iGEM Bordeaux’s team is composed by university and school of ingeniery’s students, all reunite around a same field : biology.

Instructors

Dr. Denis DUPUY

After a Master of Science in Molecular and Cell Biology at Université Bordeaux Segalen, he did his Ph.D. thesis in human genetics in the laboratory of Dr. Benoit Arveiler at the University of Bordeaux (1998-2001) working on positional cloning of schizophrenia susceptibility gene. He then joined the group of Dr Marc Vidal, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Harvard Medical School, Boston, Ma) for a post-doctoral training in systems biology. There, he acquired the tools and methods needed to perform systematic analysis of spatiotemporal gene expression in vivo in C. elegans.

Dr. Elisabeth GARANGER

Graduated in 2001 as a Chemical Engineer from ENSC Clermont-Ferrand with a Master’s degree in Biological Organic Chemistry, she pursued her education with a PhD in chemistry and biology at the University of Grenoble. Under the supervision of Profs. P. Dumy and M.-C. Favrot, she dedicated her research to peptide-based vectors targeting tumors and their associated neo-angiogenesis. In 2006, she joined the Center for Molecular Imaging Research (Harvard Medical School, Boston, Ma) as a post-doctoral fellow and worked on contrast agents for multimodal molecular imaging. In 2009, she returned to France in the group of Prof. S. Lecommandoux (LCPO, Bordeaux) to contribute to a European project aiming at developing polymer-based nanoparticles for imaging and therapy of cancers. Elisabeth Garanger joined the IECB as team leader in October 2010.

Dr. Marie Beurton-Aimar

After obtaining her PhD at the university of Bordeaux in 2000, she has obtained a position in 2001 at the University of Bordeaux in the department of Science of life to teach programmation, software engineering, modelling in biology to biologist. Her main research topics are: Structuration of biological data and analysis of biological networks; Simulation of biological processes with multi-agent systems; Segmentation of medical or biological images with social agents.

Students

Zohra Leprovost (1st year of Master’s degree in Genetic)
Synthetic biology is more than ever at the centre of economical and industrial stakes in agro, pharma, energy, biosensors and synthetic chemistry fields. This project is perfectly integrated in my course as future genetic scientist. It allowed me to go deeper into details, to improve my skills in molecular biology (cloning strategies and processes, normalization) and to get a multidisciplinary approach in problems. The iGEM in an unique adventure which gathers rigorousness, autonomy and team work integrated in a project that allows interesting meetings with people sharing the same passion.

Jean-Rémy Brossier (3rd year of Bachelor’s degree in Biology)
In the last 40 years, technological advancement in health has been dazzling. Thanks to this, several new scientific fields emerged like synthetic biology, nanotechnology, biotechnology… Synthetic biology is one of the principal stakes of the next years. The iGEM competition has the goal of making synthetic biology known thanks to the involvement of students. I have been in the iGEM team of Bordeaux last year and I wanted to start over this year. The values taught by this competition (helping each other, cooperation, team spirit) correspond to my own vision of what is biology. It is also an opportunity to acquire knowledge in specific domains that are less known (thanks to the multidisciplinary team). iGEM is an ideal occasion to begin with my wish to become a genetic researcher and to expand my network in this field, while meeting people sharing the same passion.

Mounir Benkoulouche (3Y Biotechnology engineer student at ENSTBB)
I am a third-year student in MS of biotechnology in a French engineering school. I've been involved in the iGEM since two years. After the first year of participation, I was utterly motivated to renew this incredible adventure. This time, my job was to recruit a team and then to supervise the theoretical work during the meetings, giving a hand on all the aspects thanks to the experience from my first participation. Even if I couldn't take part in the labwork due to my synthetic biology internship at Evolva SA, I am one hundred percent with my teammates to win a gold medal in Boston!

Hiba Ben Mohamed (Licence 3 Biologie Santé parcours Biologie Moléculaire Cellulaire et Physiologie)

Biology is a science which always evolves as years pass. Its combination with engineering concepts gave birth to synthetic biology. This particular field contributes to the conception of microorganisms with the capacity of achieving different biological functions, useful for many applications (industry, environment, health). The iGEM represents the future discoveries, realized by students eager to learn and this participation will help me to enrich with both personal and professional aspects. As I would like to dedicate my career to research in microbiology, the iGEM allows me to acquire new skills and to work in a team in order to help each other to fulfill the objectives.

Edouard TOURDOT (2ème année de Biologie Santé à Bordeaux Segalen)
I’m a 23 years old student in 3rd undergraduate year in biology. Sciences and more especially biology interest me from my childhood. The iGEM competition allow me to feed my curiosity about synthetic biology, I love the idea that you can barely try to create what your imagination tell you to do. I think we can hit the gold medal, and I already know I want to be part of the aventure again. Amir NAAR (Master 1 Bio-informatique) The iGEM is a worldwide competition involving students from all across the globe. They meet each year to defend their project and I wanted to be part of the team that will defend the project of Bordeaux. I am a student in bioinformatics passionate by new technologies and at the interface of these two fields. I find it particularly interesting all the applications that hard sciences can bring to the world of living sciences in order to understand them better. The iGEM is a formidable human adventure gathering teamwork, collaboration and solidarity. Each team member can bring a brick to build the whole edifice, and it is also a very original and efficient method to learn more while following a real research project almost from scratch.

