What is iGEM?
iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) is an international student competition in synthetic biology. This year 246 Teams are taking part.
The students are given the opportunity to plan and execute their very own research project. This consists not only of the labwork, but also surrounding stuff like fundraising, organising a team and public outreach as well as all the other parts of a succesful project like learning to build your own website.
This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the competition with the final being held in Boston, MA. The event is organised by the iGEM foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Cambridge, MA, which spun out in 2012 from MIT.
What is synthetic biology?
Synthetic biology is the design and assembly of new biological parts, devices and systems as well as the changing of known or natural biological systems for a specific purpose. It is often called "Biology as an Engineering science".
Therefore all iGEM contributors are working with standardized parts from a shared database, the Registry of Standard Parts. Every newly developed part is put into the database for the following to use and improve upon.
Where can i get more information?
If you want to know more about iGEM in general you visit their website www.igem.org. If you want to know more about the different teams and their projects you can check our Team overview which also includes links to every teams websites.
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