This year, students from La Cañada and Crescenta Valley high schools joined students from the University of La Verne to participate in a collegiate level competition in synthetic biology at the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) Jamboree.

The students designed and built a genetically engineered machine to produce biofuels more efficiently. They spent nine months learning about biotechnology and laboratory techniques, researching possible projects, developing their project, fundraising and reaching out to the community. Their project was to synthetically engineer a cyanobacteria to produce more fatty acids and refine those fatty acids into usable biofuel. The ULV-LC-CV team was awarded a “Silver” level status at the 2016 competition.

The judges’ comments included “absolutely valuable project with many implications and a great impact,” “thorough integration of human practices [in a social and environmental context]” and “very impressed with the research [made] to generate [the] hypothesis.” Over 475 teams (with 5,600 members) from 42 countries participated in the 2016 iGEM competition.

Last year, the University of La Verne – La Cañada High School team won a “Bronze” level award in the 2015 iGEM Jamboree competition.