This blog is where we share stories, announcements, and insights from around the iGEM community.
All in iGEM Blog
It’s been over a year since the World Health Organization officially declared that COVID-19 was a global pandemic. At that time, we were uncertain whether iGEM 2020 would even take place. Thanks to the dedication of the iGEM community and the resilience of the teams, iGEM 2020 became one of the most amazing seasons, bringing with it new approaches and technologies for making iGEM accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Access to clean, fresh water is a privilege many may take for granted. Yet, according to the United Nations, 2.2 billion people around the world lack access to safe water. World Water Day, held annually on March 22, is dedicated to raising awareness about the global water crisis and focusing attention on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: access to water and sanitation for all by 2030. In honor of this day, we’d like to highlight the accomplishments of iGEM teams tackling the global water crisis with synthetic biology.
The first iGEM Ambassadors were appointed in 2006 and charged with helping each team, in particular new teams, to ensure that they have a successful experience. Although this pilot program did not continue, many of the 2006 iGEM Ambassadors continued in their synthetic biology careers and remain connected to the iGEM community.
The iGEM Mentorship Program has been providing mentorship opportunities to iGEM teams and alumni since 2015. We at the iGEM Education Network have continued to analyze data from the program, to make improvements and better serve iGEMers around the world. This year we plan to launch two new initiatives – the Mentors Network and EduHall.
March 4th is World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development. In honor of this day, we’d like to highlight the accomplishments of iGEM teams engineering biological solutions for global challenges as articulated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Currently, Africa is responsible for only 1% of scientific research output. By getting young student scientists involved in iGEM, we are facilitating the contribution and progression of research. By starting so early we are hoping this allows the developing countries across Africa, and across the world, to actually contribute and be an integral part of this revolution, rather than being a spectator for a while and becoming involved later on in the process.
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 countries where the Lunar New Year is recognized as a traditional holiday.
Do you remember the first time you ran a successful PCR? Was it in the last few months? The last few years? Or so long ago you don’t want to admit it? For high school students, that first successful PCR might have resulted on work from this year’s iGEM project. Let that sink in for a minute…
I did iGEM as a student and for the first time my work had a user. We had a concrete problem we were trying to solve; we had to think about a platform for our user to interact with our biology. I was working on a team of engineers, programmers, designers. iGEM forces you to take a wholesome approach to solve a problem, and that's just a perfect taste of the real life.
Celebration is integral to the iGEM journey. Being happy and grateful for the milestones reached can help us through the challenges and difficult times we may face in forging a better future with synthetic biology.
Since beginning in 2003, iGEM has inspired thousands of students to build a better world by using synthetic biology to solve local problems and tackle global challenges. Now as leaders in academia, government and industry in over 45 countries, iGEMers are significantly advancing synthetic biology and contributing to society.
The iGEM community is a wonderfully diverse group of people from all over the world who are passionate about developing and applying the tools of synthetic biology to address the challenges facing our world today.
Here we are in the future, and iGEM 2021 promises to be bright as ever. This year, we will again embrace the 4 C’s of iGEM – Competition, Community, Contribution and Celebration – as we welcome returning and new iGEMers to the 2021 season.
From the COVID-19 pandemic, iGEM has emerged stronger than ever before, with new paths for advancing synthetic biology and making iGEM available to virtually every community across the globe.
The iGEM Video Universe is a decisive milestone in creating the future iGEM. For the first time, it is possible to watch (or even binge-watch) the Project Promotion Videos and Presentation Videos from every team participating in the iGEM competition, as well as Keynotes, Workshops, and Interviews from the iGEM 2020 season and Virtual Giant Jamboree.
If we could choose one word to describe the iGEM 2020 Virtual Giant Jamboree, it’s resilience. In the eight months since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, we’ve seen incredibly resilient iGEM team members, instructors, judges, committee members, sponsors and community members emerge as role models and heroes. And their resilience shone throughout the ten days for Competition, Community, Contribution and Celebration at the iGEM 2020 Virtual Giant Jamboree.
In this exceptional year, iGEM teams have journeyed down a path that is different from any previous year, and far more challenging, exciting, and rewarding than any of us could have imagined. As we approach the eve of the 2020 iGEM Virtual Giant Jamboree (VGJ), we invite you to imagine your journey through the 4C’s of the iGEM VGJ: Competition, Community, Contribution, Celebration.
Each year since iGEM began, our community has gathered in-person to marvel at and celebrate the achievements of the teams in engineering biological solutions for global challenges and building the field of synthetic biology. Our in-person gatherings provided a wealth of novel opportunities for conversation, and fostered an easy and candid exchange of ideas and opinions, encouraged by the simple fact that everyone had left their offices and campuses behind.
We are excited to present this interview series to celebrate women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). The main idea of this interview series is to inspire the current and next generations of women and girls who are interested in science. For this series, we gathered speakers with diverse backgrounds and experience from different regions, all of them doing amazing jobs and leading their fields.
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?
