IGEM:MIT/Sponsorship: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 13:01, 13 April 2007

For a downloadable and printable version of this page, see the PDF.

Drew Endy

Cabot Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering, MIT
Endy Lab., MIT 68-580
77 Mass. Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Phone: +1 617.253.5494
Email: endy@mit.edu

Thomas F. Knight, Jr.

Senior Research Scientist, MIT
MIT CSAIL
32 Vassar Street, Room 32-312
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Phone: +1 617.253.7807
Email: tk@csail.mit.edu

Date: May 5, 2006

Re: Sponsorship of the MIT undergraduate student design team for the iGEM competition

From: Drew Endy and Tom Knight

When: Summer 2006

International Genetically Engineered Machines competition

http://igem.mit.edu

Overview

The international Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition is a team-based challenge in which 39 schools and over 400 students from around the world compete to design engineered biological systems. Typical projects involve engineering a microbe (bacteria or yeast) to perform a novel function. Students design, build and test their system over the summer before coming together at MIT in November to demonstrate their projects to the other teams.

In addition to running the iGEM competition, MIT also fields its own team. This year’s team consists of six MIT undergraduates from diverse backgrounds. We are seeking funding for the MIT team to ensure both a tremendous learning experience for the team members and a chance to succeed against other teams.

Members of MIT’s iGEM team 2006. See the team bio’s below.

Sponsorship

We are soliciting monetary and in-kind donations from individuals and businesses to support the MIT team. These funds are critical to the MIT team’s continuing success in its own competition. Donations will be applied toward team expenses including but not limited to:

Student stipends (Six students, ~$20k)
Lab materials costs (~$10k)
Commercial DNA synthesis of novel biological parts (~$20k)

In donating to the MIT iGEM team, you will:

help train the next generation of biological engineers
contribute to the growth of the emerging field of synthetic biology
receive invitations to the iGEM jamboree in November 2006 at the MIT campus where teams from across the world present their projects.
be acknowledged on team T-shirts and the team website as a sponsor. (Logo/font size will scale linearly with the size of the donation).

To donate to the MIT iGEM team: https://giving.mit.edu/images/give_now.gif

Donations to the MIT iGEM team are made via MIT and thus are a charitable gift.

Goals of our team

Educate a new generation of talented biological engineers
Develop cutting edge synthetic biology technology
Grow the field of synthetic biology
Cement MIT's position as a leader in synthetic biology

The success of iGEM

2003 & 2004

During MIT's Independent Activity Periods (IAP) of January 2003 and 2004, student teams designed glowing bacterial oscillators that blinked on and off and designed pattern-forming bacteria.

Summer 2004

The summer of 2004 brought the first Synthetic Biology Competition. Student teams from five schools competed to build cellular finite state machines: Boston University, Caltech, MIT, Princeton, and UT-Austin. The most developed project was UT, Austin’s “photographic bacteria" that could capture a light image on a layer of cells. In November of 2005, this system was published in Nature.

This image was fixed on a layer of bacteria using light by students at UT Austin and UCSF.

2005

In the summer of 2005, student teams from 13 schools (Berkeley, Caltech, Cambridge UK, Davidson, ETH Zurich, Harvard, MIT, Oklahoma, Penn State, Princeton, Toronto, UCSF, and UT Austin) participated in the 2005 iGEM competition. Projects included cells that could swim toward stimuli, communicate with each other, sense temperatures, perform relay races, and count.

MIT iGEM team profile

This year’s MIT iGEM team consists of six MIT undergraduates from diverse backgrounds.

Kate Broadbent
Kate is a freshman, expecting to declare as a chemical or biological engineer. In her spare time she manages to be one of the United States' top young equestrians. This summer, she's excited about working with bacteria rather than horses!

Andre Green
Andre, from Louisiana, is a sophomore in biological engineering. That makes him one of the first of MIT's biological engineering majors. He's been spending his summers working in numerous molecular biology labs so he's very excited about the chance to engineer a biological system.

