International Genetically Engineered Machine

Last updated
iGEM
Official iGEM Logo New.png
Date(s)October, 23 - 26 (2024)
FrequencyAnnually
Venue Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, France (2022~)
Hynes Convention Center, Boston, United States (2014-2019)
MIT, Boston, United States (2003-2013)
Location(s) Paris, France (2022~)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States (2003-2019)
With additional events worldwide
Inaugurated2003
Most recent
iGEMersAnnually: 10 000+ participants, 400+ teams

Since 2003: 80 000+ participants, 4500+ teams
Organised byiGEM Foundation
Website igem.org

The iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) competition is a worldwide synthetic biology competition that was initially aimed at undergraduate and 'overgraduate' university students, but has since expanded to include divisions for high school students, entrepreneurs, and community laboratories. iGEM is presented as "theheart of synthetic biology" - educating the next generation of leaders and workforce of the field. Since its inception in 2003, over 80 000 students from over 65 countries have been trained in the responsible, safe and secure use of synthetic biology.

Contents

The iGEM Competition is a flagship program of the iGEM Foundation - an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition, and the development of an open, collaborative, and cooperative community. Aside from the competition, iGEM has established many initiatives and programs to support the future growth of synthetic biology throughout the world: iGEM Community, iGEM Technology, iGEM Responsibility, iGEM Startups, and iGEM Leagues.

Competition details

Student teams are given a kit (so called ‘Distribution Kit’) of standard, interchangeable parts (so called 'BioBricks') at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts comprising various genetic components such as promoters, terminators, reporter elements, and plasmid backbones. Working at their local laboratories over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells.

The teams are free to choose a project, which can build on previous projects or be new to iGEM. Successful projects produce cells that exhibit new and unusual properties by engineering sets of multiple genes together with mechanisms to regulate their expression.

At the end of the summer, the teams add their new BioBricks to the Parts Registry and the scientific community can build upon the expanded set of BioBricks in the next year.

At the annual ‘iGEM Jamboree’ teams from all continents meet in Paris for a scientific expo event and conference where they present their projects to each other and to a scientific jury of ~400 judges. The judges award medals and special prizes to the teams and select a ‘Grand Prize Winner’ team as well as ‘Runner-Up’ teams in each division (High School, Undergraduate and Overgraduate).

Awards & Judging in the iGEM competition

Each participant receives a participating certificate (see fig. below) and has the possibility to earn medals (bronze, silver and gold; see fig. below) with their team depending on different criteria that the team fulfilled in the competitions. For a bronze medal it is for example necessary to submit a new part to the Parts Registry, for a silver medal the team is required to document the functionality of a part and for a gold medal it is finally, among other criteria, necessary to obtain a proof-of-principle for the team's project.

In 2016 as an example, 300 teams participated in the competition from which 37% received a gold medal, 25% a silver medal, 26% a bronze medal and 12% were not awarded a medal.

In each division, the best performance in a certain aspect of the competition is honored with special prizes. The special prizes include: 'Best Project' in the respective categories (app. 10 categories), 'Best Art & Design', 'Best Hardware', 'Best Measurement', 'Best Software', 'Best Human Practices', 'Best Model', 'Best New Part', 'Best Poster', 'Best Presentation', 'Best Wiki' and others depending on the competition year. Together with individual certificates, the teams are given glass trophies for each special prize (see fig. below).

From all teams in a respective division, a number of finalists are selected (1 to 6, depending on year and division) and allowed to present their project again in front of all Jamboree participants. From the presented projects all judges select the winner of this year's iGEM competition, the Grand Prize Winner team, who are then awarded a big metal Lego-brick (see fig. below). The winning team may keep this challenge trophy for a year until it gets awarded to the next 'Grand Prize Winner'. Participants of a 'Grand Prize Winner' team are also given challenge coins of the respective year (see fig. below).

