The Vision and Mission of iGEM (2025)

Key Concept (2025) : The Heart of Synthetic Biology

最初のメッセージとして、合成生物学を世界に展開する中心的な役割を果たすことを目指すことが提示されています。

iGEM は合成生物学の心臓であり、この分野の生命線であるアイデア、人材、そして価値観が世界中の合成生物学コミュニティに循環する場所です。新しい才能が分野に参入し、国境を越えたコラボレーションが生まれ、合成生物学の未来が構想され、検証され、世界と共有される場所です。 iGEM は 20 年以上にわたり、数千人もの人々を触媒し、その出発点となってきました。彼らは現在、研究室を率いたり、スタートアップを立ち上げたり、政策を策定したり、バイオエコノミーのインフラを構築したりしています。毎年、学生から世界をリードする科学者、デザイナー、起業家まで、多様な才能を持つ人々が集まり、創造性と競争という共通の舞台で競い合っています。こうした知識とエネルギーの流れこそが、この分野を活気に満ち、進化させ、人間中心のものにしているのです。 心臓は単に血液を送り出すだけでなく、生物のあらゆる部分を繋ぎ、生命を維持しています。合成生物学において、iGEM はその役割を果たしています。地域、分野、世代を繋ぎ、研究、産業、そして政策に波及する進歩のリズムを作り出します。この鼓動は、オープンな姿勢、責任感、そして世界に良い変化をもたらすというコミットメントによって導かれ、この分野が単に速く、そしてより強く成長することを保証します。

出典 : iGEM Vision 2025

Vison (2025)

次に Vision としては、AI が新しい時代を切り開く中で、合成生物学にも大きな可能性があると主張し、その可能性を広げていく時に、iGEM が大切にする思想的な価値観を提示しています。

iGEM では、合成生物学を単なる技術の集合体以上のものと捉えています。それはより良い未来への希望の源です。しかし、希望は保証されているわけではありません。この技術の未来とそのポジティブな影響の可能性は、それを開発する人々、彼らが抱く価値観、そして彼らが追求するビジョンによって決まります。私たちは、iGEM での経験から生まれた理念に導かれ、合成生物学を繁栄し、回復力に富み、公平で持続可能な未来へと導くイノベーターこそが、そしてこれからも iGEMer であり続けると信じています。

合成生物学は、それぞれのコミュニティの課題と機会を理解する人々によって、あらゆる場所で発展されるべきだと私たちは考えています。合成生物学は、世界的に見てごく少数の拠点に集中したり、少数の巨大企業によって推進されるべきではありません。世界の様々な地域に住む人々が、それぞれ独自の視点、優先事項、そして創造性を持ち寄って発展していくべきです。この分野の未来は、貢献者の多様性にかかっています。

iGEM のグローバルネットワークは、大陸をまたいで参加者を繋ぎ、それぞれの状況に根ざした解決策を用いて、地球規模の課題と地域のニーズの両方に対処できるよう支援することを目的としています。私たちのアプローチは包括的です。技術、イノベーション、責任、そしてコミュニティが一体となった時に、進歩が生まれます。複雑な課題には、多様な視点、分野、そして多様なアプローチが協調して機能することが必要であり、それらを統合することによってのみ、合成生物学はポジティブなインパクトをもたらす可能性を最大限に発揮できるのです。

Mission (2025)

iGEM は、教育、技術、責任 (Responsibility)、イノベーションの 4 つを柱として、取り組んでいます。

教育

iGEM は、次世代の合成生物学者とバイオイノベーターを育成し、学際的な連携とイノベーションを通じて、重要かつ世界的な課題に取り組む人材を育成することを目的としています。iGEM 参加者には、リソース、技術スキル、メンターシップ、そして競争心を育む機会を提供するとともに、個人の成長、キャリア探索、そして生涯学習を奨励します。スキルとマインドセットの両方を育成することで、iGEM は参加者が合成生物学の未来を形作る責任あるリーダーへと成長できるよう支援します。

技術

技術、リソース、そしてアイデアの自由な交換の促進と促進は、iGEM の使命において最優先事項です。iGEM は、協調的かつ標準化された生物学研究を促進し、新技術の試験場として機能します。iGEM のメンバーは、トレンドに先駆けて新技術に取り組むアーリーアダプターとして、技術革新と普及の最前線に立つことがよくあります。