Stephen Payne
Stephen is also one of the new generation of MIT biological engineers. Stephen spent last summer working with the MIT Registry of Standard Biological Parts. With that experience under his belt, Stephen knows exactly what BioBricks he wants to use in MIT's biological machine this summer!

Veena Venkatachalam
Veena is a freshman, hoping to major in biological engineering or chemistry next year. Veena is relishing the opportunity to actually construct a biological system and get to see it working. Veena was one of two national winners of the Siemens-Westinghouse Advanced Placement Scholarship last year.

Boyuan Zhu
Bo is a freshman who expects to be involved in biotechnology whether he decides on electrical or biological engineering. With experience as an entrepeneur and a researcher, Bo is excited about the opportunity to work on a field with such commercial and scientific potential. Last year he was one of the winners of the Microsoft/VC Angel Roundtable Business Plan Competition.

Advisors

Five graduate students from the departments of Biological Engineering and EECS will advise MIT’s iGEM team:

Barry Canton
Beng, MEngSc in Mechanical Engineering, University College, Dublin

Austin Che
MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT; BS in Computer Science, AB in Psychology, Stanford University

Jason Kelly
BS in Chemical Engineering and Biology, MIT

Reshma Shetty
BS in Computer Science, University of Utah

Samantha Sutton
BS in Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Drs. Drew Endy and Tom Knight will serve as faculty advisors.

iGEM in the news

The iGEM competition has received extensive press coverage in both the mainstream and scientific press. See Appendix A for a compilation of articles on the competition.

“At the world’s foremost centres of learning, a potentially revolutionary science is taking shape. The central idea of the field is that by drawing on knowledge developed from biology and applying principles used in engineering design and production it is now possible to create bio-synthetic systems to achieve novel applications with unprecedented power and efficiency. Students from Cambridge University experimenting in this field have had their work featured in the prestigious Nature magazine after competing recently in an international contest - iGEM - that challenged them to design and build machines entirely from biological components such as genes and proteins.” - London Press Service – 3/20/2006

