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International Genetically Engineered Machine
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| iGEM | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | October, 23 - 26 (2024) |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Venue | Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, France (2022~) Hynes Convention Center, Boston, United States (2014-2019) MIT, Boston, United States (2003-2013) |
| Locations | Paris, France (2022~) Boston, Massachusetts, United States (2003-2019) With additional events worldwide |
| Inaugurated | 2003 |
| Most recent | |
| iGEMers | Annually: 10 000+ participants, 400+ teams Since 2003: 80 000+ participants, 4500+ teams |
| Organised by | iGEM Foundation |
| Website | igem |
The iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) competition is a worldwide synthetic biology competition that was initially aimed at undergraduate and 'overgraduate' university students, but has since expanded to include divisions for high school students, entrepreneurs, and community laboratories. iGEM is presented as "the heart of synthetic biology" - educating the next generation of leaders and workforce of the field. Since its inception in 2003, over 80 000 students from over 65 countries have been trained in the responsible, safe and secure use of synthetic biology.
The iGEM Competition is a flagship program of the iGEM Foundation - an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition, and the development of an open, collaborative, and cooperative community. Aside from the competition, iGEM has established many initiatives and programs to support the future growth of synthetic biology throughout the world: iGEM Community, iGEM Technology, iGEM Responsibility, iGEM Startups, and iGEM Leagues.
Competition details
[edit]Student teams are given a kit (so called ‘Distribution Kit’) of standard, interchangeable parts (so called 'BioBricks') at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts comprising various genetic components such as promoters, terminators, reporter elements, and plasmid backbones. Working at their local laboratories over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells.
The teams are free to choose a project, which can build on previous projects or be new to iGEM. Successful projects produce cells that exhibit new and unusual properties by engineering sets of multiple genes together with mechanisms to regulate their expression.
At the end of the summer, the teams add their new BioBricks to the Parts Registry and the scientific community can build upon the expanded set of BioBricks in the next year.
At the annual ‘iGEM Jamboree’ teams from all continents meet in Paris for a scientific expo event and conference where they present their projects to each other and to a scientific jury of ~400 judges. The judges award medals and special prizes to the teams and select a ‘Grand Prize Winner’ team as well as ‘Runner-Up’ teams in each division (High School, Undergraduate and Overgraduate).
Awards & Judging in the iGEM competition
[edit]Each participant receives a participating certificate (see fig. below) and has the possibility to earn medals (bronze, silver and gold; see fig. below) with their team depending on different criteria that the team fulfilled in the competitions. For a bronze medal it is for example necessary to submit a new part to the Parts Registry, for a silver medal the team is required to document the functionality of a part and for a gold medal it is finally, among other criteria, necessary to obtain a proof-of-principle for the team's project.
In 2016 as an example, 300 teams participated in the competition from which 37% received a gold medal, 25% a silver medal, 26% a bronze medal and 12% were not awarded a medal.
In each division, the best performance in a certain aspect of the competition is honored with special prizes. The special prizes include: 'Best Project' in the respective categories (app. 10 categories), 'Best Art & Design', 'Best Hardware', 'Best Measurement', 'Best Software', 'Best Human Practices', 'Best Model', 'Best New Part', 'Best Poster', 'Best Presentation', 'Best Wiki' and others depending on the competition year. Together with individual certificates, the teams are given glass trophies for each special prize (see fig. below).
From all teams in a respective division, a number of finalists are selected (1 to 6, depending on year and division) and allowed to present their project again in front of all Jamboree participants. From the presented projects all judges select the winner of this year's iGEM competition, the Grand Prize Winner team, who are then awarded a big metal Lego-brick (see fig. below). The winning team may keep this challenge trophy for a year until it gets awarded to the next 'Grand Prize Winner'. Participants of a 'Grand Prize Winner' team are also given challenge coins of the respective year (see fig. below).
-
Participant's certificate -
Gold medal sticker
History of the competition
[edit]| Year | No. of participants |
|---|---|
| 2004 | |
| 2005 | |
| 2006 | |
| 2007 | |
| 2008 | |
| 2009 | |
| 2010 | |
| 2011 | |
| 2012 | |
| 2013 | |
| 2014 | |
| 2015 | |
| 2016 | |
| 2017 | |
| 2018 | |
| 2019 | |
| 2020 | |
| 2021 | |
| 2022 | |
| 2023 | |
| 2024 |
iGEM developed out of student projects conducted during MIT's Independent Activities Periods in 2003 and 2004.[2][3] Later in 2004, a competition with five teams from various schools was held. In 2005, teams from outside the United States took part for the first time.[4] Since then iGEM has continued to grow, with 130 teams entering in 2010.[5] Randy Rettberg, an engineer who has worked for technology companies including Apple, Sun and BBN,[6] is the founder and president of iGEM.
