Second place overall for the MoBi-IPMB team at iGEM 2025
Heidelberg team successful at the iGEM competition 2025
The iGEM Team Heidelberg 2025, consisting of students from the Molecular Biotechnology and Molecular Biosciences programs, won second place in the “overgraduate” category at the international iGEM competition for synthetic biology with their project “PHOENICS: Smart Synthetic Immune Cells for Precision Oncology.” As part of their project, the students developed a cellular regulatory network for artificial immune cells for targeted cancer therapy that recognizes tumor tissue and healthy tissue and controls selective activation in tumor tissue. For the outstanding implementation of their PHOENICS project, the team also received a gold medal and the Best Oncology Award at the finals in Paris, as well as the special prizes for “Best Model” and “Best Part Collection”, and “Best Education” for science communication and pioneering networking in the region.
The work was supervised by Prof. Stefan Wölfl and carried out at the IPMB and Bioquant, with support from other research institutions in Heidelberg. Special thanks go to the Hans and Ria Messer Foundation, whose financial support made it possible to carry out the project and participate in the Grand Jamboree, the finals in Paris from October 27 to 31, 2025.
