We are Team GEnoM, biotechnology enthusiasts representing the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) at the global flagship synthetic biology competition, iGEM(International Genetically Engineered Machine) which is held annually.
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a worldwide synthetic biology competition that gives students the opportunity to push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling everyday issues facing the world. The iGEM Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition.
Our team has done projects on a wide range of topics, including logic-based computation in cells, the Chassidex host organism database, and the Language project. This year, we embarked on a unique journey, coming together virtually to design a bacterial cellulose-based insulin patch, "Synsulin", as well as "WounderPatch", a biocompatible wound healing patch. Our project aims to utilize whey wastewater, an industrial effluent, to produce bacterial-nanocellulose. We are currently working on developing a prototype for our product WounderPatch, followed by Synsulin, the transdermal patch.
We plan to venture into the entrepreneurial world with our transdermal insulin patches by incubating ourselves as a startup and entering the commercial biopharmaceutical market with wound healing patches. Our current experimentations, product design, ideation and valuation are all concentrated on making our project a success.
Our achievements include: Gold Medal in GOGEC, held by Rice University, for Best Computational and Overall Project, Semifinalists in the Synbio Power pitch, held by Synbio Powerhouse in Finland and most importantly, the Winner of the startup-accelerator competition hosted by E-Summit Bootcamp 2022 in the sustainability track held by E-Cell IIT Madras.
Additionally, our Human Practices team in iGEM creatively engages with issues in ethics, sustainability, inclusion, security, and many other areas, often through public engagement. We have extended the Language Project to include a vaccine awareness video series this year. Subsequently, we aim to translate this content to a multitude of regional languages to increase the outreach of our easy-to-understand video format.
This year's iGEM will be held at the Paris Expo Porte De Versailles, and our team will be representing IIT Madras in the Giant Jamboree competition, which will feature teams from all over the world presenting their solutions. To exhibit our work and establish ourselves in the space of synthetic biology, we aim to go to iGEM. There, we would get to present our work in front of an audience of nearly 4000 participants, professors, investors and entrepreneurs.
We now lack the funding necessary to execute our tests, incubate ourselves as a startup, register for the iGEM competition, and travel to Paris to compete. We, the young, passionate and hopeful undergraduate researchers-changemakers, wholeheartedly require the support of our esteemed alumni to achieve our ventures and goals.
