IEEE Computer and Engineering in Medicine and Biology Societies, MIT biological engineering and biomedical engineering student group (BE-BMES), and GBC/ACM

7:00 PM, Thursday, March 31, 2011

Broad Institute Auditorium (MIT building NE-30)

Making Synthetic Biologists - iGEM the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition

Randy Rettberg, MIT

Can simple biological systems be built from standard, interchangeable parts and operated in living cells? OR, is biology so complicated that every case is unique? The minicomputer revolution thrived on interchangeable parts from the TTL catalogue. There was a rich explosion in computer companies, semiconductor companies, and the industries that supported and used those computers. Today, the biotechnology industries are like the mainframe companies of the 1960's. Can the engineering principles of standardization and interchangeable parts create an industrial revolution of synthetic biology based on standard parts? iGEM, the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition is implementing this vision. Each year teams of undergraduate students are given a kit of 1000 biological parts as DNA. The parts include sensors for small molecules, coding regions for various proteins, and other control parts. Over the summer, the teams build systems from these parts and make new parts of their own. They come together at MIT in the fall, present their work, win prizes, and have fun meeting other new synthetic biologists.

Randy Rettberg is the Founder and Director of iGEM at MIT. Previously, he worked as a computer and network designer at BBN, Apple, and Sun.

This joint meeting of the Boston Chapters of the IEEE Computer and Engineering in Medicine and Biology Societies, the MIT biological engineering and biomedical engineering student group (BE-BMES) and GBC/ACM will be held in the Broad Institute Auditorium (MIT building NE-30). The Broad Institute is on Main St between Vassar and Ames streets. You can see it on a map at this location. The auditorium is on the ground floor near the entrance.

Up-to-date information about this and other talks is available online at https://ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/computer/. You can sign up to receive updated status information about this talk and informational emails about future talks at https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ieee-cs, our self-administered mailing list.

For more information contact Peter Mager (p.mager at computer.org)

Updated: January 25, 2011.