Ever wondered if it was possible to make E. coli smell like wintergreen or produce hemoglobin?
The International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (IGEM), held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), challenges its participants to do just that. "The whole point of the competition is to answer the question, 'can complex biological systems have interchangeable parts, or is biology just too complicated?'" senior and co-founder of Hopkins' IGEM team James DiCarlo said.
"It looks at the organism as a machine, and we basically use interchangeable parts of a genome to make an organism do what you want."Hopkins' IGEM team participated in this year's competition and received a gold medal for its project.
The team was first started by seniors James DiCarlo and Allison Suarez in the fall of 2007 after they took a course over the summer called Build a Genome, taught by professor Jef Boeke.
"The course is a synthetic bio course, and during it, Boeke discussed the IGEM competition, which showcases synthetic bio projects. It sounded really cool, so we decided to start a club and make a team," DiCarlo said.
"At some point during my class, I mentioned the IGEM competition, and those two [DiCarlo and Suarez], got really fired up about the whole idea, and before I knew it they were cooking up a plan," Boeke explained.
Their plan was to make a better smelling E.coli through genetic modification.
"They decided that they didn't like the smell of E.coli and they started thinking about how they could make it smell better. Could we give them some genes that would make them produce some sweet smelling compound? We started thinking about maybe wintergreen or banana smells," Boeke said. And then, when the winning IGEM team that fall was announced, DiCarlo and Suarez were stunned. One of the big winners at the competition had been a team at MIT whose project had made bacteria that produced a banana smell and a wintergreen smell.
"James and Allison were stunned that they had been scooped on their idea, but it also encouraged them that they were thinking along the right lines, and they started a team that following fall," Boeke said.
In the first year the team entered, the fall of 2008, it attempted to make yeast fluoresce different colors depending on its sex through toying with the yeast's DNA.
However, the project ultimately fell through, due to the rigid standards of the IGEM competition.
"We couldn't use standard genetic engineering techniques a lot of the time, so we had a lot of problems in the construction area of that project. That's actually one reason this year's team wanted to present new standards for making genetic systems," DiCarlo said.
This year, the team pursued a less-traditional IGEM project. They did not create any sort of "machine," but rather tried to suggest a new method of standards for the competition.
Taking inspiration from Boeke's Build a Genome class, the team used the standards that the course used to create a synthetic yeast genome and suggested them as standards for the IGEM competition.
"It was more a method and standards presentation, we didn't really build anything this year," DiCarlo said.
The actual competition, they all attest, was a lot of fun. There were over 100 different teams from around the world this year, with the winning team hailing from Cambridge.
Many of the schools that attended also had well-established IGEM teams.
"There are some programs that have been there for a really long time, and they have a claim to their name, like UC Berkeley and MIT. Hopkins has everything needed for a strong IGEM team, we just basically need the undergrad interest," senior Rose Xie, a member of this year's Hopkins team said.
"It definitely can be intimidating, but I think we definitely did a good job this year, and people are definitely going to start viewing Hopkins as a school to be reckoned with."
Nonetheless, there are still some kinks that the group has to iron out.
For one, funding is an issue. Boeke explained how because of their small amount of funding, the team has not been able to rent hotel rooms for the past two years.
"I make them call their friends in Boston and ask them if they can sleep on the floor, and that's pretty much what we did this year. Last year we didn't even book a flight, we rented a big van and we took 15 kids up in a 15 passenger van, it was quite a ride," Boeke said.
"We have to sort of beg, borrow and steal money, because it does cost a lot, but I like to bring the kids up there because it's such a great experience."
In addition, this year's team was mostly made up of seniors, and there is some worry about who will form next year's team and how to attract a bunch of committed students.
"The main problem the team will have to deal with is committing to the project. Most people don't realize how much time has to be put into it. The teams that enter IGEM work at it all summer. You need to pick students who are willing to devote their time," said senior Ingrid Spielman, another member of this year's IGEM team.
Boeke hopes that next year's team will pursue a more traditional IGEM project, "where the students sit around and cook up an idea together," because he said that the most exciting part of the competition is the creativity of the ideas that are presented. "The great thing about undergraduates is they're completely fearless. They're not jaded like us [established researchers] who have been burned a few times, so they're absolutely fearless about tackling things that nine out of 10 scientists would tell them is impossible. You see some really creative stuff going on there," Boeke said. Although the Hopkins IGEM team is small now - there were only seven people on this year's team - Boeke said that Hopkins has the potential to create a team that makes it to the finals.
"We have everything at Hopkins that you need, we have a fantastic faculty, a great engineering school, great biology. Really all the ingredients are here," Boeke said.
"Hopkins has all the potential, but it does take a lot of effort and time, and that's where our team is usually weakest. Hopkins students are so busy most of the time, it's hard for them to put the time in."
And though most of the students who were part of this year's IGEM team had gotten into it through taking Boeke's course, members of the team insist that it is not something that is limited only to biology or engineering students.
"I'm actually a Material Science major, so it's sort of out of the way for me, but I think it was a great experience to be able to work on a [science] team. They're only a few chances you get to do that - if you're a BME, or if you're in a competition," Spielman said.
Senior Pablo Lee, a computer science major who made many of the programs that helped with this year's IGEM project, agreed.
"I think anyone with an interest in science would have fun. For me, it opened this entire field of computer science that I had never considered before, and I liked it," Lee said.
For those interested in getting involved, the Hopkins IGEM team will be holding a general meeting on Friday at 7 p.m. in room 23 of Mudd Hall.
