Synthetic biology meets imaging in Turku!

The world’s biggest synthetic biology competition, iGEM, or International Genetically Engineered Machine, brings together thousands of students from all around the world every year. The aim of the competition is to find solutions to pressing health, societal and environmental problems through synthetic biology. Jiri Funda, Project Manager at Euro-BioImaging, was invited to attend this event and reports on his experience below. 

After countless hours spent in the lab, teams of enthusiastic young researchers embark on a journey to present their work at the Grand Jamboree in Paris. Before that, researchers from different parts of the world meet at local competitions. Representatives from Nordic and Baltic countries gathered on Friday 26^th July in Turku for the Nordic iGEM Conference to spend an exciting weekend full of science, networking and community building. The entire event was organized by last year’s winners, the Aboa Team from Turku, who had no prior experience with conference organization and have done an excellent job.

It was an amazing experience talking to so many brilliant junior scientists at the Nordic iGEM Conference! Congratulations to the winners and to the great organising committee. 

Jiri Funda, Project Manager

The first day entailed a poster session, where teams introduced their projects, and also a communication workshop, where participants received valuable insights on how to present their work. Saturday was the actual competition day when the teams presented their research projects, with a great number of them utilizing various types of imaging. The winner of this year’s Nordic iGEM Conference was Team MilkClear from Copenhagen and their fascinating project focused on novel ways to remove pollutants from human breast milk.

Sunday included talks from industry representatives and also a talk about Euro-BioImaging by Jiri Funda, who walked the audience through the world of Research Infrastructures and revealed various possibilities that Euro-BioImaging offers to young researchers. Many proactive participants took interest in the Euro-BioImaging Ambassador Programme that will soon start searching for its next cohort. Others found out that there is a Euro-BioImaging site in their city, using technology relevant for their project, which again stressed the importance of raising awareness and outreach.

It was a wonderful opportunity for Euro-BioImaging to familiarize the Nordic iGEM community with its actions and efforts. The enthusiasm of the conference participants was contagious and almost palpable. Those that are involved in imaging will likely encounter Euro-BioImaging again and with the newly acquired knowledge and connections, hopefully also join our community as they proceed to the next stages of their scientific journey.