A team of fifteen Latvian students has won a gold medal for their scientific discovery at the world’s largest biotechnology innovation competition.
Students from Riga Technical University and the University of Latvia have won one of the 191 gold medals at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM), the world’s largest biotechnology innovation competition held in Paris in November, after developing a plant-derived enzyme capable of promoting the development of new drugs and pesticides.
Biotechnology is a field that covers all technologies and applications involving the use or modification of living materials for the purpose of scientific research to increase human knowledge.
“We discovered an enzyme present in several plants and capable of forming cyclic peptides. Many cyclic peptides found in nature are regularly synthesized in the laboratory, but the difference is that this specific enzyme can be used to create complex molecules that chemists have not been able to synthesize until now,” Drunka told Latvian media LSM.
The enzyme in question is derived from peanuts. The students were given the opportunity to demonstrate that such an enzyme can be obtained and used in the laboratory.
The PhD students believe that in the future, this substance could be used in agriculture to create environmentally friendly herbicides. It also has the potential to create new medicines.
Cyclic peptides are complex molecules and “have various anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties that could be useful in the medical field,” added Drunka.
To promote synthetic biology and the possibilities it offers, the students also created a game for schoolchildren as part of the competition. “We have tested the game in several classes with teachers. We hope to include the game in schools’ teaching materials so that pupils can learn more about synthetic biology and its applications,” said Alice Anna Stipniece-Jekimova, research assistant at the University of Latvia.
The students plan to continue their research into synthetic biology with enzymes and hope to see their discoveries used in agriculture and drug production.
