Team Tsinglan · iGEM 2026

you NAILed it

Modern biotechnology meets artistic biology.

Begin the story

Look at your fingertips.

Ten tiny shields of keratin —

growing, protecting, renewing
every single day.

What if a nail could grow its own coat?

For 3.8 billion years, the ocean
has been engineering surfaces.

Shells that harden. Membranes that breathe.

Coatings grown by cells — not factories.

The numbers behind the shine

0Byr

of marine research & development

0mm

a fingernail grows every month

0+

keratin proteins woven into one nail

Nature's numbers — our starting point.

Today's nail care paints over the problem.

Petrochemical films
Harsh solvents
Weekly re-painting

Pretty for a week.
Gone with the remover.

So we asked the ocean for a better recipe.

Marine-inspired peptides,
engineered to hug keratin.

Self-assembling into a breathable,
living coat.

Design

Peptide

Living coat

Design → peptide → coat. Grown, layer by layer.

You NAILed it!

A bio-inspired nail coating —
grown, not manufactured.

Keratin-friendly

Ocean-derived

Breathable

Biodegradable

Read the full description

More about us

Team Tsinglan · iGEM 2026. You NAILed it! blends synthetic biology with a visual language inspired by nail art, cells, and ocean biology — precision, protection, growth, and adaptation.

Description The problem, the science, the goal. Engineering Design–build–test–learn cycles. Wet Lab Notebook, experiments, results. Human Practices Stakeholders, ethics, education. Members The people behind the polish.

For judges: start with Description, then follow Engineering, Results and Safety.