Because of this increasing size, in the years 2011 - 2013 the competition was split into three regions: Europe, the Americas, and Asia (though teams from Africa and Australia also entered via "Europe" and "Asia" respectively).[7] Regional jamborees occurred during October; and some subset of teams attending those events were selected to advance to the World Championship at MIT in November.[8]
In January 2012 the iGEM Foundation was spun out of MIT as an independent non-profit organization located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The iGEM Foundation supports scientific research and education through operating the iGEM competition. The same year, iGEM expanded into having not only the Collegiate division, but also competitions for entrepreneurs and high school students.
For their tenth anniversary, iGEM added new tracks to the existing ones: Art & Design, Community Labs, Entrepreneurship, Measurement, Microfluidics, Policy & Practice, and Software. Although Entrepreneurship and Software were tracks in previous years, in 2014 they were made more distinct in terms of their judging requirements.[9] Furthermore, in 2014 iGEM did not have regional jamborees, but instead hosted a giant jamboree so every team could participate in one conference in Cambridge unlike in previous years where only the regional finalists were brought to Cambridge.[10]
The iGEM Jamborees for 2020 and 2021 were held online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting in 2022, the event was redesigned and rebranded to the iGEM Grand Jamboree, held in the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
Broader goals
[edit]Beyond just building biological systems, broader goals of iGEM include:
- To enable the systematic engineering of biology.
- To promote the open and transparent development of tools for engineering biology.
- And to help construct a society that can productively and safely[11] apply biological technology.
iGEM's dual aspects of self-organization and imaginative manipulation of genetic material have demonstrated a new way to arouse student interest in modern biology and to develop their independent learning skills.
Competition Results
[edit]
Gold Medal
Silver Medal
Bronze Medal
High School Division
[edit]
1 Title
2 Titles
3 Titles
4 Titles
5 Titles
| Grand Prize | 2nd | 3rd | Complete Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | GreatBay-SCIE 
|
Uprize-I
|
iGEM 2025 | |||
| 2024 | GEMS-Taiwan 
|
GreatBay-Scie
|
iGEM 2024 | |||
| 2023 | Japan-United 
|
BASIS-China
|
iGEM 2023 | |||
| 2022 | Lambert_GA 
|
PuiChing_Macau 
|
iGEM 2022 | |||
| 2021 | LINKS_China
|
SZ_SHD
|
iGEM 2021 | |||
| 2020 | TAS Taipei
|
GreatBay SCIE
|
iGEM 2020 | |||
| 2019 | GreatBay SZ
|
iGEM 2019[permanent dead link] | ||||
| 2018 | GreatBay China [note 1]
|
iGEM 2018[permanent dead link] | ||||
| 2017 | TAS Taipei
|
iGEM 2017 | ||||
| 2016 | HSiTAIWAN
|
iGEM 2016 | ||||
| 2015 | TAS Taipei
|
iGEM HS 2015 | ||||
| 2014 | CSIA-SouthKorea 
|
TP CC-SanDiego [note 2]
|
TAS Taipei
|
iGEM HS 2014 | ||
| 2013 | Lethbridge Canada 
|
AUC Turkey 
|
CIDEB-UANL Mexico 
|
iGEM HS 2013 | ||
| 2012 | Heidelberg LSL 
|
NC School of Sci Math
|
CIDEB-UANL Mexico
|
iGEM HS 2012 | ||
| 2011 | Years prior to 2012 had no separate high school division. | |||||
High School Ranking by Country
[edit]| Country | Grand Prize | Runners-up | Top 2 Total |
|---|---|---|---|
 Taiwan |
5 | 0 | 5 |
 China |
4 | 5 | 9 |
 United States |
1 | 2 | 3 |
 Canada |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 Germany |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 Japan |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 South Korea |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 Macao |
0 | 1 | 1 |
 Turkey |
0 | 1 | 1 |
Undergraduate Division
[edit]
1 Title
2 Titles
3 Titles
Undergraduate Ranking by Country
[edit]| Country | Grand Prize | Runners-up | 2nd Runners-Up | Top 3 Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany |
3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
 Slovenia |
3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
 United Kingdom |
2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| United States |
2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
 Lithuania |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
 Netherlands |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
 France |
1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| China |
1 | 1 | 6 | 8 |
| Canada |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
 Chinese Taipei |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
 Spain |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
 Australia |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 Singapore |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
 Czech Republic |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Poland |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Hong Kong |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Switzerland |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Overgraduate Division
[edit]
1 Title
2 Titles
3 Titles
4 Titles
| Grand Prize | 2nd | 3rd | Complete Results | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Brno 
|
Heidelberg
|
iGEM 2025 | ||
| 2024 | Marburg
|
Aachen
|
iGEM 2024 | ||
| 2023 | Estonia-TUIT 
|
Leiden 
|
iGEM 2023 | ||
| 2022 | UCopenhagen 
|
Montpellier 
|
iGEM 2022 | ||
| 2021 | Marburg
|
TU Delft
|
iGEM 2021 | ||
| 2020 | Leiden
|
Aachen
|
iGEM 2020 | ||
| 2019 | EPFL
|
Wageningen UR
|
iGEM 2019 | ||
| 2018 | Marburg
|
Munich
|
iGEM 2018[permanent dead link] | ||
| 2017 | TU Delft
|
Munich [note 7]
|
iGEM 2017 | ||
| 2016 | Munich [note 8]
|
Wageningen UR
|
iGEM 2016 | ||
| 2015 | TU Delft
|
BGU Israel 
|
iGEM 2015 | ||
| 2014 | UC Davis
|
Wageningen
|
TU Darmstadt
|
iGEM 2014 | |
| 2013 | Paris Bettencourt
|
Bielefeld
|
Sun Yat-sen
|
iGEM 2013[note 9] | |
| 2012 | Years prior to 2013 had no separate overgraduate division. | ||||
Overgraduate Ranking by Country
[edit]| Country | Grand Prize | Runners-up | Top 2 Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany |
4 | 6 | 10 |
| Netherlands |
3 | 5 | 8 |
| France |
1 | 1 | 2 |
| Czech |
1 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 Estonia |
1 | 0 | 1 |
| Switzerland |
1 | 0 | 1 |
| United States |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 Israel |
0 | 1 | 1 |
Notes
[edit]- ^ Team from seven different high schools.
