How it all began
In 2003 at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) an independent study course took place, where students developed biological devices to make cells blink. In 2003 this course became a summer competition, called SBC – Synthetic Biology Competition. But it soon evolved into a international competition that schools outside of the USA also participated in and thus, iGEM was born.
“iGEM” stands for “International
Genetically Engineered Machine”
As iGEM grew and gained recognition internationally, many changes were made to the competition. Today iGEM is a non-profit organization where students use engineering and synthetic biology to tackle local or global problems in categories such as health, industry and environment. They compete to accomplish medal criteria for awards and work together to achieve their goals while also educating youths and the general public on the topic of synthetic biology. The teams then present their projects at a giant Jamboree in Paris in the autumn. Annually about 350 teams from 46 different countries participate in the competition.
Multidisciplinary student teams from all over the world compete for medals and awards by designing, building, and testing projects using cutting edge synthetic biology. Teams document their work through deliverables like wikis, videos, and presentations, and are evaluated by expert panels of judges. […] Projects aim to have a positive impact and solve real world problems in the local community.
igem.org
Impact and outreach
But iGEM is not only about medals and awards – even though no one will deny that it’s the main part for most of iGEMers. Over time many branches of this organisation developed to provide a needed space for different aspects of this competition.
One of the most essential aspects of iGEM is “The Registry of Standard Biological Parts” which now holds over 20.000 biological parts. These genetic parts are standardized, which makes them compatible with each other and easy to use. The goal of a unified system is to facilitate the creation of new biological systems and devices. All parts in the Registry are available for iGEM teams and academic labs and are open source. What’s more, it’s a community-made database, where everyone can profit from existing results or parts and add their own.
Beyond the lab bench
It’s easy to presume that all science is done in the laboratories at universities or research centers. However, the iGEM competition encourages participating teams to include safety, ethics and education in their projects.
Safety in iGEM includes not only standard lab protection measures, but also how the project impacts the world. Asking questions like who will benefit from the project, how to safely manage its use or application, and how to dispose of it if something goes wrong are essential in the iGEM competition.
We foster a community that is mindful and responsible about the development, application, and impact of their work, both inside and outside the lab.
igem.org
Another big part of each project is Human Practices. Being a medal criteria for silver and gold medals, completing them is crucial to advance towards the biggest awards in the competition. Human Practices is all about responsibility, urging the teams to assume a perspective of care, foresight and ethics while developing their projects.
iGEM may at first glace seem geared towards STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) but underlining the importance of safety, security and responsibility as well as outreach and education among the future generations of scientists, also allow participants from various other subjects such as economy, law and social sciences to participate in the competition.
Want to know more? Check out iGEM’s official webpage.