History of the competition

Growth of the annual iGEM Jamboree [1]
YearNo. of participants
2004
31(5 teams)
2005
125(13 teams)
2006
723(32 teams)
2007
777(54 teams)
2008
1,248(88 teams)
2009
1,840(113 teams)
2010
2,327(128 teams)
2011
2,586(165 teams)
2012
3,696(190 teams)
2013
4,027(215 teams)
2014
4,515(245 teams)
2015
5,018(280 teams)
2016
4,432(300 teams)
2017
5,386(310 teams)
2018
5,790(340 teams)
2019
6,375(353 teams)
2020
4,800(249 teams)
2021
7,314(350 teams)
2022
7,757(356 teams)
2023
8,541(390 teams)
2024
9,507(410 teams)

iGEM developed out of student projects conducted during MIT's Independent Activities Periods in 2003 and 2004. [2] [3] Later in 2004, a competition with five teams from various schools was held. In 2005, teams from outside the United States took part for the first time. [4] Since then iGEM has continued to grow, with 130 teams entering in 2010. [5] Randy Rettberg, an engineer who has worked for technology companies including Apple, Sun and BBN, [6] is the founder and president of iGEM.

Because of this increasing size, in the years 2011 - 2013 the competition was split into three regions: Europe, the Americas, and Asia (though teams from Africa and Australia also entered via "Europe" and "Asia" respectively). [7] Regional jamborees occurred during October; and some subset of teams attending those events were selected to advance to the World Championship at MIT in November. [8]

In January 2012 the iGEM Foundation was spun out of MIT as an independent non-profit organization located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The iGEM Foundation supports scientific research and education through operating the iGEM competition. The same year, iGEM expanded into having not only the Collegiate division, but also competitions for entrepreneurs and high school students.

For their tenth anniversary, iGEM added new tracks to the existing ones: Art & Design, Community Labs, Entrepreneurship, Measurement, Microfluidics, Policy & Practice, and Software. Although Entrepreneurship and Software were tracks in previous years, in 2014 they were made more distinct in terms of their judging requirements. [9] Furthermore, in 2014 iGEM did not have regional jamborees, but instead hosted a giant jamboree so every team could participate in one conference in Cambridge unlike in previous years where only the regional finalists were brought to Cambridge. [10]

The iGEM Jamborees for 2020 and 2021 were held online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting in 2022, the event was redesigned and rebranded to the iGEM Grand Jamboree, held in the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.

Broader goals

Beyond just building biological systems, broader goals of iGEM include:

iGEM's dual aspects of self-organization and imaginative manipulation of genetic material have demonstrated a new way to arouse student interest in modern biology and to develop their independent learning skills.

Competition Results

Best iGEM Medal by Country - All Divisions as of November 2024.
.mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}
Gold Medal
Silver Medal
Bronze Medal Best iGEM Medal by Country.svg
Best iGEM Medal by Country - All Divisions as of November 2024.
  Gold Medal
  Silver Medal
  Bronze Medal

High School Division

Grand Prize Winners by Country - High School (as of November 2024).
1 Title
2 Titles
3 Titles
4 Titles
5 Titles IGEM Grand Prize Winners High School 2019.svg
Grand Prize Winners by Country - High School (as of November 2024).
  1 Title
  2 Titles
  3 Titles
  4 Titles
  5 Titles
Top High School Teams by Year
Grand Prize2nd3rdComplete Results
2024GEMS-Taiwan Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg GreatBay-Scie Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2024
2023Japan-United Flag of Japan.svg BASIS-China Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2023
2022Lambert_GA Flag of the United States.svg PuiChing_Macau Flag of Macau.svg iGEM 2022
2021LINKS_China Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg SZ_SHD Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2021
2020TAS Taipei Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg GreatBay SCIE Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2020
2019GreatBay SZ Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2019 [ permanent dead link ]
2018GreatBay China Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg [note 1] iGEM 2018 [ permanent dead link ]
2017 TAS Taipei Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg iGEM 2017
2016HSiTAIWAN Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg iGEM 2016
2015 TAS Taipei Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg iGEM HS 2015
2014 CSIA-SouthKorea Flag of South Korea.svg TP CC-SanDiego Flag of the United States.svg [note 2] TAS Taipei Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg iGEM HS 2014
2013 Lethbridge Canada Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg AUC Turkey Flag of Turkey.svg CIDEB-UANL Mexico Flag of Mexico.svg iGEM HS 2013
2012 Heidelberg LSL Flag of Germany.svg NC School of Sci Math Flag of the United States.svg CIDEB-UANL Mexico Flag of Mexico.svg iGEM HS 2012
2011Years prior to 2012 had no separate high school division.

