Monday, 03 January 2011 17:25
Last call for applications
Are you a second year student at Cambridge? Would you like to participate in the international Genetically Engineered Machines competition in Synthetic Biology over the summer of 2011?
The University of Cambridge supports a student team in the annual iGEM competition in Synthetic Biology. We are assembling a team to apply for Wellcome Trust iGEM summer studentships over the summer of 2011.
iGEM is an international competition where student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the MIT Registry of Standard Biological Parts. In Cambridge. we start with a two-week crash course in Synthetic Biology, with an interdisciplinary group of students and faculty. The iGEM students then face the challenge of designing a new biological system and constructing this over the summer, using standard parts and DNA synthesis to establish the system in living cells. The project culminates with an international meeting at MIT in November.
iGEM has grown as a summer competition, with 5 teams in 2004, 13 teams in 2005 - the first year that the competition grew internationally, 32 teams in 2006, 54 teams in 2007, 84 teams in 2008, 112 teams in 2009 and 130 teams in 2010. Projects have ranged from banana and wintergreen smelling bacteria, to an arsenic biosensor, to Bactoblood, and buoyant bacteria. Cambridge teams were finalists last year, with better engineered bioluminesence, and won the Grand Prize in 2009 with a scheme for sensitive biosensors that produced an array of colour biopigments (More information can be found on this site: http://www.synbio.org.uk/igem.html)
These are student driven projects, and the iGEM competition provides a opportunity to engage in original research as a team - with control over scientific direction and budget. It is fun and challenging.
The Wellcome Trust is offering a number of student stipends to support the participation of a limited number of UK teams in the international Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM). The stipend will provide promising undergraduates with hands-on experience of synthetic biology during their 2011 summer vacation, with the aim of encouraging young scientists to consider a career in interdisciplinary research. The Cambridge iGEM teams have always been highly interdisciplinary, and we actively recruit students who may have little experience with biological systems, but who have complementary skills in engineering, computing or physical sciences.
Bursaries are available for a maximum of ten students per team and for up to ten weeks during the summer vacation. Each bursary provides a stipend of £180 per week. There may be only one application per team for a maximum of ten stipends. Application forms must be completed by a team adviser or sponsor. Each student must be at a university within the UK or the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and should be an undergraduate registered for a basic science, engineering, mathematical, physical science, social and ethical science, dentistry, medical or veterinary degree. Each student should be in the middle year/s of a first degree of study (i.e. not in their first or last year) or a medical student between the end of the second year and the end of the penultimate year. More information about the Wellcome Trust scheme can be found at: www.wellcome.ac.uk/igem.
If you are interested in applying for a Wellcome iGEM2011 studentship at the University of Cambridge, forward your details including, (i) a short description of why you would like to participate and how you might contribute, (ii) a CV, to Jim Haseloff at
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by January 7th, 2011. This is the last call!