A team from Bordeaux took part for the second consecutive year to the iGEM competition in 2013.

The iGEM is an international competition in the field of synthetic biology opened to undergraduate and PhD students.

The team speaks. Our project was to engineer a “super-yoghurt”, with new specific properties. By modifying the bacteria naturally present in the yoghurt, and incorporating specific biosynthesis routes, we are able to make them produce colored or aromatic compounds, or even molecules with curative properties like resveratrol. Thus, yoghurts could be directly made by the consumer thanks to lactic ferments kits. The details of our work are available on the team's wiki: http://2013.igem.org/Team:Bordeaux/Project

Our results were presented, both as an oral presentation and a poster, during the Regional Jamboree held in Lyon this year, in October 12^th-13^th. The Regional Jamboree gave us the opportunity to exchange with other participants from Europe and with their instructors, on varied topics such as biology and science, and this common passion that we share. Moreover, one of the components of our project consisted in increasing awareness of biologic synthesis through a board game (the BioGame), which had great success with other teams.

This experience was a real enrichment both for intellectual and technical work and opened our minds on what synthetic biology has to offer to society. Many innovative projects, which could become a reality within a few years for applications linked to environment, health or agri-food sector , were presented. The iGEM is first of all a competition, but it also has for goal to develop synthetic biology through the world. All teams contribute to the enrichment of scientific culture with original ideas and DNA sequences available to all future participants.

After the end of the 2013 edition, the Bordeaux team is still more determined than ever and will aim for a medal in 2014!

The sponsors of the Bordeaux team are: IECB, ENSTBB, Université Bordeaux Segalen, the Thermo Scientific company, Labri, IDEX and the UFR des Sciences de la Vie de Bordeaux