iGEM Innovation

iGEM Innovation is the venture arm of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition, the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to synthetic biology, founded at MIT. As a Venture Fellow, we run a free, year-round global pre-accelerator program that supports bioentrepreneurs as they develop and refine their startups through mentorship, educational programs, and a worldwide network of experts. Every year, the journey culminates with the top 15 ventures pitching their vision on the stage of the Startup Showcase during the Grand Jamboree in Paris, showing how biology can be harnessed to solve some of the world's most pressing challenges.

The iconic iGEM letters at the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, France (Photo by the iGEM Foundation).

Mining microbial genomes in extreme environments

The Cuatro Ciénegas Basin, located within the Chihuahuan Desert, is home of ponds characterized by its extreme conditions resembling mars and the precambric earth. This ecosystem serves as a living laboratory to study both evolution and astrobiology, capturing the intense interest of NASA researchers who view it as a window into Earth’s primitive past and a model for extraterrestrial life.

Within these ancient waters, native bacteria have adapted to severe nutrient limitations through dynamic genomic reorganization. During this project, I performed machine learning-guided genome mining to predict genetic elements encoding gene clusters and their putative bioactivity as blood-brain barrier penetrating molecules for drug delivery to the brain.

Poza Azul, the most iconic basin in Cuatro Ciénegas and home of stromatolites, which are layered structures formed by microorganisms that are considered among the oldest evidence of life on Earth (The pools where our extremophiles were collected are much more remote and can only be reached after hours of driving on unpaved roads through the desert).

Me presenting my thesis poster in St. Paul, USA. There, I got a full ride to be part of the conference and got the 2nd place during the poster competition among other students from universities like Oxford, Stanford, Duke and Harvard!

Graphical abstract of the ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) mining, extracted from Russell & Truman (2020).

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