{"id":84688,"date":"2020-12-03T07:03:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T05:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/blog\/act-anti-covid-19-technology-wins-gold-at-igem\/"},"modified":"2020-12-03T07:03:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T05:03:08","slug":"act-anti-covid-19-technology-wins-gold-at-igem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/act-anti-covid-19-technology-wins-gold-at-igem\/","title":{"rendered":"ACT (Anti COVID-19 Technology) Wins Gold at IGEM"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Technion student team recently won a gold medal in the iGEM international synthetic biology competition for work developing an active gel to capture SARS-CoV-2 viral particles, preventing the infection of host cells. Unlike existing sanitization products, the gel provides active skin protection for hours and does not damage the skin microbiome.<\/b><\/p>\n

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The 2020 iGEM winners from Technion Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the seventh time, Technion has won a gold medal at the iGEM (<\/span>International Genetically Engineered Machine) <\/span>Competition in synthetic biology. This year, their winning research is an active <\/span>gel to capture COVID-19<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

COVID-19 is transmitted via two main routes \u2013 inhalation of airborne droplets containing millions of viral particles emitted by infected people through coughing, sneezing, speaking, and breathing, or by touching the face following contact with contaminated surfaces. The goal of the Technion team, most of whom are students in the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, was to develop a product that would lower contact infection.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gel offers two prominent advantages over current sanitization solutions. The first is its l<\/span>ong-lasting protection<\/b>: the gel works for hours. The second is that the gel is selective: it does not harm the skin microbiome or the body\u2019s cells, as it specifically targets COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The prestigious iGEM Competition was initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2004 to provide students, especially undergraduates, with an opportunity to experiment in scientific and applied research in synthetic biology. Technion teams have participated since 2012, following an initiative by Professor Roee Amit, head of the Synthetic Biology Laboratory for the Decipherment of Genomic Codes in the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering. \u201cThe achievements of the Technion\u2019s iGEM teams are significant,\u201d said Prof. Amit. \u201cThey do not merely amount to medals, since we have accumulated research and meaningful intellectual property that are expressed in scientific articles and in a patent published by two of our teams.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Technion iGEM 2020 team in action.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, the competition was held online for the first time, with the participation of 256 teams from universities across the globe. The Technion team was led by students Tomer Antman and Hadas Yung, who joined Prof. Amit\u2019s lab during their second-year studies to get what they called, \u201ca taste of the world of research.\u201d At the beginning of the year the students proposed various ideas for their joint project, but COVID-19 shuffled the cards, leading them to choose the challenge of breaking the chain of infection. As Mr. Antman says, \u201cWe knew that when it came to the COVID crisis we had to take action, not to just wait in the hope of positive developments. We took a decision to create those developments – we decided to act.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned that SARS-CoV-2 is able to survive on the skin for hours, several times longer than flu viral particles,\u201d explains Ms. Yung. \u201cFortunately, common disinfectants were found to be effective against the virus, but they have two disadvantages \u2013 they destroy the virus only at the time they are used with no lasting effect, and they also damage our skin\u2019s microbiome, the delicate balance of bacteria, viruses, and fungus that live on our skin, which plays an important role in our overall health.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe compare the virus to a fish and the system to fishing,\u201d Mr. Antman adds. \u201cThe SARS-CoV-2 gateway to the host cells is the ACE2 protein, so our \u201cbait\u201d is engineered ACE2 and another \u2018decoy protein,\u2019 which entices the viral particles to attach to it. The \u2018hook\u2019 is the element that carries the bait, and the\u2019\u201cfishing rod\u2019 is the gel itself, which holds them all together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the conditions for participating in the international competition is community contribution. For this purpose, the team joined forces with the student teams from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University to focus on reducing racial prejudice and racism in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) studies.\u00a0 The 14-member Technion team, composed of 7 women and 7 men, was also one of four teams nominated for an \u201cInclusivity\u201d award in the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The members of the Technion team are: <\/span>Hadas Yung<\/b> of Haifa, <\/span>Tomer Antman <\/b>of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, <\/span>Amir Betker<\/b> of Haifa, <\/span>Dor Josef<\/b> of Haifa, <\/span>Ella Samuel<\/b> of Kfar Hess, <\/span>Ilana Elizarov<\/b> of Netanya, <\/span>Niv Skarbianskis<\/b> of Netanya, <\/span>Noa Weiss<\/b> of Haifa, <\/span>Shanny Ackerman <\/b>of Binyamina, <\/span>Shany Greenstein<\/b> of Ramat Gan, <\/span>Shay Bamany<\/b> of Holon, <\/span>Yara Zeibaq<\/b> of Acre, <\/span>Saar Shaviv<\/b> of Haifa, and <\/span>Zixuan Li<\/b> of Shantou, China.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team expressed gratitude for the Technion faculty members \u2013 Prof. Roee Amit, Prof. Boaz Mizrahi, Prof. Esti Segal, and Prof. Yuval Shoham \u2013 who helped them with the project, and the tutors who accompanied them \u2013 Naor Granik, Tzila Davidov, Noa Eden-Navon and Inbal Vaknin, all of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n