How is insulin made on a large scale to keep up with demands from pharmaceutical companies? Can plants be modified to create more nutritious foods for our world's growing population? These questions can be answered using synthetic biology! This field bridges the gap between engineering, biology, and innovation. Today Cornell’s project team iGEM will be introducing the topic of synthetic biology and genetic engineering. We will give an overview of synthetic biology and how genetic engineering plays a role in the field. Then we will explore these topics hands-on by going through various stations, like extracting DNA from strawberries!

Hey everyone! We are so glad to be with you all today. We are part of iGEM, an award winning project team in the College of Engineering that focuses on using synthetic biology. And if you’re wondering what that is, then you’re in the right place! Our goal today is to introduce the idea of synthetic biology, understanding how synthetic biology interacts with engineering, gene editing, policy, business, and more! Students will see their very own synthetic biology idea comes to fruition, from an initial concept to a fully fleshed out project that can make a tangible impact in the world. The structure of our class will be in the form of different workshops focusing on the different facets of synthetic biology. Simulating the Cornell iGEM brainstorming process, students will build upon a real world problem of their interest ranging from cancer therapeutics to food insecurity. The class will be highly interactive, and students will cycle through mini workshops focused on a different subteam of iGEM: Wet Lab, Product Development, Policy and Practices, Business, and Wiki and Design. We will also have some activities to demonstrate the science behind important concepts in synthetic biology. By the end, students will have a complete understanding of the scientific process behind creating, testing and executing a fully fledged iGEM project, which they can bring to the real world!