UC Berkeley iGEM Synthetic Biology Summer Research Program
Imagine!
- Replacing nonrenewable energy sources with solar-powered bacteria
- Curing diseases with engineered microbes
- Producing new biochemicals and materials in cells
These are some of the goals of synthetic biology, a new field that seeks to design and build novel biological systems to accomplish specific tasks. The International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) Competition is an undergraduate bioltechnology "Olympics," and is the pre-eminent international event for synthetic biology. iGEM challenges teams of students from universities around the world to design and implement a synthetic biology project and then present their results in a juried competition at MIT in November of each year. Berkeley has sponsored an iGEM team since the competition began in 2005. Our team has consistently been recognized as being one of the top iGEM teams in the world, receiving major awards at the Jamboree each year.
Visit the 2011 iGEM team website.
iGEM 2012
We will be recruiting UC Berkeley undergraduates to join the 2012 UC Berkeley iGEM team in January 2012. Please check back to this website after January 1. We seek students who are inventive, highly motivated, willing to learn synthetic biology, and work hard. Applicants must: 1) submit an application form and academic transcript by mid-February 2012 and 2) complete an iGEM tutorial by March 1, 2012.
Eligibility
Applicants must be enrolled in undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and have a GPA of 3.5 or higher. The Berkeley iGEM team welcomes students from a wide range of disciplines, including:
- biology
- chemistry
- bioengineering
- chemical engineering
- chemical biology
- molecular and cell biology
- integrative biology
- computational biology
- mathematics
- electrical engineering
- computer science
If you have questions, please contact Kate Spohr, program administrator.
About the UC Berkeley Team
UC Berkeley's summer iGEM program immerses 4-7 talented and motivated undergraduates in a dense hands-on research experience. By working on a project that reaches completion over a 5 month period, students experience the full range of project conception, implementation, and the presentation of results in an international conference-like setting. iGEM team members are paid a stipend of $3500. In late October/early November, all team members attend the iGEM Jamboree (students' expenses and registration is underwritten by team sponsors).
To learn more about UC Berkeley's current and past iGEM projects, click below:
2009 UCB Experimental team; 2009 UCB Computational team
2008 UCB Experimental team; 2008 UCB Computational team
2007 UCB iGEM team
