Wageningen team Colourectal wins gold in iGEM competition

The University Fund Wageningen helped a Wageningen student team crowdfund the money needed to participate in the finals of iGEM, an international competition to improve the world with synthetic biology.

And with success: their new self-test for colorectal cancer has earned the team a gold medal. Additionally, they were nominated for best presentation. The student team developed a pill containing genetically modified, probiotic bacteria that produce a blue substance when encountering tumours in the intestine. Blue poop means a chance of colorectal cancer. The self-test, called Colourectal, is a living, diagnostic test that helps detect early-stage colorectal cancer in a user-friendly way. The test is a useful addition to the population screening programme, in which early stages of cancer are often overlooked. With the new self-test, the Wageningen students hope to help reduce the prevalence of a disease that effects a million people each year.