IISER Mohali participated in the iGEM 2018 (international competition for Genetic Engineering of Machines) competition, and presented the project "FearOmone: From Rat to Rattled” and won a bronze. The Synthetic Biology goal of this project was to reconstruct the cat pheromone (Felinine) pathway in yeast. The yeast expressed pheromone would then be used as a deterrent for the rats to minimize post-harvest losses.

In addition to the scientific goal of the reconstruction of the cat pathway in yeast, the group reached out to the farmers and the other stakeholders, making a deployment device and also a catchy video song on Biosafety.

The team consisted entirely of undergraduates from different disciplines: Ashwin (5th Year Bio), Ravineet (5th Year Bio), Pranshu (5th Year Bio), Yash (4th Year Physics), Sveekruth (4th year Bio), Devang (2nd Year), Nitheswar (2nd year). All 7 participated at the Giant jamboree in Boston.The link to the project can be found here: http://2018.igem.org/Team:IISER-Mohali.

In addition to winning a bronze, IISER Mohali which competed in the Food and Nutrition track,was among the 3 teams nominated for the best project within the same track and it was the first time that a team from India has received a nomination for a Track prize.