The gold medal was awarded to the student team of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki at the MIT World iGEM Competition in Boston. Greek students competed among 5,000 research teams from top universities (such as MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, etc.) from 40 countries, won the iGEM Thessaloniki Student Team and won a gold medal in the iGEM 201 iG World Biology Competition. Evaluation was done by 120 world-renowned judges with fairly stringent criteria.

 The Dean of the School of Health Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Professor Theodoros I. Dardavezis, was welcomed and congratulated on Tuesday by the Dean of the School of Health Sciences. The team has recorded a strong presence in the world competition, as 2017 won the gold medal, while in 2018 it won the silver medal powered by the Rubicon Project POSEIDON, the “gold” project.   

The student team designed and developed POSEIDON (Programmable Orthogonal Systems Engineered Into DNA Oligo Networks), the first DNA computer capable of quantitatively and quantitatively identifying the interactions between DNA and proteins. Proteins are important biomolecules of particular importance and interest in scientific research, both in the study of various biochemical pathways and in the treatment of a variety of pathological cases. Research has focused on the characterization of proteins associated with metastatic melanoma cancer. “With its work, iGEM Thessaloniki has introduced an innovative laboratory method aimed at advancing scientific research by developing new biomedical tools and producing new knowledge,” said Professor Theodos Deodoros, Dean of the School of Health Sciences.

Students participating in the team said that the iGEM competition is a unique experience and enables real research work even at undergraduate level and motivates their peers to apply for the team that will represent Aristotle University next year .   

 IGEM Team 2019 is the Associate Professor of the Department of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Michael Aivaliotis (Principal Scientific Officer) and Professor of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, George Mosialos. 

Crucial to the completion of the students’ research work was the contribution of Konstantinos Kozalakis, PhD candidate in the Faculty of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

  Students who participated in the iGEM Team 2019 are:

– Athanasiadou Alice, Physics AUTH  

 – Ioannidis Apostolos, School of Pharmacy AUTH   

– Karavas Sunday, Department of Biology AUTH  

– Malathounis Harry, Department of Chemical Engineering AUTH  

 – Maliouris John, Department of Informatics AUTH   

– Megagiannis Plato , Department of  Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 

 – Moisiadou Sofia, Department of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  

– Hanagkian Christine, Department of Biological Sciences  

 The iGEM Competition was launched in 2003 as an initiative of MIT University and has been held every year in Boston, USA, under the auspices of the iGEM Foundation. It is a non-profit organization that aims to promote research in the field of synthetic biology and to develop transnational scientific cooperation. The Competition is now an institution and has highlighted many important developments, scientific publications and start-ups