An Amazing Start to an Exceptional Year
by iGEM HQ
“In a few short weeks, with the hard work and participation of this entire community, we’ve gone from ‘Is iGEM happening?’ to this – an astonishing number of teams (over 300) and the official opening of the competition in a way that has never happened before.”
Screenshot of iGEM HQ and After iGEM Coordinators during the Opening Weekend Welcome session
And so began the iGEM 2020 Opening Weekend Festival, the first of many examples of how the iGEM community is overcoming the challenges and thriving in this exceptional year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over half of the attendees were newly minted iGEMers who are joining teams for the first time. And the response from all of the teams participating in iGEM 2020 has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve already begun to upload the videos, and over the next few weeks will be sharing blog posts from the many iGEM community members who participated. In the meantime, we’d like to share some of the sentiments expressed during this momentous and joyous weekend.
From Wiring the Past & Future: A Transition for Engineering Biology (YouTube)(Bilibili):
“I believe in risk taking. I know that can sound confusing and hard, especially when we are in such an uncertain environment, but it’s so much fun to take risks... Always be looking for the new thing … Talk to people from lots of different backgrounds, don’t get siloed… Start new things, don’t be afraid, and if somebody tells you not to, then that is more the reason why you should do something … You are the future; we want to listen to you … Be nimble, be open-minded, listen to everything, think about all kinds of ideas.”
“There’s a set of critical world problems – water, food, energy, pollution, and as we are seeing increasingly today, health. All of these are problems that are directly amenable to biology as potential solutions. I hope that you will be the people who go and solve some of these critical world problems, these sustainable development goals, and lead us into a better future.”
“What is the story we are telling ourselves? Is it a story grounded in love? I hope it is, because that’s really what iGEM represents incredibly well. And right in front of us for the first time ever seems like the capacity of transitioning humanity from living on the planet to living with the planet. So how about we go do it?”
“What I see as particularly exciting about this moment is that people are amazing under design constraints and we have the possibility to take a moment and ask - What do we wish? - and to share those stories.”
Screenshot of the Keynote session participants top left to bottom, Pamela Silver, Megan J Palmer, Tom Knight and Drew Endy.
“The question asked by children in Africa is not What will I eat today? it’s Will I eat today? And GMOs have the opportunity of enabling them to eat today. There is nothing in this life that we do that doesn’t carry a certain amount of risk. If there is a risk involved in GMOs, in my view it is a very tiny risk but is one well worth taking because the advantages to the 800 million people who go to bed hungry every night are enormous. I don’t want to see anyone go to bed hungry at night.”
“Communicating science and embedding it in the views and perspectives of broader society is something that sits at the middle of what we do at iGEM. There is a lot of focus on Human Practices – teams thinking about how their work affects the world, and how the world affects their work. I’ve learned more about science communication from listening to iGEM teams talk about what they are trying to do, than I ever have from any course on media training or public communications. It’s outstanding.”
“We want to diversify the number of problems we can work on together as a humanity to face climate change or to face a crisis such as the COVID-19 crisis, and to do it in a way where everything that is being produced can be reused and is openly accessible for the greater good. iGEM has been working the same way – you have teams that work actively and successfully in designing potential solutions that are very attractive and could not have been done naturally in a normal start-up because it would have been too risky. Imagine if you have millions of people collaborating with each other, the number of problems you’d be able to target and solve would be enormous.”
“Many of the projects that we see at the Jamboree every year have huge potential to do a tremendous amount of good in the world. We’d like to see those projects go forward to create some impact. In EPIC we work on supporting the community of over 150 start-ups and founders around the world working on relevant challenges – in food, health, water – using synthetic biology as a driver of innovation and accelerating our transition to a sustainable bioeconomy.”
From Frugal/Low-Cost Science:
“Today is about celebrating iGEM in a time when synthetic biology is growing faster than ever. There is no doubt we can develop new microorganisms capable of benefitting humankind. The scientific tools of biological engineering are what make it possible to engineer the microorganisms we are capable of developing. Additionally, frugal science has made it possible to rapidly advance our knowledge of natural components and networks that will allow us to better design optimal cells.”
“iGEM has basically changed my life three times. Each time it has been something completely different and some completely new experience that I am proud to be a part of, and this year is no different. Everyone’s both private and work lives have been disrupted by the pandemic, but it has also brought really big opportunities to start adapting and advancing and improving some of the amazing things that iGEM is already doing.”
“As we all know, 2020 is a different year. The pandemic made of all of this feel difficult and it changed our lives. It pushed us to think and reflect about the current solutions to those challenges. However, it also provided the possibilities to experiment and explore.”
“We are all here to help you succeed. Ask us any questions you may have. When you send an email to hq@igem.org, any one of the core staff at iGEM HQ may send a reply. We want to wish you all good luck as the season progresses, and we’re really excited to see how you take on this challenge of this exceptional year.”
Nemanja Stijepovic, Director of Video & Remote Technology, behind the scenes during the Opening Weekend Festival
In closing, we wish to thank all the contributors and attendees that helped make iGEM history with this first-ever iGEM Opening Weekend Festival. As the iGEM 2020 season progresses, we anticipate many more fresh and new experiences for iGEMers. This is truly an exceptional year, and we’re eager to see the exceptional creativity, drive, work and success of the iGEM 2020 teams!
