This blog is where we share stories, announcements, and insights from around the iGEM community.
All in iGEM Blog
You are probably familiar with Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, the archetypal cautionary tale for science experiments that are not responsible or good for the world. Did you know that Mary Shelley conceived of the idea when she was 18 years old and forced inside all summer with a small circle of family and friends?
The iGEM 2018 Interlab study, which was just published in Nature Communications Biology, presents a cheap and easy protocol for estimating cell count and per-cell fluorescence on plate readers.
Judges start learning about your project by reading your wiki. Then, when we’re filling out our judging ballots, we look over the wiki again to make sure we’ve remembered everything right. So what does this mean for how you tell your story?
Through iGEM Insights, we aim leverage data from iGEM as a unique open and international testbed to both improve the competition and the practice of synthetic biology (and science and engineering more broadly) beyond the competition.
It was through attending the Biological Weapons Convention as an iGEM Delegate that I realized how neglected biosecurity issues were and fully embraced the duty that scientists have to engage with policy-makers.
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.
At iGEM, it is important to give credit where credit is due. Indeed, integrity, honesty and respect are among the iGEM values that all teams are expected to uphold.
The SDGs are 17 goals that are set to be achieved by the global community by 2030, and they represent indicators of technical progress and societal goals that we and others can help strive to achieve. In particular, the SDGs are a way for institutions to align their resources and to open communications and engage with stakeholders in addressing the global challenges we face.
We invite you to join your fellow iGEMers from all over the world to connect, collaborate and celebrate at the first-ever iGEM Global Meet-up. With over 50% of the activities led by iGEM 2020 teams, the iGEM Global Meet-up is your chance to meet and engage with your fellow iGEMers!
Many people, including researchers, entrepreneurs, civil servants, and activists, want to solve global challenges, but are limited because they typically work only within their own institutions and don’t necessarily have access to the right resources.
The iGEM Measurement Committee is happy to help you learn about the concepts, tools, and resources that are available to iGEM teams. In this post, we address three questions:
What is cloning and gene assembly?
Why is cloning and gene assembly important?
How is cloning and gene assembly done?
At Benchling, our mission is to fundamentally transform how biology research is done. We accomplish this through developing software that eliminates busywork and enhances collaboration for all scientists, including iGEM teams.
Good teammates make you learn and grow. We had gone from being a team to being a family. Deadlines were approaching. Summer passed. Classes began at the university, and we worked to make our course loads as compatible as we could with the final experiments we needed for our iGEM project.
In designing your iGEM project, we encourage you to consider: Who is included in your project design? Who benefits from your research? Will anyone be disadvantaged? Although you may want your iGEM project to benefit society, even your best intentions can have unintended consequences, especially for groups that are already disadvantaged.
The 2020 iGEM Season is quite a bit different from previous years, and the Executive Judging Committee (EJC) has made some exciting changes to the medal criteria so that all iGEM teams can participate and achieve medals – with or without lab access – this year.
The iGEM competition should be a challenging, fun, and rewarding experience. But like all science and engineering, every iGEM project has some potential to cause harm. And so iGEM has a number of policies in place, as well as dedicated committees, to help teams do the best science and engineering possible – maximizing benefits for the world while at the same time minimizing any chance of harm.
iGEM is a unique space for a diverse range of students because iGEM actively attempts to encourage and support students from around the world to participate in its competition and community. But for the mentors or instructors in the room, what do you do actively to ensure that a diverse range of students in your program feel welcome and included?
We know that many teams this year will want to work on COVID-19, and we believe you have much to contribute. In this exceptional year, we want you to be able to do the most important science and engineering possible … AND … we want to make sure you can do that safely and securely.
