To support innovation in synthetic biology, Gen9, Inc. has held the G-Prize Contest each year since its launch in 2012. Dedicated to developing technologies for synthesizing and assembling DNA, Gen9 has announced Harris Wang, PhD, Assistant Professor in Systems Biology at Columbia University Medical Center, and Industrial Microbes as the winners of its third annual G-Prize Contest.
After being evaluated by an independent panel of judges, Dr. Wang’s proposal was selected for its epigenome engineering platform. By developing strains of E. coli with methylation patterns similar to those in various other species, gene expression adjustments and horizontal gene transfers can be made in several different types of bacteria.
“Winning Gen9’s G-Prize provides us with the high quality DNA that we need to meet our lab’s goal of building a new toolbox for engineering methylation patterns with synthetic biology,” said Dr. Wang. “The extensive use of Gen9’s gene synthesis technology will significantly accelerate our progress toward this important goal of building a platform for synthetic biologists around the world.”
Selected as the winner of the G-Prize start-up track, Industrial Microbes presented an idea aimed to produce “earth-friendly” chemicals and fuels using affordable greenhhouse gases as raw materials.
“Being chosen as the first start-up winner of Gen9’s G-Prize is a tremendous validation of our company’s novel scientific approach to the efficient and environmentally friendly production of fuels and chemicals,” said Derek Greenfield, Co-founder and CEO at Industrial Microbes. “Gaining access to this volume of synthetic DNA is a game-changer and eliminates the major bottleneck in our design-build-test workflow.”
Driving innovation in research topics including reprogramming protein interactions, deciphering cellular networks, computational design of antibodies and microbial refactoring for space exploration; the G-Prize awards are a part of Gen9’s work toward providing easier access to accurate synthetic DNA for scientists.
“Each year we are amazed by the vision and creativity in the proposals submitted for the G-Prize,” said Kevin Munnelly, President and CEO of Gen9. “It is tremendously rewarding for the Gen9 team to see the remarkable accomplishments made by G-Prize winners, and we look forward to the great scientific advancements that will be made by the teams in Dr. Wang’s lab and at Industrial Microbes.”
For more information on the G-Prize contest and its winners, visit www.gen9bio.com.
