In Conversation with Janella Schwab: Navigating the World of Synthetic Biology Through iGEM
Interviewed By: Dewuni De Silva and Rigel Tormon
2023 iGEM Ambassadors for North America
How did you hear about iGEM and what motivated you to join your first team? How long were you a part of iGEM for?
I started iGEM in high school seven years ago. I first learned about iGEM through my high school in Peru. While I had always been interested in different forms of biology, I had never thought about engineering. Being so young, it was difficult to comprehend the impact and importance of what I was doing in iGEM. But going to the Giant Jamboree as the first Peruvian iGEM team and seeing all the teams around the world do extremely exciting and crazy projects made me feel like I was part of the future.
How long have you been a part of iGEM?
In total, I spent one year in my high school iGEM team and three years with the collegiate iGEM team.
What was the most meaningful part of your iGEM experience?
Every year is such a different experience! Last year, I served as the director for the entire team at the University of British Columbia, and overseeing all the different groups was fulfilling as I witnessed how they interconnected and collaborated with one another. To choose a specific moment, I would say visiting a wheat farm for our integrated human practices. The opportunity to visit the farm and consult with experts proved invaluable, as I could see the real-world impact of the technologies we were developing and how to refine our project design based on the farmers' needs. It was also incredibly rewarding to witness everyone's excitement about the Jamboree and our final project at the end of the season!
How did iGEM inspire you to pursue your current career path?
I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with a diverse group of people and sharing our research with everyone at the Jamboree. Through iGEM, I also had the opportunity to conduct various research on plants, bacteria, and mammalian organisms, which solidified my interest in mammalian synthetic biology and human health research. I realized that graduate school could provide these opportunities on a deeper level, which led me to my current career path of pursuing a Ph.D. in bioengineering at Stanford University.
What skills or experiences from iGEM have translated well into your current career path?
Definitely the team aspect. iGEM helps a lot in going into industry and creating start-ups, but it also translates well into academia and doing a PhD. iGEM places you in a collaborative lab environment where individuals with diverse roles work together towards a common research goal. Additionally, iGEM's unique brainstorming stage sets it apart from other undergraduate research opportunities. You get to create your own project from scratch and brainstorm together. This is really similar to grad school where everyone is doing their own project, but it is a team with different expertise working together and bringing those experiences into the lab.
What is your message to anyone interested in joining iGEM but not sure if it is the path for them?
iGEM is whatever you want it to be.
At the end of the day iGEM joins so many different disciplines and there are so many different roles that there is something for everyone. Sometimes people are scared to join because they have no experience in the wet lab. But if you don’t want to work in the wet lab, you can work in the dry lab. Something unique about iGEM is that you start from scratch. So you don’t need previous experience in synthetic biology, as long as you are willing to learn and grow with everyone else on the team. As long as you find it interesting, you can take on various roles in the team, and take your experience in different directions. Without iGEM I would not have gone to grad school or done anything remotely close to what I am doing now.
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