University of Copenhagen iGEM team, PharMARSy, wins Nordic iGEM Conference 2018

On 8–10 June 2018, students from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark met at the Nordic iGEM Conference in Lund, where the team from University of Copenhagen won both the Judges’ Award and the Audience Choice Award. The team of 13 students was highly satisfied and is now more motivated than ever to introduce their synthetic biology project to the world.

Two Certificates and the Golden Pipette (Photo taken by Natthawut Adulyanukosol)

PharMARSy, a team of 13 students from the University of Copenhagen, has been working on a novel pharmaceutical protein production & purification system. They presented their project to experienced judges and nearly a hundred participants (iGEMers) at Nordic iGEM Conference (NiC) 2018 in Lund. With their impactful project, engaging presentation, and an eye-catching poster, PharMARSy secured the Judges’ Award and iGEMers Choice Award.

Nattawat Leelahakorn and Nina McAlpine Holst presenting the poster to the judges (Photo taken by Natthawut Adulyanukosol)

The team members presenting the project to distinguished judges and nearly a hundred viewers. (From Left to Right: Stephanie Michelsen, Eiríkur Andri Þormar, Attila Uslu and Natthawut Adulyanukosol) (Photo taken by Nuttawat Leelahakorn)

9 representatives of the team at NiC (From Left to Right: Nattawat Leelahakorn, Eric franciskovic, Eiríkur Andri Þormar, Selma Kofoed, Stephanie Michelsen, Nina McAlpine Holst, Magnus R. Lykkegaard, Attila Uslu and Natthawut Adulyanukosol) (Photo taken by Lovisa Majtorp)

Nordic iGEM Conference participants (Photo taken by Lovisa Majtorp)

The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) serves as the world championship in synthetic biology for students, with over 5,000 participants spread over 300 teams from more than 45 different countries. In addition to their studies, participants must develop projects in a time frame of 8–10 months. The purpose is to solve relevant problems in the world using completely new solutions in synthetic biology. A good, creative and thought-out idea — a lot of lab work, ethical considerations and funding are what’s needed for the projects to be done and the teams are doing well at the Giant Jamboree in Boston this fall.

Inspired by nature’s own small machines, the 13 students from the University of Copenhagen are working on a protein production and purification system for the colonization of Mars, called PharMARSy system. PharMARSy is a protein production system that uses the disease-causing bacterial injectisome (Type III secretion system) as a molecular syringe to inject a specific protein, freshly made from a microbial factory, through a biomimetic membrane. PharMARSy allows for both production and purification of the protein — all in one. PharMARSy can work on Earth as well.

Schematic representation of PharMARSy system (Illustrated by Natthawut Adulyanukosol, Sketched by Nattawat Leelahakorn)

In October this year, PharMARSy will represent University of Copenhagen at iGEM Giant Jamboree in Boston, USA, where there will be more prizes to grab. PharMARSy is, of course, eager to win again! 🎉

Please subscribe to our publication iGEM Copenhagen on Medium, our Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram to receive updates.

To know more about our project, please keep your eye on our website and our wiki over the summer, with more content to be added there soon.

As of June 2018, we have received support from Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, SnapGene, and IDT.

If you’re interested in supporting us, please contact us at igemku2018 [at] gmail.com. We greatly appreciate all kinds of support in the making of our PharMARSy.