Casey Haynes, a biomedical engineering major, is only in her second year at Georgia Tech, but she is already representing the Institute on a worldwide scale. She’s part of a seven-person undergraduate team that participated in the iGEM World Championship Jamboree, an annual competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on synthetic biology. Their project is up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter, a new peer-reviewed crowd-funding website.

What is iGEM?

iGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machine. It’s an international competition that began at MIT in 2003 and convenes research universities from around the world to compete with projects related to synthetic biology.

What is Georgia Tech’s iGEM team working on?

We are trying to create what we like to call a "BioBot," which is essentially a biological robot that has the ability to sense and interact with its environment. In order to create our BioBot, we are trying to express a human cell sensor called an integrin on the surface of a bacterial cell for the first time. This would allow the bacteria cell to interact with its environment in a way it hasn't before, and interact with proteins around it.

The specific integrin we are working with can bind to fibrinogen and coagulate blood, but expressing integrins on bacterial cells can have other applications such as localized drug delivery and the detection of cancer cells. 

Who is part of Tech’s iGEM team?

The research team is all undergraduates — six biomedical engineering majors and one chemical engineer. We have three facilitators — two graduate students and one postdoc — who work with us.

What will be funded through Starter?

The funding will most likely cover next year’s competition registration fee. There are two levels of competition: regional jamborees and the World Championship Jamboree. This year, Georgia Tech won gold at its regional championship and competed at the worldwide competition Nov. 1-4. The biggest funding need is travel expenses to the competitions.

Why is participating in this competition important for Georgia Tech? Why should people donate to the Tech iGEM team?

Georgia Tech has had iGEM teams in the past but they haven’t done this well before. iGEM is going to be something big. We want this to carve a path for Georgia Tech as a powerhouse in this competition — we want to be known for being really good in this competition every year. Having Tech as a powerhouse in this competition will make the Institute name more respected internationally and continue its growth in this arena.

Why is it important to grow in this arena?

iGEM was named by the United Nations, as well as the president of the United States, as the premier research competition and frontier for synthetic biology. We are currently in the Electronic and Information era, but by 2030 we are expected to move into the next era of development, which is expected to be the Biological era. Georgia Tech can get a headstart in becoming an internationally recognized university for biology and biological processes, which would be incredibly helpful for its prestige and growth as we enter this new era.