The Cambridge team was awarded the Grand Prize at the iGEM2009 Synthetic Biology competition finals at MIT (http://2009.igem.org). This was against stiff competition from over 100 teams in top international institutions. The students (Vivian Mullin, Alan Walbridge, Shuna Gould, Siming Ma, Mike Davies, Megan Stanley and Crispian Wilson), provided a superb description of their work engineering DNA devices for transcriptional tuning and pigment production in environmental biosensors. As well as winning the overall prize for best project, the Cambridge team was awarded a gold medal, and trophy for the best project in the Environment Track.
News articles:
CUED: The Cambridge 2009 iGEM team awarded the Grand Prize
Wired UK: Building new life forms at the iGEM Jamboree
Discovery Channel: Bright bacteria wins synthetic biology competition
National Public Radio: Students build living microbial machines
Biotechniques: University of Cambridge team wins iGEM synthetic biology competition
Technology Review: A genetically engineered rainbow of bacteria
Molecularist: Report on iGEM09, from a newbie
University of Cambridge press release: Cambridge team wins Grand Prize for iGEM2009