About iGEM

From 2006.igem.org

Problem

Can simple biological systems be built from standard, interchangeable parts and operated in living cells? Or, is biology simply too complicated to be engineered in this way? We believe in the possibility of engineered biological systems, with the only way to test such an engineering hypothesis being to try it out.

the iGEM Mission

Design competitions (i.e. the robotics competitions) have demonstrated the educational power of students facing engineering challenges in pursuit of their own design goals. We want to bring that educational experience to the field of biology.

Our research goal is to learn how to best design and build engineered biological systems. Our education goal is to enable all interested students to participate directly in the work of learning how to engineer biology. Our long-term goals are (1) to enable the systematic engineering of biology, (2) to promote the open and transparent development of tools for engineering biology, and (3) to help construct a society that can productively apply biological technology.

Overview

During MIT's Independent Activity Periods (IAP) of January 2003, student teams designed biological oscillators coupled to fluorescent reporters. These genetic blinkers were intended to improve on Elowitz's Repressilator. One team coupled two oscillators to even out the oscillations. Another used cell-cell signaling to coordinate the oscillators in a colony. During the January 2004 IAP, teams designed genetic systems to create cellular patterns varying from bull’s-eyes to polka dots and even dynamic designs where cells swim together. From these designs, standard biological parts were designed and synthesized.

Summer of 2004 brought the first Synthetic Biology Competition. Student teams from five schools (Princeton, MIT, Caltech, UT Austin, and Boston University) competed to build cellular state machines and counters. The teams came together for a jamboree in early November to compare their results. The most graphic project was "photographic biofilm" that could capture an image.

In the summer of 2005, student teams from thirteen schools (Berkeley, Caltech, Cambridge UK, Davidson, ETH Zurich, Harvard, MIT, Oklahoma, Penn State, Princeton, Toronto, UCSF, and UT Austin) participated in the 2005 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. Later, during the first weekend of November, over 150 of these students, instructors, and PIs came together for a jamboree to share and celebrate their work.

The iGEM 2005 student projects displayed the designs of chemotaxis regulation systems, cell-cell genetic communications systems, cellular/biological wires, thermometers, biological sketch pads (drawing systems), cellular relay races, a digital counter, and many more. These projects are described on the iGEM wiki (http://2007.igem.org).

While at this early stage none of the projects were fully functional, many of the required subsystems demonstrated correct operation. Some of the student teams are continuing to work on their projects. One surprising result of iGEM 2005 is that several of the schools have begun to incorporate Synthetic Biology into their undergraduate curriculum based on work from the 2005 event. Plans for the summer of 2006 are in effect.

At the core of these activities is the notion of a standard biological part that is well specified and able to be paired with other parts into subassemblies and whole systems. Once the parameters of these parts are determined and standardized, simulation and design of genetic systems will become easier and more reliable. The Registry of Standard Biological Parts has been created to achieve these goals.