High School Ranking by Country

CountryGrand PrizeRunners-UpTop 2 Total
Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg  Chinese Taipei 505
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 347
Flag of the United States.svg  United States 123
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 101
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 101
Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 101
Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea 101
Flag of Macau.svg  Macao 011
Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 011

Undergraduate Division

Grand Prize Winners by Country/Region - Undergrad (as of November 2024).
1 Title
2 Titles
3 Titles IGEM Grand Prize Winners Undergrad 2019.svg
Grand Prize Winners by Country/Region - Undergrad (as of November 2024).
  1 Title
  2 Titles
  3 Titles
Top Undergraduate Teams by Year
Grand Prize2nd3rdComplete Results
2024 Heidelberg Flag of Germany.svg JU-Krakow Flag of Poland.svg Sydney-Australia Flag of Australia (converted).svg iGEM 2024
2023 McGill Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Vilnius-Lithuania Flag of Lithuania.svg NUS-Singapore Flag of Singapore.svg iGEM 2023
2022TU-Eindhoven Flag of the Netherlands.svg INSA_Lyon1 Flag of France.svg HKUST Flag of Hong Kong.svg iGEM 2022
2021Toulouse INSA-UPS Flag of France.svg NUS-Singapore Flag of Singapore.svg Shanghai Tech China Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2021
2020 Vilnius-Lithuania Flag of Lithuania.svg Toulouse INSA-UPS Flag of France.svg XMU China Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2020
2019 NCKU Tainan Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg Calgary Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg TU Kaiserslautern Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2019 [ permanent dead link ]
2018 Valencia Flag of Spain.svg UC San Diego Flag of the United States.svg SZU-China Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2018 [ permanent dead link ]
2017 Vilnius-Lithuania Flag of Lithuania.svg William and Mary Flag of the United States.svg Heidelberg Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2017
2016 Imperial Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Sydney Australia Flag of Australia (converted).svg SCAU-China Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2016
2015 William and Mary Flag of the United States.svg Czech Republic Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Heidelberg Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2015
2014 Heidelberg Flag of Germany.svg Imperial Flag of the United Kingdom.svg NCTU Formosa Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg iGEM 2014
2013 Heidelberg Flag of Germany.svg TU Munich Flag of Germany.svg Imperial Flag of the United Kingdom.svg iGEM 2013 [note 3]
2012 Groningen Flag of the Netherlands.svg Ljubljana Flag of Slovenia.svg Paris Bettencourt Flag of France.svg [note 4] LMU Munich Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2012
2011 Washington Flag of the United States.svg Imperial Flag of the United Kingdom.svg ZJU Chin a Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg MIT Flag of the United States.svg iGEM 2011 [note 5]
2010 Ljubljana Flag of Slovenia.svg Peking Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg BCCS Bristol Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Cambridge Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Imperial Flag of the United Kingdom.svg TU Delft Flag of the Netherlands.svg iGEM 2010 Archived 2013-01-12 at archive.today
2009 Cambridge Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Heidelberg Flag of Germany.svg Valencia Flag of Spain.svg Freiburg Flag of Germany.svg Groningen Flag of the Netherlands.svg Imperial Flag of the United Kingdom.svg iGEM 2009 Archived 2013-01-13 at archive.today
2008 Ljubljana Flag of Slovenia.svg Freiburg Flag of Germany.svg Caltech Flag of the United States.svg Harvard Flag of the United States.svg NYMU Taipei Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg UC Berkeley Flag of the United States.svg iGEM 2008
2007 Peking Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Paris Flag of France.svg Ljubljana Flag of Slovenia.svg UC Berkeley Flag of the United States.svg UCSF Flag of the United States.svg USTC Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2007 [note 6]
2006 Ljubljana Flag of Slovenia.svg Imperial Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Princeton Flag of the United States.svg iGEM 2006
2005Years prior to 2006 had no specific winners. iGEM 2005
2004 IAP 2004, SBC 2004
2003 IAP 2003

