The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM)

Imagine if the SuperBowl resulted in a new cancer therapeutic, or the World Series a way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels for growing food, or March Madness a way to combat infectious disease. The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) fulfills this dream as a venue for students from around the world to compete in the process of real innovation; student-run projects have resulted in major contributions to science, practical skills development, and hundreds of new startup technologies.
Stanford iGEM gives undergraduates something rare: the chance to build a project from scratch and compete in this international Olympics for synthetic biology. Students begin with a blank slate and spend months brainstorming, creating, testing, and refining an idea while engaging in needs finding, outreach, and education. Along the way, they learn to design responsibly, prioritize safety, and consult the communities their work is meant to serve. Ultimately, they have the chance to present their work in front of 5,000 people and a panel of 300 judges from industry and academia, at one of the largest conference centers in the world.
The Stanford iGEM Team has a strong record of achievement. The team has earned eleven gold, four silver, and one bronze medals. Past projects show the breadth of what Stanford students can build. In health care, Stanford iGEM has pursued solutions for FSHD muscular dystrophy and grapefruit-drug interaction. In agriculture and food systems, the team explored plant-virus detection and regenerative food-production systems. In materials, the team developed mycelium-based habitats, biological glues, and filters. In energy the team engineered cyanobacteria to turn sunlight and air into nutrients for making food, therapeutics and fuels. This year students are engaged on a project to reverse devastating scarring resulting from traumatic injuries, such as burns.
Your gift supports education by doing. It helps students develop leadership by taking ownership of an interdisciplinary project from idea to completion to presentation, needs-finding by listening to patients, experts, and stakeholders, research skills through modeling, experimental design, and wet-lab work, and community outreach through programs that make synthetic biology more accessible to others. It will support the team’s projects, put the team on a world-wide stage, and expand educational programs for leadership in innovation to hundreds of Stanford students. Additionally, it supports Stanford iGEM’s outreach initiatives: the annual Stanford iGEM Bioengineering Research Program hosted 200 high school scholars from more than 2,000 applicants across 64 countries to participate in a 4 week course in innovation and synthetic biology.
Give to Stanford iGEM and help students become the kind of scientists and builders the future needs: curious, collaborative, technically strong, and committed to creating solutions that matter. We will put your gift to work, no matter the size - from a late night pizza to fuel the research, to an entire project’s materials, or a named endowment for student fellows, your gift will help to achieve our mission