Genetically Engineered Machines Competition

aqkiva writes: This past weekend, 33 schools from around the world gathered at MIT for the international genetically engineered machine (iGEM) competition. Teams consisting of mostly undegraduates had designed, built, tested, and characterized biological parts, devices, and systems over the course of the summer and came together to present their work. The competition is helping push the field of synthetic biology and opening access to the tools to engineer biological systems by providing standard biological components. The team from Slovenia won first prize overall for their engineering of mammalian systems and won the "BioBrick," a large metal LEGO brick. The MIT team won the top prize for the best system with their engineering of bacteria that smell like wintergreen and banana. News coverage of this weekend's jamboree at the Boston Globe and Technology Review.