Special Prizes
🏆Best Integrated Human Practices
Our project begins with the goal of addressing the global demand for at-home health monitoring by designing a home-based Pont-Of-Care Testing system utilizing synthetic biology.
Through the integration of Human Practices into every phase of our work, we aim to fulfill this global demand, in a responsible and good for the world manner, and provide the iGEM community and synthetic biology researchers with an extensible and interchangeable biomarker detection system, alongside a hardware framework adaptable to various health indicators. We believe that this standardized and modularized framework, in both biological engineering and hardware engineering, aligns with the core values of iGEM, offering a foundation that others can build upon for future innovation.
We are confident that our IHP efforts make our team a strong contender for the 🏆Best Integrated Human Practices prize. Check our IHP work in detail here.
🏆Best Hardware
We have developed a comprehensive, open-source Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) hardware system designed to offer maximum flexibility and adaptability. This modular system is built around a core framework that uses biosensor-based fluorescence for biomarker detection, allowing for easy customization by simply swapping out the microfluidic chip to target different biomarkers. The hardware’s modular design integrates key components, such as optical sensing, fluidic management, and temperature control, all of which are standardized to ensure seamless interchangeability and versatility across a wide range of diagnostic applications.
This POCT system is not only practical for end-users but also aligns with the open-source values of the iGEM community, providing a sufficient foundation for future teams to build upon. The system is engineered for easy adaptation, with hardware modules that can be integrated into various testing scenarios without requiring significant design overhauls. Furthermore, while the hardware is highly versatile, standardized biosensor designs—detailed in our bioengineering team’s open-source documentation—offer clear guidelines for future developments, ensuring that teams can efficiently implement their own biomarkers into the existing framework. Our goal is to contribute the iGEM community by offering a flexible, scalable, and accessible hardware platform that facilitates continued innovation in diagnostic technology.
As high school students, we believe that the exceptional completeness, quality, and innovation of our hardware, achieved despite significant challenges, position our team as a strong contender for the 🏆Best Hardware prize. Please click here to explore the hardware we’ve designed and crafted through highly challenging work.
🏆Best New Composite Parts
To detect a wider range of biomarkers, we optimized and improved the plasmid system by introducing a GoldenGate interface at key sites in both the A module and R module. This enhancement will significantly increase the system's flexibility, making it easier to integrate additional biological components in the future, thereby expanding the system's capability to detect multiple biomarkers.
Check our Parts wiki page here, and review the details of our new composite part: BBa_K5460000 on iGEM Registry here.
In conclusion, our team is confident in competing for the 🏆 Best New Composite Part prize.
Our aspiration for medal award is to earn a gold medal, and we believe that the dedication and innovation of our team not only meet, but may even surpass the standards for gold, silver, and bronze medals. We hope the following outline conveys our passion and commitment to excellence, and for your judging consideration.
Bronze Medal
We have already submitted the Wiki and Judging Form, and we will submit the Presentation Video on time by October 9. Additionally, we will attend the Jamboree in person in late October to attend Judging Session.
B1 Competition Deliverables
- Wiki (https://2024.igem.wiki/lcg-global/)
- Presentation Video (Submitted by Oct. 9)
- Judging Form (Submitted)
- Judging Session (Attend in person)
B2 Project Attributions
We have clearly outlined the task and contributions of each team member, and have also acknowledged our advisors, as well as all the experts, entrepreneurs, and the companies and organizations that have provided us with support.
See attributions on our Attributions wiki page.
B3 Project Description
Our team initially addressed the challenges of chronic disease management, focusing on hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, and obesity. We developed a home-based Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) system for detecting key biomarkers like glucose and uric acid using plasmid-based biosensors engineered with synthetic biology. These biosensors offer enhanced accuracy and reduced recalibration compared to traditional electrochemical methods. To complement the biosensors, we designed a hardware platform that seamlessly integrates with biomarker detection. Human practices shaped the system’s key performance specifications, such as affordability, compactness, and biosafety for both bioengineering and hardware engineering. As the project evolved, we incorporated modularity, allowing for multi-biomarker detection and scalability. This flexible, open-source platform enables easy biomarker replacement and broader health applications, contributing to future innovations in personalized diagnostics and for the iGEM community.
See our Project Description wiki page
B4 Contribution
We provided additional data for previous parts (BBa_K191007) and tested the sensitivity of the pTrpR tryptophan-sensitive promoter to different concentrations of tryptophan.
See Part Part: BBa_K191007 on iGEM Registry and our Contribution page.
Silver Medal
We have met all criteria for the Silver medal.
S1 Engineering Success
We conducted the following engineering validations based on this design:
- To validate the performance of the system, we tested it against three different biomarkers to ensure their feasibility and effectiveness under preset conditions.
- To enable simultaneous detection, we loaded three different fluorescent proteins (mTagBF2, sfGFP, and mKate2) into the R modules for the three biomarkers, and verified that their signals could be accurately detected.
- To ensure that there was no crosstalk between these three fluorescent proteins in the designed hardware system, we designed and conducted a fluorescence crosstalk experiment, specifically testing their crosstalk at different excitation-emission wavelengths.
- To enhance the system's flexibility, we designed a standard interface and, through modular assembly via this interface, successfully validated the ability to test a fourth biomarker, further expanding the system’s range of applications.
Check our Engineering Success on Engineering wiki page and part: BBa_K5460000 on iGEM Registry.
S2 Human Practices
We have proved that our project is responsible and good for the world. Check our Human Practices wiki page.
🥇Gold Medal
We have met all criteria for the Gold medal.
We considered what contributions we could make to the community—standardized plasmids, more data, or something else. We hope to provide a complete standardized toolkit, from wet lab to dry lab. We designed a standardized biosensor plasmid system that allows for quick assembly of detection systems by swapping out different sensitive promoters and fluorescent proteins. We also realized that hardware construction can be challenging for synthetic biology iGEMers, especially high school students. Therefore, we aim to offer a fully standardized POCT hardware system that teams focusing on fluorescence detection can easily adopt. Through the plasmid system and POCT hardware system, we are providing the iGEM community with a standardized toolkit for biomarker detection using fluorescent biosensors.
G1 Excellence in Synthetic Biology
- New Composite Part
See our New Composite Part on our Parts wiki page and part: BBa_K5460000 on iGEM Registry
G2 Specializations
- Hardware
Visit our Hardware wiki page
- Integrated Human Practices
Visit our Human Practices wiki page
🏆Default Awards
As a high school team, we are default eligible for the following awards, and we hope to have the opportunity to pursue these awards as well as the Top 10 prize. If our project ranks in the top 10, or even in the top 3, we kindly ask you, as our judges, to join us on stage to respond to questions from the entire judging panel. If you believe our project is outstanding, please give us your support! Thank you for being our judges!
