yeast, and reactivation in Escherichia coli. This approach makes it possible to gene-edit or streamline the phage genome so that the “perfect” phage can be created without resource constraints.

For details of the program, please visit: