This blog is where we share stories, announcements, and insights from around the iGEM community.
All tagged iGEM Competition
Our world has entered a new era of infectious diseases, where emerging, re-emerging, and endemic pathogens spread quickly, aided by increased international air travel and global warming. At iGEM, teams are tackling infectious diseases by using the tools of synthetic biology to reduce disease transmission, prevent future epidemics and pandemics, and save lives.
Starting an iGEM team and getting a project started in the iGEM Competition can be a challenge, even for returning teams. We have prepared this guide to help you understand what to expect throughout the iGEM Competition Cycle, whether this is your first time participating, or you are returning as a seasoned veteran.
You’ve formed an iGEM team. You and your teammates have decided on a project. You’re excited about the journey that lies before you. Now is the time to share the joy and excitement of your iGEM project with those who can help support and fund your team. Here are some ideas and resources to help you put together a fundraising plan.
iGEM is a journey – a journey that requires a plan. Though starting an iGEM team can seem daunting at first, here are some guidelines to help you begin.
The iGEM 2023 Grand Jamboree brought together over 3500 people to celebrate 20 years of iGEM, the heart of synthetic biology. This was the largest event to date, attended by synthetic biology researchers, industry reps, startup founders, investors, journalists, experts in governance and policy, and the general public, to glimpse the future of synthetic biology.
Teams that participate in the iGEM Competition are pioneers of synthetic biology, and these grants empower teams to secure funding for impactful projects in responding to climate change and biodiversity loss, enhancing human health, improving agriculture production and food security, scaling up the sustainable industrial production, and many other critical challenges.
The iGEM team wiki is the primary means by which teams communicate their entire project to the world. The wiki is essentially a website that provides background information, describes project goals, and shows experimental results. Like other forms of scientific publication, the wiki also includes references to acknowledge the work of previous iGEM teams and other research groups that have helped inform the current project. Importantly, the team wiki has been a key deliverable since iGEM first became an international competition in 2005, and is archived so it can be accessed by future teams and iGEM community members.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of iGEM, a non-profit organization dedicated to education of the next generation of researchers and entrepreneurs in the field of synthetic biology. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of IDT being a platinum sponsor of one of the most prestigious and sought-after synthetic biology (synbio) competitions in the world. To commemorate these two anniversaries, let’s take a look back on how iGEM began and how IDT is supporting the future leaders of synthetic biology.
In this blog, meet Marija Kesic, Research Assistant at bit.bio who transitioned from a former competitor to a mentor. She discusses the role she plays in supporting teams' work and explains the objectives of the mentorship programme and how it helps teams gain insights from someone with firsthand iGEM experience and receive guidance on various aspects of their projects.
We’re 250 years into the industrial revolution, which is about being good at energy. We’re 70 years into the computer revolution, which is about being good at information. Now we’re at the beginning of the next revolution, which is about being good at matter, and the best tool for that is biology.
When I first heard about iGEM in 2021, I was looking for a way to help mentor and communicate with younger scientists about their research. Though it was uncertain as to whether the Jamboree would be virtual or not because of COVID-19, I wanted to get involved. I applied and was accepted to serve as a judge.
Industrial scale-up helps bridge the gap between laboratory experiments and real-world implementation by addressing technical, economic, and practical challenges. Because industrial scale-up will require significant innovations if synthetic biology is to continue being a game-changing industry, the iGEM Competition has an entire Village dedicated to the challenges of industrial scale-up.
Yeast spores are typically not considered a problem in most situations. However, yeast spores can become problematic under certain circumstances. To help mitigate this risk, all teams who want to work with spore-forming fungi, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, must first complete a Check-In Form to get permission from iGEM’s Safety and Security Committee.
As the iGEM Competition evolves each year, so does the way we do judging. For example, the last major changes occurred during the pandemic years and made it possible for all teams to participate whether they could access a laboratory or not. Now that pandemic restrictions have eased and teams are back in the lab, the Judging Committee has reviewed the judging criteria and the feedback we received, and have defined a few goals for the 2023 Competition.
The experience that you are about to begin is truly unique. You will be given the opportunity to dream up solutions with your multi-talented team, gain meaningful insights by engaging directly with the very stakeholders who you wish to impact, and learn how to advocate for your ideas to gain the space and funding to execute on them. An iGEM Project is a crash course in the essential skills that are needed to bring a project to life.
More diverse and inclusive teams produce greater innovation and overall better science. Yet, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields still exist within demographic bubbles due to the systemic and persistent exclusion of people based on gender, or ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, or other reasons. iGEM’s new purpose is to make sure that the field of synthetic biology, and all of the power that this technology holds, gets developed everywhere by everyone.
I wasn’t supposed to be at the 2011 iGEM Jamboree at all. I was working for a funding agency in the US Department of Defense. My boss was invited to iGEM to see what the competition was about. I was pulled onto his trip at the last minute. After arriving in Boston, I was informed I would serve as a judge in my boss’s place. He didn’t stick around for the whole weekend. I am still a part of iGEM 11 years later.
Initially, team wikis were created using MediaWiki – a ground-breaking (at the time), open source, collaborative platform. But there have been tremendous advances in software development since then, most notably the creation of Git – a software developer’s dream.
The iGEM Competition, as the name implies, is a competition. Presenting your work to a panel of judges at the end of the season is an integral part of the iGEM experience. This year, judging for the iGEM Competition will take place live during the Grand Jamboree at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Here is what to expect for judging of the iGEM 2022 Competition, for both judges AND teams.
One of the big challenges facing the field of synthetic biology is the ability to obtain reliable and repeatable measurements in different labs – a key component of all engineering disciplines. Over the past several years, iGEMers have been tackling this challenge through the International InterLaboratory (Interlab) Measurement Studies.
