iGEM: international Genetically Engineered Machine Competition
iGEM is the largest synthetic biology competition where students from all around the world conduct a 10-month self-led project. 400+ teams participate each year, with many of the best universities in the world among the competitors. In Synthetic Biology, we aim to tackle real-world problems by strategic engineering of living systems to reprogram organisms with entirely new functional capabilities.
Want to get involved or apply?
We are always looking for motivated people to join the next iGEM teams or advise/assist the current teams!
Interested in joining the 2027 iGEM teams? Wait for the next Recruitment period in October, you can find more information on this page & on the Application page about the process! Also, come to our events this semester to get to know the current teams and the SBL board and increase your application chances!
For questions or to join as an advisor contact: igem@studentbiolab.ch
The Alps make up 60% of the national territory: they shape Swiss identity and traditions, and are home to many people, animals, and plants. The climate crisis is reshaping the Alpine environment, where heavier rainfall produces an increased risk of landslides.
We aim to make unstable soil stronger from within by having bacteria convert urea into carbonate, enabling calcium carbonate to form which in turn crystallizes as calcite around soil particles. Together, this results in Microbiologically Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP). We focused on cold adaptation and biomineralization pathways.
iGEM UZH 2026 – SeisMIC
iGEM ETH 2026 – preCISe
Protein therapeutics work by targeting biomolecules in the human body: around 80% of encoded proteins sit inside the cells and many are undruggable by standard small-molecule drugs. But novel protein therapeutics cannot cross the cell membrane passively to reach intracellular targets and have significant limitations.
As a solution, we present Photorhabdus virulence cassettes (PVCs), a type of contractile injection systems that work as molecular syringes. We targeted PVCs to CD20 (a protein on the surface of certain human cells), developed a way to split the cargo and send it on two different PVCs to ensure cell specificity, and wrote two softwares to aid in target design.
