Team:British Columbia/Americas

The UBC iGEM team had a VERY successful weekend at the iGEM Americas Regionals synthetic biology research competition held this past weekend in Indianapolis. The UBC team earned a gold medal status for their research project AND won a special award for Best Model. This is the best showing for UBC ever and the team will now advance to the World Championships held at MIT in Boston, Nov 4-6th. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us for the inspiration, advice, patience, and support that you've provided for our talented set of students. We couldn’t have done it without you.

2011 UBC iGEM Achievements:

UBC iGEM team earns a gold medal award for their research project on combating the pine beetle outbreak by producing terpenes in yeast.

UBC iGEM team selected as finalist to advance to iGEM synthetic biology World Championships at MIT in Boston, Nov 4-6.

UBC iGEM team wins special award for Best Model for their modelling work creating both a MATLAB simulation of metabolic pathways to guide their work at the bench, and a model of the potential impacts on the pine beetle epidemic with data from the Ministry of Forestry.

UBC was one of only 10 Canadian teams in the Americas division. 68 teams in total competed the Americas Regional Jamboree. Only 25 teams advanced to finals.

UBC Faculty of Applied Science Headline News

[http://blogs.apsc.ubc.ca/apscnews/2011/10/12/ubc-igem-team-wins-gold-medal-and-special-award-for-best-model/ UBC iGEM team wins gold medal and special award for best model]

UBC Faculty of Science: Science Connect News and Events for UBC Science Alumni

[http://science.ubc.ca/sites/science.ubc.ca/files/connect/2011_5/5-2011.htm UBC iGEM Team Has Winning Weekend]

UBC Chemical & Biological Engineering News

[http://blogs.apsc.ubc.ca/chbenews/2011/10/11/ubc-igem-teams/ UBC iGEM Team Bring home GOLD MEDAL and win Special Award for Best Model!]

We have presented at the following events:

1. aGEM, 24-25th September 2011: An annual competition held by Alberta Innovates Technology Futures in Edmonton where teams from Alberta (and British Columbia) showcase their iGEM projects.
2. iGEM Americas Regional Jamboree, 8-10th October 2011: Over 70 teams from all across the Americas competed at the Americas Jamboree for a chance at a spot at the World Championships. Our team won a Gold Medal and the Best Model special award!
3. UBC Microbiology and Immunology Symposium, 28th October 2011: The UBC iGEM team presented our project to the UBC Microbiology and Immunology department's faculty and students. This was a great opportunity to promote our presence at UBC, recruit new members, and also rehearse for the World Jamboree!
4. iGEM World Championship Jamboree, 5-7th November 2011: Finalist teams from all over the world will compete for best project, best track and other special awards!
5. Michael Smith Laboratories and CHiBi Colloquia, 8th November 2011: Immediately after our return from the World Jamboree, the UBC iGEM team will present our project to the faculty and students at the Michael Smith Laboratories! We have invited UBC's definitive news source, the Ubyssey to attend this presentation and feature our project in their student newspaper.

Judging Requirements for Americas Regional Jamboree

Bronze:

1. Team registration:
2. Complete Judging form: See Judging form here.
3. Team Wiki:
4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree:
5. At least one new submitted and well-characterized standard BioBrick Part or Device: We have submitted and characterized 4 new biobrick parts.

Silver:

1. Demonstrate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected (See our Data Page for more details): We have demonstrated that the 4 parts we submitted are functional.
2. Enter this information in the “Main Page” section of that Part’s/Device’s Registry entry: The data pertaining to our biobrick parts have been added to the Registry.

Gold:

1. Improve the function of an existing BioBrick Part or Device and enter this information in the Registry (See our Data Page for more details):
   1. We sequenced the Registry’s IDI. Based on sequence discrepancies, we recommend that this part be removed from distribution.
   2. We characterized GAL1 promoter and found it to be non-functional. We submitted our own functionally characterized GAL promoter.
   3. We functionally characterized Limonene Generator in the Registry.
2. Outline and detail a new approach to an issue of Human Practice in synthetic biology (See our Human Practices for more details):
   1. Guide for How to Start a iGEM High School team
   2. Synthetic Biology in the Open
   3. iGEM dictionary