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Two IISER Pune student teams win gold medals at iGEM-2022 synthetic biology competition

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Two teams of undergraduate students from IISER Pune won gold medals at the 2022 iGEM  synthetic biology competition
Two teams of undergraduate students from IISER Pune won gold medals at the 2022 iGEM synthetic biology competition
Team 2 also made it to the top 10 undergraduate teams at the competition
Team 2 also made it to the top 10 undergraduate teams at the competition

Two teams of undergraduate students from IISER Pune participated in the 2022 iGEM synthetic biology competition this year. Both the teams have won gold medals, as announced during iGEM’s Grand Jamboree event held during October 26-28, 2022 in Paris. 

The teams had worked on two separate research projects. Team 1 worked on combatting waterlogging in agricultural fields and Team 2 worked on an antibody based therapy for dengue -- both targeting locally relevant issues with the aid of synthetic biology. In addition to a gold medal, Team 2 also made it to the top 10 undergraduate teams - the first time an Indian team has made it to the top 10.

iGEM Foundation or the International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization working towards the advancement of research and education in synthetic biology, and science in general. The iGEM competition is an annual event aimed at undergraduate university students, as well as high school and graduate students, giving them an opportunity to tackle everyday issues facing the world through synthetic biology approaches. 

Every year about 6,000 people dedicate their summer months to iGEM and then come together to present their work and compete at the annual Jamboree where the results are announced. The teams are required to engage with stakeholders, their local communities, and each other through collaborations. They are tasked with building a holistic project that captures the larger context of the problem they are trying to solve, and understanding how their solution fits within it.

Our congratulations to all the team members, their mentors and faculty coordinators! We wish our students the best in their future endeavours!


Team 1: IISER-Pune-India

  1. Vikram Venugopal
  2. Aditi Palo
  3. Pooja Elizabeth Kuruvilla
  4. Grishma Manish Mehta
  5. Atharva Abhijit Valanju
  6. Sneha Jain
  7. Somdatta Naskar
  8. Ruchir Sahni
  9. Anwesha Raychaudhuri
  10. Uyyashrinila P
  11. Ishani Hira
  12. Ryth Dasgupta
  13. Paarth Dudani

PIs for Team 1

Prof. Saikrishnan Kayarat and Dr. Mridula Nambiar from IISER Pune

Project Mentors for Team 1

  1. Rushik Bhatti
  2. Srijan Das
  3. Purva Gupta
  4. Akansha Ganguly
  5. Sanjana Vasanth
  6. Namasivayam Gomathi Sankar
  7. Utkarsh Anil Mahajan


Team 2: IISER-Pune2_India

  1. Krish Pandey
  2. Varuni Nagesh
  3. Anjali Pattathil
  4. Nishant Kulshreshtha
  5. Vinayak Annapure
  6. Pritha Reddy
  7. Khushi Datri
  8. Anish Mulchandani
  9. Shreya Kulkarni
  10. Akanksha Kumaresan

PIs for Team 2

Prof. Srinivas Hotha (IISER Pune); Dr. Mehmet Berkmen (New England Biolabs)

Project Mentors for Team 2

  1. Ashwin Uday
  2. Ekta Gupta
  3. Bhagyashree Deshmukh
  4. Mamatharani D V
  5. Karthik Shanbhag
  6. Benchamin Abraham
  7. Gunwant Patil