Appendix A: iGEM in the news

A compilation of press articles on iGEM.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==Cover page==
+For a downloadable and printable version of this page, see the [http://openwetware.org/images/a/a8/MITiGEMsponsorship.pdf PDF].
-Drew Endy<br>
+__TOC__
+<font face="trebuchet ms">
+{| width=600px
+| <font face="trebuchet ms"> '''Drew Endy'''<br>
 Cabot Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering, MIT<br>
 Endy Lab., MIT 68-580<br>
 Mass. Ave.<br>
 Cambridge, MA 02139<br>
-USA
+USA<br>
 Phone: +1 617.253.5494<br>
-Email: endy@mit.edu<br>
+Email: endy@mit.edu<br></font>
+|<font face="trebuchet ms"> '''Thomas F. Knight, Jr.'''<br>
+Senior Research Scientist, MIT<br>
-Tom Knight<br>
 MIT CSAIL<br>
 Vassar Street, Room 32-312<br>
 Cambridge, MA 02139<br>
-USA
+USA<br>
 Phone: +1 617.253.7807<br>
-Email: tk@csail.mit.edu<br>
+Email: tk@csail.mit.edu<br></font>
+|}
+'''Date:''' May 5, 2006
-'''Date:'''
 '''Re:''' Sponsorship of the MIT undergraduate student design team for the iGEM competition
@@ Line 28: / Line 30: @@
 '''From:''' Drew Endy and Tom Knight
-==Overview==
+'''When:''' Summer 2006
-[http://parts.mit.edu/iGEM iGEM] is the international Genetically Engineered Machines competition that involves 39 schools and over 400 students from all over the world competing to design the "coolest" engineered biological system.  Students specify the system they want to build, design the system from either prespecified biological parts and devices from the [http://parts.mit.edu Registry of Standard Biological Parts] or engineer new components and then construct and test the system in typical biological research laboratories.  The work is done over the course of a summer and then teams from all schools come together in November on the MIT campus to demonstrate their projects.
-==Goals==
+[[Image:Igem2006logo.gif|200px|left]]
-Previous student design competitions (i.e. robotics competitions) have demonstrated the educational power of students facing engineering challenges in pursuit of their own design goals. iGEM seeks to bring that educational experience to the field of biology.
+<br style="clear:both" />
+<font size=4>'''''International Genetically Engineered Machines competition'''''</font>
-The research goal of iGEM is to learn how to best design and build engineered biological systems.  The educational goal of iGEM is to enable all interested students to participate directly in the work of learning how to engineer biology. Our long-term goals are
+<font size=4>'''''http://igem.mit.edu'''''</font>
-#to enable the systematic engineering of biology
-#to promote the open and transparent development of tools for engineering biology
-#to help construct a society that can productively apply biological technology.
-==Successes to date==
+==Overview==
-===2003===
+The international Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition is a team-based challenge in which 39 schools and over 400 students from around the world compete to design engineered biological systems. Typical projects involve engineering a microbe (bacteria or yeast) to perform a novel function. Students design, build and test their system over the summer before coming together at MIT in November to demonstrate their projects to the other teams.
-During MIT's Independent Activity Periods (IAP) of January 2003, student teams designed biological oscillators coupled to fluorescent reporters. These genetic blinkers were intended to improve upon Michael Elowitz's Repressilator. One team coupled two oscillators to reduce noise in the oscillations. Another used cell-cell signaling to coordinate the oscillators in a colony. During the January 2004 IAP, teams designed genetic systems to create cellular patterns varying from bull’s-eyes to polka dots and even dynamic designs where cells swim together. From these designs, standard biological parts were designed and synthesized.
-===2004===
-Summer of 2004 brought the first Synthetic Biology Competition. Student teams from five schools (Princeton, MIT, Caltech, UT Austin, and Boston University) competed to build cellular state machines and counters. The teams came together for a jamboree in early November to compare their results. The most graphic project was "photographic biofilm" that could capture an image.  In November of 2005, this system was published in Nature [[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7067/full/nature04405.html URL]].
-===2005===
+In addition to running the iGEM competition, MIT also fields its own team. This year’s team consists of six MIT undergraduates from diverse backgrounds. We are seeking funding for the MIT team to ensure both a tremendous learning experience for the team members and a chance to succeed against other teams.
-In the summer of 2005, student teams from thirteen schools (Berkeley, Caltech, Cambridge UK, Davidson, ETH Zurich, Harvard, MIT, Oklahoma, Penn State, Princeton, Toronto, UCSF, and UT Austin) participated in the 2005 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. Later, during the first weekend of November, over 150 of these students, instructors, and PIs came together for a jamboree to share and celebrate their work.
