Singapore: The Shenzhen team, comprising 22 students from the innovative program of BGI College, has received the gold award for their accomplishment on Yeast Artificial Organelle in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) 2012 Regional Jamboree -Asia. The competition was held at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

In the iGEM 2012 Regional Jamboree -Asia, Shenzhen team's works on "YAO #1.0 (Yeast Artificial Organelle)" provided a case-in-point on man-made organelle and its application in biosynthesis by engineering yeast mitochondria. As YAO #1.0 could be seen as a pioneer work in bioengineering, semi-autonomous organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts, have open their access to iGEMers and synthetic biologists for the first time

The international competition of iGEM is a worldwide synthetic biology competition with the aim to promote the open and transparent development of tools for engineering biology and help construct a society that can productively apply biological technology.

Due to the increased size of participants, the competition in 2012 was split into five regions, including Asia, Europe, Latin America, Americas East, and Americas West. Regional Jamborees will be held in October and the World Championship Jamboree will be held on the first weekend of November.