Innovation Through Education

Dr. Wendell Lim of the University of California, San Francisco (USCF) Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, shares his experience with the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition, a “Biotechnology Olympics” that brings together teams of students whose challenge is to design and build a novel genetically engineered system that carries out a useful function. The projects that have emerged from iGEM rival those of professional research laboratories and biotechnology companies in sophistication, and frequently exceed them in innovative thinking. Dr. Lim discusses how this innovative contest foreshadows new ways in which biology could be taught, practiced, and applied in the future.

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