Cornell iGEM

The Cornell University Genetically Engineered Machines (Cornell iGEM) team is an award-winning undergraduate synthetic biology team. Every year, we design and develop a novel genetically engineered platform to help with the many needs of industry, the environment, and the economy. Comprised entirely of undergraduates and drawn from various majors across five colleges -- Engineering, Arts & Sciences, Agriculture & Life Sciences, Human Ecology, and Architecture -- our team strives to create comprehensive solutions to real-world problems. In 2012, we developed a field-deployable biosensor, called SAFE BET, to detect the presence of arsenic in groundwater affected by seepage from oil and gas extraction. We were awarded Best Solution to an Oil Sands Challenge from the Canadian Oil Sands Leadership Initiative (OSLI) and placed within the Top 16 at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. In 2011, the team created a scalable, cell-free method to produce complex biomolecules, BioFactory, which won the Best Manufacturing Award at the international competition. We now seek to create a fungal genetic toolkit to provide a foundation for future fungal genetic engineering and develop novel ways to improve the production process of fungal biomaterials.

June 2013