Less than a year from now, you could be the proud co-creator of an educational video game teaching lab safety, an award-winning proposal for ridding the environment of antibiotic resistance, or a potential cure for a devastating rare disease. This kind of inspired synthetic biology work is what students in Stanford iGEM – a team that competes every fall in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Grand Jamboree in Paris, France – get to experience firsthand.

Stanford iGEM is a student-led organization where undergraduates design, build, analyze, and present novel synthetic biology systems using standardized DNA technologies. Their projects must prioritize safety and societal benefit.

“This opportunity was really unique in that we got complete, full autonomy over our project,” said current iGEM member Heloise Hoffmann, ’26, who is majoring in bioengineering. “We’re responsible for carrying it out from the very seed of an idea to the final presentation of all our data. That was all our work.”

Each year, up to eight students are selected for the interdisciplinary team just before winter break (applications for the 2025 team are available now and remain open past the original deadline). With no bioengineering experience required, the team starts from scratch, spending the next 10 months brainstorming, creating, and testing their Paris-bound project. They also engage in needs finding, outreach, and education to refine their work while also sharing the wonders of biotechnology with other students.

This year’s  iGEM project, a proposed cure for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) – a neuromuscular disorder with no cure – won a gold medal at the Grand Jamboree on Oct. 26, with judges calling it “inspiring” and “masterfully designed and executed.” But that’s not the end for the project. The iGEM mentors and team are optimistic that this work can continue to develop, potentially to clinical trials and an eventual real-world treatment. 

The Stanford iGEM team works on their presentation for the Grand Jamboree. | Huijun Ring

Huijun Ring, an iGEM mentor and adjunct professor in the School of Medicine, sees the success of the current team as emblematic of iGEM’s mission and bioengineering’s promising future.

“Thinking about the arc of the science, we first read DNA, then worked to understand it, and now, we aim to write it,” said Ring. “To write DNA, there are a lot of building blocks that need to be in their place – but most important is people. We need young leaders to be in this space and to imagine and design with the flourishing of the whole society in mind.”

The road to Paris

Stanford bioengineer Drew Endy co-founded iGEM in 2003 at MIT with his fellow bioengineers Randy Rettberg and Tom Knight. Stanford joined iGEM in 2009, thanks to Endy, who has been one of Stanford iGEM's faculty sponsors ever since. Stanford iGEM has earned 11 gold, four silver, and one bronze medals.

Each iGEM team begins by taking a lab safety course before launching into the experimental phase of their work. They’ll also spend these first weeks deciding on their project. Over the summer, the students work full time on lab-based testing and educational outreach. Throughout, the teams are expected to consult with relevant communities to ensure their work is socially responsible.

“iGEM has been very well designed,” said Ring. “It’s more than just designing a bioengineering project. You need to have societal benefits and biosafety concerns in mind. And there’s also the educational component of it. Several hundred high school students participate in our bioengineering lecture series.”

“Coming to the lab every day to work alongside such motivated, passionate teammates inspires me to give my all to the project, and I’m so thankful to our mentors for encouraging us along the way and helping us troubleshoot the challenges we faced,” said iGEM member and bioengineering undergraduate Alice Finkelstein, ’27. “The initiatives our team has taken on have also been incredible to be a part of. Getting to speak with FSHD patients, pass along my knowledge by teaching high schoolers about synthetic biology, and now, presenting our work at the Grand Jamboree, have all allowed me to grow in so many ways as a person and scientist.”

Because of iGEM’s yearly cycle, the final project isn’t always focused on a polished solution. The competition values ingenuity, engineering, and societal considerations. Points are also given for presentation and documentation of the work along the way.

“The idea is to be really creative and come up with novel things,” said iGEM mentor Phillip Kyriakakis, who is a senior research scientist in the Department of Bioengineering. “Because it is a competition, the project needs to stand out and the impact of the project needs to be made clear.”

A different year

FSHD causes progressive wasting of skeletal muscle and can affect any part of the body at any point in a person’s life. Although researchers understand its genetic and molecular mechanisms, they are complex and treating FSHD remains challenging.

“From a patient perspective, that can be really frustrating and scary. But from a researcher and scientist perspective, that can actually be quite exciting and hopeful because that means that there are a lot of different ways that we can go about treating this disease,” said Hoffmann. Hoffmann has a personal connection to FSHD and, building on years of research in industry and clinical settings, she brought this idea for a cure to the iGEM team.

FSHD is caused by expression of the DUX4 gene, typically expressed only during early embryogenesis and then silenced in people without FSHD. The iGEM project, called “dux.,” involves overexpressing a modified, non-harmful version of DUX4’s DNA-binding domain to block the toxic protein’s binding to DNA and potentially halt disease progression. The team is also investigating using bioengineering tools to maximize the delivery of their modified DNA-binding domain to muscle fibers.

Many iGEM projects end with the completion of the team’s yearly cycle, but the mentors and the members agree that dux. could progress further – possibly even to clinical trials and an eventual cure. Kyriakakis, who researched muscle disease treatments during his PhD, said, “It felt so different this year, because it wasn’t a project where you’re tinkering and then, when it’s done, you go back to what you were doing before. This had a long-term goal, and I think it made some big steps in a direction where now they could take this to the next level.”

The dux. project and presentation earned high praise and was nominated for other awards in therapeutics, presentation, education, and societal impact, with one judge writing, “Dux is one of the most inspiring and heartwarming projects I’ve come across in iGEM. [...] You’ve shown how empathy and scientific innovation can create lasting, impactful change. I’m genuinely moved by your work and its potential to inspire others.”

Going for gold

Returning to the U.S. with a gold medal, the iGEM team now looks forward to celebrating, reflecting, and welcoming the 2025 team.

“I would tell other students interested in joining iGEM that it’s truly a one-of-a-kind opportunity to take ownership of a research project alongside a student team,” said Finkelstein. “You learn so much about the scientific research process and what it takes to carry out a project from start to finish, and tackling the challenges along the way alongside other student teammates is beyond rewarding.”

The iGEM mentors and members emphasize that synthetic biology and bioengineering are ascendant, influential fields that students should familiarize themselves with, regardless of whether they plan to pursue careers in these disciplines. And projects like dux. clearly show the potential of giving young researchers more agency.

“We really see it’s a transformative power right now to cure disease and help clean up the environment and make the world more equitable,” said Ring. “Having young people front and center in it – that’s the beautiful part.”

“I am so grateful for all the support Stanford’s iGEM team receives, including from Bioengineering, BIOME, the School of Engineering, and the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education,” said Endy, who is an associate professor of bioengineering in the schools of Engineering and Medicine. “This year’s team competed in a world-class competition that brought out the best from over 400 teams and 9,000 competitors. The camaraderie, hard work, empathy, and fearlessness of Stanford iGEM 2024 reminded me and the world what our university is all about.”