-The iGEM 2005 student projects displayed the designs of chemotaxis regulation systems, cell-cell genetic communications systems, cellular/biological wires, thermometers, biological sketch pads (drawing systems), cellular relay races, a digital counter, and many more.
+[[Image:MITiGEM2006b.jpg|400px|left]]
+<br style="clear:both" />
+''Members of MIT’s iGEM team 2006.  See the team bio’s below.''
-While at these early stages few of the projects are fully functional, many of the required subsystems demonstrated correct operation. Some of the student teams are continuing to work on their projects.  One surprising result of iGEM 2005 is that several of the schools have begun to incorporate Synthetic Biology into their undergraduate curricula based on work from the 2005 event.
+==Sponsorship==
+We are soliciting monetary and in-kind donations from individuals and businesses to support the MIT team. These funds are critical to the MIT team’s continuing success in its own competition. Donations will be applied toward team expenses including but not limited to:
-==Sponsorship==
+#Student stipends (Six students, ~$20k)
-To aid in offsetting costs associated with MIT's participation in the iGEM competition, we are soliciting monetary and in-kind donations from individuals and businesses.  These funds are critical to MIT's continuing success in the iGEM competition.  Donations will be applied towards
-#Student stipends (~$20k)
 #Lab materials costs (~$10k)
-#Commericial DNA synthesis of novel biological parts (~$20k)
+#Commercial DNA synthesis of novel biological parts (~$20k)
+'''''In donating to the MIT iGEM team, you will:'''''
-In donating to the MIT iGEM team, you will
 #help train the next generation of biological engineers
 #contribute to the growth of the emerging field of synthetic biology
-#receive invitations to attend the iGEM jamboree in November 2006 at the MIT campus in which teams from across the world present their design projects
+#receive invitations to the iGEM jamboree in November 2006 at the MIT campus where teams from across the world present their projects.
-#be acknowledged on team T-shirts and the team website as a sponsor.  (Logo size will scale linearly with the size of the donation).
+#be acknowledged on team T-shirts and the team website as a sponsor. (Logo/font size will scale linearly with the size of the donation).
+<font size=3>'''To donate to the MIT iGEM team:'''</font> [https://giving.mit.edu/givenow/AddGift.dyn?desig=2738692 https://giving.mit.edu/images/give_now.gif]
+Donations to the MIT iGEM team are made via MIT and thus are a [https://giving.mit.edu/ways/cash/index.html charitable gift].
+==Goals of our team==
+#'''Educate a new generation of talented biological engineers'''
+#'''Develop cutting edge synthetic biology technology'''
+#'''Grow the field of synthetic biology'''
+#'''Cement MIT's position as a leader in synthetic biology'''
+==The success of iGEM==
+===2003 & 2004===
+During MIT's Independent Activity Periods (IAP) of January 2003 and 2004, student teams designed glowing bacterial oscillators that blinked on and off and designed pattern-forming bacteria.
+===Summer 2004===
+The summer of 2004 brought the first Synthetic Biology Competition. Student teams from five schools competed to build cellular finite state machines: Boston University, Caltech, MIT, Princeton, and UT-Austin.  The most developed project was UT, Austin’s “photographic bacteria" that could capture a light image on a layer of cells. In November of 2005, this system was published in Nature.
+[[Image:UT HelloWorld.jpg|130px]]
+''This image was fixed on a layer of bacteria using light by students at UT Austin and UCSF.''
+<br style="clear:both" />
+===2005===
+In the summer of 2005, student teams from 13 schools (Berkeley, Caltech, Cambridge UK, Davidson, ETH Zurich, Harvard, MIT, Oklahoma, Penn State, Princeton, Toronto, UCSF, and UT Austin) participated in the 2005 iGEM competition. Projects included cells that could swim toward stimuli, communicate with each other, sense temperatures, perform relay races, and count.
 ==MIT iGEM team profile==
-<insert info about students>
+This year’s MIT iGEM team consists of six MIT undergraduates from diverse backgrounds.
+'''''Kate Broadbent'''''<br>
+Kate is a freshman, expecting to declare as a chemical or biological engineer. In her spare time she manages to be one of the United States' top young equestrians. This summer, she's excited about working with bacteria rather than horses!
+'''''Andre Green'''''<br>
+Andre, from Louisiana, is a sophomore in biological engineering. That makes him one of the first of MIT's biological engineering majors. He's been spending his summers working in numerous molecular biology labs so he's very excited about the chance to engineer a biological system.
+'''''Stephen Payne'''''<br>
+Stephen is also one of the new generation of MIT biological engineers.  Stephen spent last summer working with the MIT Registry of Standard Biological Parts. With that experience under his belt, Stephen knows exactly what BioBricks he wants to use in MIT's biological machine this summer!
