GDIC Team Won 2025 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition Gold Medal

On the evening of October 31st, Paris time, the 2025 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) concluded at the Paris International Exhibition Center in France. Team SCAU-China, composed of students from Biological Sciences Programme, GDIC, Wu Haojun (Team Leader), Zhang Yanbing (Deputy Team Leader), Zhang Yaqi, Chen Fangxi, Gong Yuxuan, and Zhou Haoreng, with their project ‘Surfing TentaRobot’; and Team SCAU-Guangzhou, composed of student from Horticulture Programme, GDIC, Chen Yanyan, with their project ‘High-folate Soybean’, stood out among 421 participating teams from around the world and won Gold Medals.

The iGEM competition was founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003. It is the premier scientific competition in the cutting-edge interdisciplinary field of synthetic biology and has become a global platform for academic exchange and technological innovation among young students. Participating teams need to use synthetic biology methods to design and reconstruct artificial biological components and systems to solve practical problems, and demonstrate the feasibility of their projects through mathematical model validation and human practice activities. The competition and its research outcomes receive extensive attention and special coverage every year from academic journals such as Science and Nature, as well as media outlets like the BBC, giving it broad international influence. The competition this year attracted participation from 421 universities and high schools, including top institutions such as the University of Cambridge, Cornell University, Yale University, Peking University, and Tsinghua University, etc.

Seven students from GDIC formed two teams that excelled at every stage of the competition. From project conception through experiments to Wiki development and final presentations, each team member took on clear responsibilities and worked in close collaboration, ultimately achieving outstanding results.

In recent years, GDIC has actively guided students to participate in various academic competitions, research projects, and innovation practices. This year alone, students have successively won the Outstanding Winner Award in the International Mathematical Contest in Modeling, and the Second Prize in the National College Students Life Sciences Competition (Scientific Inquiry Category). Moving forward, GDIC will continue to focus on the quality of talent cultivation as its core priority, continuously enhance educational effectiveness, and help more students scale new heights and achieve greater success on their professional learning journey.