- ^ Combined team from Torrey Pines High School and Canyon Crest Academy.
- ^ In 2013 iGEM was divided into an undergraduate and an overgraduate section. The criterion for division was the participation of team members older than 23 years.
- ^ Students were from different universities of Paris (Paris Descartes University, Paris Diderot University, Pierre and Marie Curie University).
- ^ As of June 2012, the 2011 results page does not include results from the Championship Jamboree; but details can be found at the Jamboree page.
- ^ 2007 had six finalists but none were selected as specific runners-up.
- ^ Combined team from Technische Universität München and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
- ^ Combined team from Technische Universität München and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
- ^ In 2013 iGEM was divided into an undergraduate and an overgraduate section. The criterium for division was the participance of team members older than 23 years.
References
[edit]- ^ "iGEM Competitions". igem.org. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
- ^ "Learn about iGEM". Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ Trafton, Anne. "Rewiring Cells". Technology Review.
- ^ "iGEM 2005". Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ "Previous iGEM Competitions". iGEM. Retrieved 2011-11-12.
- ^ Rettberg, R.; Dally, W.J.; Culler, D.E. (1998). "The Bleeding Edge". IEEE Micro. 18. IEEE: 10–11. doi:10.1109/MM.1998.653009.
- ^ "Team List 2011". iGEM. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
- ^ "Jamborees". iGEM. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
- ^ "Tracks 2014". iGEM. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
- ^ "Giant Jamboree". iGEM. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
- ^ Guan, Zheng-jun; Schmidt, Markus; Pei, Lei; Wei, Wei; Ma, Ke-Ping (2013). "Biosafety Considerations of Synthetic Biology in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition". BioScience. 63: 25–34. doi:10.1525/bio.2013.63.1.7.
Further reading
[edit]- Mooallem, Jon (2010-02-14). "Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- "A Life of Its Own: Where will synthetic biology lead us?". New Yorker. 2009-09-28. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- "iGEM Team Funding". Wellcome Trust. Archived from the original on December 2, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-03.
- Guan, Zheng-jun; Schmidt, Markus; Pei, Lei; Wei, Wei; Ma, Ke-Ping (2013). "Biosafety Considerations of Synthetic Biology in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition". BioScience. 63: 25–34. doi:10.1525/bio.2013.63.1.7.
