IIT Roorkee students win Gold at the Global iGEM Competition 2020

Roorkee: A team of 13 students at Department of Biotechnology, IIT Roorkee has won Gold Medal at the International iGEM 2020 competition and it was also among the top 5 Indian teams that won the funding support from Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India for participation. iGEM having HQ in Massachusetts, USA is the most extensive Synthetic Biology innovation program and a launchpad for the industry’s various successful leaders and companies. iGEM 2020 witnessed the participation of 249 teams from 36 countries. The team worked on the project titled ‘Pyomancer: Novel Antimicrobial Drugs against MDR Infections’ to tackle WHO’s topmost priority problem of Antimicrobial Resistance and approached it from a multidisciplinary perspective. This project focussed on designing new Antimicrobials, called Seekercins, to kill drug-resistant bacteria with a mechanism inspired by other natural molecules.

“Synthetic Biology finds applications in medicine and several other areas. I would like to congratulate the winning team for winning the Gold Medal at this international competition and bringing laurels to our Institute and country” said Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee

The Team Leader, Sanjeevani Marcha, a final year student, said: “We believe that through our concept and protein design, we can focus on the priority pathogens and urge the pharmaceutical companies to change the ways antibiotics are conventionally developed. By working on the biological systems with an engineering approach, we could think beyond traditional methods in life sciences and implement creative approach from an open mindset.”

“Our achievement would be incomplete without the support of our Professors and Mentors. We were constantly encouraged by Prof Naveen K. Navani to aim for the competition and form a good team, and Prof Ranjana Pathania (our Principal Investigator) provided rigorous mentorship in developing our project. From understanding the technical aspects of the lab work to streamlining our work processes, they mentored us throughout and helped us gain support from the institute administration” she added.

“We are elated to have won the gold medal at our very first attempt and that wouldn’t have been possible without the due time and knowledge the team gained from Dr. Nand Kishore Joshi, Dr. Anand Raman Tiwari, and Dr. Rajesh Kulkarni. They provided us with insights to understand the change in the thcare scenario during the pandemic and helped us formulate a delivery system for our drug. Also, the response from school students and faculties during our sensitisation webinars was appreciable” Yash Aggarwal, a 3rd year student of Biotechnology proclaimed.

Siddharth Suhas Fitwe, a second-year student, said “It was a pleasure working in the field of Synthetic Biology, experience independent research and engage with teams internationally so early on. We also learnt a lot from our collaboration with the NSS IIT Roorkee team to expand the reach of our AMR Awareness initiatives and conduct webinars in schools”

Principal Investigator

1. Prof Ranjana Pathania

Faculty Advisor

1. Prof Naveen K Navani

The team members of the winning undergraduate team are:

1. Sanjeevani Marcha (4th year)

2. Muskaan Bhambri (4th year)

3. Harkirat Singh Arora (4th year)

4. Yash Aggarwal (3rd year)

5. Pradum Kumar (3rd year)

6. Kushagra Rustagi (3rd year)

7. Nitish Verma (3rd year)

8. Siddharth Suhas Fitwe (2nd year)

9. Tishee Natani (2nd year)

10. Kartikey Kansal (2nd year)

11. Lakshya Jain (2nd year)

12. Mihir Sachdeva (2nd year)

13. Kanishk Sugotra (2nd year)

Advisors

14. Dr. Siva Ram (Post Doc)

15. Somok Bhowmik (PhD)

Mentor

1. Darshak Bhatt

iGEM began in January 2003 as an independent study course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA where students developed biological devices to make cells blink. This course became a summer competition with five teams in 2004 and continued to grow to 13 teams in 2005; it expanded to 353 teams in 2019, reaching 40+ countries and over 6,500 participants. The projects encompassed by the tracks aim to solve crucial global challenges in varied fields, viz. environmental bioremediation, new medical delivery systems, technological advances, and alternative energy sources using synthetic biology.

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to education and competition, for the advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of an open community and collaboration.