Tracks/Community Labs

Please note that all information on this page is in a draft version.
Please check back often for details.

The iGEM Community Labs Track

Some have said that Biotechnology is (Becoming) Technology?

Every year, thousands of students around the world put that notion to the test by designing and building biological machines in the annual iGEM competition, figuring out along the way how general engineering principles such as modularity, measurement, and abstraction can be used (or not) to successfully engineer living systems at a molecular level.

Since it’s inception in 2005, competing in iGEM (and receiving/remixing the remarkable library of approx. 2000 standard genetic “biobrick parts” at the heart of the competition) has been restricted primarily to college students hosted by academic biotechnology labs. The Community Labs track, first introduced in the 2014 competition (after a pilot in 2013?), opens the competition to a wider base of participants, with some restrictions (tl;dr any non-academic legal entity - llc, c-corp, etc with a BL-1 equivalent lab, safety plan, and multiple members).

There are some other new tracks, too, in addition to the “classic” tracks, but the Community Labs track is the only track open to non-academic teams. Teams develop their projects for several month over the spring and summer, then compete at the iGEM Jamboree for a variety of prizes:

  • A Bronze, Silver or Gold Medal, available non-exclusively to each team based on excellence.
  • A Best-of-Track Award awarded only to one of the teams in each track.
  • A variety of Special Prizes.
  • The iGEM Grand Prize.

For more info on Awards, Timeline, Cost, & Requirements, see below.

Who is the Community Labs track for?

Everyone! The Community Labs track is open to any organization, Academic or otherwise, that would like to participate in iGEM.

How do you “win” the Community Labs track?

By building something that radically increases access to the practice of Synthetic Biology consistent with iGEM’s core values of modularity and openness.

Biotechnology is expensive, arcane, and bespoke, in part because the tools needed to do the work have been optimized for their power to answer cutting-edge scientific questions, not their simplicity, affordability, or ubiquity. These tools complement their professional counterparts by supporting more informal, playful explorations of the technology space; together, they accelerate innovation.

Put more simply, a winning project will make synthetic biology more fun for everyone!

Examples

coming soon…


Community Lab track details

Community labs will be able to compete alongside traditional iGEM teams for the same prizes. Teams will be eligible for the Grand Prize, as well as other prizes such as the Best Human Practices, Best Software and Best Part awards.

If you participate in iGEM this season, we will ship you a copy of the 2015 distribution as well as fulfill any part requests for the duration of the competition. You get space on this 2015 wiki to display your project, a presentation slot and poster board at the Giant Jamboree.

Community Lab track requirements

In addition the the general requirements for all iGEM teams, Community Lab teams are required to complete the following:

  • Team composition. While there is no minimum number of team members, iGEM is a team competition and single individual entries will not be accepted. CL teams must have two advisors, one of which must be in the field of their chosen subject area.
  • Community Lab teams must demonstrate they have access to a BL 1 lab in order to receive a copy of the distribution.
  • Teams participating in the hardware aspect of the CL track are encouraged to bring their equipment to the Giant Jamboree. Teams may not bring live or inactive organisms as part of their equipment. This topic will be covered in more detail when evaluation criteria and awards are published.

As Community Lab teams are not operating within the framework offered by academic institutions, they must meet the following additional requirements:

  1. CL teams must be an incorporated entity (for profit or not-for-profit).
  2. CL teams must have a legal entity that has the ability to sign contracts.

Medal Criteria

The Community Lab Track is unique in that the track is defined not by the scope of the project, but by the type of lab the team comes out of. Therefore, the medal will be awarded based on the highest level of requirements (bronze, silver or gold) satisfied in ANY of the following four categories:

  1. Parts: CL teams can choose to compete based on the standard medal criteria for all iGEM teams.
  2. Software: CL teams can choose to compete based on the medal requirements for the software track teams.
  3. Hardware: Community Lab Teams can choose to build and submit hardware as part of their CL track iGEM participation
  4. Systems for Community Engagement and Promotion of Citizen Access to Synthetic Biology: CL teams can choose to work on meeting the criteria for Community Engagement

While Community Labs have the option of picking any of the four sets of criteria, once chose, they MUST adhere to that set of criteria.

iGEM 2015 Community Labs Hardware Medal Criteria

Bronze. The following 4 goals must be achieved:

  1. Register the team, have a great summer, and have fun attending the Jamboree.
  2. Create and share a description of the team's project via the iGEM wiki.
  3. Present a Poster and Talk at the iGEM Jamboree.
  4. Develop a working prototype of an open source hardware tool that supports synthetic biology based on BioBrick standard biological parts (not just another gel box!)

Silver: To earn a Silver Medal, in addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, a team must:

  1. Develop and make available via a communal wiki page, schematics the information sufficient to reproduce the device.
  2. Provide a demonstration of their hardware using a video tutorial made available on their wiki. This tutorial should explain all the features of the hardware operation. The team must send the video to iGEM HQ and the Community Lab Committee.

Gold: In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, the following mandatory medal criteria and one optional criteria must be achieved:

  1. Have another team utilize the hardware developed by your team. You must clearly show how your hardware was used and the results that were obtained. Results should take the form of a written report from the team testing the hardware and be posted on both team’s wikis.
    2. AND EITHER
  2. Outline and detail how your hardware affects Policy and Practices in Synthetic Biology. Such topics include: safety, security, ethics, or ownership, sharing, and innovation.
    3. OR
  3. Create a user-friendly software interface that allows protocols for the hardware to be easily created and shared within the community

iGEM 2015 Community Labs Community Engagement Medal Criteria

Bronze. The following 4 goals must be achieved:

  1. Register the team, have a great summer, and have fun attending the Jamboree.
  2. Create and share a description of the team's project via the iGEM wiki.
  3. Present a Poster and Talk at the iGEM Jamboree.You should be able to clearly articulate the specific question(s) your team chose to address, and detail the methods used.
  4. Create a 2-page Executive Summary and a 3-minute video of your project, accessible to an interested lay audience.

Silver: In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, the following four criteria must be achieved:

  1. Evaluate your proposed approach, by showing the extent to which it allowed you to answer your question(s) in part or in whole.
  2. Describe the advantages and limitations of your method(s) in relation to the project questions.
  3. Outline how your team managed limitations or challenges of your method.
  4. Create step-by-step documentation for your method, sufficient that it could be replicated by another community lab.

Gold: In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, the following mandatory medal criteria and one optional criteria must be achieved:

  1. Help a current iGEM team or community lab engage the public using your method.
  2. Document this using video and send this video to iGEM HQ and the Community Lab track Committee.
  3. Provide a method of evaluation/feedback and discuss how the feedback you received did or will inform future step(s) in your team’s project.
  4. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, or intellectual property rights. Describe an approach that your team used to address at least one of these questions. Evaluate your approach, including whether it allowed you to answer your question(s), how it influenced the team’s scientific project, and how it might be adapted for others to use (within and beyond iGEM). We encourage thoughtful and creative approaches, and those that draw on past Policy & Practice (formerly Human Practices) activities.

Community Labs track Committee

We have a great committee to help coordinate this endeavor.