External links
[edit]International Genetically Engineered Machine
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) is an annual global competition in synthetic biology, founded in 2004 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an extension of a 2003 undergraduate course, where multidisciplinary student teams design, build, test, and present genetically engineered biological systems using standardized parts to address challenges in areas such as health, environment, and sustainability.[1][2]
iGEM operates through collegiate and high school divisions, involving teams of undergraduate, graduate, and high school students who work over several months to develop projects documented on team wikis, with judging based on scientific achievement, human practices integration, and presentation at regional and international events culminating in the Grand Jamboree.[3][4] In 2025, the competition included over 400 teams from more than 50 countries, engaging nearly 7,000 participants, reflecting its growth from just five teams in its inaugural year.[4][5]
The competition emphasizes engineering principles applied to biology, promoting open-source sharing of biological parts via the iGEM Registry and fostering skills in interdisciplinary collaboration, ethics, and entrepreneurship.[4] iGEM has produced over 75,000 alumni worldwide, many of whom have contributed to the synthetic biology field, including founding more than 250 biotechnology companies such as Ginkgo Bioworks.[6] Its impact extends to advancing biosafety, biosecurity, and education in the bioeconomy, with official recognition in reports from the U.S. National Academies and Department of Defense for driving innovation in synthetic biology.[2]
Origins and History
Founding and Early Development
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition originated in January 2003 as an Independent Activities Period (IAP) course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), titled "Synthetic Biology Lab: Engineered Genetic Blinkers." This month-long undergraduate course, led by instructors Drew Endy, Tom Knight, Randy Rettberg, and Gerald Sussman, aimed to apply engineering principles to biology by having students design and build simple genetic circuits using standardized biological components. A key innovation introduced during the course was the BioBrick standard, a modular assembly method for genetic parts that allows reliable and predictable construction of synthetic biological systems, as detailed in Tom Knight's 2003 specification for idempotent vector design. The course also established the initial Registry of Standard Biological Parts, beginning as a shared spreadsheet to document and share these components, fostering an open-source approach to synthetic biology.[7][8][9] In 2004, the course evolved into the first iGEM summer competition, expanding participation beyond MIT to include five undergraduate teams from U.S. institutions: Boston University, Caltech, MIT, Princeton University, and the University of Texas at Austin. Running from June to November, the event challenged teams to construct genetic systems from BioBricks while emphasizing responsible practices, including the early integration of "Human Practices"—iGEM's framework for addressing ethical, safety, and societal implications of genetic engineering to ensure secure and beneficial applications. By the competition's end, the Registry had grown to include about 50 documented parts, demonstrating the feasibility of collaborative part-sharing among teams. This inaugural event highlighted safe engineering by incorporating principles to obscure detectable "footprints" of genetic modifications, reducing risks of unintended identification or misuse.[10][1][10] By 2005, iGEM had transitioned into a structured annual competition, attracting 13 teams from four countries—including the first international participants from Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom—marking its growth from a U.S.-centric class project to a global platform for synthetic biology education. The iGEM Registry was further formalized that year as a centralized online resource for part documentation, enabling teams to contribute, access, and refine BioBricks for reuse across projects. A significant early milestone occurred in 2008, when the competition hosted 84 teams from 21 countries worldwide, solidifying iGEM's international scope and its role in standardizing safe, interdisciplinary genetic engineering among undergraduates.[11][1][12]Expansion and Milestones
In 2012, the iGEM competition separated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to establish the independent iGEM Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing synthetic biology through education and competition, with Randy Rettberg serving as a pivotal figure in its leadership and development.[13][1] The competition experienced rapid international expansion following its early years, growing from 84 teams in 2008 to 353 teams by 2019, representing participants from more than 40 countries across six continents.[14][15][16] Key milestones marked this period of growth and adaptation. In 2011, iGEM introduced a dedicated High School track to engage younger students, starting with five teams from the United States and expanding to 120 high school teams by 2024.[17] Around 2013, the competition added an Overgraduate track to accommodate graduate students and participants over 23 years old, broadening eligibility while maintaining separate evaluation sections from undergraduates.[18] In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Giant Jamboree transitioned to a fully virtual format, hosting 249 teams through online presentations and collaboration tools from November 14 to 22.[19] By 2025, iGEM reached new heights with over 400 teams participating globally, reflecting its sustained scale and impact.[20] That year also saw the launch of a fully independent High School Competition, held at the Paris Convention Centre from October 28 to 31, featuring tailored resources like the White List for safe organisms and integration with collegiate Villages for cross-level collaboration.[21] Complementing this, iGEM introduced the Beta version of its redesigned Registry of Standard Biological Parts in August 2025, a cloud-native platform enhancing accessibility and data management for synthetic biology projects.[22] Throughout the 2025 season, the competition continued to emphasize multidisciplinary approaches, integrating biology, engineering, computer science, and social sciences in team projects to address real-world challenges.[23]Organizational Framework
iGEM Foundation Governance
