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| | International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) in an annual undergraduate synthetic biology competition. It aims to get students from universities all around the world to come up with solutions to problems affecting today’s world through the use of synthetic biology. They design and build novel biological systems and operate them in living cells | | International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) in an annual undergraduate synthetic biology competition. It aims to get students from universities all around the world to come up with solutions to problems affecting today’s world through the use of synthetic biology. They design and build novel biological systems and operate them in living cells |
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| - | With a myriad of magnificent teams that each stem from universities scattered well over the globe, IGEM is truly a world class competition | + | With a myriad of magnificent teams that each stem from universities scattered well around the globe, IGEM is truly a world class competition |
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| | == Team Nairobi: creating new paths == | | == Team Nairobi: creating new paths == |
Synthetic biology: a formidable frontier
Magnificent structures, visible from the lunar surface, have been built. Skies, that define the horizons, have been conquered. Distances, that separated races, have been shriveled. Computations, that took hours, have been eradicated. All this has been achieved through the acumen, knowledge and skill of engineering.
And now, scientists are tapping into the vast power held in cells of biological organisms through this very tool of engineering. We call this novel and mighty science synthetic biology.
This new field , synthetic biology ,is basically the genetic engineering of organisms but with new tools and techniques that makes it much easier and faster to genetically manipulate organisms.
The essence of synthetic biology is to make the engineering of biological systems easier to do. It enables us to better understand nature and subsequently manipulate it to make the world a better place through better healthcare, greener environments and more efficient industries.
iGEM: a pillar of synthetic biology
International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) in an annual undergraduate synthetic biology competition. It aims to get students from universities all around the world to come up with solutions to problems affecting today’s world through the use of synthetic biology. They design and build novel biological systems and operate them in living cells
With a myriad of magnificent teams that each stem from universities scattered well around the globe, IGEM is truly a world class competition
Team Nairobi: creating new paths
Team Nairobi is the first team from Kenya and the fourth from Aftica to take part in iGEM.
This is just the beginning.Expect only alot more participation from many more teams from our region to occur at a burgeoning rate.
Team Nairobi is composed of undergraduates as well as faculty members of the university of Nairobi.
The 2011 University of Nairobi team is composed of
The undergrads
2 microbiology and biotechnology students
1 biology student
3 biochemistry students
1 human physiology student who is also a medicine student
1 medicine student who is also an anatomy graduate
1 electrical engineering student
The supervisors
3 faculty members of the University of Nairobi Chiromo Campus
A brief description of what we are working on
Pests cause a great loss to major agricultural products and various useful plants every year. Currently, chemicals are the main means utilized to curb the near catastrophic effects of pests.
Nonetheless, their use results in the destruction of ecosystems, underground water-contamination; increased toxins in agricultural products and the prevalence of pests that are highly resistant to everyday pesticides.
Dire is the situation that drastic efforts have been taken to curb the aforementioned problems including the signing of agreements among various countries that aim to reduce the use of the organic pesticide quantity by as much as 50 percent.
Nonetheless, The ‘green’ mode of action , sustainability , and cost effective nature of most biopesticides make them the favored frontier in the war against crop pests.
Our project involves the invention of a novel biopesticide by genetically engineering an entomopathogenic fungus to come up with a strain that exhibits higher levels of insecticidal activity. Moreover, that is effective against a wider range of insects. Both house pests as well as crop pests consist the target organisms.
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