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Banana team iGem second in Boston

Who? Wen Wu, fifth year student of Biotechnology Why? She and her team came second in iGem, an international competition for synthetic biology in Boston How? They built a bacterium which protects banana plants from a damaging disease
Rob Ramaker

Foto: Sven Menschel

Has it sunk in that you did so incredibly well?

‘That feeling will probably come when are home and being congratulated by family and friends. Up to now we haven’t had time to let in sink in. We are still on a road trip through America and we are in New York right now. Just enjoying a stress-free holiday.’

*Do you want to go on with research*after this result?

‘After graduating, I would very much like to do a PhD on synthetic or molecular biology. From the other projects in Boston I saw how much potential synthetic biology has. That was really inspiring. I don’t know exactly what I am going to do yet, but that will come.’

We haven’t had time to let it sink in

Wen Wu, fifth year student of Biotechnology

*Most iGem projects sink without trace.*What about yours?

‘We don’t know yet if we will take it further. We shall be discussing the possibilities for that with our supervisors soon. We would need more data for a publication, for instance. Carrying on with it won’t be easy, in any case. We shall have to see who has time and whether there is funding. After Boston our budget is pretty much used up.’

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