iGEM Team earn a Gold Medal in Paris

iGem in Paris

In October 2022, students from The Future Project travelled to Paris to compete at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGem) competition alongside 400-plus multi-disciplinary teams from universities and high schools from more than 40 countries.

The teams presented projects on how to solve local problems across the world using synthetic biology. Teams competed for medals and awards that recognised the quality of their research in designing, building and testing projects using cutting-edge synthetic biology. Competitors were required to document their work through deliverables like wikis, videos and presentations, which were evaluated by expert judges.

Participation in the competition was the culmination of the year-long research project to address the serious issue of bio-waste production undertaken by 21 Future Project Interns under the guidance of their industry collaboration partner Hydgene. The Future Project iGEM Research Team comprised 11 King’s students, who were joined by representatives from Asquith Girls, Baulkham Hills, Cherrybrook, Cumberland, James Ruse, Loreto Normanhurst, Sydney Girls High School and Tara.

The King’s interns on the project were Aditya Arora, Oliver Bucknell, Kobe Goodridge, Max Ippolito, Varun Khurana, Gavin Li, Pravan Nagaratnam, James O’Neil, Vedant Vaghela, Daniel Wei and Chris Yoo.

In total, 17 interns travelled to Paris to represent the team. The King’s contingent comprised Aditya, Oliver, Kobe, Gavin, Pravan, Vedant, Daniel and Chris. They were accompanied by Head of Science, Ms Renay Mennah and TFP Curriculum Coordinator, Mrs Shaz McAllister.

In Paris, the team made a series of presentations and answered judges’ questions on their research. They were awarded a gold medal in recognition of the assessed standard of excellence in engineering, collaboration and human practices in their research project.