This blog is where we share stories, announcements, and insights from around the iGEM community.
All in iGEM Blog
iGEM’s new purpose is to make sure synthetic biology gets developed everywhere by everyone. Yet, how can we talk about “synthetic biology” all around the world when most scientific papers (and podcasts, blog posts, et cetera) are still developed and shared only in English?
Tomorrow (August 12) is International Youth Day, a day designated by the United Nations to celebrate youth as active partners in the global society. This year’s theme “Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health” aims to highlight the meaningful participation of young people in transforming food systems – from the infrastructure needed for feeding a population, to nutrition related chronic disease and unsustainable farming practices.
Upon logging into the Virtual Jamboree, I was pleased to see the spirit of collaboration, diversity, and inclusion come to life. The energy and enthusiasm of each team was contagious. Within hours, it was obvious that the teams that would emerge as leaders were those who embraced this interdisciplinary, supportive philosophy, allowing each member to contribute different perspectives and unique skill sets.
World Hepatitis Day serves to raise awareness of the global burden of viral hepatitis, an infectious disease causing inflammation of the liver, leading to cirrhosis, liver cancer and death, that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In honor of World Hepatitis Day, we’d like to highlight some of the iGEM teams that have focused on hepatitis through the years.
There is no “right way” to do iGEM for everyone. Some teams begin their projects in November, while others start in June. Some teams have less than 5 members, while others have over 50. And of course, iGEM teams hail from many universities, high schools, and community labs across the world. Whatever the size or composition of your team, you need to find the best way for your team to work together.
At iGEM, we don’t see safety and security as just a set of rules to follow or a list of dangers to avoid. Rather, we think you can’t know whether you’re engineering biology to be good for the world if you haven’t thought about engineering it to be safe and secure. Who is supposed to think about it? We expect everyone in our community, especially teams themselves, to take responsibility for identifying and managing risks from iGEM projects.
Synthetic biology has unveiled a world of potential for improving the society around us. In recent years, genetic engineering tools have enabled the development of low-cost diagnostics platforms, personalized medicines, and environmentally-friendly chemical manufacturing processes. However, it is not always straightforward to know what societal problems to tackle or how to tackle them.
Last year during the pandemic, iGEM teams created 500 videos – videos about their projects, their teams, the problems they are solving. Even before the pandemic, we imagined that videos would be an ideal way for iGEM teams to present their work to the world.
At iGEM, we believe synthetic biology can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, helping us to build a society that meets the needs of all people within the means of the planet. In the words of Dr. Elizabeth Bennett during her Sustainability Keynote at the 2020 Giant Jamboree, “synthetic biology gives us a set of tools that we didn’t have before to potentially inform the way we do conservation”.
If you want to solve a real-world problem using synthetic biology, you can’t just study microbes. At some point, you’ll need to study people―their diverse values, opinions, and priorities―too. In addition to the basic requirement of “don’t break the rules or the law” set out in our human subjects research policy, it’s important for your team to take some time to think about how to treat every person participating in your research with respect.
The United Nations has proclaimed 2021 – 2030 as the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. This week, on June 8, many countries around the world joined the UN in celebrating World Oceans Day, a day for inspiring action to protect the oceans and sustainably use marine resources. In honor of World Oceans Day and this important decade, we’d like to highlight the accomplishments of iGEM teams using synthetic biology to restore, preserve and protect the oceans.
There have been many definitions of synthetic biology over the years, but I especially like the definition offered by my friend and colleague, Megan Palmer: “Synthetic biology is a community, a field, and an approach”. I find her definition quite telling because it shows just how unique what we are doing at iGEM actually is.
As true engineers, the iGEM community continues to iterate on and improve the innovations of past years to make them even better. Thanks to the hard work of the creative production team, the event hosts, and the many iGEMers who shared their stories, the iGEM 2021 Opening Weekend Festival celebrated the start of the iGEM season as a truly inspiring event created by iGEMers for iGEMers.
May 22 is the International Day for Biological Diversity. First observed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, this day recognizes that biodiversity is the foundation for several sustainable development challenges. In honor of this day, we’d like to highlight the accomplishments of some of the iGEM 2020 teams engineering biological solutions to restore and preserve biodiversity.
“iGEM is about local people solving local problems everywhere in the world, and we see that in the projects that iGEMers do. We see there were problems iGEMers saw that some venture person in Silicon Valley would never pay attention to, but for iGEMers, in their environment and in their world, those were important.”
With over 340 teams (and counting …), we are looking forward to an amazing array of virtual events and activities where you will have an opportunity to meet and get to know your fellow iGEMers from all over the world.
It's no easy task talking about failures or blunders, even within the scientific community, a field wherein failure is a feature and not a bug. So, as assumed, writing this article was not an easy assignment. Our mistakes, failures, and blunders taught us invaluable lessons. But it was, just like our mistakes, a part of the journey, and the journey proved to be as crucial as is the destination.
Tomorrow is Earth Day. Observed on April 22 each year since 1970, Earth Day marks the birth of the modern environmental movement and is celebrated by over a billion people worldwide. Many important environmental events have taken place on Earth Day, including the signing of the Paris Agreement that established a framework to combat global climate change.
Imagine a community of more than 50,000 people, spread around the world, that share the same love and passion as you do for Synbio, innovation, open science and solving problems – that is the iGEM community. Now imagine expanding and strengthening this magnificent community through the Global Alliance of Regional SynBio Associations.
Inside iGEM we have a strict Do Not Release policy that keeps our projects inside the lab. If these projects are ever going to be part of real-world solutions then – sooner or later – they will need to work outside of the lab. In 2021, we are substantially increasing the time and effort we devote to considering how to do that safely, securely, and responsibly.