責任 (Responsibility)

iGEM は、合成生物学者が研究室の枠にとらわれず、プロジェクトの影響を予測し、リスクを評価し、コミュニティと連携し、責任ある文化を仕事に根付かせることができる環境を育むことで、合成生物学の安全で責任ある発展を促進します。iGEM は、コミュニティに対し、仕事に社会的な影響を組み込むよう促し、研究を主導するよう促すという点で他に類を見ません。そのため、iGEM は、合成生物学が安全かつ確実に、そして人類と地球の利益のために利用されることを保証する政策と実践を策定するための理想的なサンドボックスとなっています。

イノベーション

iGEM は、アイデアとインパクトを結びつけ、画期的なイノベーションを市場、コミュニティ、そしてエコシステムに届けるソリューションへと転換することを目指しています。活気あるバイオエコノミーを支援することで、iGEM は創造的なビジョンを、世界で最も差し迫った課題に対処する製品、サービス、そしてシステムへと転換することに貢献しています。

2022 年との比較

2022-2023 年時点では、iGEM は次のような目標を掲げ活動をしておりました。

iGEM の次の目標 : 合成生物学分野のすべてのことを、"どこでも"、"誰でも"、開発できるようにする

This is iGEM’s next purpose: to make sure that the field of synthetic biology, and all the power that this technology holds, gets developed everywhere by everyone.

出典 : iGEM Vision 2023

そしてその目標を達成するために、iGEM Leagues を拡大すること、最先端の技術を世界中の iGEM チームに提供すること、iGEM Community と共に歩むことを重要視していました。 2025 年には、iGEM Leagues が終了し、コミュニティ活動に焦点をあてた宣伝も縮小しております。(それぞれの分野での活動は強化されていますが、コミュニティに届け、コミュニティを繋げるという活動は弱くなりました。)

現在の iGEM HQ メンバー

現在の iGEM HQ の運営の中心は、2010 年代後半から 2020 年前半から拡大してきた HQ の活動メンバーに移行しています。

Executive Team : Nemanja Stijepovic (President & CEO), Dorothy Zhang (Executive Vice President), Fabio Maschi (Vice President of Software & AI)

これまでは、iGEM を始めたアメリカの大学教授らを主体とした運営がなされていましたが、近年では、iGEM Competiton を経験後、iGEM に貢献してきた人たちが運営をになっております。 彼らは、iGEM HQ 内部から昇格したメンバーです。

• Nemanja Stijepovic : チームリーダー (Bonn 2018)として Competiton に参加後、2019 年に iGEM Ambassodar を開始し、順調に昇格しました。

• Dorothy Zhang : PI として 2017 年に高校生チームを率いた後、2019 年に iGEM Ambassodar を開始し、順調に昇格しました。

• Fabio Maschi : 学生(Paris-Saclay 2014)として Competiton に参加後、iGEM Judge や iGEM のビデオシステムのサポートを行った後、2020 年にソフトウェアエンジニアとして HQ に参加し、順調に昇格しました。

出典 : iGEM HQ 2025

まとめ

iGEM は、それまでの 20 年の総括的な 2023 年を経て、より合成生物学そのものを大きな文脈に接続する流れを作ろうと活動しているようです。時代に合わせ、変化していく iGEM に、引き続き注目していきましょう。

また、この記事は iGEM･Synthetic biology(合成生物学)･Japan Advent Calendar 2025 の一部として公開されています。

引用

引用原文は下記になります。

The Vision and Mission of iGEM (2025)

出典 : iGEM Vision 2025

The Heart of Synthetic Biology

iGEM is the beating heart of synthetic biology, where the lifeblood of the field flows — circulating ideas, people and values, across the global synthetic biology community. It is the place where new talent enters the field, where collaborations form across borders, and where the future of synthetic biology is imagined, tested and shared with the world. For over twenty years, iGEM has been the catalyst and springboard for thousands of people who now lead research labs, launch startups, shape policy, and build infrastructure for the bioeconomy. Every year, it gathers a diversity of minds: from students to world-leading scientists, to designers and entrepreneurs, and places them in a common arena of creativity and competition. This flow of knowledge and energy is what keeps the field vibrant, evolving and human-centered. The heart doesn’t just pump; it connects every part of the organism and keeps it alive. In synthetic biology, iGEM plays that role: linking regions, disciplines, and generations; setting rhythms for progress that ripple through research, industry, and policy. This heartbeat ensures the field grows not just faster, but stronger; guided by openness, responsibility, and commitment to making a positive difference in the world.

