Team:Lyon-INSA-ENS/Sponsors

After a silver medal obtained by the INSA-Lyon team in 2010, INSA-Lyon and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon will compete together with the best universities in the world by participating in the prestigious student competition iGEM aka « International Genetically Engineered Machine » organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of Boston, USA.

This competition is all about Synthetic Biology, a brand new field of research in biology combining science and engineering through various subjects (biology, physics, chemistry, computing). The aim is the conception and construction of new systems or biological functions that do not exist in the nature in three main fields : Environment, Medicine and Pure Research).

Beyond the scientific and human challenge, the competition aims at promoting the transparent and open development of biological engineering tools and building a society that can use biotechnologies in an ethical and productive way. This year, it has gathered 163 teams of undergraduate students helped by a few instructors and advisors with more experience.

The Lyon-INSA-ENS team has chosen to compete in the « Environment » category by suggesting to conceive and construct a cobalt-purifying biofilter meant for the treatment of nuclear plants effluents. This innovative system could increase the life of the ion-exchange resins used for the treatment of contaminated water. It could also make it possible to anticipate future legal restrictions by targeting a cobalt-free discharge of nuclear plants.

Our objective is to win the "Environment" prize and show that Lyon and the Rhône-Alpes region have, in addition to a large industrial and nuclear park, a pool of future engineers and researchers able to take up the great environmental challenges.

Moreover, according to the fundamental principle of the competition, each team has to raise funds for their own project. We can already count on the financial support of the Biosciences department of INSA Lyon, the ENS Lyon and the Embassy of France in the United States. But we are trying to complete our budget.

This competition is the occasion to put into practice the human values of sharing, mutual aid, knowledge transmission in an excellent scientific background mixing innovation, technology and environment protection.