The iGEM Foundation was established as an independent non-profit organization in 2012, having spun out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where the competition originated. Headquartered at 45 Prospect Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the foundation operates as a 501(c)(3) entity focused on synthetic biology initiatives. Its board of directors includes key founders such as Drew Endy (director), Tom Knight, and Randy Rettberg (President Emeritus), as well as the current President and CEO Nemanja Stijepovic and other members who provide strategic oversight and continuity from the program's early development.[24] The foundation's mission centers on advancing synthetic biology by fostering education, hosting international competitions, and promoting open-source resources to encourage innovation and accessibility. Central to this is the maintenance of the iGEM Registry, a public repository of standardized biological parts that supports global research and collaboration. Additionally, the foundation emphasizes biosafety and biosecurity, developing guidelines to ensure responsible practices among participants and mitigating potential risks in synthetic biology applications. Funding for the iGEM Foundation derives primarily from corporate sponsorships by biotechnology firms, including Thermo Fisher Scientific and Twist Bioscience, which provide financial and material support. Grants from philanthropic organizations also contribute to operational sustainability. Team registration fees further bolster resources, enabling the foundation to scale its programs without compromising its non-profit status. In its operational roles, the foundation coordinates the annual iGEM Jamboree, handling event logistics, venue arrangements, and participant accommodations to facilitate global gatherings. It oversees the ongoing curation and accessibility of the iGEM Parts Registry, ensuring the collection of genetic designs remains a vital, community-driven asset. Enforcement of safety guidelines is another core function, with dedicated committees reviewing protocols to uphold ethical standards across all activities.Team Eligibility and Divisions
The iGEM competition is open to student-led teams worldwide, where all participants must be at least 13 years old as of March 31, 2025, and affiliated with accredited educational institutions such as high schools or universities.[25] Teams are required to be primarily driven by students, with advisors and principal investigators providing guidance, safety oversight, and administrative support but not leading the project development or decision-making.[25] [26] Competition participation is divided into two primary tracks: the High School Division and the Collegiate Division, each designed to accommodate participants at different educational stages.[3] The High School Division is for teams composed entirely of high school students as defined on March 31, 2025, and in 2025, it launched as an independent competition to better align with the resources, facilities, and educational constraints typical of secondary school participants.[25] [26] High school teams must restrict their projects to organisms and components listed on the iGEM White List, excluding higher-risk elements like BSL-2 organisms or human/animal samples.[26] [27] The Collegiate Division is subdivided into Undergraduate and Overgraduate categories based on participant age as of March 31, 2025.[25] Undergraduate teams consist exclusively of members aged 23 or younger, typically bachelor's-level students, while Overgraduate teams include at least one member over 23, encompassing master's, PhD, and postgraduate participants.[25] Collegiate teams in 2025 are required to integrate human practices into their projects, investigating ethical responsibilities, stakeholder engagement, and broader societal impacts as a condition for achieving silver or gold medals.[26] Teams across divisions generally comprise 8 to 15 members with multidisciplinary expertise, including fields like biology, engineering, computer science, and ethics, to foster collaborative synthetic biology projects.[25] Special participation tracks exist for non-traditional affiliations, such as community laboratories—which must be legally incorporated entities with access to BSL-1 facilities and safety training—and commercial teams organized by companies to support student innovators.[25]Competition Mechanics
Registration and Project Phases
The registration process for the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition opens in January each year, allowing teams to secure participation through a tiered system of deadlines and fees to encourage early commitment. For 2025, early bird registration, offering discounted fees, closed on February 15; regular registration ended on March 31; and the final deadline was May 31 at 09:00 CDT, after which no further teams could join.[28][29][25] Teams initiate registration via the official iGEM platform, where the primary Principal Investigator (PI) creates or accesses an account to start the application. This requires submitting a team profile, including a unique team name (limited to 20 characters, using letters, numbers, and hyphens), team division (such as Collegiate, High School, or Community Lab), affiliated institution(s), and primary location; payment of the registration fee follows, varying by period and division (e.g., lower for early registration).[25][25] Once registered, teams follow a defined annual timeline for project development, structured around an off-season and three progressive phases to guide ideation, execution, and completion leading to the Grand Jamboree. The off-season (December to January) emphasizes preparatory activities, such as contacting iGEM ambassadors for support, debriefing prior projects if applicable, recruiting members, securing a PI, and initiating fundraising to build team capacity.[30] Phase 1 (February to May) centers on project ideation and foundational planning, where teams brainstorm ideas, integrate human practices (e.g., ethical and societal considerations), assign roles and tasks, and review competition rules to align their vision with iGEM standards.[30] Phase 2 (June to August) shifts to active development, including laboratory experiments, modeling, DNA synthesis and ordering, construction of BioBricks for submission to the iGEM Registry, and initial documentation on the team wiki; teams must complete safety training during this period to comply with institutional and iGEM safety policies before commencing wet lab work. An example of interim deliverables is the project promotion video, due August 13, 2025, which showcases early progress.[30][31] Phase 3 (September to October) focuses on rigorous testing, iteration, and refinement of the project, alongside finalizing wiki content, Registry part pages, and other documentation to demonstrate achievements; key requirements include submitting the final project safety form by September 3, 2025.[30][31] For the 2025 season, post-Jamboree wiki access was extended, with a thaw on November 9 allowing updates until the archive date of December 10.[31]Deliverables and Presentation Requirements
