On October 29th, the four-day 2018 International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM), a top competition in the field of synthetic biology, came to an end in Boston, USA. Two teams from School of Life Sciences and Technology of Tongji University participated in the event, one of which was Tongji-Software led by CAO Wei and YU Xiaotian, and the other Tongji-China led by Zhao Anqi. The two well-prepared teams won a gold medal and a silver medal respectively as a result of their successful presentations of their projects and posters. This was the fifth time for Tongji University to join iGEM, and the first time for Tongji-Software to take part in iGEM. The team won a gold medal in its debut.

The competition this year attracted more than 400 teams from over 30 countries, among which were world leading universities including MIT, Harvard, Cambridge, Heidelberg and ETH，Zurich, making the competition very intense. Other teams from China including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University and University of Science and Technology of China also took part in the competition.

The Undergraduate School of Tongji University and School of Life Sciences and Technology attached great importance and offered tremendous support to the two teams during the competition. An supervision team composed of teachers from different research fields led by ZHANG Jing, vice dean of School of Life Sciences and Technology, provided guidance to the students through the competition. This was an exciting achievement made by the School of Life Sciences and Technology following its years of focus on interdisciplinary and innovation-oriented education policy.