UK entries to student synthetic biology competition offered Wellcome Trust support
1 October 2009
An annual competition, iGEM encourages teams of undergraduate students to develop innovative projects based around biological building bricks, or 'biobricks', in the same way that engineering students might develop a robot using standardised parts.
Student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer and work over the summer break, using these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells. Previous projects in the competition have included a biosensor to detect arsenic in water supplies in the developing world, bacteria that take photographs and bacteria that smell of bananas.
The Wellcome Trust – the UK's largest medical research charity – is offering teams of students stipends to enable them to enter iGEM 2010. The stipend will provide promising undergraduates with hands-on experience of synthetic biology.
"We need to attract the brightest young minds to take advantage of the rapidly emerging field of synthetic biology," says Dr Alan Schafer, Head of Science Funding at the Wellcome Trust. "We hope to foster innovative ideas from UK teams and help students to consider a career in this field."
The Wellcome Trust is inviting applications with relevance to biomedical science from students from a broad range of disciplines – including science, mathematics, dentistry, medicine and veterinary science – as well as encouraging the involvement of students from social or ethical sciences.
"Synthetic biology is truly interdisciplinary," says Dr Schafer. "The best projects are likely to involve teams of students with a variety of backgrounds and we need to encourage this approach. Future applications of synthetic biology may also impact on the wider society, so it is also important that from the outset the students consider the social and ethical implications."
The new stipends have been welcomed by Professor Richard Kitney from Imperial College London, one of the UK's leading experts in synthetic biology.
"Synthetic biology as a research field is only just beginning to establish itself within the UK," he says. "By supporting UK entries to iGEM, the Wellcome Trust will offer valuable encouragement to students interested in entering this exciting research field."
Preliminary applications are now open. Stipends are available for a maximum of ten students per team. A stipend of up to £190 per week per student for 10 weeks will be provided. Research expenses are not provided.
Further information, including details of how to apply, can be found here.
Contact
Craig Brierley
Senior Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
T +44 (0)20 7611 7329
E
c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
Notes for editors
1. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.
2. For more information about iGEM, contact Randy Rettberg or Meagan Lizarazo via email at HQ@igem.org.