{"id":133981,"date":"2023-01-03T13:13:02","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T18:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=133981"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:41:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:41:31","slug":"ddn-gem-of-a-team-takes-silver-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2023\/01\/03\/ddn-gem-of-a-team-takes-silver-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News: \u2018Gem\u2019 of a team takes silver in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Students on Wright State\u2019s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team earned a silver medal for their research at a worldwide synthetic biology research project competition. (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

An 11-member team of Wright State University students earned a high honor in a worldwide synthetic biology research project competition held in Paris in October.<\/p>\n

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Their project? How to detect dangerous manganese in drinking water and soil. Their competition? About 6,500 students competing across 45 countries in 346 other teams. Their high honor? A silver medal.<\/p>\n

They are Wright State\u2019s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team, part of Biotechnology Outreach Bolstered through Education in STEM and Development, or BioBESTD, a Defense Department program to develop a national workforce in biotechnology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Scientists from Wright State\u2019s <\/span>Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology<\/a>\u00a0and the Air Force Research Laboratory mentored the team.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on this since February 2022,\u201d said Jaidan Peters, a senior\u00a0majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology<\/a>\u00a0from New Carlisle. \u201cIt was an almost yearlong effort, to do the preliminary research, collect data \u2014 this has been our baby. To see our hard work come back to us in the form of a silver medal, we\u2019re all excited and proud of what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The silver medal recognizes that the team\u2019s project exceeded a number of standards. Other teams earned silver honors, as well as higher gold awards and lesser bronze honors.<\/p>\n

The event was the iGEM Grand Jamboree, a global synthetic biology competition for young science, technology, education and math researchers. Peters, who traveled to Paris for the competition, said there were about 3,500 participants there in person and 3,000 taking part online.<\/p>\n

Madhavi Kadakia, Ph.D., vice provost for research and innovation, said the team\u2019s project \u201cinvolves the development of a biological sensor to detect manganese from water and soil samples. Their rationale was the manganese levels above World Health Organization limits occur in developing countries and are associated with neurologic dysfunction and Parkinson\u2019s-like disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kadakia, who accompanied those on the iGEM team who went to Paris, said the team \u201cworked on a sensor for detecting manganese contamination in water and soil samples using synthetic biology approaches to both sense and sequester manganese.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal is to use the system to filter manganese from drinking water in a better way than existing methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone focuses on lead,\u201d Peters said, \u201cbut how many people know about manganese contamination? It\u2019s just as bad. We were meeting a need that we felt wasn\u2019t being met.\u201d<\/p>\n

The members met as a team for about an hour a week and otherwise worked on their own. They also met with their mentors weekly.<\/p>\n

The team members, their class, major and hometown are:<\/p>\n

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