Difference between revisions of "Team:UMaryland/about"

Revision as of 01:49, 19 September 2015

What is iGEM?

The International Genetically Engineered Machine is a student-led synthetic biology competition with more than 280 participating collegiate teams worldwide. Each fall, teams from Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas gather in Boston to share their research findings. iGEM is also much more than a competition. The iGEM Foundation is dedicated to education and competition, advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of open community and collaboration. The community has a long history of involving students and the public in the development of the new field of synthetic biology.

What is Synthetic Biology?

"If you ask five people to define synthetic biology, you will get six answers."

--Prof. Kristala Prather, MIT

"Synthetic biology aims to make the engineering of new function in biology faster, cost effective, scalable, predictable, transparent and safe. It focuses on improvement of standard genetic engineering technology; development of standards for genetic assembly and rapid characterization; creation of families of genetic 'parts' that behave reliably in designated hosts and have no undesigned interactions; and generation of safe, robust host cells."

--Prof. Adam Arkinm, UC Berkeley

"Synthetic biologists construct new biological entities—molecules, pathways, regulatory networks, organisms and ecosystems—by programming them, or reprogramming them, at the level of the DNA code. The new name 'synthetic biology' reflects an explosion in our ability to genetically engineer increasingly complex systems and the desire of scientists and engineers from fields outside molecular biology and genetics to participate in the fun, contributing to the technology and its applications."

--Prof. Frances Arnold, Caltech

Simply put, it is a rapidly emerging field that combines biotechnology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, systems biology, biophysics, computer engineering, and is in many ways related to genetic engineering. It can be used to solve a wide variety of economic, scientic, and societal problems.

What is UMaryland?

Ranking 43rd in this year's Times Higher Education World University Rankings, The University of Maryland is the state's flagship and land-grant public institution with 37,500 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and a $1.9B annual operating budget, including $500M in external research funding.

The University of Maryland chapter of iGEM, UMaryland iGEM, was founded in 2014. It showed great promise by winning a gold medal at its inaugural international convention, a great feat for a rookie team. Riding on this momentum, UMaryland iGEM has since doubled in membership and has taken on multiple research projects: creating an antibiotic-free plasmid retention system, designing a PCR machine that costs less than $50 to build, and educating the community about synthetic biology.

How can I be involved?

Contact our community/outreach director, Robert Hand.

rhand@terpmail.umd.edu

Support us financially!

Donations of any amount are welcome and will be recognized appropriately!

