iGEM
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| IGEM | |
|---|---|
 iGem logo |
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| Date | 30 October 2009 – 2 November 2009 |
| Location | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, USA |
| First occurrence | 2003 |
| Last occurrence | Present |
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is the premier undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition.
Contents |
[edit] Competition details
Student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells. This project design and competition format is an exceptionally motivating and effective teaching method. It differs radically from most high-level educational experiences in that the participants often begin with limited backgrounds in science (many are first- or second-year undergraduates).
[edit] Biological systems / BioBricks
Randy Rettberg, the director of the iGEM competition, likes to say that iGEM addresses this question: "Can simple biological systems be built from standard, interchangeable parts and operated in living cells? Or is biology just too complicated to be engineered in this way?"
The only way to answer this is to actually try to engineer biological devices. The iGEM competition facilitates this by providing a library of standardized parts (called BioBrick standard biological parts) to students, and asking them to design and build genetic machines with them. Of course, students are welcome to make their own BioBrick standard biological parts as well. Successful projects produce cells that exhibit new and unusual properties by engineering sets of multiple genes together with mechanisms to regulate their expression.
Information about BioBrick standard biological parts, and a toolkit to make and manipulate them, is provided by the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, or simply, the Registry. This is a core resource for the iGEM program, and one that has been evolving rapidly to meet the needs of the program.
[edit] Broader goals
Beyond trying to answer the question above, broader goals of iGEM include:
- To enable the systematic engineering of biology.
- To promote the open and transparent development of tools for engineering biology.
- And to help construct a society that can productively apply biological technology.
iGEM’s dual aspects of self-organization and imaginative manipulation of genetic material have demonstrated a new way to arouse student interest in modern biology and to develop their independent learning skills.
[edit] Growth and recent years
iGEM has grown rapidly, from just five teams in its first year (2004) to over 110 teams and more than 1100 students in 2009.
The 2009 iGEM Jamboree was held between October 30 and November 2, 2009, and the 2010 event is currently in the planning stages.
[edit] Competition results
| Finalist | Finalist | Finalist | Finalist | Finalist | Grand Prize Winner | Complete Results | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Imperial | Freiburg-bioware | Groningen | Valencia (2nd runner-up) | Heidelberg (1st runner-up) | Cambridge | iGEM 2009 Results |
| 2008 | UCBerkeley | Harvard | NYMU-Taipei | Caltech (2nd runner-up) | Freiburg (1st runner-up) | Slovenia | |
| 2007 | UC Berkeley | Paris | Ljubljana | UCSF | USTC | Peking | iGEM 2007 Results |
| 2006 | Princeton (2nd runner-up) | Imperial (1st runner-up) | Slovenia | iGEM 2006 Results | |||
| 2005 | iGEM 2005 | ||||||
| 2004 | SBC 2004 & IAP 2004 | ||||||
| 2003 | IAP 2003 |
