Cornell iGEM

In previous years, some examples of wet lab projects have been creating a bacteriotherapy treatment and tracking system for cancerous malignant tumors (2020), editing bacteria to produce colorful bioink functionalized to uptake carbon dioxide (2022), engineering E. Coli to sense and degrade toxins from algae (2019), and detect and respond to oxidat... ive stress using light-controlled gene expression (2017), and more! The product development subteam is an engineering-focused, user-centered, end-to-end development team. Our end goal is to bring Cornell iGEM's biological innovation to the real world. We apply design thinking and various engineering disciplines to explore user needs, generate a problem statement, design and prototype a solution to the problem, and create product specifications to prepare for manufacturing. This year, the product development team plans to design and implement an immobilized enzyme catalysis reactor for the synthesis of 7-methylxanthines. In previous years, the product development subteam has built a boat with an automatic sampling system (2019), a bioreactor (2019 + 2022), planter cups that monitor and adjust oxidative conditions for the plant (2018), software that displays information about a hydroponics system in real-time to a dashboard and alerts farmers (2018), a customizable milking shell that prevents bovine mastitis (2017), an app with a built-in cell counter that also tracks trends in cow health (2017), and many more. Policy and Practices analyzes legislation and speaks with researchers, industry professionals and the general public to contextualize and understand the impact of our projects. The subteam also coordinates outreach events such as youth mentorship programs, forums, and expos to inform and educate the public about the field of synthetic biology. Through interviews with field experts and interactions with the public, we are reminded that the people we meet always have stories to tell. We aim to share our story with them, too. The Business Subteam deals with ...Read More