+'''''Veena Venkatachalam'''''<br>
+Veena is a freshman, hoping to major in biological engineering or chemistry next year. Veena is relishing the opportunity to actually construct a biological system and get to see it working. Veena was one of two national winners of the Siemens-Westinghouse Advanced Placement Scholarship last year.
+'''''Boyuan Zhu'''''<br>
+Bo is a freshman who expects to be involved in biotechnology whether he decides on electrical or biological engineering. With experience as an entrepeneur and a researcher, Bo is excited about the opportunity to work on a field with such commercial and scientific potential. Last year he was one of the winners of the Microsoft/VC Angel Roundtable Business Plan Competition.
+===Advisors===
+Five graduate students from the departments of Biological Engineering and EECS will advise MIT’s iGEM team:
+'''''Barry Canton'''''<br>
+Beng, MEngSc in Mechanical Engineering, University College, Dublin
+'''''Austin Che'''''<br>
+MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT; BS in Computer Science, AB in Psychology, Stanford University
+'''''Jason Kelly'''''<br>
+BS in Chemical Engineering and Biology, MIT
+'''''Reshma Shetty'''''<br>
+BS in Computer Science, University of Utah
+'''''Samantha Sutton'''''<br>
+BS in Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
+Drs. Drew Endy and Tom Knight will serve as faculty advisors.
+==iGEM in the news==
+The iGEM competition has received extensive press coverage in both the mainstream and scientific press. See Appendix A for a compilation of articles on the competition.
-The MIT iGEM team has several graduate student advisors including [[Barry Canton]], [[Austin Che]], [[Jason Kelly]], [[Reshma Shetty]] and [[Samantha Sutton]].  In addition, MIT Biological Engineering's [[Drew Endy]] and MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory's [[Tom Knight]] will serve as faculty advisors.
+''“At the world’s foremost centres of learning, a potentially revolutionary science is taking shape. The central idea of the field is that by drawing on knowledge developed from biology and applying principles used in engineering design and production it is now possible to create bio-synthetic systems to achieve novel applications with unprecedented power and efficiency. Students from Cambridge University experimenting in this field have had their work featured in the prestigious Nature magazine after competing recently in an international contest - iGEM - that challenged them to design and build machines entirely from biological components such as genes and proteins.”'' - London Press Service – 3/20/2006
-==Relevant press coverage==
+==Appendix A: iGEM  in the news==
-The iGEM competition has received extensive press coverage in both the mainstream and scientific press.  Here is a compilation of articles on the competition.
+A compilation of press articles on iGEM.
 ===Mainstream===
 *[http://www.londonpress.info/lps/article.asp?uniqueID=5831&category=science The March of the Bio-Machines Advances] - London Press - 3/20/06
 *[http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20051214-9999-lz1c14circuit.html Controlling organisms with biological circuits opens up a world of possibilities and dangers] - San Diego Union Tribune - 12/6/05
@@ Line 82: / Line 141: @@
 ===Science===
+*[http://www.biospectrumasia.com/content/270406IND636.asp Synthetic biology] - BioSpectrum Asia Edition - 4/27/06
 *[http://www.scitechinfo.com/node/520 7 from Penn State enter the Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition] - Sci/Tech News Service - 2/06/06
 *[http://www.jumpingelectrons.com/Technology/Bacteria-Photograph.asp Live Photographs] - Jumping Electrons - 12/12/06
 *[http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051210/bob9.asp The Sum of the Parts] - Science News - 12/10/06
 *[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7067/full/438417a.html Synthetic Biology: Designs on Life] - Nature - 11/24/05
 *[http://www.bio-itworld.com/newsitems/2005/nov2005/11-08-05-news-igem iGEM 2005: Synthetic Biology’s Future] - Bio IT World.com - 11/8/2005
@@ Line 109: / Line 168: @@
 *[http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/08.25/00-biomech.html Undergraduates spend summer creating living machines] - Harvard - 8/25/05
 *[http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/02/03/news/11891.shtml Students build bio-circuits] - Daily Princetonian - 2/3/2005
+==Appendix B: Geographical distribution of 2006 iGEM teams==
+[[Image:IGEM2006worldmap.gif|800px|left]]
+</font>

IGEM:MIT/Sponsorship: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 13:01, 13 April 2007

Contents

Overview

Sponsorship

Goals of our team

The success of iGEM

2003 & 2004

Summer 2004

2005

MIT iGEM team profile

Advisors

iGEM in the news

Appendix A: iGEM in the news

Mainstream

Science

Institutional coverage

Appendix B: Geographical distribution of 2006 iGEM teams

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