Lauriane NATHOU (Master 1 Biologie et Biotechnologie des plantes et des champignons)

In several fields, synthetic biology is an innovative alternative which can bring solutions for fundamental research, pharmaceutics or in ecology. Working on microorganism is essential and the original ideas brought by students are more likely to be the beginning of tomorrow big discoveries. Following this mentality, the iGEM competition allows a blossoming at short and middle terms by provoking a strong healthy rivalry. My experience from last year brought me a lot and I would like to have the opportunity to go even further this year to highly bring the work of the team of Bordeaux.

Diane BUGEAUD (Première année à l’ENSTBB)

Biology is everywhere, all around us. This makes it a wide field to explore and the discoveries left to be done seem countless. The everlasting biological evolution makes it attractive and also fascinating. Synthetic biology is fast-growing and the fields in which it is used are numerous like conception of new drugs, new recyclable materials, biofuels. The current and future needs destined it to a bright prospect. The iGEM will allow me to acquire deeper knowledge, to learn fast and to get the useful experience needed for my future career of engineer. This scientific competition gathers all the biology-passionate which makes it a unique human adventure.

Besson Xavier (1ère année en école d’ingénieur ENSTBB):
Biotechnologies are booming and will be without a doubt at the center of many fields in the next few years. Throughout the complexity of the resources provided by nature and the techniques that always progress, the prospects for biotechnologies are varied and numerous (personalized medicine, energy sources). The iGEM allows students to be at the heart of innovation by imagining every year experiments vying of originality and ingenuity. On a more personal level, this experience represents for me the occasion of exchanging with people from different horizons, gathered around a common passion: biology. This is also the occasion to follow the evolution of a scientific project, from the idea to its conception and to familiarize with my future job as an engineer.

Julien CAPIN

I discovered the iGEM competition thanks to TV. Back then I was just in high-school and I did not know what to do for my studies. I was literally fascinated to see hundreds of students presenting all more ambitious than the others. I think it was the sign and that is why I am now an engineer student in biotechnology, and of course, an iGEMer!

Geoffrey DE OLIVEIRA (Première année d’études d’ingénieur en biotechnologies à l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Technologie des Biomolécules de Bordeaux - ENSTBB)
The biotechnology field is fast-growing and progresses at an exponential level since a few year. It is separated in different fields like synthetic biology. It allows the conception of biological devices by modifying bacterial genomes for food-processing, therapeutic or environmental goals. It is also applied to other very interesting fields. The diversity and complexity of organisms bring more and more knowledge to researchers and engineers, allowing the conception of new technologies always more powerful thanks to synthetic biology. The worldwide contest iGEM hosted by the prestigious MIT allow us all, students, to create our own synthetic biology project and to share the generated knowledge and our passion with other students from all around the world. This competition is before everything else a human experience. For me it was also a huge opportunity to live a real research experience with a dynamic and multidisciplinary team, allowing me to confront the real challenges met by a biotechnology engineer.

Cassandra Sabas
I’m 23 years old and I’m currently finishing my studies on biomaterials and medical devices at the University of Bordeaux. I heard about iGEM competition while I was looking for a facultative internship for my master. A friend of mine, who was a member of past iGEM Bordeaux’s team, talk to me about the project of iGEM Bordeaux for this year and I was really excited about it, I wanted to be a part of it so here I am !

Lauriane NATHOU (1st year master student in Biotechnology at Bordeaux University)
I'm a student of the Master of Biology and Biotechnology of Plants and Fungi. I think Synthetic Biology is the key to development in many application fields such as environmental, health, malnutrition issues and many others. I knew the IGEM competition two years ago and I wanted to contribute to this project of a scientific point of view and also with the aim to popularize synthetic biology : which is the domain of future. I really appreciate the atmosphere of « co-petition » prevailing at the IGEM.

Ismael Mullor Ruiz -5th Year of License in Biotechnology at Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (Spain)-

Taking part on this contest was almost mandatory for me. As Former 2012 Valencia iGEM team member, I had previously had a very positive experience with the contest: it was one on my first contacts with the reality of the lab working, the variety of ideas that we had and those we observed on the rest of the teams was trully mind-broading and mind-bending and I also made some of my best friends ever during that experience. So I thought that taking part again on the contest (in an unplanned manner I have to admit, since it was the last thing I expected to do during my Erasmus) trying to have the best of that experience with some extra experience would be positive- so it has been. About the current project I have to admit that the first thing about it that fascinated me was the multidisciplinarity of the approach, its implications on the green chemistry field and its potential applications for tissue engineering scaffolds.

Hiba Ben Mohamed
My name is Hiba im passionate by science and music this is why every morning i set on fire all the lab ^^ i discovered IGem on TV and i sated next year i'll participate to this amazing experience and now im representing my city with a fabulous project i met people from all the world and this contribute to make me more mature and competent !

Justine Turlin

I am a second-year student in MS of biotechnology in a French engineering school. I discovered the IGEM Competition through other students of my school who joined the Bordeaux team the previous year. They told me that it’s an incredible experience in the scientific and human angle and they could not be so right. It was my first time taking part in a scientific project of this scale and I greatly appreciate to have this opportunity, so thanks you guys. My job during the project was to research informations for the theoretical work and take part in the labwork. My name is Claudia Smith mena. This is my second time that I participate in this competition and this is absolutely my best experience. The team and the various people who have intervened in the project were able to set up something where everyone can be proud of. I meet someone with who I link a solid friendship but also helped me gain skills and autonomy significant for the future

Schools and faculty

The school trained biotechnologies engineers providing to firms A-level executives which skills are recognized and appreciated by french and foreigner employers

University of Bordeaux is a place of freedom, creativity and responsability. In direct drive with society challenges, it contributes to her development through creation, transmition and valorisation of knowledge so far as the promotion of the critical thought.