iGEM and Lunar New Year 2021
February 12th marked the first day of the Lunar New Year for 2021. Known by many names –Chinese Chunjie (Spring Festival), Indonesian Imlek, Korean Solnal, Tibetan Losar, Vietnamese Tết – the Lunar New Year marks a new beginning, with hope for a bright and better future. iGEM is an international community of people from all over the world who are passionate about using synthetic biology to build that bright and better future.
Today, we’d like to celebrate the many contributions from iGEM teams in places* where the Lunar New Year is recognized as a traditional holiday.
Photo by Vernon Raineil Cenzon on Unsplash
The Early Years
2006
Chungbuk National University became the first team from the Republic of Korea to participate in the iGEM competition.
2007
Five teams from Mainland China (Peking, Tianjin, Tsinghua, USTC, CPU) and one team from Taiwan (Taipai) participated in the iGEM competition.
2008
NTU-Singapore from Singapore; HKUSTers and iHKU from Hong Kong, NYMU-Taipei and WEGO_Taipei from Taiwan, and Beijing_Normal, CPU-NanJing, Peking_University, Tianjin, Tsinghua, USTC from Mainland China participated in the iGEM competition.
2009
CBNU-Korea and KU_Seoul from the Republic of Korea; NTU-Singapore from Singapore; HKU-HKBU and HKUST from Hong Kong, NCTU_Formosa and NYMU-Taipei from Taiwan, and PKU_Beijing, SJTU-BioX-Shanghai, Tianjin, Tsinghua, USTC, USTC-Software from Mainland China participated in the iGEM competition.
The Next Ten Years
From 2010 through 2019, as more students learned about iGEM and became excited about synthetic biology, iGEM teams continued to form all across Asia. Highlights from these years include:
2010
Peking received the award for Best Environmental Project; and USTC_Software received the award for the Best Software Tool.
2011
SJTU-BioX-Shanghai won Best New BioBrick Device; Hong_Kong-CUHK won Best New Natural BioBrick Part and Best Experimental Measurement Approach; HKUST-Hong Kong won Best Presentation; ZJU-China was the Grand Prize Winner for Asia.
2012
BAU-Indonesia became the first collegiate team from Indonesia to participate in the iGEM competition.
Beijing_KH and UISGZ_MaLab_China from Mainland China; and CSIA_SouthKorea, HAFS_Bioholics, Korea_Science_Academy, CSIA_Korea from the Republic of Korea became the first high school teams from Asia to participate in the iGEM competition.
Fudan_D received the Safety Commendation; NYMU-Taipei won Best New Natural BioBrick Part; OUC-China won Best Model and Best Experimental Measurement Approach; Tianjin won Best Poster; USTC-Software won Best Software; Peking won Best Presentation and Best Wiki; SYSU-Software won Best Genome Compiler Design and Best Clotho App; SJTU-BioX-Shanghai won Best New BioBrick Device and was the Grand Prize Winner for Asia.
2013
Hong_Kong_CUHK won Best New Engineered BioBrick Part; Peking won Best New Natural BioBrick Part and Best Parts Collection; SYSU-China won Best Software Project; ZJU-China won Best Experimental Measurement Approach; Tsinghua won Best Presentation; Tianjin won Best Poster; Shenzhen_BGIC_ATCG won Best Wiki; OUC-China won Best Model.
In the Overgrad division, Hong_Kong_HKUST won Best Wiki; SYSU-China won Best Model, Best New Natural BioBrick Part and Best Wiki; NYMU-Taipei won Best Environmental Project, Best Presentation, Best New Engineered BioBrick Part, Best Parts Collection, and Most Improved Registry Part.
2014
Sumbawagen from Indonesia received the first iGEM Chairman’s Award; SYSU-China won Best New Composite Part; and SYSU-Software won Best Software Project; NCTU_Formosa won Best Environmental Project and Best New Basic Part.
2015
Tianjin won Best New Application and Best New Basic Part; Peking won Best Part Collection and Best New Composite Part.
In the High School division, HSNU-TAIPEI won Best Applied Design and Best Integrated Human Practices; Shiyan_SY_China won Best Education and Public Engagement; SKLBC-DGSYZX won Best Supporting Entrepreneurship; TJU won Best Energy Project; TAS_Taipei was the Grand Prize Winner.
