Group won in the Latin American league of iGEM, a competition created by MIT and organized by the iGEM Foundation
For the first time in the history of iGEM, an international competition created in 2004 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Brazilian team has won a top award. The Latin American league in which they participated, the iGEM Design League, challenges undergraduate and high school students from countries in this region to propose inventive solutions for problems with social and environmental impacts through synthetic biology.
2023 CNPEM.BRAZIL iGEM team
The awards ceremony was held last Friday, December 8 in Mexico, with some of the 26 competing teams present remotely and online, including the group from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM). The CNPEM team, comprised of interns, students from the ILUM School of Science (inaugurated recently, in 2021), and researchers from the institution who mentored the students, celebrated their achievement in front of the cameras after winning the main award, first place overall in the competition. Additionally, throughout the evening CNPEM also won special prizes in the Best Arts Project and Best Biological Engineering Excellence categories, as well as best project in the Environment category.
Closing ceremony of iGEM Design 2023 held in Mexico City, at the moment when the CNPEM students learned they won the night’s grand prize.
Synthetic biology has been expanding worldwide as one of the main areas of research and academic applications that combines expertise from a diverse variety of techniques (genetic engineering, programming, artificial intelligence, biochemistry) around the manipulation of micro-organisms and artificial construction of biological metabolic pathways for applications in such broad areas such as food, pharmaceuticals, and energy.
The iGEM Design League was created for Latin American students and encompasses just the steps of designing a pre-experimental academic study, in other words, before bringing their ideas to laboratories and practical applications. The evaluation criteria also include social development and scientific dissemination, which culminated in an amusing promotional video and web page, both created by the group of students to explain Project B.A.R.B.I.E (Bioengineered Approach for Removal of microplastics through Bioremediation and Innovative Eletromagnetics).
B.A.R.B.I.E. and the Microplastics
In a nutshell, the winning project from the CNPEM.BRAZIL team proposed one way to help resolve the environmental and socioeconomic problem of microplastic pollution. The scientific division of the team, with support and direction from researchers at the Brazilian Biorenewables National Laboratory (LNBR), one of the four national laboratories at CNPEM which Ilum students have constant access to during their undergraduate study and where the four interns on the team from other institutions of higher education are conducting parallel projects, developed an innovative method to separate microplastics in water.
The method focuses on detecting microplastics in water samples and removing these particles. This detection utilizes a sensor that measures the quantities of this pollutant and which can be implanted in water treatment plants, for example. The solution for capturing and removing these microplastics involves magnetic nanoparticles and biological molecules (proteins). When the proteins come into contact with the microplastics, they form a structure that connects to both the microplastic particles and the magnetic nanoparticles; a magnetic field can then be applied to attract and remove these nanoparticles that are attached to the microplastics in the water. Today we know that microplastics are one of the main causes of impacts on environmental equilibrium and the health of entire ecosystems, including human health.
As part of their first-prize award, the group will receive a trip to visit the largest center for synthetic biology in the world, in Boston, USA, as well as a consultation with the specialist bioengineers at Ginkgo Bioworks, who will contribute to the development of this project in the experimental stages.
Gabriela Persinoti, a researcher at LNBR and main mentor of the group, explains that the award created new impetus for the proposed method, which may advance to more concrete testing phases in the laboratory next year. This would make it eligible to participate in the main iGEM league that includes countries from around the world.
“This is a large and pronounced incentive in the education of these students, and it is also very rewarding for us, the researchers who are advising them and learning alongside this creative group throughout this year with so much hard work and intense exchange,” says Persinoti, who also attributes the group’s success to its strong organization, with constant meetings and face-to-face contact between the researchers and interns and weekly visits by the Ilum students to the research facilities and labs, as well as the diverse curriculum they are immersed in. “Even though it has biology in the name, the skills needed to fulfill the requirements of the competition are diverse and multidisciplinary in nature.”
