Triumph of Brno iGEM team at iGEM Jamboree 2025 in Paris!
Czecho-Slovak teams have celebrated an extraordinary success at the iGEM Grand Jamboree 2025 in Paris, the world’s largest event in the field of synthetic biology. The iGEM Brno team triumphed in the Overgraduate category with their project focused on engineering the world’s fastest-growing plant – duckweed (https://2025.igem.wiki/brno-czech-republic/) – winning the Grand Prize along with awards for Best Agriculture Project, Best Plant Synthetic Biology, Best Presentation Video, and a Gold Medal. The team was also nominated for Best Hardware and Best Wiki.
Composed of 21 students from Masaryk University, Brno University of Technology, and partner institutions, the team demonstrated that the Czech Republic and Slovakia can compete with the world’s leading universities. Their project, based on the use of duckweed, showcased top-level scientific excellence and remarkable teamwork. This year marked Brno’s third participation in iGEM, following 2020 and 2021, but it was the first time in history that a Czech team claimed the competition’s highest honour.
The iGEM Prague team also excelled in its debut appearance, earning a Gold Medal and a nomination for Best Measurement for their original “beer project” (https://2025.igem.wiki/bohemiabio/description).
Both teams expressed their gratitude to their universities, research partners, foundations, and industry sponsors for their invaluable support, without which such achievements would not have been possible. Their success confirms the growing prominence of Czech synthetic biology on the global stage.