2016
NCTU_Formosa won Best Applied Design, Best Parts Collection, and Best Presentation; Nanjing-China won Best Energy Project; Peking won Best Environment Project; SCAU-China won Best Education & Public Engagement, Best New Application, and Best Plant Synthetic Biology; SYSU-MEDICINE won Best New Composite Part and Best Therapeutics Project.
In the Overgrad division, NTU-Singapore won Best Measurement Project and Best Wiki; and TJUSLS_China won Best Environment Project.
Hong_Kong_UCCKE became the first high school team from Hong Kong to participate in the iGEM competition.
In the High School division, TAS Taipei won Best Education & Public Engagement, Best Model, and Best Part Collection; Mingdao won Best New Composite Part; HSiTAIWAN won Best Applied Design and was the Grand Prize Winner.
2017
Fudan won Best Therapeutics Project; NCKU_Tainan won Best Environment Project; SZU-China won Best Manufacturing project; Shanghaitech won Best Hardware; SYSU-Software won Best Software Project; UESTC-China won Best Plant Synthetic Biology.
In the High School division, SMS Shenzhen and Shenzhen_SFLS won Best Presentation, Mingdao won Best Applied Design and Best New Basic Part, TAS Taipei won Best Wiki and was the Grand Prize winner.
2018
RIS_BKK became the first collegiate team from Thailand to participate in the iGEM competition.
Jilin_China won Best Part Collection; LZU-CHINA won Best New Composite Part; NCKU_Tainan won Best Environment Project and Best Presentation; NEFU_China won Best Information Processing Project; OUC-China won Best Foundational Advance; UESTC-China won Best Energy Project; SZU-China won Best Manufacturing Project and Best Product Design; UCAS-China won Best Open Project; UESTC-Software won Best Software Project.
In the Overgrad division, NTU-Singapore won Best New Basic Part.
In the High School division, TAS_Taipei won Best Entrepreneurship; SUIS_Shanghai won Best Education & Public Engagement; GreatBay_China won Best Wiki, Best Poster, Best Model, Best Product Design, Best New Basic Part, Best New Composite Part, Best Part Collection, and was the Grand Prize Winner.
2019
UM_Macau became the first collegiate team and PuiChing_Macau became the first high school team from Macau to participate in the iGEM competition.
ECUST_China won Best Manufacturing Project; NUS_Singapore won Best Foundational Advance and Best Part Collection; Tsinghua won Best New Application and Best New Composite Part; UESTC-Software won Best Software Project; and NCKU_Tainan won Best Therapeutics Project, Best Presentation, Best Model, Best Hardware, Best Measurement, and was the Grand Prize Winner.
In the High School division, GENAS_China won Best Model; Mingdao won Best Supporting Entrepreneurship and Best New Composite Part; GreatBay_SZ won Best Wiki, Best Presentation, Best Hardware, Best New Basic Part, Best Part Collection, iGEMers Prize, and was the Grand Prize Winner.
An Exceptional Year: iGEM 2020
All iGEM teams showed tremendous resilience in this exceptional year of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Despite limited or no access to a laboratory, over 100 collegiate and high school teams from the Republic of Korea; Thailand; Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China participated in the iGEM 2020 competition. Highlights include:
2020
XMU-China won Best Food & Nutrition Project; Jilin_China won Best Open Project; NCKU_Tainan won Best Hardware; NCTU_Formosa won Best New Composite Part; XMU-China won Best Part Collection; Fudan won Best Sustainable Development Impact;
In the High School division, Korea_HS won the iGEMers’ Prize; PYMS_GZ_China won the Inclusivity Award; BHSF and Hainan_China won Best Project Promotion Video Prize; GreatBay_SCIE won Best Hardware, Best Integrated Human Practices, Best Model, Best Supporting Entrepreneurship, and Best Wiki; TAS_Taipei won Best Education, Best Measurement, Best New Basic Part, Best New Composite Part, Best Part Collection, Best Poster, and was the Grand Prize Winner.
A New Beginning: iGEM 2021
Just as the Lunar New Year marks a new beginning for many, the start of the iGEM 2021 season marks a new beginning for the iGEM community. We look forward to welcoming teams from all over the world to iGEM 2021, and are excited to see their creativity and innovative capacity as they build a brighter and better future with synthetic biology.
*Places may refer to a country, region, province, or other economic area.
