CSW Students Participate in International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Contest

On Saturday, June 28, 2014, a small group of CSW students, accompanied by iGEM advisor Howard Goldsweig and CSW science teacher Melodie Knowlton, travelled to MIT’s Stata Center in Cambridge, MA to participate in the 2014 iGEM High School Jamboree.
On Saturday, June 28, 2014, a small group of CSW students, accompanied by iGEM advisor Howard Goldsweig and CSW science teacher Melodie Knowlton, travelled to MIT’s Stata Center in Cambridge, MA to participate in the 2014 iGEM High School Jamboree.

Having worked closely as a team during the school year researching and experimenting with the principles of synthetic biology, nine students representing CSW’s 14 member iGEM team (The CSW ProTeens) arrived at the contest ready to present their work to a panel of judges and national and international peers.
 
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is dedicated to education and competition, advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of open community and collaboration. The high school division of iGEM is an offshoot of the very successful college and university synthetic biology competition begun in 2003 at MIT. The contest, which is open to high schools from all over the world, culminates in a one-day meet where teams share their work and collaborate with other young scientists.  
 
The iGEM competition is a way for high school students and instructors to learn about and engage in synthetic biology, a growing area of science that fuses genetics, engineering, chemistry, microbiology, and computer science. According to CSW’s iGEM advisor, Howard Goldsweig, “Synthetic biology is considered a new and emerging discipline, but in reality scientists have been manipulating genes for decades; inserting, deleting, and changing them in various types of cells has become a routine function in thousands of industrial and academic labs.” The goal of this science is to reconfigure the metabolic pathways of cells to perform entirely new functions, such as manufacturing chemicals and drugs. Eventually, synthetic biologists hope to construct genes from scratch.
 
iGEM has been offered as a D-block elective at CSW since 2012. Current iGEM team leader, Joey Boots-Ebenfield ’15, played a large role in the foundation of CSW’s iGEM program, encouraging his fellow students to learn more about the project and engaging in deep discussions with CSW’s science faculty. CSW science teacher and incoming science department head Melodie Knowlton echoed Joey’s enthusiasm for the program by saying,  “CSW's Science Department encouraged our students to participate in iGEM because of the cross-discipline nature of the activities.” She went on to say, “The iGEM competition teaches students how to collaborate and think critically. It challenges students and helps to deepen their understanding of the sciences. Moreover, synthetic biology provides an engineering context in which to learn molecular biology, genetic engineering and microbiology methods.”
 
The 2014 iGEM Contest was the first time students from CSW submitted a project in the competition. Participating team members included: Aiden Kolodziej ‘17, Jenny Woo ‘16, Matt Waters ‘15, Ellie Wolf ‘15, Nate Williams ‘16, Joey Boots-Ebenfield ‘15, Noa Machover ‘15, Ben Klebe ‘16, Summer Ardell, ’15, Mason Liu ‘16, Lilly Kerper ‘14, Thomas Schaffner ‘15, Liam Kaufer ‘16 and Micah Rickles-Young ‘14.
 
Meeting in the Garthwaite Center for Science and Art, the CSW team adopted the name “CSW ProTeens” and tackled the agribusiness problem of frost damage to crops, which causes loses of billions of dollars annually. Currently, attempts to prevent frost damage are decidedly low-tech and only marginally effective. A synthetic biology solution to this problem is a spray-on slurry of a nonpathogenic strain of E. coli that covers the crop with a biofilm containing a secreted antifreeze protein (AFP). AFPs are produced naturally by various plants and animals to adapt to living in freezing climate zones. AFPs possess the ability to bind to the ice crystals on the plant surface, inhibiting the formation of ice. RiAFP refers to an AFP produced by the Rhagium inquisitor long horned beetle, whose habitat is Siberia. This protein is particularly attractive for recombinant expression and biotechnological applications.
 
For the CSW ProTeens, the culmination of eight months of work was to join 300 other high school participants from Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America and to compete for the coveted GreenBrick Grand Prize Trophy at the annual iGEM High School Jamboree. Judges look at each team’s project, presentation, poster, and Wiki page to determine the winning team.
 
The CSW ProTeens successfully completed their presentation to the packed auditorium and were extremely pleased with the positive response from their peers. Overall, the lab investigation experience, team building dynamics, and the excitement of competition proved to be a very appealing way to build a skill set and interest in a scientific discipline that holds the promise to be a major driver of innovation in the 21st Century. The returning members of the CSW ProTeens are already looking forward to the 2015 competition!
 
There are many ways to follow CSW’s iGEM team, support them, and learn more about their work. You can visit their blog, which has photos and updates, at http://csw-igem.tumblr.com. You can check out their team Wiki page and read about their 2014 project by visiting http://2014hs.igem.org/Team:CSWProteens. Or, you could ‘like’ their Facebook page by clicking here.
 
 

The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.