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A team of South African students from the University of
the
Witwatersrand, in partnership with the synthetic biology research
division of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, has
made South Africa proud on the international stage at the prestigious
International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition in
Amsterdam.
The team presented their project, dubbed 'Bio-tweet', at
the recent
regional semi-finals, which is hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Amongst teams from the best universities in Europe,
including Cambridge and Imperial College London, the only African team
in the competition shone brightly. Team Wits-CSIR were selected as one
of the top three finalists of the European regionals and were also
awarded two of the ten special prizes awarded to top competitors in
various categories. They will now be flying to MIT in Boston, USA next
month to represent their country in the iGEM world championship final,
an incredible and very sought-after honour amongst young synthetic
biology researchers across the world.Wits Biotweeters Enzio Fok, Gloria
Hlongwane, Sasha Reznichenko, Natasia Kruger and Bradley Marques.
The team's faces glowed with excitement as they crossed
the stage to
collect their awards, after presenting their project to a packed hall
of iGEM teams and judges. "This is so amazing," said Natasia Kruger,
one of the biology students on the team. "We have worked so hard this
year. We had aimed to do well in the competition but never dreamed we
would be in the top three, when the competition is so fierce!"
Regarding representing South Africa in the finals, Gloria Hlongwane,
another biology student, summed it up by saying: "We have faith in our
ability to do South Africa proud. We will give it everything we have
and show the world what South Africa has to offer."
The competition is an annual event which began as an MIT
initiative
in 2004, as a way of introducing young students to the fascinating,
interdisciplinary initiative of synthetic biology. Today, hundreds of
teams from all over the world, including those from top institutions
such as Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and MIT, get together each year to
compete with the biological machines they have developed. Using input
from disciplines such as biology, engineering, computer science, maths,
medicine and the social sciences, they aim high, designing machines
that are intended to solve mankind's big problems: for example by
detoxifying contaminated water or combating desertification.
The team's Bio-tweet concept, a bacterial communication
network that
emulates social networking to facilitate speedy assimilation and
exchange of information, caught the iGEM judges eyes and was noted as
'an exemplary piece of work'. For the team, and their advisors from
Wits and the CSIR, this represents a step forward in showing the world
that South Africa has the talent and capacity to produce researchers
who can hold their own against the best in the world.
The team has been generously mentored and supported by
many
individuals from within Wits and the CSIR. Dr Karl Rumbold in the
School of Molecular and Cell Biology was also instrumental in ensuring
that the team had great success at this premier competition.
For more information please contact Prof. Marco Weinberg
at marc.weinberg@wits.ac.za
Story and picture: WITS newsroom, October 2011
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Members of the iGEM team 2011
(Team Wits-CSIR) |
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