Team:Goettingen/iGEM

<a name="What_is_iGEM?"></a>What is iGEM?

iGEM is an international competition hosted by the MIT in Boston, USA, for undergraduate students of disciplines related to molecular biology. iGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machine competition. One the one hand, it targets to combine aspects of education and social collaboration among undergraduate students, on the other hand, it provides a library for standardized and interchangeable parts which can be used in living systems, particularly in model organisms like E. coli. Student groups from all over the world will receive a requested kit of biological parts, also called "biobricks", and work over the summer on an individual research project. Every year, the "Registry of Standard Biological Parts" is upgraded with further biobricks by the participating iGEM teams. These biobricks will be accessible to the iGEM community in the following years in order to use these parts for their own projects.

The iGEM competition started in 2003 as a course for students of the MIT only. 2011, already 165 universities from all over the world competed against each other. This year, it is the first participation of the University of Göttingen, Germany. The iGEM competition is a great opportunity for students to gain and improve a multitude of skills that are necessary during a carrier as a molecular biologist. Such skills would be planning and organizing a project, including fund raising and team recruitment, coordination of lab work, designing experiments and working together as a team. Next to intensive lab work during the summer, also literature search and well-structured documentation of the experiments is crucial. Moreover, safety for humans and environment is key.