On October 23, 2024, Lambert’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition team will be in Paris, France for iGEM’s Grand Jamboree. iGEM is a nonprofit organization created to expand and develop awareness and education for synthetic biology and Grand Jamboree is the international convention where teams come together and share their synthetic biology projects and advancements.
New light has been shed on the club after their success in winning the first high school Grand Prize out of 86 teams in 2022. Currently the team is continuously improving and refining their project as well as developing new diagnostic machines for arising diseases.
In 2022, the team scoured through ideas and came across the topic of microRNA (mRNA) which had not been heavily researched previously and combined it with coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD is the buildup of plaque in coronary arteries which prevents the supply of oxygenated blood to the heart and is a frequent cause of heart attack. The team wanted to choose a disease targeted to our area, and coronary artery disease is prevalent in the southeastern US, causing over 17.8 million deaths a year.
CADlock is “an early-diagnosis screening test for coronary artery disease using microRNA biomarkers.” With CADlock, mRNAs bind with strands of DNA called padlock pros, and after a series of processes, the biosensor can detect the mRNA determining one’s chance of getting the disease. Currently tracking and detecting CAD is expensive, but CADlock offers an inexpensive easy way for doctors to identify this disease.
Lambert iGEM participates in the high school division and over the past two years has won the Grand Prize in the highschool division (2022), Best Wiki(2022) and Best Presentation(2022) for CADlock. In 2023, they placed top ten in their division and were nominated for the Best Human Practices, Best Hardware, Best Model and Inclusivity Award. Aside from the awards iGEM members spend a lot of time exploring the convention.
Jamboree is a week with people who are passionate and enjoy the same sciences and subjects, from all over the globe. They get to learn about different applications of biotech, explore diverse and intuitive projects and attend informative and interesting seminars and workshops.
Ryan Du, a senior at Lambert, has been on the team since his freshman year. He has a passion for computer science and loves being on a team with people who are interested in synthetic biology. He has been to Paris two times and this year will be his third.
“Everyone at Jamboree is really eager and open to talk to, so you can go up to anyone and talk to them,” he said
The club advisor, Mrs. Sharer has a love for Jamboree along with her students.
“It reminded me a little bit of when the Olympics came to Atlanta because what’s cool about iGEM is that it’s international, there are teams from 60 different countries and there’s about 4000 attendees,” she said.
Aside from the competition itself, iGEM members loved being in Paris, exploring and touring the city of love and science.
“It’s a week in the middle of some of the most busy times in school and you get to just relax,” Du said. “The team gets really close every year in Paris.”
iGEM means a lot to the members, as they build relationships and bonds, and create memories and projects together. As more members join and leave, and their machines advance iGEM will remain a successful organization. Together they create a fantastic team who Lambert wishes the best of luck to this year at the 2024 Grand Jamboree.
