by iGEM HQ

Relive the Global meetup by visiting:
https://2020.igem.org/Teams/Global_Meetup/Relive

The pandemic was a disruption for everyone in our community – it changed the way we work, the way we meet, and the way we do our jobs. But disruption is often followed by innovation. And nowhere has this been more evident than in the iGEM 2020 season. Our long-term plans of virtual participation were fast-tracked into a few short months. Together with you, the iGEM 2020 teams, we grew and became better at doing new things. Now videos and remote participation have become the new normal for all of us. You still organize just as many meetups as any other year. And we’ve held events and engaged with teams like never before.

Three months ago, we kicked off our first-ever iGEM Opening Weekend Festival. A short three months from now, we will have an exceptional iGEM Virtual Giant Jamboree: a 9-day event focused on competition, community, contribution and celebration. Now, we celebrate the success of yet another first – the iGEM 2020 Global Meetup – where we joined together, not just in one place, but in 250 places across the globe.

The iGEM 2020 Global Meet-up celebrated the diversity and international spirit of our community, with more than half of the events and activities organized by the iGEM teams themselves. We’re updating our website so you can enjoy videos of the sessions and the Team Spirit Posters. While that is happening, you can check out highlights from the Welcome Ceremony, where the iGEM Ambassadors take you on a virtual tour of iGEM around the world:

iGEM Latin America, hosted by Daniel Dominguez and Cibele Nascimento

Latin America is rich in nature, culture and diversity. Here, you will find natural beauties such as the Amazon rainforest, the Andes, and the Galapagos Islands, as well as many other stunning places. We are also the home of multiple cultural identities from ancient native civilizations to immigrant ones. Our participation in iGEM couldn't reflect less than this amazing diversity.

Latin America has been participating in iGEM since 2006 and has had 136 teams. A total of 11 countries have been represented in the iGEM competition, and this year we will achieve the mark of 140 teams. Beyond the amazing teams participating in iGEM this year, we also had many events and initiatives, hearing from more than 150 iGEM alumni from our region and working to bring the Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities closer together. This is truly an amazing year, and we couldn't be more proud of the things Latin America has achieved so far.

iGEM Europe, hosted by Carolina Elizondo and Nerea Capon Lamelas

Europe is one of the most populated areas for iGEM teams with more than 63 teams participating this year in the Jamboree. European teams are working on very different projects that go from wastewater treatment to antibiotic resistance, helping to solve some of the most depressing issues of our society and also spreading the word of synthetic biology.

The conditions this year have been different from previous years, but teams have managed to overcome many obstacles and have worked on amazingly different projects, showing that Europe is a region that is punching up its’ weight in terms of innovation. We have been creative with Human Practices, and have organized amazing meet-ups. We have adapted to the situation and seen it as an opportunity to form closer connections between teams.

Synthetic biology research is strong here in Europe and iGEM teams will keep contributing to this. We really admire the hard work this year’s iGEM teams have been doing during the last months despite the circumstances. We're really excited to see that you keep working on your projects and we cannot wait to learn more about them during the Giant Jamboree!

iGEM Africa/Middle East, hosted by Alex Kyabarongo and Nana Oye Djan

Africa is one of the richest continents for natural diversity. If you want to be part of the most exciting journey of life, come to Africa. We are known for the gorillas in Uganda. If you go to the south, you will find the most interesting Kalahari Desert. If you go to the west, you will find the most exciting cultures in Africa. So come to Africa, iGEMers, and enjoy your stay here. We’ll welcome you with a big hug from all the African iGEMers!

2020 has been a tough year, but our perseverance is strong and we are getting there. This year we have three teams in Africa, from Egypt and Ghana, taking up projects in therapeutics and environmental health. Your iGEM experience might be different, but that's okay because at the end of it we all have one thing in common – an amazing experience with iGEM.

We invite you all to collaborate with the teams in Africa. Let us share and have fun!

iGEM Asia (China), hosted by Jeff Hu

China joined the iGEM competition in 2007 with 6 teams. Just five years later in 2012, that number more than quadrupled and grew to 29 iGEM teams. And last year in 2019, that number quadrupled again to a total of 113 teams, with 46 high school teams and 67 collegiate teams. We have teams in almost every major city, and many iGEM high schoolers in China have joined the collegiate iGEM teams around the world, or even introduced iGEM and started their own first iGEM team in their university.

iGEM is here to stay with us in China. For example, my team was in the competition for more than four years, and I know many teams have been participating in iGEM since they first started. As a former iGEMer, I am extremely proud to be part of this community. Moreover, I'm more than happy to say that we are supporting each other in as many ways as possible. The Chinese iGEM community is active, with many collaborations within teams happening throughout the season. The Conference of China iGEMer Community (CCIC) was founded by Chinese iGEM teams more than seven years ago and is now held annually, attracting a large portion of iGEMers in China.

Teams are collaborating this year during the COVID-19 situation. As an iGEM Ambassador, I’ve joined several online meetups this year and I think we are doing an amazing job. We can still share, chat, collaborate and, most importantly, smile to each other over zoom. And if one day your team decides to host your own meet-up, the iGEM Ambassadors will be more than willing to join. We want to hear your voice and chat with you!

iGEM North America, hosted by Melody Wu, Sara Far, and Yoshi Goto

iGEM began in 2003 as an independent study course at MIT, where students developed biological circuits to make cells blink. The next year, it grew to include five teams (two on the east coast and three on the west) and they were sponsored by a grant from the NSF. The following year, iGEM became an international competition out of the eastern United States.

iGEM teams in North America have done a myriad of amazing projects – from developing biosensors for water quality impacted by oil and gas extraction, to creating leucine zippers for tunable synthetic biology, to bio-origami and bacterial adhesion. In 2011, iGEM team Washington won the BioBrick trophy; their project became a startup called PVP Biologics, which was recently acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals for 330 million dollars. In 2013, UC Davis had an entrepreneurial iGEM team, which created the company Ambercycle. This company still exists today as a late stage startup creating sustainable clothing with multi-million venture-backed funding and their own operating facility.

