The UF 2019 iGEM Team brought a Silver Medal home to Gator Country this week, from the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition, held in Boston Oct. 31-Nov. 4. iGEM is a competition of 300+ teams from over 40 countries, designed to encourage research breakthroughs in synthetic biology. The UF iGEM team selected the Synthetic Cellular Recorders Integrating Biological Events (SCRIBE) System because it “gives amateur microbiologists the ability to couple a chosen stimulus with a desired mutation and quantify that signal.” They utilized this system with the ultimate goal of being “able to utilize [their] tool to quantify the concentration of heavy metals in tap water in the state of Florida (and potentially worldwide) that otherwise may go improperly assessed.” The team of students that worked on this project include Nicole Kantor, Samantha Golden, Anil Patel, Shivani Doshi, Julie Mallinger, Alexandra Gaskins, Nikila Ojili, Jessica Zheng, and Zach Zeller. They were mentored by Assistant Professor Dr. Christopher Reisch of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science. Congratulations to this amazing team, and for more information on UF iGEM and their work, please feel free to visit their page at: https://2019.igem.org/Team:Florida. Go Gator Scribe Tribe!