Our Vision

We live in an extraordinary moment in time. While the industrial revolution reshaped how we use energy and build, the information revolution is continuing to transform how we gather, exchange and use information. Artificial intelligence now marks a powerful new chapter, enabling us to use and analyze vast amounts of data to interpret the world, discover patterns, and support better decisions for the benefit of society. At the same time, another transformation is unfolding. The “matter revolution” is ushering in an era where we can engineer the most sophisticated technology in the world: biology. Biology grows instead of being manufactured, it creates its own energy, it regenerates and reproduces - all controlled by a tiny piece of code. A code that we can engineer.

We can restore and protect the environment, combat the climate crisis, and sustainably produce the things we can’t live without. We can design better healthcare tools for diagnostics and therapeutics, stop the spread of infectious diseases, and work toward a cancer-free future. We can engineer new materials and procedures to replace outdated and polluting industries. We can develop software, advance space research, and invent biotechnologies to transform the planet. At iGEM, we see synthetic biology as more than a set of techniques. It is a source of hope for a better future. But hope is not guaranteed. The future of this technology and its potential for positive impact will be determined by the people who develop it, the values they hold, and the vision they pursue. We believe that the innovators who will lead synthetic biology toward a thriving, resilient, equitable and sustainable future are — and will continue to be — iGEMers, guided by the principles embodying their iGEM experience. We believe synthetic biology needs to be developed everywhere, by people who understand the challenges and opportunities of their own communities. It should not be concentrated in just a few global hubs or driven only by a small number of giant companies. It should be developed by people in many parts of the world, each bringing their own perspectives, priorities, and creativity. The future of this field depends on the diversity of its contributors. We envision iGEM’s global network connecting participants across continents while empowering them to address both global challenges and local needs, with solutions rooted in their own context. Our approach is holistic: Progress emerges when technology, innovation, responsibility and community come together. Complex challenges require many perspectives, disciplines, and pathways working in concert, and only by integrating them can synthetic biology reach its full potential for positive impact.

Today’s world can seem kind of scary. It’s hard to have hope. But, synthetic biology is a source of hope, and it will be wonderful for solving the world’s biggest challenges. by Randy Rettberg (Founder and President Emeritus, iGEM Foundation)

Our Mission

iGEM’s work is guided by four pillars that ensure synthetic biology grows inways that benefit humanity and the planet:

Education

iGEM aims to inspire and train the next generation of synthetic biologists and bio-innovators to tackle critical, global challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. We equip iGEMers with resources, technical skills, mentorship, and a competitive drive, while encouraging individual development, career exploration and lifelong learning. By cultivating both skills and mindset, iGEM helps participants grow into responsible leaders who will shape the future of synthetic biology.

Technology

Promoting and facilitating the open sharing of technology, resources and the free exchange of ideas is paramount to iGEM’s mission. iGEM fosters coordinated, standardized biological research and serves as a testing ground for new technologies, with iGEMers often at the forefront of technological innovation and uptake as early adopters, working with new technologies ahead of the trends.

Responsibility

iGEM fosters the safe and responsible development of synthetic biology by cultivating an environment where synthetic biologists think beyond the lab, anticipating the impact of their projects, assessing risks, engaging with the community, and embedding a culture of responsibility into their work. iGEM is unique in challenging the community to embed societal implications in their work and in pushing to have them guide research. This makes iGEM an ideal sandbox for developing policies and practices that ensure synthetic biology is used safely, securely, and for the benefit of people and the planet.

Innovation

Aiming to connect ideas and impact, iGEM helps turn breakthroughs into solutions that reach markets, communities and ecosystems. By supporting a thriving bioeconomy, iGEM helps transform creative visions into products, services and systems that address the world’s most pressing challenges. Together, these pillars form iGEM’s holistic approach: Education builds the skills and mindset, technology is the foundational core, responsibility ensures it serves the good of the world, and the innovation ecosystem is the implementation. Merged together, it is the community – the people – that make it all possible.

