uOttawa chapter of international club talks future plans, projects and more
Rising from the club graveyard, revitalised and full of life is the U of O club known as iGEM. In 2019, the club achieved a gold medal at the rather prestigious international iGEM competition. Eager to get back to their former glory, the Fulcrum sat down with senior team members of iGEM uOttawa to discuss in more detail.
What is iGEM?
According to Teagan Thomas, third-year biomedical science student and administrative director of iGEM, “iGEM is an international organisation that stems out of [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] university, it was created primarily to bring synthetic biology into awareness for undergraduates, high school students, graduate students and [the greater community].” Today, it stands for ‘international genetically engineered machine’ (iGEM) and hosts the largest synthetic biology competition.
iGEM uOttawa operates as part of the larger organisation, however, its main goal is to bring synthetic biology research to the university and the wider Ottawa community. The team has been diligently preparing for said competition known as the “Grand Jamboree” — however, more on this later.
What is synthetic biology?
Naturally, the term synthetic biology had come up several times throughout the interview, but it hadn’t been officially defined yet. A first attempt was made by Thomas, who explained this field is very diverse with a number of different avenues to explore within synthetic biology. This includes industrial scale projects, diagnostic projects, and therapeutic projects. Synthetic biology incorporates both cellular and molecular biology techniques, giving it a multidisciplinary distinction not uncommon in the biological sciences.
Professor Adam Damry who serves as the main advisor for iGEM uOttawa jumped in: “when we talk about synthetic biology, it’s two parts: synthetic and biology or artificial and life. [Therefore], it’s a field that’s all about taking life, the biomolecules and organisms that are found in nature and applying engineering principles to them in order to re-engineer them into something that isn’t found in nature, but has a property that is useful and desirable to us.”
He continued, “it’s a very applied field of science, and is a little bit engineering-facing as well. In that you will have those engineering applications. In addition, we apply very much an engineering workflow and mindset to these organisms. We come in with a design, we build it, we optimise it, and all of that it’s so it’s very similar to what you would do in an engineering project. However, it’s applied to biochemistry and biomolecules.”
2024 Grand Jamboree
In terms of the competition, it’s hosted every year in Paris, France. As mentioned, it’s an international event that hosts approximately 4000 attendees, with 500 teams spanning from 50 different countries and regions. For iGEM uOttawa, this will be the second year of attendance in November 2024.
As expected, the team was teeming with excitement as they explained what was in store for them at the jamboree.
“It’s run kind of symposium-style. Meaning, there’s lots of speakers coming in. As well as each of the teams presenting their work. As a result, it’s a very collaborative and very positive event because it is a competition. But at the end of the day, it’s more about the science than anything else,” said Damry.
More specifically, the competition is broken down into 14 “villages” or streams for the teams to fall into, such as conservation, food and nutrition, space, therapeutics, and many more. For now, the U of O team is toying with the idea of either entering the space stream, food and nutrition stream or the environment stream.
Once judging is complete all teams are given either bronze, silver or gold medals. Additional awards are given out for each village, best overall project, best website design, best outreach, best presentation, etc.
As much as this is a competition, Damry stressed, “it’s a research project at its core, and students over the course of the year will actually be in the lab working on this project to really develop it into something that they can then present. There is very much an accessory component as well where parts of the team are involved in fundraising, in building the website, etc.”
Research
For a number of undergraduate students, research experience is extremely valuable and sought after. Not only does it provide an avenue for students to get involved with projects happening on campus, but having the experience holds a certain importance akin to the Willy Wonka golden ticket — except instead of the chocolate factory it provides entry to desirable masters programs.
Third-year biomedical science student and director of entrepreneurship for iGEM, Amal Abed, has found through her experience finding research opportunities has been difficult. For example, once you’ve found a professor and successfully managed to contact them over email or stop by their office, there’s the matter of them actually having the space for a student. If you find yourself in this group of students, fret no longer! Your golden ticket has arrived.
As Thomas explained the team is in the beginning stages of setting up their research in the lab. As such, they’re currently looking for dedicated lab members to volunteer a small amount of their time to help push the research forward. This is low stakes, low commitment and a great opportunity to get involved.
Outreach
An aspect of the competition involves an outreach portion, and iGEM uOttawa has planned to reach high school students in the style of “bringing the science to them.” The goal for the outreach events, according to Thomas, is to bring interesting and engaging science to schools across Ottawa in an attempt to get students more inspired and excited about their futures in STEM.
For those interested in joining iGEM uOttawa, you’re in luck! The club is currently recruiting lab members. For more information you can find their website here or their Instagram here.
