iGEMers of The World

Malik is a Junior at MIT (class of 2022), majoring in Biogengineering and and minoring in African and African diaspora studies. Malik, alongside his brother Miles, work as admissions ambassadors to help underrepresented students. They are also involved in several Office of Minority Education programs, and were part of the 2019 MIT iGEM team. Him and his brother are stars on Tik Tok, with 59.5K followers! @malikandmiles.

Megan Palmer is an Adjunct Professor (Bioengineering) and the Executive Director of Bio Policy & Leadership Initiatives at Stanford University. In this episode, Melody Wu chats with Megan on how her research, education and public policy programs are exploring how biological science and engineering is shaping our society. They also talk about the birth of iGEM Human Practices and how innovation in iGEM must serve public interest.

Nemira is a first year PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge and a key member of the 2021 After iGEM team. She is also leading iGEM’s Women in STEM initiative for 2021. In this episode we’re going to talk about her iGEM journey, her diverse interests in SynBio, and the grand ambitions of the iGEM Women in STEM committee.

Biotechnology, including synthetic biology, has traditionally been a resource-heavy field— that’s made it particularly difficult for young students to engage in biology and STEM particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. In addition, there’s the larger obstacle of lack of support for teachers and changing curriculum as new technologies and industries emerge. Who is trying to help bring the world of synthetic biology to future generations through supporting educators passionate about changing education and inspiring young scientists? For this final episode, I chat with Ricardo C. Chavez, founder of Scintia, a biotech education company from Latin America bringing synthetic biology and bioengineering to classrooms in the region.

Scintia Bio site: https://en.scintia.com/

Biotechnology, including synthetic biology, has traditionally been a resource-heavy field— that’s made it particularly difficult for young students to engage in biology and STEM particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. In addition, there’s the larger obstacle of lack of support for teachers and changing curriculum as new technologies and industries emerge. Who is trying to help bring the world of synthetic biology to future generations through supporting educators passionate about changing education and inspiring young scientists? In the next few episodes, we'll talk to three organizations in this space of biotech education and accessibility, fueled by similar values as iGEM. For this second episode, Melody chats with Dr. Natalie Kuldell, founder of the BioBuilder Foundation, a non-profit organization changing the landscape of teaching synthetic biology and bioengineering in the classroom.

Biotechnology, including synthetic biology, has traditionally been a resource-heavy field— that’s made it particularly difficult for young students to engage in biology and STEM particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. In addition, expensive biotech equipment and lack of funding in education have also made access to knowledge and the ability to engineer biological products— whatever they may be— expensive and difficult. Who are the companies and organizations trying to break down these barriers to create more accessible biotech and life sciences tools? In the next few episodes, we'll talk to three organizations in this space of biotech education and accessibility, fueled by similar values as iGEM. For this first episode, my guest is Ally Huang, creator of BioBits and part of the team at miniPCR, looking to increase accessibility to biotech technology and tools particularly for the classroom.

To find out about freeze-dried cell-free technology, a core aspect of the BioBits kit, see the core Cell paper here by Pardee et al. from the Collins Lab at MIT.

To find out more about BioBits and miniPCR check their sites out here:

https://www.mybiobits.org/

https://www.minipcr.com/

Drew Endy is a member of the bioengineering faculty at Stanford University and the President of the BioBricks Foundation. He is also the co-founder of iGEM! Join us for this very exciting episode where Zeeshan talks to Drew about turning biology into an engineering discipline, the birth of synbio and iGEM, and the future of synbio education.

Arvind gupta and Po Bronson talk about their new book, Decoding The World: A roadmap for the questioner. Arvind is the founder and a venture advisor at IndieBio, the world's leading science accelerator with 136 companies to date. Po is the Managing Director of IndieBio. He's the author of seven bestselling books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do With My Life? Join us for this incredibly fun episode where we decode the real cause of the pandemic, climate change, iGEM, and synbio and silicon valley!