According to LNBR director Eduardo Couto, over the coming decades a new paradigm is expected for manufacturing based on biological resources. “This is a global technological race where synthetic biology plays a central role by presenting scientific and technological challenges
involving prospection, modification, development, and control of complex biological systems. We hope that the young people who come to work at the CNPEM can play an active role in this future agenda, which together with sustainability will bring wealth and prosperity to Brazil,” he notes.
According to Adalberto Fazzio, Director of Ilum, this first iGEM Design League win for a Brazilian team is fundamentally connected to the students’ participation and the interdisciplinary nature of the group. “The team organized themselves into different divisions like marketing, public relations, and science, and in each of these areas there were Ilum students holding notable positions. Of the 16 students on the team, 12 were from the Ilum School of Science. Our students showed dedication and commitment throughout the period of almost a year that it took for this groundbreaking achievement for the country to become a reality,” notes Fazzio.
This is the first group to win a prize from the undergraduate course that was created only two years ago and which has attracted notice from other prestigious universities, and only confirms that the program is establishing itself as one of the most important in Brazilian science.
Funding
The project received support from the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), the Ministry of Education (MEC), and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
Student quotes
“I’m still floored at the outcome. Not because I doubted our potential, but because I never felt like I was on the cutting edge of something that was coming to full fruition literally right in front of me. Being a scientist in Brazil has always been a major challenge, and believing in what we were building week after week was an ongoing exercise. Working in a group means that variables beyond what we can personally control will appear, and this requires us to understand the profile of each student so it can fully develop. Each of us took care of essential parts of the project, and in this way we created something that will always make us proud: “Barbie” will always be dear to me, along with everyone who was part of this experience. Our achievement is a powerful confirmation of our potential, and I hope that none of the team members forget that.” – Giovana Motta – UNICAMP student intern at LNBR and leader of the 2023 CNPEM.BRAZIL team
“Participating in the iGEM was a very important step in my education. It took months of a lot of dedication, effort, and commitment, but it introduced me to a dynamic I had never experienced before. Sometimes it was stressful, it was exhausting, but it was also a lot of fun to be able to share this experience with friends, which helped a lot in carrying out the project. I believe that the experience of working in a large group with various people focused on the same objective was very important for my professional development, as well as the chance to test out ideas, to make mistakes, and to construct new ideas from this process, which was an important lesson.” – Gabriel Xavier Pereira – student in the first class of the Ilum School of Science and member of the scientific division of the CNPEM.BRAZIL team.
“The competition gave me a vision of how we can and were able to apply the knowledge we acquire during our academic careers. Even focusing on synthetic biology, we were trying to bring in the interdisciplinary nature of our program and our personal experiences to develop the project.” – Gustavo Duarte Verçosa – student in the first class of the Ilum School of Science and member of the team’s public relations division
“Participating in iGEM was a significant academic challenge, juggling all the meetings, activities, and deliverables for the competition with all the requirements and subjects we have at Ilum was by no means easy, but it was a great opportunity to learn to be more resilient and work in a team, since we could only succeed if we helped each other a lot. I am so happy that our hard work paid off. I believe that participating in iGEM has made a significant contribution to my professional future, since we were able to review some of the content we saw earlier in our program and learn to apply it. For me, the main skills we developed may have been the human ones, those ‘soft skills.’ It was a unique opportunity, since our team had to work like a small company and this type of skill is hard to put into practice early in your career.” – Sarah Peixoto Rodrigues Freire – student in the first class of the Ilum School of Science and leader of the team’s human practices division