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 <div id='contentbox'>
 <h1 style="font-size:32px">What is iGEM?</h1>
-<p style="font-size:18px">The International Genetically Engineered Machine is a student-led <b>synthetic biology</b> competition with more than 280 participating collegiate teams worldwide. Each September, teams from Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas gather in Boston to share their research findings. iGEM is also much more than a competition. The iGEM Foundation is dedicated to education and competition, advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of open community and collaboration. The community has a long history of involving students and the public in the development of the new field of synthetic biology.
+<p style="font-size:18px">The International Genetically Engineered Machine is a student-led <b>synthetic biology</b> competition with more than 280 participating collegiate teams worldwide. Each fall, teams from Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas gather in Boston to share their research findings. iGEM is also much more than a competition. The iGEM Foundation is dedicated to education and competition, advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of open community and collaboration. The community has a long history of involving students and the public in the development of the new field of synthetic biology.
 <p>
 <br>
 <h1 style="font-size:32px">What is Synthetic Biology?</h1>
-<p style="font-size:18px"><i>"If you ask five different experts in the field what synthetic biology is, you'll get 7 different definitions."</i>
+<p style="font-size:18px"><i>"If you ask five people to define synthetic biology, you will get six answers."</i>
-<p style="font-size:18px">Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary branch of biology, combining disciplines such as biotechnology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, systems biology, biophysics, computer engineering, and is in many ways related to genetic engineering. The definition of synthetic biology is debated not only among natural scientists but also in the human sciences, arts and politics. One popular definition is "designing and constructing biological devices, biological systems, and biological machines for useful purposes." However, the functional aspects of this definition stem from molecular biology and biotechnology.
+<p style="font-size:18px;">--Prof. Kristala Prather, MIT
+<p style="font-size:18px"><i>"Synthetic biology aims to make the engineering of new function in biology faster, cost effective, scalable, predictable, transparent and safe. It focuses on improvement of standard genetic engineering technology; development of standards for genetic assembly and rapid characterization; creation of families of genetic 'parts' that behave reliably in designated hosts and have no undesigned interactions; and generation of safe, robust host cells."</i>
+<p style="font-size:18px;">--Prof. Adam Arkinm, UC Berkeley
+<p style="font-size:18px"><i>"Synthetic biologists construct new biological entities—molecules, pathways, regulatory networks, organisms and ecosystems—by programming them, or reprogramming them, at the level of the DNA code. The new name 'synthetic biology' reflects an explosion in our ability to genetically engineer increasingly complex systems and the desire of scientists and engineers from fields outside molecular biology and genetics to participate in the fun, contributing to the technology and its applications."</i>
+<p style="font-size:18px;">--Prof. Frances Arnold, Caltech
+<br>
+<p style="font-size:18px;">Simply put, it is a rapidly emerging field that combines biotechnology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, systems biology, biophysics, computer engineering, and is in many ways related to genetic engineering. It can be used to solve a wide variety of economic, scientic, and societal problems.
 <br>
 <h1 style="font-size:32px">What is UMaryland?</h1>
-<p style="font-size:18px">The University of Maryland is the state's flagship and land-grant institution with 37,500 students in 12 schools and colleges, 9,000 faculty and staff, and a $1.9B annual operating budget, including $500M in external research funding. It is a member of the Association of American Universities.
+<p style="font-size:18px">Ranking 43rd in this year's Times Higher Education World University Rankings, <a href = "http://www.umd.edu"><u>The University of Maryland</u></a> is the state's flagship and land-grant public institution with 37,500 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and a $1.9B annual operating budget, including $500M in external research funding.
-<p style="font-size:18px">The University of Maryland chapter of iGEM, UMaryland iGEM, was founded in 2014. It showed great promise by winning a gold medal at its inaugural international convention, a great feat for a rookie team. Riding on this momentum, UMaryland iGEM has since doubled in membership and has taken on multiple research projects: designing a PCR machine that costs less than $50 to build, making a drug that treats macular degeneration, creating an antibiotic-free alternative to lab work, and educating the community about synthetic biology. More information about our work can be found at UMDiGEM.com
+<p style="font-size:18px">The University of Maryland chapter of iGEM, UMaryland iGEM, was founded in 2014. It showed great promise by winning a gold medal at its inaugural international convention, a great feat for a rookie team. Riding on this momentum, UMaryland iGEM has since doubled in membership and has taken on multiple research projects: creating an antibiotic-free plasmid retention system, designing a PCR machine that costs less than $50 to build, and educating the community about synthetic biology.
 <br>
@@ Line 143: / Line 152: @@
 <br>
 <p style="font-size:18px"><a href="http://advancement.umd.edu/giving/fund.php?name=igem-genetic-engineering-biology-gift-fund"><u>Support us financially!</u></a>
-<p style="font-size:18px">In order to sustain our efforts both inside and outside the lab, we are asking for your help. By donating to UMaryland iGEM, you are not only helping us solve these issues, but also giving the next generation of leaders, scientists, and engineers the opportunity to get hands-on experience with biotechnology, genetic engineering, teamwork and more. Although each day we work with microscopic processes and structures, the potential outcome of our research would make huge advances in the world of medicine and biotechnology. With your support, we will be one step closer to making those advances.
 <p style="font-size:18px"> Donations of any amount are welcome and will be recognized appropriately!