Nearly 300 colleges and universities from around the world registered a team and participated in this competition. Teams designed and employed standard biological parts in order to carry out a designated function within living cells. Early in October, the Georgia Tech iGEM team was awarded a gold medal at the North American regional jamboree. The team will now advance to the world championship. Out of the 65 registered teams in North America, only 13 undergraduate teams received a gold medal and advanced to the world competition.

The Georgia Tech iGEM team consists of seven undergraduate students: Tilak Balavijayan, Rachael Blackstone, Spencer Cooper, Haoli Du, Casey Haynes, Jack Jenkins, and Jessica Siemer. The team was assembled in the summer of 2013 and has been working towards expressing human integrin sensors on the surface of E. coli cells, a feat that has not yet been accomplished. The team is advised by Dr. Anton Bryksin, Vince Fiore, and Haylee Bachman. Lab space was provided by Dr. Thomas Barker in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Georgia Tech.

The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) is the premiere undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition. Student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells. This project design and competition format is an exceptionally motivating and effective teaching method. The iGEM Jamboree is the largest annual gathering of synthetic biologists.