Awards

bronze

Overview

Pepcitrus is UNICAMP-Brazil’s 2025 iGEM project, addressing the critical challenges faced by the citrus chain through antimicrobial peptides and innovative biotechnological platforms. On this page, we summarize how our work connects with the iGEM medal criteria and Special Prizes.

Our goal is not only to tackle diseases affecting oranges, but also to build a project that is scientifically robust, responsibly implemented, and socially impactful, aligned with the iGEM spirit of openness, safety and collaboration.

prizes
prizes

Medal Criteria

We are happy to anounce that we were able to meet all the necessary criteria to achieve the gold medal!

Bronze

    bronze
  • Project Description: Our motivation, problem definition, and proposed solution using CTX are described in detail on the Project Description page.
  • Attributions: All contributions from team members, advisors, and external collaborators are documented on the Attributions page.
  • Safety: Our experimental work follows biosafety and biosecurity guidelines described on the Safety page.

Silver

    silver
  • Engineering Success: We iteratively designed, built, tested, and improved our biological systems. The process and design decisions are summarized in the Engineering page.
  • Human Practices: Our Integrated Human Practices describe how stakeholder engagement, ethics, and societal impact informed and reshaped Pepcitrus.
  • Experimental Validation: Our Results page highlights key data supporting the feasibility of CTX-based solutions for citrus diseases.

Gold

    silver
  • Advanced Implementation & Impact: Through Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, we explore how Pepcitrus can be scaled into viable biofactories and circular economy models.
  • Integrated Modelling & Hardware: Our Model and Hardware pages demonstrate an integrated strategy combining disease modelling and rapid detection devices.
  • Broader Contribution: By organizing information on citrus diseases and AMPs in citriculture, we created resources on Citrus Diseases and AMPs in Citriculture, contributing to future research and education in the field.

Special Prizes

The structure of Pepcitrus naturally aligns with several iGEM Special Prizes. Below we highlight how our work connects to each of them.

Food & Nutrition

Pepcitrus targets key diseases that directly threaten the availability and quality of oranges, one of the most consumed fruits worldwide. By combining AMPs and innovative production platforms, we aim to protect citrus crops and contribute to a more resilient food system.

Hardware

Our hardware device was designed to support rapid detection related to Greening, helping bridge the gap between field conditions and laboratory diagnostics. The device integrates engineering, electronics, and biological insight to accelerate decision-making for growers.

Model

Through the mathematical model simulating the phloem and the action of CTX, we deepen the understanding of Greening dynamics. This modelling framework supports prediction, optimization of interventions, and future research on citrus diseases.

Entrepreneurship

The Entrepreneurship page explores possible routes to bring Pepcitrus from the bench to the market, considering production scales, costs, and business models for different biofactory implementations within the citrus chain.

Sustainability

By using orange bagasse as a resource to produce CTX, Pepcitrus embraces a circular economy approach, reducing waste and adding value to by-products of the citrus industry. This is detailed on the Sustainability page.

Education & Outreach (via Human Practices)

Through our Human Practices work, we engaged with growers, students, researchers, and the general public, promoting scientific literacy about citrus diseases, biotechnology, and antimicrobial peptides.

Judging Summary

This section serves as a quick guide for judges, linking the main requirements of the iGEM Judging Form to the corresponding Pepcitrus pages:

Together, these pages illustrate how Pepcitrus fulfills the spirit and the formal requirements of the iGEM competition.