As neighbors to the United States, Canada has been a participant in iGEM since 2005 when a team from the University of Toronto attended the competition as one of the very first international participants. Canada's presence at iGEM has grown, and now almost all major universities in Canada have been sending a team to the Jamboree every year. iGEMers in Canada have gone on to create a splash in the industry as well, founding Canada-based biotech companies such as Hyacinth Bio, SquidBio, and FREDsens Technologies.

Despite exceptional challenges, we’re excited to see so many teams involved in the iGEM 2020 competition. Have an awesome time and we’ll see you at the Jamboree!

iGEM Asia (Australia and Japan), hosted by Zeeshan Siddiqui, Ryo Niwa and Kaavya Ashok

This year we are pleased to welcome three iGEM teams from Australia and four iGEM teams from Japan. In 2020, we are facing huge difficulties and changes due to COVID-19. But iGEM teams are benefitting by connecting with each other through online platforms, with the iGEM Global Meet-up as one good example.

No matter how far apart we are, we can still connect and collaborate to come up with innovative solutions. iGEM team projects from Asia range focus on a variety of challenges – from nicotine’s negative effect on the environment and the human body, to solving the problem of eutrophication, to genetic circuit modeling. We welcome collaborations and wish good luck to all the teams at the Jamboree!

iGEM Asia (India), hosted by Varsha Jaisimha

Namaste! Today, I and some of the iGEM teams from India will be introducing you to our region. What we love about India are:

the delicious Dosas of South India (if you haven’t had a Dosa yet, seriously do visit and try!)
the sheer amount of cultures that coexist here together
we call the rivals of our beings as precious to our life – the land of such love is acknowledged as India
the diversity that you find here, and the food of course
the festivals (a million people partying!)
the ancient Hindu temples, whose architecture still stands erect and breathtaking

India is one of the growing platforms for young scientists and entrepreneurs, which makes it a great ecosystem for new iGEM teams to bloom. The iGEM experience can be a total roller coaster ride to be honest. But at the end of the day, you get to learn so much when you are working on a new idea right from the start – just you and a bunch of other students working day and night. Those nine months could never be forgotten, especially the atmosphere and experience of the Giant Jamboree. More perspectives on iGEM from India are:

iGEM made me love biology!
I started this journey alone in the direction of my destiny, but people joined along the way and it turned into a caravan.
The iGEM competition taught me a lot about science and its’ applications.
iGEM is all about grabbing coffee at midnight. It’s about discovering a different side of science.
Due to the competition being completely online this year, I have learned the importance of mathematics and computer science in biology
iGEM has played a major role in my ideological development. It has helped me not only to learn science, but also to inculcate public speaking and presentation skills, instill the confidence to take my own decisions, and imbibe values of team spirit.

Even though the pandemic poses a very unique set of problems this year, it has also made it easier for teams to connect meaningfully from all across the globe (and you also do get the bragging rights to say that you have worked on your project through a global pandemic!). On one hand, unlike iGEM teams from previous years, we are unable to make use of our institute's laboratories for experimental work. On the other hand, the virtual aspect of iGEM 2020 has inspired us to reach far and wide to teams across the globe and initiate a vast collaborative communication.

Our advice to you is:

Never give up my friend!
It’s like they say: Coming together is the beginning, staying together is progress, but working together is victory!
Stick around with respect to iGEM’s initiatives and keep your chin up!
Take this unique year to explore and experiment with all the other things you would have otherwise never tried.
Even if you are not able to physically participate in the competition, you can break the barrier and rise to march forward towards the iGEM medal!

iGEM Europe (United Kingdom), by Nemira Zilinskaite

The UK iGEM teams and I have decided that the best way to represent the United Kingdom is the diversity we have in our region, through a series of interview-style questions to show how important the UK is in the synbio community, and how important synbio is in the UK:

Can you describe in one word how your team is dealing with COVID-19?

Surviving
Virtual hugs
Online thriving

Can you describe your project in one word?

Sustainable
Innovation
Unexpected

What is the most exciting discovery or research from your institution?

First working computer
Magnetic resonance imaging
Researching language development by teaching seals to sing

If your team was a micro-organism, what would it be and why?

Myxococcus xanthus, because we form wolf packs
Studium sporogenous, because that’s all we’ve been talking about lately
the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, because we're many headers and we work as one supercell

What do you think is your team’s superpower?

We’re not allowed to tell anyone
Telekinesis
Polymorphism

And finally, would you recommend the UK to your friends?

Meh…
Go Scotland!

I hope with our diversity we contribute to the iGEM community a lot, and I hope the UK will always stay as a very important part of iGEM in the future.

and last but not least … iGEM HQ

With lots of virtual hugs from Boston, Paris, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Pakistan and Montenegro, we hope you enjoyed the iGEM 2020 Global Meet-up. We look forward to seeing all of you again for 9 glorious days of Competition, Community, Contribution and Celebration at the iGEM 2020 Virtual Giant Jamboree in November!