Heidelberg Team Sweeps Prizes
"Ecolicence to Kill" project to win most prizes at the international iGEM competition in Boston
The labors of the past few months have been rewarded: The Heidelberg team performed extremely well at the internationally renowned iGEM competition held by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA. The team, a first-time participant at iGEM, was awarded three special prizes and a gold medal for their scientific work. For the past four months, the team of 16 undergraduate students under supervision of Professor Dr. Roland Eils and Dr. Victor Sourjik had been working on their project called "Ecolicence to Kill". Their goal was to genetically reengineer bacteria to make them detect and specifically kill pathogens or cancer cells.
The Heidelberg team after the award ceremony in Boston
© dkfz.de
This year the international Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition, which was first held in January 1995, brought together 84 highly competitive teams including participants from premier universities such as Harvard, the California Institute of Technology, Cambridge and Tokyo. All teams presented their project results at the grand final on November 8-9 at the MIT in Boston.
The team of the University of Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) was extraordinarily successful at the competition, winning three special prizes: Best Project Presentation, Best Scientific Poster, and Best Human Practices Advance for special achievements in the dialog with the public. In addition, as one of only 16 teams, the Heidelberg undergraduate students were even awarded a gold medal for their scientific work.
Supervised by Professor Roland Eils (DKFZ and Heidelberg University) and Dr. Victor Sourjik (Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH) at the University of Heidelberg), the young researchers had been working for the past four months on their project named “Ecolicence to Kill”.
Synthetic biology is a nascent field of science which combines findings from molecular life sciences with engineering approaches in order to modify organisms into biological machines performing novel tasks. Since July 2008, the team consisting of 15 students of the University of Heidelberg and one student of the TU Darmstadt has been working to reengineer common E. coli intestinal bacteria into a killer-prey system. They were able to create killer strains that are able to specifically kill prey bacteria. The prey bacteria were also modified to release a specific attractant that is recognized by the killer bacteria. This artificial killer-prey system may serve as a basis for developing medical applications which use killer bacteria to specifically detect and eliminate pathogens or even cancer cells. First positive results have already been achieved in attacking tumor cells.
The judges paid particular attention to the dialog with the public. In order to eliminate reservations about synthetic biology and genetic engineering, the students carried out a number of activities such as surveys and information events in the old town center of Heidelberg. In addition, the team held a practical presentation of the project in a school class.
These efforts were rewarded with the Human Practices prize. The public relations work of the Heidelberg team was praised as a model for all future iGEM projects.
All results of the team and a presentation of the numerous sponsors who were essential in making participation possible can be found at http://2008.igem.org/Team:Heidelberg.
Picture: The Heidelberg team after the award ceremony in Boston
More pictures can be obtained from: Dr. Jan Eufinger (j.eufinger@dkfz.de).
With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.
To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
