Congratulations to UVa's iGEM team for receiving a Bronze Medal in the 2018 iGEM Competition, held October 24-28 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition is an annual research contest in synthetic biology, an area of study at the interface of biology and engineering, in which designer molecules and cells are engineered from standardized parts to solve global problems. This year students from 350 institutions and six continents competed in the biggest iGEM competition ever. The Virginia iGEM team presented “Quorus," a novel synthetic gene network that enhances the productivity of bacteria-based bio-manufacturing. In the competition, UVa was also nominated for Best Software. This was the 12th consecutive year UVa participated in the worldwide competition. Prior to starting summer/fall research, students complete BIOL4770 Synthetic Biology, which is offered each spring. Representing UVa in Boston, as shown in the above photo, were Ngozi Akingbesote (Human Biology), Dylan Culfogienis (Engineering Science), Nir Diskin (Biomedical Engineering), William Huang (Biology), Paul Imbrogulio (Chemical Engineering), Nicholas Marotta (Biology), Joseph Outten (Biology/Computer Science), Hyunseok Park (Biology), Ryan Taylor (Physics), Vignesh Valaboju (Biomedical Engineering), Grace Wu (Computer Science), and Angela Yi (Systems Engineering). The Virginia iGEM advisors are Profs. Keith Kozminski (Biology) and Jason Papin (Biomedical Engineering). Click here to learn more about iGEM at UVa. Applications are being accepted for the 2019 team!