Contact: Robbie Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--An eight-person Mississippi State team of biological engineering majors is the bronze medal winner in recent international competition dealing with genetically engineered machines.
Known as iGem, the student challenge at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston involved teams from 54 universities from around the world, including the host school, Harvard, Duke, and Brown in the U.S. Gathering new ideas for solving biological problems from an engineering perspective was among its goals.
"The different teams tackled projects ranging from the creation of an AIDS virus detector to work with multi-cellular bacteria," said MSU team adviser S. D. Filip To. "Mississippi State's team sought to find a faster way to find a gene and genetic pathways in plants responsible for regulating oil production."
To, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, said the competition focused specifically on a field of knowledge called synthetic biology that has been in existence for less than a decade.
"This means our students are among the early pioneers who, in the future, will be able to provide solutions to problems that don't exist today," To said.
The MSU iGEM team designed a genetic part to accelerate the detection method for identifying the genes responsible for regulating fat in plants. The group's ultimate goal was to discover new ways to produce alternative oil crops.
To said scientists could use knowledge gleaned from the MSU project to help produce oil from non-food plants or develop plants that produce healthier and higher-value food.
MSU team members included [by hometown]:
BILOXI--Senior biological engineering major James G Kastrantas, the son of Gus and Jewel Kastrantas;
COLLINSVILLE--Junior biological engineering major Caleb R. Dulaney, the son of Charles and Linda Dulaney;
FLORA--Senior biological engineering major Scott C. Tran, the son of Chan and Phuong Tran.
NEWTON--Senior biological engineering major Lauren E. Beatty, the daughter of Preston and Kimberly Beatty;
OLIVE BRANCH--Robert M. Morris, a graduate student in biological engineering and the son of Bobby and Barbara Morris;
STARKVILLE--Senior Joseph Chen, doctoral student Victor Ho and sophomore Samuel W. "Sam" Pote. Chen, the son of Chunlong and Naomi Chen, and Pote, the son of Jonathan and Linda Pote, are biomedical engineering majors, while Ho is seeking a terminal degree in molecular biology. [Ed. note: Ho's parents are not listed.]
For more information, contact Dr. To at fto@abe.msstate.edu or 662-325-3282.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.