The 2024 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition team of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) under Olimpiade Nasional Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam (ONMIPA) community of UGM won 5 awards in the 2024 national Bioinformatics and Synthetic Biology (BIOS) competition by Synbio.id. In the undergraduate category, the Phytovac team from iGEM UGM successfully seized several nominations, which are Best Presentation, Best Website, Gold Medalist, Best Synthetic Biology Project, and the main award, which is Grand Prize Winner, after competing with 20 other teams from 21 universities during August until November 2024.
The Phytovac team was under the guidance Dr. Yekti Asih Purwestri, M.Si. from the Faculty of Biology as advisor. The team is composed of 9 students from 5 faculties, which are the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing (FKKMK), Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (FMIPA). The Phytovac team member from FKH is Muhammad Ridwan Adyatama from regular bachelor of veterinary medicine program batch 2022. According to Ridwan, interdisciplinary collaboration made it possible for students to create scientific innovation in a research field that is still highly limited in Indonesia, such as synthetic biology.
Ridwan and his team that was led by Farrel Alfaza Marsetyo from bachelor in medicine did a project titled “Immunoinformatics Design of Virus Like Particle-linked Dengue Vaccine for Expression in Nicotiana benthamiana System”. The project is a computational in silico design on Virus-Like Particle (VLP) based Dengue vaccine. The team generated epitope of domain 3 of E protein (EDIII) from Dengue virus and then engineered the VLP structure conjugated with coat protein from Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) and adjuvant. The design was created for expression on the leaf of Nicotiana benthamiana tobacco plant. The circuit was then constructed into a pGren-pSoup binary plasmid system. Vaccine production of the circuit was then predicted through kinetic modelling.
Not only VLP-based vaccine production circuit, the Phytovac team also successfully designed other circuits as biosecurity measures. The vaccine production circuit is also complemented with inducible production circuit to limit the expression of chimeric virus that is produced. The design was also added with pollen transgen excision circuit to minimize the risk of transgen breach outside of vaccine production facility through pollen. According to Ridwan, these two additional circuits are necessary to keep the biosecurity and biosafety of vaccine production. Ridwan hopes that the project could initiate the development of biotechnology research by students, primarily veterinary medicine students.
The Phytovac team successfully compete in BIOS competition 2024 from abstract submission, proposal video, showcase website, research poster, presentation video, up to judging in grand final session from 24th August to 29th November 2024. After the BIOS competition 2024, the Phytovac team and other team members of iGEM UGM are also currently competing in the Globacl Open Genetic Engineering Competition (GOGEC) competition 2025. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, fighting spirit, and hard work, iGEM UGM competition team is sure that students could contribute to the general public and science by doing research and innovation surrounding local problems. The full information about Phytovac team project in BIOS competition 2024 could be accessed through the official project website at https://farhanmaulana.notion.site/Phytovac-Immunoinformatics-Design-of-Virus-Like-Particle-linked-Dengue-Vaccine-for-Expression-in-Ni-115765b84b7d809e9484c1f7df6114fb
This competition supports several sustainable development goals such as good health and well-being, quality education, industry, Innovation and infrastructure, and partnership for the goal.
[Writer: iGEM UGM team]