Throughout the competition we’ve had the opportunity to meet people from the Synthetic Biology community and other fields of Science thanks to workshops, seminar and conference days we attended or by just contacting them.

These interactions definitely shaped our project and gave us a broader view of the scope of Synthetic Biology and iGEM.

Here, we share with you a few of these encounters and what we drew out of them.

SynBio Soc conference in Oxford

To start the summer with a boost, the team made a road trip to attend the Oxford iGEM conference.

Meeting for the first time other iGEM teams was definitely the highlight of the event. There was a real buzz and we came back vibrant to start our project.

Exchanging project ideas helped us by allowing us to gage which of our initial ideas caught the interest the most.

The drive home cam all too soon.

“The aspect that struck out the most was the comradery and friendliness of all the teams. You didn’t feel competitive rivalry; it was really about sharing ideas”

Randy Rettburg

"Effort, Integrity, Openness"

Randy came to meet the team in June. He told us about his start in computer design, how he met Tom Knight and his vision for iGEM. “Find the truth, stick to it and have fun”, he told us.

Getting a historical perspective of iGEM placed the competition in a wider context: iGEM is driven by students like us! Speaking to him made us feel part of this movement, striving for openness, open exchange of ideas, parts, information and resources that we all contribute and take from.