Members of CNPEM’s winning 2023 iGEM team
| Full name | Link to CNPEM |
| Gabriela Felix Persinoti |
Researcher (Head advisor) |
| Célio Cabral Oliveira |
Researcher (Mentor, overall team) |
| Edvaldo Rodrigo de Morais | Researcher
(Mentor, scientific division) |
| Thayse A. Dourado Hernandes |
Researcher (Mentor, scientific division) |
| Nádia Maria Vieira Sampaio | Researcher
(Mentor, scientific division) |
| Giulio Mendes Braatz |
Intern (UNILA) (Mentor, overall team) |
| João Eduardo Levandoski | Graduate researcher (UNICAMP)
(Mentor, scientific division) |
| Luísa Clemente Magalhães Gomes |
Graduate researcher (Mentor, scientific division) |
| Nicolli de Freitas | Researcher
(Mentor, scientific division) |
| Paulo José Corrêa Freire |
Graduate researcher (UNC Charlotte)( Mentor, human practices division) |
| Richard Daniel Cruz | Graduate researcher (UNICAMP)
(Mentor, overall team) |
| Liliane Pires Andrade |
Graduate researcher (Mentor, scientific division) |
| Barbara da Paixão Perez Rodrigues | Ilum student
(Public relations division) |
| Alex Johan Mendes Comodaro |
Graduate researcher (UNICAMP) (Leader, scientific division) |
| Bárbara Filomena da Silva |
Intern (UFSJ-CAP) (Scientific division) |
| Caio Eduardo Palatin de Souza | Ilum student
(Marketing division) |
| Eduarda Veiga Carvalho |
Ilum student (Leader, marketing division) |
| Giovana Motta | Intern (UNICAMP)
(Leader of the students in the competition) |
|
Gustavo Duarte Verçosa |
Ilum student (Leader, public relations division) |
| Isabela Bento Beneti | Ilum student
(Leader, scientific division) |
| Laura Freitas |
Intern (UNICAMP) (Scientific division) |
| Paola Ferrari |
Ilum student (Human practices division) |
| Pedro Sophia | Ilum student
(Human practices division) |
| Pedro Zanineli |
Ilum student (Leader, human practices division) |
| Sarah Peixoto Rodrigues Freire |
Ilum student (Leader, human practices division) |
| Vitória Yumi Uetuki Nicoleti | Ilum student
(Leader, public relations division) |
| Ygor Fagundes Ruas |
Ilum student (Marketing division) |
| Gabriel Xavier Pereira |
Ilum student (Scientific division) |
About CNPEM
A sophisticated and effervescent environment for research and development, unique in Brazil and present in few scientific centers in the world, the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) is a private non-profit organization, under the supervision of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI). The Center operates four National Laboratories and is the birthplace of the most complex project in Brazilian science – Sirius – one of the most advanced synchrotron light sources in the world. CNPEM brings together highly specialized multi-thematic teams, globally competitive laboratory infrastructures open to the scientific community, strategic lines of investigation, innovative projects in partnership with the productive sector and training of researchers and students. The Center is an environment driven by the search for solutions with impact in the areas of Health, Energy and Renewable Materials, Agro-environment, and Quantum Technologies. As of 2022, with the support of the Ministry of Education (MEC), CNPEM expanded its activities with the opening of the Ilum School of Science. The interdisciplinary higher course in Science, Technology and Innovation adopts innovative proposals with the aim of offering excellent, free, full-time training with immersion in the CNPEM research environment. Through the CNPEM 360 Platform, it is possible to explore, in a virtual and immersive way, the main environments and activities of the Center, visit: https://pages.cnpem.br/cnpem360/.
About the Ilum School of Science
The Ilum School of Science, an initiative of the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), a social organization under the oversight of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), offers unique training for future scientists. This non-profit school is free for students and funded by the Ministry of Education (MEC); it was inaugurated in 2021 and its first class entered in 2022. Ilum offers a full-time bachelor’s course in Science, Technology, and Innovation over a three-year period. Half of the slots are reserved for students from public high schools, and successful applicants are eligible for benefits such as room, board, and transportation assistance. This course was granted the highest score possible by the Brazilian National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (INEP), and provides a solid scientific foundation in an interdisciplinary course. The curriculum spans disciplines in the life sciences, materials science, mathematical languages, and the humanities for a truly integrated educational experience based on ethics and cooperation in the search for answers and solutions to global problems in the modern world. Learn more at: ilum.cnpem.br.
