Developing living systems and organisms that can tackle societal problems: that is what the annual International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is all about. “A very well-known competition within the field of synthetic biology,” says Erik Steen Redeker, assistant professor at the Maastricht Science Programme (MSP). Late last month, he and ‘his’ team of thirteen Maastricht students travelled to Paris for the grand final, along with more than four hundred other student teams from around the world.
There they presented the idea they had worked out on paper last spring and then spent months testing in the lab: a genetically modified organism that filters excess nitrates from polluted water and converts them into proteins that can then be used again as animal feed.
Almost all the work took place outside the regular courses – i.e., without any credits. “Even though it is a lot of work,” says Steen Redeker, who has put together and (together with his colleague David Cortens) supervised a Maastricht iGEM team every year since 2019. “Sometimes you can hear the students sigh: ‘What did I get myself into?’. But when they get the chance to present their work at an event with four thousand people in Paris, they are very proud. Moreover, it is an amazing learning experience: they go through all the steps they will have to face later as researchers, right down to applying for funding.”
Gold medal
And not without success, it must be said: the team received a gold medal from the jury. That honour is reserved for teams that excel in several areas: not only originality and a solid proof-of-concept are important, but also, for example, outreach and market research that shows that the idea is practically feasible. That makes it five in a row: last year, the Maastricht team also took home the gold, and silver three times before that.
The topic always comes from the students themselves. “We don’t push them in any particular direction, although we do like when they focus on a local challenge.” Last year, for example, an intestinal bacterium was modified in such a way that it can repair cracks in marl walls, common in Limburg. In 2020, it was a genetically modified bacterium that acts as pesticide that tackles the oak processionary caterpillar, also a veritable pest in Limburg, without harming other insects. And in 2021, students developed microbes in cattle feed to reduce the amount of methane in cow farts.
Start-up
All innovative ideas, although the project is too short to arrive at a practically deployable ‘final product’. “That always requires much more follow-up research,” says Steen Redeker. “It’s something the students would like to do, but during and after graduation it usually doesn’t happen.” A PhD student continuing the projects would be the solution, but there currently is neither time nor money for that.
However, certainly not every project is simply abandoned at the end. Last year, one team member devoted her thesis to a continuation of the ‘marl project’. Most notable is the 2022 project, in which the students designed a bacterium that eats salt, which could be used to desalinate seawater for use in agriculture. Part of the original team developed the technique further, won the Maastricht University Challenge last year and has since created a start-up called Aestuarium.
“Not that that is the main reason for taking part in iGEM,” says Steen Redeker. “But when you reach the point where you can actually tackle a societal problem, it’s nice that something happens with it.”