A team from Ben-Gurion University in the Negev won first place this week in the exclusive international iGEM 2015 genetic engineering competition in Boston.
The team won in the health category for its development of the "Boomerang" system, which is based on genetic engineering and is meant to destroy the development of cancer.
Aside from winning first place, the Ben-Gurion team became the first Israeli research team to ever reach such a level in the famous international competition, which is now in its 12th year and included 259 groups from leading research universities hailing from all around the world.
The competition, which is hosted by Boston's illustrious MIT university, is thought to be one of the most important scientific competitions in the world.
The winning Israeli team is comprised of eight students from different disciplines in Ben-Gurion University, and was directed by Prof. Smadar Cohen, Dr. Emil Robinov, and Dr. Efrat Forti of the biotechnology engineering department.
"The university is very proud of the accomplishments of the research group in this exclusive competition, which includes the best and brightest students in the synthetic biology field," noted Cohen, who led the group.
"Our success in the competition puts emphasis on the outstanding dedication of the students, and the multi-disciplinary cooperation between students learning a variety of fields, such as biotechnology, biology, engineering, medicine, finance, neuroscience, psychology, and also political science."