International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) 2020 drew to a close on Nov 22, EST. Northwest University (NWU)’s team NWU-CHINA-A won the silver medal. NWU has been participating in iGEM since 2018, notching up a gold medal and two bronze medals.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the whole competition, including group presetations and the awarding ceremony, has to be held virtually. A total of 256 teams from universities worldwide signed up for the competition.
iGEM was first hosted by MIT in 2003 and has become the international academic competition in the field of synthetic biology in 2005. This annual event, deemed as a top innovation program in synthetic biology, gives university students opportunities to push the boundaries of this field by working together to design, build, test, and measure of system of their own design using interchangeable biological parts and standard molecular biology techniques.
