Bilkent UNAMBG 2017 Team members (from left to right): Ayşenaz Ozantürk, Ezgi Dikici, Ahmet Berk Ürgen, Simay Ayhan, Artun Bülbül, Büşra Merve Kırpat, Eray Ulaş Bozkurt, Büşra Nur Ata and Azra Atabay. Not present in the photo is team member Mert Canatan, who developed the Bilkent UNAMBG website.
On November 13, a team of undergraduate and graduate students studying and working in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and UNAM won a bronze medal in the 2017 iGEM Competition, a worldwide synthetic biology event that has been held by the International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation (iGEM) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2004.
The Bilkent UNAMBG 2017 Team, as it is known, is made up of undergraduate and graduate students working under the supervision of Assist. Prof. Urartu Özgür Şafak Şeker (UNAM) and Assoc. Prof. Işık Yuluğ (Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and UNAM).
The aim of the team’s medal-winning project, “DiagNOSE Cancer,” is to enable noninvasive diagnosis of lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancer with a real-time breath test technique based on the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in exhaled breath by designing biological circuits in bacteria. VOCs in exhaled breath make possible in vitro detection, classification and discrimination of disease because the concentration of specific VOCs in breath samples may increase or decrease depending on the type of disease and microorganisms that are present.
A detailed project description and additional team information may be found at http://2017.igem.org/Team:Bilkent-UNAMBG.