2023 年 6 月まではこれです。(かつての URL で確認できたもの)

出典 : iGEM Vision 2023

Our Vision iGEM's next purpose

iGEM started out as an experiment to create the synthetic biology industry. Our founders asked the question: Can students work together to build working biological devices within a single summer? Nearly two decades later we know the answer is: “Yes!”. Now, iGEM teams are not just tinkering with genetic devices, but engineering whole genetic systems, expanding into more chassis, and exploring diverse applications of the core technologies. Teams have used synthetic biology to develop bioconcrete tetrapods, phosphorous-recycling bacteria, photosynthetic microalgae, fire-fighting foams from frog proteins, solutions to chronic inflammatory diseases and mercury poisoning. Though seemingly unrelated, these projects were bound by a central theme: The problems they were trying to solve were directly affecting their homes and neighbors, in their local areas. Now approaching the 20-year mark of iGEM, we are reflecting not just on HOW the industry gets developed, but WHO does the developing. We believe it is not okay for this technology that we are working so hard on get developed only in the US or in Europe, or for the synthetic biology industry be made up of 2 or 3 giant companies who will “solve everything”. With global reach, we believe that this is a strength of iGEMers all around the world: to take the core technologies of synthetic biology and create real world applications that will benefit their communities locally. This is iGEM’s next purpose: to make sure that the field of synthetic biology, and all the power that this technology holds, gets developed everywhere by everyone.

So how will we do this?

With new programs like iGEM Leagues. This year we have 2, next year we’d like to have 10. By staying at the cutting edge of technology, and bringing those technologies to iGEM teams everywhere. And, most importantly, with you, the iGEM Community. It is up to you to make sure this technology gets developed everywhere in the world.

iGEM Leagues

The iGEM Leagues are local and regional competitions designed to enable more local people to learn and apply synthetic biology around the world through competitions. Each region has its own specific challenges when it comes to building their local synbio ecosystems and advancing the engineering progress of biology. The iGEM Leagues are a way for both iGEMers and members of the local synthetic biology community to design competitions which will contribute to overcoming these challenges. These competitions will be distinct from one another and will represent their local or regional goals and vision. This year we have two leagues, next year we’d like to have 10! If you’re interested in starting a league in your region, please contact us at leagues [AT] igem [DOT] org.

Technology

The iGEM Competition is intentionally set up as a sandbox for innovation. Teams are not prescribed themes or given specific problems to solve. Instead, they are given the space to use synthetic biology to tackle problems however they see fit. As a result, iGEM has become a natural testbed for new ideas and approaches in synthetic biology. In the first ten years of iGEM, teams concentrated on the manipulation and standardization techniques of DNA parts, contributing their part samples to the Registry of Standard Biological Parts in Boston, under the Get&Give(&Share) philosophy of iGEM. In the second decade of iGEM, our focus shifted away from sample sharing, and towards information sharing. In a synthesis-rich future, information about a part is far more valuable than the sample that you work with. With information alone, a synthetic biologist should be able to design a biological device, order it, and proceed with testing it as soon as it arrives in the mail. In this upcoming third decade, what technology will be next? The new technology arm of iGEM will be working on this topic. Here are some of the top technologies or approaches that we think will be essential for iGEM teams to understand, participate in, or contribute to in the next decade: Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning Cell-Free Global Biofoundries Scale-up Open Bioeconomy We’re looking for new partners to work with to make these technologies real for iGEM teams everywhere. If you’d like to collaborate on this topic, please email technology [AT] igem [DOT] org.

Community

60,000 people have participated in iGEM’s programs over the past two decades. iGEMers have gone on to create companies, to build synthetic biology programs at universities, to contribute to ground-breaking research, and more. The iGEM Community takes our Philosophy of Give, & Get (& Share) to the next level. iGEMers everywhere are building the world that they want to see. We want to invite, engage, and co-create initiatives with all of you to support our community and help it succeed. We also want to provide you opportunities and resources that will help you in your career goals and development both as an individual and a community member. Visit the iGEM Community website to get involved! It is you, the iGEMers, who will ensure that synthetic biology gets developed everywhere in the world.