Apr 27

Apr 27 How to have a Grand iGEM Competition experience: Introducing resources from the iGEM Community

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By: Nimaya De Silva on behalf of iGEM Community.
Translations By: Daniela Alvarez, Takashi Yamanashi, Annika Shi & Bill Jiao, Youssef M. Abdelmaksoud, Sara Ghoul

“As an Ambassador, my mission is to represent the voices of groups that want to enter the SynBio community but lack the resources to do so, and find a way to guide/connect them to help more teams participate in iGEM.”

— Sahil Sood, 2022 iGEM Ambassador to North America

Joining the iGEM Competition is no easy feat, and teams face countless obstacles as they progress through an iGEM season, whether that is troubleshooting in the lab, overcoming bugs in their wiki code, or interpersonal conflicts within the team itself. Even when faced with these issues, it is important to know that you are not alone in your struggles, and here in the iGEM Community, we have generated a number of different resources that will hopefully help to lessen the challenges you may be facing.

Getting started in iGEM

For those who are looking to start their very own iGEM Teams, the task may seem quite daunting at first. We have realized that, and have put together a set of resources to provide more support and suggestions for how to navigate the establishment of an iGEM Team.

Ambassadors

One of the most valuable resources available for those interested in iGEM and wanting to learn how to get started are the iGEM Ambassadors who represent the different regions of the world, including North America, Latin American, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The ambassadors work to promote iGEM and synthetic biology in their different regions, while also providing guidance to individuals who are passionate about wanting to start up their own iGEM teams.

Guide: How to iGEM

The 2021 North American iGEM Ambassadors created a handy “How to iGEM” document for teams to reference which contains advice and key information the ambassadors felt were valuable to their own experiences as past iGEM team members. From information on how to structure a team, to helpful links for wet-lab troubleshooting, educational material on synthetic biology principles, and advice on fundraising, this document is a thorough resource that will be helpful for both those who are unfamiliar to iGEM and for those who are looking to learn some new tips!

The synbio community members are also working on developing a guidebook for the 2023 iGEM Competition. You can check out its progress here.

Mentorship

For teams that have only recently joined iGEM or are joining for the first time this year, we also have the Mentorship Program. This initiative started by the Mentorship Network aims to connect teams with knowledgeable iGEM alumni who will provide guidance and support for teams throughout the duration of the iGEM season. This program was first started in 2015, and has been successfully received by teams and mentors alike! Now even if you were unable to apply for the Mentorship Program, don’t fret, as the Mentors Network itself still offers the ability to request a mentor–for both iGEM related support as well as support in other areas. Mentors will be matched based on the area of expertise you are hoping to learn from.

Becoming familiar with new techniques: Educational resources

EduHall Resource Center

The iGEM Competition is unique in its interdisciplinary nature, introducing participants to a range of topics from molecular biology and working in the wet-lab to coding and hardware. As exciting as it is to learn all of this information, it can also be a bit intimidating, especially when you are only comfortable in one specific subject. Realizing this potential learning curve that iGEMers may face, the Education steering group introduced a new initiative called EduHall, a centralized location to access the vast amount of educational material on synthetic biology developed by iGEMers and committee members throughout the years. By providing one location for all of these resources, teams should be better able to access educational information in a quick and convenient way.

Dry Lab Impulse Webinars

We understand that in undertaking an iGEM project, teams are expected to explore dry lab components in addition to wet lab, which sometimes can prove difficult for teams which are lacking members experienced in this area. To better support teams in learning dry lab techniques, in the iGEM Video Universe, we introduced a playlist of videos called Dry Lab Impulse. This webinar series was made from past iGEM teams who have been nominated or awarded prizes for their work such as Best Model or Best Software Tool where they explain their work in detail. Teams may find these videos to be a valuable resource in gaining inspiration to develop their own dry lab projects this season.

ORIgin: Language Project

It is also important to consider the global nature of the competition–for many teams whose native tongue is not English, accessibility to these resources could be increased by having them available in different languages. The ORIgin Project tackles this issue by introducing an extensive database of synthetic biology learning material available in multiple languages. The interactive database contains material compiled from a variety of mediums including videos, articles, and others in languages including Catalan, English, Bahasa Indonesia, German, Dutch, French, Czech and Brazilian Portuguese.

Navigating an iGEM season

Phoenix Project

Once teams have committed to competing in the iGEM competition, there may be some initial struggles in figuring out what kind of project to pursue–especially when considering how diverse iGEM projects can be. One initiative known as the Phoenix Project offers an extensive database of essentially every project an iGEM team has produced since 2004. With all of these projects available on their respective wiki pages, it is quite a convenient tool to use to gain inspiration for your own projects for this iGEM season. What is more, the Phoenix Project can also allow teams to discover laboratory procedures and methodologies that have been used by past iGEM teams who have focused on projects of similar topics, making it easier to troubleshoot different technical issues that may arise during experimentation. Building upon the work of past iGEMers will ultimately enable iGEM teams to pursue an even greater range of intricate synthetic biology projects.

Academic Publishing

At the end of an iGEM season, so many highly developed projects of all different scales are produced. Some teams may become passionate in wanting to take their work even further by pursuing publication of their work. To those lacking familiarity, the process of publishing your research may seem a bit intimidating. Addressing this concern, the steering group of Academic and Research created a set of workshops for academic publishing which introduce you to scientific writing and walk you through the process of submitting and publishing your work through a series of talks by experts in the field. By watching these videos, you should hopefully feel more confident in taking your project that extra step forwards at the end of the iGEM season.

Reach out to us!

With all of that said, the best way we at iGEM Community can support you iGEMers is if you reach out to us and ask for help! We aim to make the iGEM season as simple as we can make it for you, and are here for you to use as a resource.

Contact information:

iGEM HQ: hq@igem.org
Ambassadors: ambassadors@igem.org
- Africa: africa@igem.org
- Asia: asia@igem.org
- Europe: europe@igem.org
- Latin America: latinamerica@igem.org
- North America: northamerica@igem.org
Topics:
- Academia & Research: academia@igem.org
- Bioart: bioart@igem.org
- Education: education@igem.org
- Government & Policy: policy@igem.org
- Industry: industry@igem.org
- Open Science & Accessibility: openscience@igem.org
- Science Communication: scicomm@igem.org
- Mentors Network: mentors@igem.org
- Women in STEM: wistem@igem.org