iGEM Thessaloniki 2023

Attention, people! iGEM Thessaloniki, the first iGEM team in Greece, needs your help! We are a group of 14 people under the auspices of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, trying to provide a synthetic-biology solution for a major forest threat that remarkably affected our country, especially in the summer of 2023: wildfires. The intensity and frequency of those fiery nightmares, due to climate change and human intervention, prevent burnt forests from regenerating naturally, while many more dangers, such as soil erosion and permanent desertification come to surface.

We aim to deal with this situation by creating “Euphoresis”, a biodegradable biopolymer that will absorb water, consisting of materials obtained from food waste, in the spirit of Circular Economy. Inside “Euphoresis”, specially engineered microorganisms are ready to provide the soil with nutritious compounds for plant growth. Moreover, seeds from endemic plants will be included to give new life to the forest.

Our goal, in general, is to develop a sustainable soil restoration product that will assure rapid forest regeneration, even after the most catastrophic wildfires! To achieve this, and to be able to present our project in the international iGEM competition, held in Paris in the upcoming November, we kindly ask for your financial support. Will you be by our side in this battle for a more sustainable and greener future