This blog is where we share stories, announcements, and insights from around the iGEM community.
All in iGEM Blog
Animals are used in research for many different purposes, including as models for the human body and as test subjects for food or medicine intended for animals. Unfortunately, one of the most common reasons that teams are disqualified from the iGEM Competition is for violations of our Animal Use Policy. The policy requires that teams get approval from the Safety & Security Committee before beginning experiments involving animals or animal samples.
Accessibility is key to iGEM’s new purpose of making sure that the field of synthetic biology, and all of the power that this technology holds, gets developed everywhere by everyone. In this episode of iGEM TV, I interview two special guests – Annika Shi from China and Cibele Zolnier from Brazil – both of whom are part of the iGEM Community’s Open Science & Accessibility Network. Check out this interview where we discuss some of the outstanding iGEM projects from the 2021 Jamboree that focused on accessibility.
Thank you to the hundreds of iGEMers, community members, and volunteers who joined last weekend's Opening Day Kickoff event! During the webinar, we covered an overview of this year's Competition requirements, and introduced many core concepts including engineering, safety and responsibility, and human practices. Keep reading for a summary of what was discussed, including links and presentation slides from the meeting.
There is nothing new about information (info) hazards. We are all familiar with the national security implications of information. Widespread knowledge of certain information can change our risk environment. For example, we keep the precise schedule of our leaders out of the public domain to make it harder for anyone planning them harm to be able to act on it. It is the knowledge of where they will be, when, and what steps we are talking to protect them that poses an information hazard.
Joining the iGEM Competition is no easy feat, and teams face countless obstacles as they progress through an iGEM season, whether that is troubleshooting in the lab, overcoming bugs in their wiki code, or interpersonal conflicts within the team itself. Even when faced with these issues, it is important to know that you are not alone in your struggles, and here in the iGEM Community, we have generated a number of different resources that will hopefully help to lessen the challenges you may be facing.
When James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, and colleagues published their seminal work on the double helix structure of DNA in 1953, scientists were at a turning point in understanding how genetic material works. Now, just 70 years later, graduate, undergraduate, and even high school students apply their knowledge of how genetic material works to engineer biology itself; using it to address the world’s biggest problems such as climate change, biodiversity, human health, and more.
When you think of India, what comes to mind? Teams from India have a long history of participating in iGEM, known by most as the premier international synthetic biology competition, and the organization that helped to establish the synthetic biology industry. When you think of India, we invite you to think of local people solving local problems throughout every region of India using the tools of synthetic biology. That is the vision of iGEM Indian League.
What exactly is an “iGEM team”? Over the years, iGEM has evolved and expanded to accommodate new groups that want to participate, and to improve the iGEM experience by refining the kind and composition of teams, the roles of team members, and the sections in which the teams compete. We’ve put together some guidelines to help you understand the anatomy of an iGEM team.
We asked iGEMers in different places around the world about the challenges they are facing when it comes to building their local synthetic biology ecosystems and advancing the engineering progress of biology. We learned that specific challenges vary not just between global regions, but between countries and localities as well. In keeping with iGEM’s new purpose of making sure that the field of synthetic biology, and all of the power that this technology holds, gets developed everywhere by everyone, we are developing the iGEM Leagues.
World TB Day is March 24, which marks the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacterium that causes TB – Mycobacterium tuberculosis – opening the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease. Despite being preventable and treatable, TB is still one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, second only to COVID-19 in 2020. This year the theme of World TB Day is “Invest to End TB. Save Lives”, reflecting the urgency to invest resources to end the global TB epidemic by 2030.
Bolivia’s need for scientific innovation inspired the formation of iGEM Bolivia, a student organization that seeks to create both a scientific community and a movement to advance bio-innovation in Bolivia. Students from four different regions of Bolivia (La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca) expressed interest and took the critical and important first step of finding and recruiting other students who were interested in learning the intricate details and methods of synthetic biology. Together they formed a team of more than 57 students who are eager to develop synthetic biology-based solutions in the near future that solve local challenges.
Now more than ever the world needs synthetic biologists – talented and passionate people who are building a better world by engineering biology. iGEM is known by most as the premier international synthetic biology competition, and the organization that helped to establish the synthetic biology industry. But in 2022, iGEM has grown to be so much more than just the competition.
This Friday – March 4 – is World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development, a United Nations’ international day for celebrating engineers and engineering. It’s a day to recognize the critical role of engineers in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure that everyone has access to clean water, sanitation, reliable energy, and other basic human needs. In honor of World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development, we’d like to highlight the accomplishments of iGEM teams in engineering biological solutions towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Every year, hundreds of fascinating projects are developed by iGEMers to face the pressing challenges of our time and innovate for the future. I invite you to check out my interview with Maarten Lubbers as we discuss projects from the iGEM 2021 season that focus on biodiversity conservation. These are very different projects using very different approaches by iGEM teams from different continents around the globe.
On Friday February 11, the United Nations will observe the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. We’d like to honor the International Day of Women and Girls in Science by raising awareness about the projects and events of the Women in STEM initiative (WiSTEM).
With over 3K downloads and listeners from 37 different countries, iGEM Podcasts combines the creativity of writing and media with the intellectual fascination of the field. Here’s a recap from 2021 of all the amazing conversations on iGEM Podcasts with those who are shaping the future of synthetic biology and our lovely blue planet.
The end of an iGEM competition season brings a time of both reflection and renewed hope. As we look back on iGEM 2021 — another challenging season to be sure — we are inspired by the iGEM community’s remarkable resilience and interconnectedness. Amidst the ongoing pandemic, where teams continued to face uncertainties over lab access, data collection obstacles, and travel restrictions, the iGEM community found even more ways to support and connect with one another.
Can you imagine how the future would look if local people solved local problems everywhere in the world? To envision such a future, 25 teams from 8 Latin-American countries, comprising 480 students, took on the challenge of applying biological design to solve local problems in iGEM Design League 2021.
This year, 350 teams of student scientists and engineers from 46 countries and regions worked creatively and tirelessly to push the frontiers of synthetic biology – with or without access to a laboratory. They have identified important local problems, presented their ideas for engineering biological solutions, addressed tough questions about the safety and security of their work, and sought innovative ways to include ever more diverse groups of people.
As an iGEM alumnus, you automatically become a member of iGEM Community, and your iGEM pin becomes a memento symbolizing this vibrant and active community – Welcome to iGEM Community!
