Nazarbayev University students win a GOLD medal on iGEM 2017 competition
Within the period from November 9 until November 13, the iGEM, an international competition in synthetic biology where teams all over the world create projects and present them at Giant Jamboree, took place in Boston, USA.
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to education and competition, the advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of an open community and collaboration.
Around 310 teams participated in this year competition.
This year three 4th year students of the School of Science and Technology, members of NU iGEM team (14 students total) were attending the Giant Jamboree: Valdemir Kim (team captain), Mariyam Akizhanova and Yerkezhan Kalikanova with their project “Bioremediation of Cr (VI) from wastewater using microalgae”.
NU students had a great presentation and answered all the questions from judges. Moreover, they successfully answered all additional questions from judges during the Poster session and as a result won a gold medal.
You can read about the project here: http://2017.igem.org/Team:NU_Kazakhstan
iGEM began in January 2003 as an independent study course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where students developed biological devices to make cells blink. This course became a summer competition with 5 teams in 2004 and continued to grow to 13 teams in 2005; it expanded to 300 teams in 2016, reaching 42 countries and over 5,000 participants.
We congratulate NU students and team supervisors with such a great achievement and wish them further success!
NU iGEM team supervisors:
Abdullah Mahboob, Assistant Professor, Chemistry Department
Ivan Vorobyev, Full Professor, Biology Department
NU iGEM members are:
Valdemir Kim, SST, Biology, 4th year student (team captain)
Mariyam Akizhanova, SST, Biology, 4th year student
Yerkezhan Kalikanova, SST, Biology, 4th year student
Kymbat Mukhtarova, SST, Biology, 4th year student
Sultan Mussakhan, SST, Biology, 1st year Graduate student
Aigerim Abdimanova, SST, Biology, 3rd year student
Jasulan Ispolov, SST, Biology, 3rd year student
Almira Zhantuyakova, SST, Biology, 3rd year student
Nikhola Mirashirova, SST, Biology, 3rd year student
Saniya Aitmaganbetova, SST, Biology, 3rd year student
Daulet Aitymbayev, SST, Biology, 2nd year student
Lyazzat Bekish, SST, Biology, 2nd year student
Yersultan Mirasbekov, SST, Biology, 2nd year student
Assel Mukhanova, SST, Biology, 2nd year student