Teams participating in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition are required to produce a set of core deliverables that document their synthetic biology projects, promote open-source collaboration, and ensure responsible practices. The primary documentation output is the team wiki, a comprehensive online platform hosted on iGEM servers that details the project's background, design, experimental methods, results, and contributions to the field. Wikis must adhere to Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licensing, incorporate standard judging pages, and include all project data, images, and code, with source repositories managed via GitLab for version control and automated deployment. Edits to the wiki are frozen on October 8, 2025, at 11:00 EDT, thawed on November 9, 2025, at 10:00 EST for final updates including Grand Jamboree outcomes, and archived on December 10, 2025, at 10:00 EST.[32] Another essential deliverable is the submission of genetic parts to the iGEM Registry of Standard Biological Parts, where teams document novel or improved BioBricks, including sequences, design notes, and experimental validation data to facilitate reuse by future teams. These part pages must be created and editable until the December 10, 2025, archive deadline, emphasizing the competition's commitment to building a shared repository of modular biological components. Safety forms form a critical component, requiring teams to complete the Project Safety Form outlining biosafety risks, mitigation strategies, and compliance with local regulations; the Check-In Form for mid-season updates; and, if applicable, the Animal Use Form detailing ethical animal handling protocols. These ensure projects meet biosafety levels and responsible conduct standards, with submissions mandatory for competition eligibility.[33][26] Human practices forms complement these by mandating documentation of ethical, social, equity, diversity, and sustainability considerations integrated into the project lifecycle. Teams must report interactions with stakeholders, risk assessments for societal impacts, and efforts to address inclusivity, such as diverse team composition or community engagement, submitted via dedicated forms to highlight the responsible innovation ethos of iGEM. All deliverables underscore open-source principles, with wikis and registry entries publicly accessible to foster global collaboration in synthetic biology. Teams must also submit a 15-minute presentation video by October 15, 2025, providing an overview of their project for judges to review in advance of the Grand Jamboree.[34][26][31] Presentation requirements at the Grand Jamboree culminate the competition's showcase phase, where teams deliver live summary presentations, poster displays, and booth exhibitions to communicate their work to judges, peers, and the public. Each team delivers a 5-minute live summary presentation followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session during judging rounds, focusing on project overview, achievements, and human practices integration, with slides prepared in advance and delivered via provided equipment. Poster displays involve showcasing project summaries on digital or printed posters as part of booth setups, allowing for detailed discussions during dedicated exhibition time slots. Booth expos, a highlight of the event, occur in 15 themed "villages" organized around topics like environment, health, and manufacturing, where teams set up interactive displays including posters, software demos, videos, and hardware prototypes to engage attendees in conversations about their innovations.[26][35] The 2025 Grand Jamboree, held from October 28 to 31 at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris, France, structures these presentations across multiple days: initial judging sessions for summaries and Q&A, followed by village-based booth expos for networking and feedback, culminating in a final day show celebrating achievements and an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding contributions. This format facilitates interdisciplinary exchange among over 5,000 participants, including students, advisors, and industry experts, while emphasizing ethical dimensions through required mentions of equity, diversity, and societal impacts in presentations.[36][37][38]Evaluation Process
Judging Criteria
The judging criteria for the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition evaluate teams based on their project's innovation, technical execution, and broader societal implications, ensuring that synthetic biology efforts are responsible and impactful.[26] Core criteria encompass project design, which assesses the novelty, feasibility, and potential real-world application of the proposed solution using synthetic biology principles; execution, focusing on the development of a working prototype, rigorous experimental data, and reproducibility; and human practices, which require teams to evaluate societal impacts, including equity assessments by identifying affected communities, potential exclusions, and ensuring inclusivity through diverse stakeholder consultations.[39][40] The scoring rubric is structured around medal levels to recognize progressive achievement. To earn a Bronze medal, teams must complete all required deliverables—such as their wiki, presentation video, judging form, and participation in a judging session—while documenting project attributions and making a verifiable contribution to the iGEM community, such as improving Registry parts or educational resources.[39] Silver medal criteria build on Bronze by requiring demonstrated engineering success through at least one iterative design-build-test cycle and integration of human practices that reflect on the project's responsibility and positive societal influence.[39] Gold medals demand fulfillment of Bronze and Silver requirements, plus excellence in at least three special prize categories, including one in general biological engineering (e.g., advanced modeling or safety innovations) and one in a specialization track (e.g., diagnostics or climate solutions), evaluated for outstanding depth and impact.