Undergraduates from the University of Macau’s (UM) Faculty of Medicine (FMD) have brought home one gold and two silver medals from the recent 5th SynBio Challenges*.
According to its Facebook page, the event took place in Shenzhen from August 21 to 23.
The challenge, organised by the Chinese Society of Biotechnology and hosted by institutions including the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, drew 512 teams and close to 4,000 participants from nine countries and regions, according to a statement yesterday by the public university.
The competition focused on driving “cutting-edge innovation and industrial translation” across biomedicine, environmental, and agricultural sciences, and industrial sciences, among others, the statement said.
The competing UM students comprised Wang Yihan, Serena Huang, Xu Binbin, Yu Tianyu, Jin Zixun, Yang Ruijia, Zhang Fengqiao, Emily Moh Xian Yi, Xia Xue, and Zhang Yifan in two project teams, supervised by FMD Associate Prof Chris Wong Koon Ho.
Competing in multiple tracks, the statement said that the team won a gold medal in the Regular Red Track (Biomedicine) for their project on the development of an in vivo colorectal cancer detection technology.
They also earned a silver award in the Industrial Challenges Track after adapting their technology to monitor heavy metal contamination in water treatment plants, according to the statement
Lastly, the statement added that the team secured silver in the Regular Green Track (Environment and Agriculture) for a proposed solution that would “detoxify environmental caffeine contamination while simultaneously converting agricultural waste into useful resources”.
* SynBio Challenges is an international synthetic biology competition aimed at university and graduate students. It was launched in 2022 with the goal of building a platform for nurturing talent in the field. The competition is built around the core synthetic biology philosophy of “Build for Knowledge and Build for Use” (造物致知、造物致用). It encourages students to explore innovative applications of synthetic biology, from basic research to practical solutions for health, environment, and industry. – DeepSeek
This undated handout photo provided by the University of Macau (UM) yesterday shows the team of UM Faculty of Medicine (FMD) students who last month won medals at the 5th SynBio Challenges competition in Shenzhen.
