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