Duke iGEM Team Wins Gold at 2025 International Jamboree
Members of the Duke iGEM team at the iGEM Jamboree
The Bass Connection team, Duke iGEM: Synthetic Biology for Human Health and Society (Duke iGEM), earned a gold medal at the 2025 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Jamboree for its project RESPIRA: Responsive Engineered Strain for Polymicrobial Infection Recovery in Airways. Students from across Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and Pratt School of Engineering comprise the core of Duke iGEM.
Cameron Kim, assistant professor of the practice in Biomedical Engineering explains that RESPIRA focuses on developing a synthetic biology platform to detect and respond to polymicrobial infections in the respiratory tract. The team designed engineered bacterial strains capable of sensing airway pathogens and releasing targeted antimicrobial responses through biofilm degradation, an approach that could one day inform more adaptive, precision treatments for complex infections.
More than 400 international teams competed, with Duke iGEM one of only five to be nominated for Best Software Tool for the clearFOAM computational pipeline that models microbiome dynamics on surfaces and guides therapeutic design.
Jian Pei, the Arthur D. Pearse Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, sees the achievement as a remarkable recognition of both the students’ creativity, dedication, and interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as the outstanding mentorship from Kim and Melanie Tran.
“This recognition reflects the collaboration of students and mentors across Trinity and Pratt, the sustained support of Bass Connections, as well as Duke iGEM’s partners in Pratt Student Organizations and the Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies," Pei says. "It’s wonderful to see our students tackling such impactful challenges with innovation and passion.”
Students involved in RESPIRA include Palak Jolly (Computer Science, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics), Bashir Sbaiti (Biophysics, Chemistry), Rohit Suresh–Computer Science (Mathematics), Kay Lyon (Biomedical Engineering), Ashi Jain (Biology), Cierra Min (Biomedical Engineering), Arya Krishniah (Neuroscience), Norah Shen (Chemistry, Biology), Nicolas Zepeda (Biology), Sriya Sridhar (Neuroscience), Calvin Cho (Biology, Political Science), Daliya Rizvi (Program II: Immuno-oncology & Ethics), Jennifer An (Biomedical Engineering), Sean Gao (Biomedical Engineering).
Faculty and staff include Cameron Kim and Melanie Tran.