This blog is where we share stories, announcements, and insights from around the iGEM community.
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.
Students are not exposed to application-based perspectives until later in their careers. In awareness of this deficit, the iGEM Indian League designed the upcoming High School Workshop, "Synthetase: Synthesize your SynBio Journey" with the goal of providing the principles and skills that future young scientists will need to lay the groundwork and motivate them to pursue careers in this field.
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.
Unirse a la competencia iGEM no es algo sencillo, y los equipos participantes pueden enfrentarse a un sinúmero de obstáculos conforme avanzan en la temporada iGEM; ya sea la solución de problemas en el laboratorio, en el código de la wiki, o conflictos interpersonales dentro del propio equipo. Incluso cuando te enfrentas a estos problemas, es importante recordar que no estás solo en estas batallas, y aquí en la iGEM Community, hemos generado una serie de recursos diferentes que te ayudarán a disminuir los desafíos a los que te puedas enfrentar.
Participar da competição iGEM não é coisa fácil, e as equipes participantes podem enfrentar uma infinidade de obstáculos à medida que avançam na temporada iGEM; seja resolução de problemas no laboratório, no código na wiki ou conflitos interpessoais dentro da própria equipe. Mesmo quando você está enfrentando esses problemas, é importante lembrar que você não está sozinho nessas batalhas, e aqui na Comunidade iGEM, reunimos alguns recursos diferentes para ajudar você a diminuir os desafios que você pode enfrentar.
iGEM Competitionに参加することは、簡単なことではありません。iGEMシーズンの期間中、ラボでのトラブルシューティング、Wikiコードのバグの修正、チーム内の人間関係の対立など、数え切れないほどの問題に直面します。このような問題に直面しても、自分たちだけが苦労しているわけではないことを知ることが重要です。iGEMコミュニティでは、皆さんが直面する問題を軽減するのに役立つ様々なリソースを作成しています。
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.
Biotechnology is currently one of the fastest growing industries in India with a massive boom in the past 5 years. But while a lot of biotech infrastructure and resources exist in the country and technological advances have allowed the cost of sequencing and DNA synthesis to drop, this was not directed towards Synthetic Biology.
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.
La necesidad de innovación científica de Bolivia inspiró la formación de iGEM Bolivia, una organización estudiantil que busca crear tanto una comunidad científica como un movimiento para avanzar en la bioinnovación en Bolivia.
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.
We had a truly amazing year - find out all about what EPIC has done and how we’ve helped foster a great ecosystem of biofounders from all around the world!
![[ES] Una guía completa de recursos para los equipos de la competencia iGEM, por la iGEM Community](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c0571c05cfd7950e5a84c99/1651037636200-5EIGRFWNQGUDA2M5J47O/31913997238_fe416b932d_k-cropped.jpg)
![[PT] Um guia completo de recursos para as equipes da competição iGEM, pela iGEM Community](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c0571c05cfd7950e5a84c99/1651034416583-YEDR8MYEKYPFTEUBFHWR/30845350447_8b776a26e2_k-cropped.jpg)
![[JA] How to have a Grand iGEM Competition experience: Introducing resources from the iGEM Community](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c0571c05cfd7950e5a84c99/1651031074611-EXFR7M7528DQ5Y4RG5UF/49055846281_47a61c34f5_o.jpg)
![[ES] iGEM Bolivia: Un movimiento científico para el acceso a la bioinnovación](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c0571c05cfd7950e5a84c99/1647014622675-3PCP8K96CKOFVLR32VWP/T--Bolivia--Team.png)
