CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- 300 high school participants from Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America descended on Cambridge, Massachusetts to compete for the coveted GreenBrick grand prize trophy at the annual iGEM, International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition, High School Jamboree on June 28, 2014.

Finding a cure for liver cancer, stopping desertification and increasing cellular life span are just a few of the ambitious projects this year's high school teams undertook. Applying what they learn in the classroom, students attempted to solve real-world challenges by building genetically engineered biological systems with standard, interchangeable parts called BioBricks from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working in teams, students designed, built and tested their systems as well as addressed safety, security and environmental implications of their work.

After months of research and preparation, high school students full of potential and curious about synthetic biology gathered together in Cambridge, MA. Their knowledge of synthetic biology was put to the test as each team presented their accomplishments in front of a global audience of their peers and a panel of judges. The team spirit portion elicited the most enthusiastic cheering, as team-produced videos were played for all attendees. At the end of the day, with team presentations, posters and wiki websites evaluated, teams gathered for the results.

iGEM 2014 High School Jamboree winning teams:

Grand Prize, Winner of GreenBrick Trophy: CSIA-SouthKorea, South Korea 
1st Runner Up and Best Poster: TP CC-SanDiego, California, USA 
2nd Runner Up, Best Wiki and iGEMer's Prize: TAS Taipei, Taiwan

Special Prizes Winners:

• Best New BioBrick Part, Natural: Mingdao, Taiwan
• Best New BioBrick Part or Device, Engineered: CIDEB-UANL, Mexico
• Best Experimental Measurement: HUNGENIOUS, Hungary
• Best Software Tool: SKLBC-China, China
• Best Model: Jefferson VA SciCOS, Virginia, USA
• Best Presentation: CoBRA, Alberta, Canada
• Best Human Practices Advance: FHS Frederick, Maryland, USA
• Safety Commendation: SMTexas, Texas, USA

MORE INFO: iGEM is a non-profit organization that inspires future synthetic biologists by hosting high school and university-level competitions in synthetic biology and by maintaining the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, the world's largest collection of open source standard parts containing over 20,000 BioBricks.

iGEM will host the largest annual gathering of synthetic biologists worldwide at the collegiate division's Giant Jamboree, October 30 - November 3, 2014 
in Boston, Massachusetts.

SOURCE iGEM