Press release, November 18th 2014
Students from the Paris Bettencourt iGEM
team awarded for their work on human
microbiome engineering
The iGEM World Championship Jamboree, an international competition of students in Synthetic Biology, took
place from October 30th to November 3rd in Boston, USA, at the Hynes convention center. For the eighth
consecutive year, a team of students representing universities of the Paris region joined in the event, which
included 2500 participants and 245 teams from leading research universities from around the world.
This year, the Parisian team took home 3 prizes - the Best New Application of Synthetic Biology, the Best
supporting Art & Design, and the Gold medal. Their project, entitled "The Smell of Us" developed five new
strategies to eliminate human body odors. The work adds to the emerging field of human microbiome
engineering, in which bacteria that live in and around the body are selectively cultivated to improve human
health and well-being. (http://2014.igem.org/Team:Paris_Bettencourt).
The young, energetic, and interdisciplinary team included 15 bachelor and master’s students from 8 different
countries. This year marks the eighth time an iGEM team has formed at the Center for Research
Interdisciplinarity (The CRI, directed by François Taddei and Ariel Lindner). Mentored by the researchers
Ariel Lindner and Edwin Wintermute, the Paris Bettencourt iGEM team was again recognized for excellence
following awards in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and the Grand Prize in 2013. The work was carried
out in the laboratory for Robustness and Evolvability of Life, INSERM U1001, in the Medical College of Paris
Descartes University.
The Project: Engineering skin bacteria to prevent body odor
Human sweat is initially odorless. Body odor is produced by bacteria of the skin (the microbiome) that
consume nutrients present in sweat. Traditional deodorants work by killing skin bacteria with antibiotic
ingredients. The Paris Bettencourt iGEM team took a new approach, cultivating “good” bacteria that produce
no odor, or that actively eliminate odor. Five different applications were developed, with each project
named for a different target odor.
• Don’t sweat it: This project used cutting-edge genetic techniques to isolate natural bacteria that
don’t produce sweat odors. These could be used in a probiotic deodorant formulation.
• Something fishy: Fish odor syndrome is a rare genetic disorder in which trimethylamine accumulates
in patients’ sweat, producing a strong odor of fish. The students engineered bacteria to carry an
enzyme that degrades this molecule and removes the fish odor.
• Goody two shoes: Bacteria produce isovaleric acid, the smell of parmesean cheese, which is primarily
responsible for foot odor. The team characterized variants of the bacteria that do not produce this
smell and which could be used in a bacterial foot powder.
• Smell like teen spirit: 2-nonenal is a compound found only in the sweat of people older than 40 and is
believed to be responsible for “old people smell.” The team isolated natural bacterial strains
capable of degrading this compound.
• Smell the roses: Using genetic engineering, this project developed a palette of of odor-producing
enzymes in bacteria, including genes responsible for the smell of banana, jasmine, lemon, rain,
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mint, and butter. The genes might some day be used in a kind of “genetic perfume.”
Education, Outreach and Society
As part of their summer project, the students also sought to improve interactions between science and the
public. These actions were supported by the CRI-lead European Citizen Cyberlab project
(http://citizencyberlab.eu/).
The team worked with two designers to create an exhibit imagining possible applications of biotechnology in
and around the human body. In their vision, it will soon be possible to isolate bacterial strains with desirable
odor properties, and then reintroduce them to the skin as a kind of cosmetic. The scenario presented
different uses of this technology and how it might affect society, government and individual lifestyles. The
exhibit was awarded the Best Supporting Art & Design prize.
The team also worked with educators to create a new tool for introducing Synthetic Biology to a younger
generation. They developed a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to introduce iGEM to High School students
(http://igemhs.wix.com/mooc). It includes more than 20 lessons on how to create an iGEM team and how to
get involved in research. Participants in the course will be invited to a research symposium dedicated to High
School students and planned for next year.
The international Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM)
Held at MIT since 2004, the iGEM competition brings together students from around the world to imagine
synthetic living systems with diverse and innovative properties (http://igem.org). The yearly gathering has
rapidly established itself as an open, playful, and remarkably effective forum for bright young biologists,
computer scientists, medical researchers, designers, engineers and entrepreneurs. By sparking creativity and
team spirit, it has succeeded in fostering highly ambitious and cutting-edge ideas, some of which have made
their way to top scientific journals including Nature. Finally, by catalyzing the emergence of the discipline of
Synthetic Biology, iGEM participates in an ongoing revolution in the practice of biological research. Synthetic
Biologists seek to bring to biology concepts drawn from computer science and the digital revolution:
standardization and open-source data exchange. Many scientists anticipate that the field will yield significant
industrial, environmental and medical applications.
iGEM 2014 brought together teams from the world's top research universities including MIT, Yale, Harvard,
Imperial College London, Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Tsinghua University and many others. Seven teams from
France participated this year: Aix-Marseille, Bordeaux, Evry, INSA-Lyon, Paris Bettencourt, Paris Saclay, and
Toulouse.
The participation of the Paris Bettencourt team in the 2014 competition was made
possible thanks to the generous support of the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation,
which has sponsored the team from its origin in 2007. http://www.fondationbs.org/
and to the EU FP7 Synbio4all project of the Citizen Cyberlab
(http://citizencyberlab.eu/).
The team also received sponsorship from the French Embassy to the US, ERA SynBio, and the following
companies: IDT, Carl Roth, NEB, Synbiota, Fermentas, MathWorks, Geneious, GATC Biotech, Agilent
Technologies, and Thermo Scientific.
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Contacts
Principal contact:
• Ariel Lindner, Team instructor, INSERM researcher, Paris Descartes University, Director of the Bettencourt
Master's program in Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life Science.
email : [email protected], tel : +33 6 17 29 61 26
Students:
• Henry De Belly : iGEM team member, 2nd year master's student in Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life
Science, Diderot University.
email : [email protected] tel : +33 6 78 92 43 38
• Marguerite Benony, iGEM team advisor, designer, Ecole Boulle.
email : [email protected] tel : +33 6 87 73 50 69
• Ihab Boulas : iGEM team member, 1st year master's student in Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life Science,
Diderot University,
email : [email protected] tel : +33 6 59 03 44 62
• Juan Manuel Garcia Arcos. iGEM team member, 2nd year master's student in Interdisciplinary Approaches to
Life Science, Diderot University.
email : [email protected] tel : +33 7 81 45 14 08
Project website : http://2014.igem.org/Team:Paris_Bettencourt
Twitter : @iGEM_Paris
The Center for Interdisciplinary Research
www.cri-paris.org
@criparis
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TEL +33 1 44 41 25 21 – FAX : +33 1 44 41 25 29 - SIRET 494 470 453 000 23 – SCIRE.FR