IISER Bhopal's Undergraduate Team bags a Gold Medal at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition 2020.
An Undergraduate Research Team of IISER Bhopal won a Gold Medal at International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition. The project, funded by the Department of Biotechnology, GOI, proposed a cheap, non-invasive therapy against Diabetes as an alternative to Insulin Injections.
A team of 14 Undergraduate students with two Primary Instructors participated in the International Genetically Engineered Machine which is conducted by the iGEM Foundation at MIT.
The event had a participation of over 200 teams from all around the world. The awards ceremony was held virtually from November 13 to 22. iGEM IISER Bhopal’s project, the BIG PIE was selected for funding by the Department of Biotechnology, GOI via the Indian Biological Engineering Competition (iBEC) PRE- iGEM Competition held in May.
The project proposed a therapy which will enable human gut cells to produce insulin for the body, thus enabling insulin production when the Beta-islet cells of the Pancreas are unable to do so.
This will free Diabetes patients from taking daily insulin injections. iGEM 2020 was held virtually and the team hopes to start the lab work as soon as possible. The team’s efforts for almost a year has led IISER Bhopal to win it’s first Gold Medal at iGEM. It had previously won a Bronze and a Silver.
