The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to get involved in the advancement of synthetic biology. As one of the sponsoring partners, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) is offering to support individual iGEM student teams. Last year, the 11 teams sponsored by IDT were provided with credit which they could use to obtain IDT products, including oligonucleotide primers and synthetic GENEs for use in their research project.

The 2011 iGEM competition assembled university-affiliated teams of undergraduates in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to design and build biological systems that operate in living cells. Beginning in the spring, each team received a set of biological parts, which were used in addition to new parts they designed, to build biological devices and systems. The projects ran throughout the summer, leading to a series of competitions in the fall that culminated in the World Championship Jamboree. Following on from their success at the World Championship Jamboree, four of the projects sponsored by IDT are described in detail in the latest issue of DECODED. 

For more information and to sign-up to receive IDT's quarterly newsletter, DECODED, please visit www.idtdna.com.