Gold medal for UB students in the international synthetic biology iGEM competition
Designing a gene therapy based on the use of stem cells to improve the functional recovery of ischaemic stroke patients: this is the aim of Reneurish, the scientific project promoted by students at the University of Barcelona that has won one of the gold medals in the international synthetic biology competition iGEM, the most important synthetic biology competition on the planet. The UB team is made up of thirteen undergraduate and master’s degree students from the faculties of Biology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics and Business. The UB also won the gold medal in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the same competition, with the Vesiprod and AlgaGenix projects, respectively.
The iGEM, also known as the Grand Jamboree, is an initiative of the iGEM Foundation (International Genetically Engineered Machine), an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to education, the advancement of synthetic biology and the promotion of an open and collaborative community in this field of knowledge.
More than 450 teams of young researchers from all over the world took part in this year’s event, which took place from 23 to 26 October in Paris. The aim is to showcase their synthetic biology projects on a wide range of topics, from agriculture and bioremediation to biology in space and artificial intelligence.
Designing a gene therapy based on the use of stem cells to improve the functional recovery of ischaemic stroke patients: this is the aim of Reneurish, the scientific project promoted by students at the University of Barcelona that has won one of the gold medals in the international synthetic biology competition iGEM, the most important synthetic biology competition on the planet. The UB team is made up of thirteen undergraduate and master’s degree students from the faculties of Biology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics and Business. The UB also won the gold medal in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the same competition, with the Vesiprod and AlgaGenix projects, respectively.
The iGEM, also known as the Grand Jamboree, is an initiative of the iGEM Foundation (International Genetically Engineered Machine), an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to education, the advancement of synthetic biology and the promotion of an open and collaborative community in this field of knowledge.
More than 450 teams of young researchers from all over the world took part in this year’s event, which took place from 23 to 26 October in Paris. The aim is to showcase their synthetic biology projects on a wide range of topics, from agriculture and bioremediation to biology in space and artificial intelligence.
Fighting ischaemic stroke with stem cells
Reneurish wants to design a new therapy based on modifying stem cells used in transplants to overexpress a molecule that increases neuronal plasticity and enhances the creation of synapses. With this simple improvement, it is hoped to increase the clinical application options for this type of therapy in stroke patients and optimize the integration of the transplanted tissue and the regeneration of the affected part of the brain.
Specifically, the team behind the Reneurish project is made up of Ares Font Guixé, Santiago Ramos Bartolomé, Sergi Fornós Zapater, Marc Fabrellas y Monsech, Marc Magem Planàs, Alba Cartró Peris and Emma Esquirol Albalà, from the Faculty of Biology; Andrea Camí Bonet, Jaume Ros Miralles and Luna Goulet, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; Laila Olivella Berrabhi, from the Faculty of Economics and Business; Irene Agudo Zamora, from the Faculty of Physics, and Àlex Roger Moya, from Pompeu Fabra University.
As part of the Reneurish project, the student team is committed to listening to the needs of stroke survivors and collaborating with experts to develop a meaningful and effective solution.
The team has also launched a GoFundMe campaign and an online merchandising store to cover the costs associated with running the project and participating in the competition.
Reneurish has the support of the Office of the Vice-Rector for Research, the Office of the Vice-Rector for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Transfer, the Office of the Vice-Rector for Students and University Life and the Office of the Vice-Rector for Internationalization Policy. This year the winning project was developed entirely at UB research centres, under the supervision of experts Daniel Tornero, professor at the Department of Biomedicine of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Ana Sevilla, professor at the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Biology, and with the supervision of Gemma Marfany, professor at the UB’s Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics.
Your can catch the video of the Reneurish project on this web.
Multimedia gallery
El projecte Reneurish vol impulsar la recerca biomèdica contra l’ictus isquèmic.
