The University of Texas at Austin :: iGEM Team

Interested in joining the UT Austin iGEM Team?

Participating in the iGEM competition is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to gain research and career skills. iGEM is a science pentathlon! It's part synthetic biology research project, part robotics competition for biology, part entrepreneurial pitch contest, part bioethics course, and part engineering design project. Students are expected to explore their own project ideas, reflect on and explain how their proposed solution to a problem would benefit society, engage in outreach to stakeholders, and operate as a team to complete proof-of-principle research. After working on their research during the spring and summer, teams create a project website and give poster and oral presentations at a Jamboree in mid-fall with >350 teams from all over the world participating.

Applications for the 2022 team will be due Dec. 1st, 2021.

We are especially looking for NON-biologists to join the team! Maybe you are a design major, maybe pre-law, or a social scientist interested in how technology and science interacts with society. We want you on our 2022 iGEM team!

Click here for more information and application instructions!



What is synthetic biology? What is iGEM?

"Synthetic biology is the design and construction of biological devices and systems for useful purposes." –Wikipedia page

"The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) is the premiere undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition. Student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells." –iGEM Foundation

In the fall of each year, the iGEM community gathers at an annual meeting to present their work from the past year. Pre-COVID, the meetings were held in Boston, but for 2022 the expectation the meeting will be in Paris, France. Select students will have a chance to attend this event and to present our team's work.

What do our alumni go on to do?

Our iGEM alumni regularly go on to prestigious graduate schools, medical schools, and biotech companies. Recent alumni have gone to Caltech, MIT, Harvard, UT Austin, and other prestigious graduate programs. They can also be found at medical schools throughout Texas. Within Biotech, our recent alumni work at companies such as Ginkgo Bioworks, Sinofi, and Zymergen.

Past UT Austin iGEM Team Projects

UT Austin has a long history of participation in iGEM, including:

  • Implementing bacterial photography (the Coliroid)
  • Creating caffeine-sensing E. coli.
  • Best Measurement Awards in 2019 and 2012.
  • Earning the top Gold Medal designation seven times.
  • iGEM team students as co-authors on scientific papers.

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2021 iGEM Team
OCTOPUS
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2020 iGEM Team
Phast-Phage
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2019 iGEM Team
Burden-O-Meter
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2018 iGEM Team
BHR plasmid kit
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2017 iGEM Team
Yo GABA GABA
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2016 iGEM Team
SCOBY Doo
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2015 iGEM Team
Breaking is Bad
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2014 iGEM Team
GC Expansion Pack
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2013 iGEM Team
MAPs and Bioscrubber
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2012 iGEM Team
Decaffeination
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2006 iGEM Team
Edge Detector
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2005 iGEM Team
Edge Detector
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2004 iGEM Team
Bacterial Photography

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Members of the 2019 UT iGEM team at the Giant Jamboree in Boston
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2019 UT iGEM team with the Best Measurement Award for their Burden-O-Meter project


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Topic revision: r51 - 2022-01-10 - JeffreyBarrick