A genetic engineering team formed by 24 science and engineering students of CUHK won a gold medal at the iGEM  (international Genetic Engineered Machine) Asia Regional Jamboree. They also won the Best BioBrick Measurement Approach and the Best New BioBrick Part (Natural) awards. Teammates whose major varies from life sciences, engineering, and chemistry joined hands to research on this year’s theme―renewable energy. Based on the idea that a bacterial halorhodopsin can use solar energy to drive the transport of chloride ion across the membrane, the team used sunlight to drive the ion channel to concentrate ion or desalt seawater for freshwater production and create electric current to produce electricity simultaneously. The students’ work was greatly acclaimed by the panel of judges. They were qualified to participate in the world championship of the iGEM Jamboree to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in November.

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