Undergraduate Ranking by Country

CountryGrand PrizeRunners-Up2nd Runners-UpTop 3 Total
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 3339
Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 3115
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom 2327
Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2226
Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 2103
Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 2002
Flag of France.svg  France 1315
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1157
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1102
Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg  Chinese Taipei 1012
Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 1012
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 0112
Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore 0112
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 0101
Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 0101
Flag of Hong Kong.svg  Hong Kong 0011

Overgraduate Division

Grand Prize Winners by Country/Region - Overgrad (as of November 2024).
1 Title
2 Titles
3 Titles
4 Titles IGEM Grand Prize Winners Overgrad 2019.svg
Grand Prize Winners by Country/Region - Overgrad (as of November 2024).
  1 Title
  2 Titles
  3 Titles
  4 Titles
Top Overgraduate Teams by Year
Grand Prize2nd3rdComplete Results
2024 Marburg Flag of Germany.svg Aachen Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2024
2023 Estonia-TUIT Flag of Estonia.svg Leiden Flag of the Netherlands.svg iGEM 2023
2022 UCopenhagen Flag of Denmark.svg Montpellier Flag of France.svg iGEM 2022
2021 Marburg Flag of Germany.svg TU Delft Flag of the Netherlands.svg iGEM 2021
2020 Leiden Flag of the Netherlands.svg Aachen Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2020
2019 EPFL Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Wageningen UR Flag of the Netherlands.svg iGEM 2019
2018 Marburg Flag of Germany.svg Munich Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2018 [ permanent dead link ]
2017 TU Delft Flag of the Netherlands.svg Munich Flag of Germany.svg [note 7] iGEM 2017
2016 Munich Flag of Germany.svg [note 8] Wageningen UR Flag of the Netherlands.svg iGEM 2016
2015 TU Delft Flag of the Netherlands.svg BGU Israel Flag of Israel.svg iGEM 2015
2014 UC Davis Flag of the United States.svg Wageningen Flag of the Netherlands.svg TU Darmstadt Flag of Germany.svg iGEM 2014
2013 Paris Bettencourt Flag of France.svg Bielefeld Flag of Germany.svg Sun Yat-sen Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg iGEM 2013 [note 9]
2012Years prior to 2013 had no separate overgraduate division.

Overgraduate Ranking by Country

CountryGrand PrizeRunners-UpTop 2 Total
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 459
Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 358
Flag of France.svg  France 112
Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 101
Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 101
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland 101
Flag of the United States.svg  United States 101
Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 011

Notes

  1. Team from seven different high schools.
  2. Combined team from Torrey Pines High School and Canyon Crest Academy.
  3. In 2013 iGEM was divided into an undergraduate and an overgraduate section. The criterion for division was the participation of team members older than 23 years.
  4. Students were from different universities of Paris (Paris Descartes University, Paris Diderot University, Pierre and Marie Curie University).
  5. As of June 2012, the 2011 results page does not include results from the Championship Jamboree; but details can be found at the Jamboree page.
  6. 2007 had six finalists but none were selected as specific runners-up.
  7. Combined team from Technische Universität München and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
  8. Combined team from Technische Universität München and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
  9. In 2013 iGEM was divided into an undergraduate and an overgraduate section. The criterium for division was the participance of team members older than 23 years.

References

  1. "iGEM Competitions". igem.org. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  2. "Learn about iGEM" . Retrieved 2013-05-06.
  3. Trafton, Anne. "Rewiring Cells". Technology Review.
  4. "iGEM 2005" . Retrieved 2013-05-06.
  5. "Previous iGEM Competitions". iGEM. Retrieved 2011-11-12.
  6. Rettberg, R.; Dally, W.J.; Culler, D.E. (1998). "The Bleeding Edge". IEEE Micro. 18. IEEE: 10–11. doi:10.1109/MM.1998.653009.
  7. "Team List 2011". iGEM. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  8. "Jamborees". iGEM. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  9. "Tracks 2014". iGEM. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  10. "Giant Jamboree". iGEM. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  11. Guan, Zheng-jun; Schmidt, Markus; Pei, Lei; Wei, Wei; Ma, Ke-Ping (2013). "Biosafety Considerations of Synthetic Biology in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition". BioScience. 63: 25–34. doi: 10.1525/bio.2013.63.1.7 .

Further reading