News
Two events in Synthetic Biology at the VU.
iGEM Jamboree Europe and “Meeting of Young Minds” at the VU
In collaboration with TU-Delft, University of Groningen and the Rathenau Institute, the VU University organizes and hosts the “iGEM Regional Jamboree Europe” and the “Meeting of Young Minds” from Friday September 30 until Sunday October 2, 2011.
iGEM
iGEM (international Genetically Engineered Machine competition) is a competition for undergraduate students in the area of Synthetic Biology. Students and instructors from more than 40 universities in Europe, Asia Minor and Africa have worked in the lab during spring and summer on their projects. The projects will be presented to more than 400 colleagues at the Jamboree on October 1 and 2 in 5 parallel sessions, and will be judged by a professional jury. The best teams will compete in November at the World Jamboree in Boston. iGEM started in 2004 with 5 teams, and currently more than 1000 students participate in iGEM world-wide each year.
The projects are designed and managed by the students, providing a unique opportunity to train scientific and managerial skills, like planning experiments and requests for materials as well as finding sponsors to finance the project, working in an interdisciplinary team, and communicating the results on the web, in reports and in presentations for a large audience.
The idea of synthetic biology is to be able to quickly execute ideas in the laboratory by using well characterized and standardized biological parts that fit together like lego parts. iGEM Teams use the “Registry of Standard Biological Parts” at MIT Boston to obtain parts, but also have to contribute to the registry. The efficient use of these parts to construct a living organism with novel properties requires both laboratory and mathematical and computer modelling skills, and hence cooperation in an interdisciplinary team. iGEM Projects are very diverse and range from applied science, like building a bacterium that degrades oil in water, or a bacterium that lights up when encountering toxic ions, to pure science by making bacteria that can count.
Websites
Main iGEM 2011 page: http://2011.igem.org
iGEM Regional Jamboree Europe: http://2011.igem.org/Europe
Registry of Biological Parts: http://partsregistry.org
Meeting of Young minds
Science communication is an important part of many iGEM projects, and the promises and perils of Synthetic Biology should be openly discussed with the public. Therefore, the Rathenau Institute organized together with us the “Meeting of Minds” on September 30, the evening preceding the iGEM competition. The “Meeting of Young Minds” is a debate about the future of Synthetic Biology among well-informed members of political youth organizations with contributions by iGEM teams. This very interesting meeting is open to the public, and students and professionals from other disciplines are encouraged to participate.
Previous meetings have demonstrated that it is very stimulating and inspiring to discuss the societal aspects of science with our future politicians. Entrance is free, but prospective participants are asked to register at the “Meeting of Minds” webiste: http://www.rathenau.nl/minds.
Date and time: September 30, 19:30 – 22:00
Place: Aula of the VU
Free drinks after the meeting
