Synthetic Biological Machine Competition

Last year’s winners included bacteria that could produce electricity, e.coli that could hunt and kill other pathogens, and yeast that could give beer high levels of resveratrol.

Synthetic biology has been called the science of the 21st century. Rewriting the genetic information of micro organisms can allow scientists to create new genetic machines that can perform extraordinary tasks. You remember MIT’s Registry of Standard Biological Parts we discussed? iGEM teams are given access to that database in order to come up with useful, interesting, or just plain cool genetic machines for the competition. MIT is allowing these undergraduates access to some of the most advanced synthetic biology tools of today in the hopes of developing students into the best genetic engineers of tomorrow. That’s exciting stuff.

via iGEM 2009: Synthetic Biology Competition Bigger than Ever this Halloween | Singularity Hub.

Nothing like a good, old-fashioned synthetic biology fair. It probably won’t be too long until a synthetic life competition transpires in a similar, festive atmosphere.

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