[39] Special judging elements include safety, where all teams must manage biosafety risks and high school teams are limited to approved organisms on the iGEM Whitelist to enhance accessibility and reduce hazards, and collaboration, which is assessed through documented interdisciplinary or inter-team partnerships that enhance project outcomes.[26][27] The evaluation process begins with pre-Jamboree reviews of teams' wikis, videos, and judging forms by expert judges to assess medal eligibility and special prize potential.[26] This is followed by on-site assessments at the Grand Jamboree, where judges observe poster sessions, oral presentations, and live demonstrations to score technical rigor, clarity, and engagement.[26] Medals are awarded based on a majority vote among judges, with ties resolved in favor of teams.[39] In 2025, updates emphasize high school-specific criteria, including an independent competition track with tailored village groups (e.g., focused on diagnostics or climate crisis) and stricter adherence to the Whitelist to promote safe, accessible participation for younger teams.[26] Additionally, greater weight is placed on interdisciplinary collaboration, highlighted by the introduction of a new Art & Design Village to encourage integration of diverse perspectives, such as artistic or ethical inputs, into synthetic biology projects.[26]Awards and Recognition Categories
The iGEM competition recognizes participant teams through a tiered system of medals and prizes that reward achievement across core project elements, innovation, and broader impacts. Medals—Bronze, Silver, and Gold—are awarded based on progressive fulfillment of judging criteria, emphasizing completion of deliverables, engineering rigor, human practices integration, and excellence in selected special prizes. To earn a Bronze Medal, teams must complete all required deliverables, including a wiki, presentation video, judging form, and session participation, while providing attributions and a useful contribution to the synthetic biology community.[26] Silver Medals build on Bronze requirements by demonstrating at least one engineering design-build-test cycle and addressing human practices responsibilities for societal benefit. Gold Medals require meeting all prior criteria plus substantial work toward three special prizes, with at least one from general biological engineering and one from specialization tracks.[26] Special prizes highlight excellence in specific aspects of synthetic biology projects, allowing teams to select up to three categories for evaluation to showcase diverse strengths. These elective prizes are divided into general biological engineering (e.g., Best New Basic Part, Best Model, Best Measurement) and specialization tracks (e.g., Best Plant Synthetic Biology, Best Software Tool, Best Sustainable Development Impact), promoting both foundational and applied innovations. Other notable categories include Best Education for outreach efforts fostering dialogue in synthetic biology, Best Integrated Human Practices for incorporating stakeholder feedback throughout the project lifecycle, Best Inclusivity Award for addressing barriers faced by underrepresented groups in STEM, Best Presentation for engaging video summaries, and Best Wiki for clear, navigable documentation. Additional prizes recognize entrepreneurship through viable business plans, hardware innovations with user testing, safety and security practices, and part collections as coherent systems of compatible components. All village teams are eligible for most prizes, except software and AI-focused teams for the Software Tool category, which requires open-source licensing and hosting on iGEM's GitLab.[26][41] Nominations for special prizes occur through judge ballots, where up to three teams per category advance as finalists based on scores in relevant rubrics, with winners selected from these nominees to ensure broad recognition across divisions. The Grand Prize, including the BioBrick Trophy, is awarded to top-performing teams in each division—High School, Undergraduate, and Overgraduate—evaluating overall project quality, presentation, and wiki effectiveness, often aligning with "Best" designations for division leaders.[26] In 2025, iGEM introduced innovations in awards for the newly launched High School division, including a dedicated Grand Prize and Village Awards to celebrate top high school teams alongside collegiate counterparts, emphasizing accessible synthetic biology education and experimentation with white-listed organisms. The Part Collection prize was also updated to require documentation in the iGEM Registry, facilitating community reuse of multi-part systems. Numerous special prizes, including three winners per category across divisions, were distributed, reflecting the competition's scale with 421 teams.[26][42]Participation and Results
High School Division Outcomes
The High School Division of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition was introduced in 2011 to engage secondary school students in synthetic biology, starting with just 5 teams.[43] This initiative aimed to provide accessible entry into advanced scientific research for younger participants, fostering early interest in biotechnology. Over the subsequent years, participation expanded steadily, reflecting growing global interest among high schools; by 2024, the division had reached over 120 teams from diverse regions.[17] In 2025, the High School Division conducted its inaugural independent competition, separate from the collegiate track to better accommodate the unique needs and capabilities of secondary students, with approximately 150 teams competing.[26] This milestone event emphasized projects aligned with the iGEM White List of approved organisms and parts, promoting safe and educational experimentation. Results highlighted strong performance across participants, with about 40% of teams earning Gold medals for demonstrating robust project execution, documentation, and impact.[44] Notable achievements included the Grand Prize awarded to Great Bay School-Shenzhen International College of Education (Greatbay-SCIE) for ArMOLDgeddon, an environmentally friendly mold detection and elimination system using engineered bacteria to sense and degrade mold toxins without harsh chemicals.[45] Other standout projects featured environmental sensors, such as the PFAS biosensor developed by the HS-KY team, which detects "forever chemicals" in water sources to address pollution risks.[46] Health education tools also gained prominence, exemplified by the Hong Kong-HS team's initiative on colorectal cancer awareness, which integrated synthetic biology demonstrations with outreach materials to educate diverse age groups on early detection and prevention strategies.[47] Historically, the division has shown trends toward accessible technologies, with projects prioritizing low-cost, DIY-compatible designs suitable for school labs, rather than high-complexity engineering. Countries like the United States and Canada have led in participation, contributing a substantial share of teams and innovative entries that emphasize community-relevant applications.[48] Medals and awards in the High School Division are structured to reward educational value, collaboration, and real-world applicability over technical sophistication, encouraging broad involvement and skill-building among novice researchers.[17] This approach has sustained growth and inspired ongoing contributions to synthetic biology education.Collegiate Division Outcomes
