Written by IISER Pune II
What is IGEM?
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and the development of an open community and collaboration. This is done by fostering an open, cooperative community, and friendly competition.
iGEM’s biggest program is the iGEM Competition. The iGEM Competition gives students the opportunity to push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling the issues faced by the world. Made up of primarily university students, multidisciplinary teams work together to design, build, test, and measure a system of their own design using interchangeable biological parts and standard molecular biology techniques. Every year nearly 6,000 people dedicate their summer to iGEM and then come together in the fall to present their work and compete at the annual Jamboree.
The IGEM competition inspires thousands of students each year to work in teams to address unique challenges in their local communities. It celebrates team achievements at the annual Giant Jamboree by showcasing projects from participating teams and awarding medals, prizes, the grand prize, and the BioBrick trophies. IGEM Inspires responsible innovation through its efforts in biosafety, biosecurity and public outreach.
iGEM sets the standard in synthetic biology with standardized parts.
IGEM community
The iGEM community is made up of international trailblazers from over 45 countries around the world. In 2017 iGEM launched the After iGEM program. This program supports over 40,000 iGEMers - students and instructors - who have gone through the competition since its inception in 2004. This global network is leading the field, taking what they learned in the competition and expanding it to continue to build a better world.
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.
iGEM's History
iGEM began in January 2003 as an independent study course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where students developed biological devices to make cells blink. This course became a summer competition with 5 teams in 2004 and continued to grow to 13 teams in 2005; it has now expanded to 353 teams in 2019, reaching more than 40 countries.
5 Interesting iGEM projects
1.Openplast by Team Marburg 2021 (1)
Climate change presents agriculture with the biggest challenge in the history of humanity. Higher temperatures, droughts and flooding will cause even greater complications and will further stress our food supply chain.
To tackle these challenges we need crops, which can withstand all these issues. But one problem we are currently facing is the speed of innovation in crop breeding and improvement, which is far too slow.
The team has successfully developed cell-free systems of chloroplasts for various plant model organisms and industrially relevant crops to accelerate the design-build-test-learn cycle of plant Synthetic Biology. This technology, offers a drastic time reduction for the genetic engineering of different plants.
This technology offers several advantages, such as high precision genetic engineering via efficient homologous recombination, the absence of transgene silencing, the possibility of transgene stacking in synthetic operons and the potential for high-level expression of gene products.
2. Rapidemic by Team Leiden 2020 (2)
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of testing capacity, as isolating infected individuals is crucial to restrict the disease spread among the population. A limited testing capacity can result in many infected individuals going undiagnosed, creating an inaccurate estimation of actual infections during an outbreak. This poses a threat to disease-control and can increase the number of cases. A rapid point-of-care testing kit like 'Rapidemic' would allow for faster and more frequent testing, which is essential to the containment of infectious diseases. The rapid diagnostic response will aid in controlling the outbreak and will reduce the number of cases.
A huge drawback of PCR-like nucleic acid amplification tests is that it requires expensive measures like thermocyclers, laboratories, and skilled operators. Antigen-based tests on the other hand take a long time to develop, while a rapid diagnostic response is crucial. Antibody tests cannot be used in the early stages of infection.
This project includes the development of proof-of-concept for a label-free, easy-to-use diagnostic device. Its testing method is designed to detect the DNA or RNA of pathogens, thereby allowing for identification in the early stages of infection. Furthermore, it only requires the addition of primers to make the kit species-specific. This creates a modular design that can quickly and easily be adjusted to fit any pathogen. The goal was to make the device accessible to everyone, regardless of geographic location.
3.Elixio by Team Toulouse INSA-UPS 2021 (3)
Perfumes influence perception in our daily life. Perfume reality is not so glamorous as most are issued from non-sustainable processes. This is especially true for scents impossible to extract from so called mute flowers like the violet. Elixio project aims to demonstrate that valuable fragrances could be easily recreated using synthetic biology, even by a small team of students. The team has designed a synthetic consortium involving engineered cyanobacterium and yeast and allowing a sustainable production of the violet scent molecules from atmospheric CO2. They have successfully engineered both strains to conditionally express all the enzymes necessary to recreate the violet fragrance. Moreover, they had demonstrated the production of ionone by their yeast which smells like violet! The Elixio project has already drawn attention from the industry and they are definitely proud of the new openings created between IGEM and the world of perfumes.
4. Remy by NU Kazakhstan 2021 (4)
Increasing demand for oil & gas production in modern days pushes for higher production and distribution rates. The occurrence of oil spills in such processes is not unusual and the vast majority are left unaccounted for. Existing treatment methods are only efficient for localized spills shortly after the accident, while in the long-term they are expensive and hazardous to Kazakhstani endemic flora & fauna. This project proposes a solution to this problem by developing a novel agent for crude oil bioremediation - Remi, du et!. Specifically, they modify nonvirulent Pseudomonas putida using a dual-inducible system for overexpression of genes nadE and rhlA/B, coding for NAD synthetase and rhamnolipids, respectively. The metabolically-engineered bacteria demonstrate a high yield of rhamnolipids when grown as biofilms under electrofermentative conditions. Since produced rhamnolipids are biosurfactants that emulsify crude oil, the resulting product can be used directly for the treatment of oil spills in ecological sensitive areas.
5. Aprifreeze by UNILausanne 2021 (5)
Late spring freezes cause frost damage in plants, which results in important crop losses, notably for apricots in the Swiss region Valais. When the temperatures drop below zero, ice crystals form and destroy sensitive plant tissues. This problem is exacerbated by Pseudomonas syringae. Syringae, a common pathogen of apricot trees producing an ice-nucleation protein that promotes ice crystal formation. The project aims to find biological treatments to protect apricot trees from frost damage. Three different combinable approaches are adopted by this project. Firstly, it engineers Escherichia coli to overproduce antifreeze proteins, which we purify and spray onto the plants, so that they bind to ice crystals and inhibit their growth. Secondly, team also produces tailocins, bactericidal protein complexes, to specifically kill P. syringae. Lastly, they use a phage that delivers CRISPR/Cas9 and a guide RNA into P. syringae on the plants to delete the gene coding for the ice nucleating protein.
References:
1. Team:Marburg - 2021.igem.org [Internet]. [cited 2022 Oct 12]. Available from: https://2021.igem.org/Team:Marburg
2. Team:Leiden - 2020.igem.org [Internet]. [cited 2022 Oct 12]. Available from: https://2020.igem.org/Team:Leiden
3. Team:Toulouse INSA-UPS - 2021.igem.org [Internet]. [cited 2022 Oct 12]. Available from: https://2021.igem.org/Team:Toulouse_INSA-UPS
4. Team:NU Kazakhstan - 2021.igem.org [Internet]. [cited 2022 Oct 12]. Available from: https://2021.igem.org/Team:NU_Kazakhstan
5. Team:UNILausanne - 2021.igem.org [Internet]. [cited 2022 Oct 12]. Available from: https://2021.igem.org/Team:UNILausanne
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