Lily at iGEM

Lily here.  I didn't go to Vermont last fall, but I got to have my own science adventure with the human.  You see, the human was a judge at the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition, better known as iGEM, and I came along as her mascot.  I did not have a biology themed dress, but no one minded.  Except the human.

Ready for judging, with all the resources and references

So what happens at iGEM?  Well, first off, schools (high schools, colleges, and universities from around the world) form teams of students.  Then each team gets a box of various bits of DNA and are told to make a critter (usually a bacteria or yeast, but sometimes algae) do something cool.  And if they don't have the right DNA in the kit for what they want to do, well, they can give a company like IDT (Integrated DNA Technologies) the sequence of DNA they want, and IDT gives them back the physical bit of DNA.

Someone had made bacteria eat crude oil.  They won best high school poster.

They have one summer to do this.  Then, in the fall, usually in late October/early November, all those teams meet up in Boston and have a Giant Jamboree.  Over 300 teams, thousands of students.
It was great fun.  Also pandemonium.  But great fun.

DIY microfluidics for bio experiments

So what counts as 'something cool'?  Well, anything really.  Biofilms that suck up nanoparticles.  Eating crude oil.  Checking antibiotic resistance.  Curing cancer.  Advancing the basic science behind genetic engineering.  It's really the best.  I can't wait to go back again this year.

Playing with a 3D printed hand held centrifuge