Brno Czech Republic - iGEM 2025 Grand Prize Winner - NitroDuck
14:55 · 2025 Grand Jamboree · 2025-11-09
iGEM 2025 Competition | Overgraduate - Grand Prize Winner Learn more about the team: https://teams.igem.org/5642 All Competition Results Available on: https://competition.igem.org/results/2025 Finalist Presentation (Oct 31, 2025) - iGEM Grand Jamboree | Paris Convention Centre jamboree.igem.org Project Title: NitroDuck Project Abstract: Dairy farmers are struggling to keep their farms profitable - the protein feed, the most crucial element, is also one of the most expensive components for them. The most popular protein source is soybean. It contributed to the loss of natural ecosystems in Brazil's tropical savanna. Duckweed, the fastest-growing plant on Earth, contains as much protein as soybeans and grows 10x faster. It is set to provide an affordable protein source for every farm. But duckweed, as promising as it looks, cannot match 3000 years of selective breeding of soybeans. To make it a crop, we need SynBio. We are developing a method for 5x faster genetic engineering of duckweed, constructing an autonomous cultivation system and a yield prediction model, simplifying the scaling of duckweed. The first steps toward unlocking the massive potential of this tiny plant… To save farmers' money, the Cerrado savanna, and to make plants truly scalable.