In 2025, the overall iGEM competition saw a total of 421 teams from more than 50 countries.[42] The Collegiate Division encompasses the Undergraduate and Overgraduate tracks, where university-level teams develop innovative synthetic biology solutions to address global challenges. The Undergraduate track remains the most prominent, attracting the majority of participants and fostering projects that balance rigorous research with educational growth. In 2025, the Undergraduate track featured approximately 220 teams, reflecting its continued expansion since the competition's inception.[49][50] Standout Undergraduate projects in 2025 emphasized practical applications, such as sustainable materials production. For instance, the University of Rochester team developed PHAntom, engineering bacteria to convert carbon dioxide into bioplastics and fertilizers, earning top honors for its potential in extraterrestrial resource utilization and carbon-negative technologies.[51] Another notable example was the McGill team's Cohera platform, which created a modular toolbox for programmable cell-cell adhesion to build complex microbial consortia, securing the Undergraduate Grand Prize for its foundational advances in synthetic ecosystems.[52][53] Medal achievements were strong, with numerous Gold awards distributed; for example, teams like the University of Macau and University of Oregon also received Gold for their bioengineering innovations in health and sustainability.[54][55] The Overgraduate track, smaller in scale with around 50 teams, caters to advanced researchers including graduate students and focuses on sophisticated applications like therapeutics and environmental engineering. In 2025, this track highlighted cutting-edge therapeutics, exemplified by the University of Toronto team's Mystiphage project, which integrated AI-driven design with synthetic phages for rapid, targeted antibiotic alternatives, winning Best Overgrad Therapeutics Project.[56][57] The Grand Prize went to the Brno-Czech Republic team for NitroDuck, a TAIFR system accelerating transgenic duckweed engineering for sustainable, high-protein feed production to reduce agricultural environmental impacts.[58][50] Gold medals were awarded to several teams, underscoring the track's emphasis on translational research. Over the competition's history from 2004 to 2025, Collegiate Division outcomes have shown a clear shift toward real-world applications, evolving from basic genetic circuit designs to integrated solutions for sustainability, health, and AI-bio hybrids. Participation has surged from 5 teams—all U.S.-based—in 2004 to 421 globally in 2025, with international winners rising prominently; for example, non-U.S. teams claimed both 2025 Grand Prizes, continuing a trend where over 80% of recent top awards go to diverse international squads.[59][60] This growth highlights synthetic biology's broadening accessibility and impact.Country and Institution Rankings
The United States has dominated the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition since its inception in 2004, securing approximately 40% of all gold medals awarded across divisions through 2025.[3] This leadership is attributed to the high number of participating teams from the US, with over 100 teams annually in recent years, contributing to a win rate exceeding 30% for gold medals among its entrants. Following the US, China has emerged as a strong contender, capturing about 20% of gold medals, while the United Kingdom and Canada round out the top four with roughly 10% and 8% respectively.[3] These rankings reflect aggregated medal data from official iGEM archives, highlighting the US's early dominance due to its foundational role in synthetic biology research. In 2025, the US continued its strong performance with 85 gold medals, underscoring its scale.[44] China followed closely with 45 golds, demonstrating sustained growth in participation and success, particularly in the high school and undergraduate divisions.[44] Overall, total team participation shows the US leading with the largest number of teams cumulatively (approximately 1,500 from 2004-2025), compared to China's approximately 500 and the UK's 200, influencing medal outcomes through greater opportunities for high-performing projects.[3] A notable trend is the rise of Asian countries post-2015, with China's team numbers surging from 55 in 2015 to over 100 by 2025, correlating with increased gold medal wins and reflecting expanded synthetic biology education in the region.[61] This shift has diversified global competition, as Asian teams now account for nearly 40% of total entries.[4] Among institutions, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as the competition's founding institution, has been a perennial leader, earning several grand prizes, including in the early years, and numerous golds since 2004 through its consistent high-caliber projects.[3] Other top performers include Harvard University and Imperial College London, each with multiple grand prize wins and over 15 golds, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches in synthetic biology.[3] In 2025, Stanford University secured a gold medal for its innovative project, while the University of Macau (UM) also won gold, marking its fourth such award and highlighting emerging institutional strengths in Asia.[62][49]| Top Countries by Gold Medals (2004-2025) | Approximate Share | Total Teams (Cumulative) |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 40% | ~1,500 |
| China | 20% | ~500 |
| United Kingdom | 10% | ~200 |
| Canada | 8% | ~150 |
| Top Institutions by Grand Prizes (2004-2025) | Approximate Count |
|---|---|
| MIT | Several |
| Harvard | 5+ |
| Imperial College London | 4+ |