{"251251":{"#nid":"251251","#data":{"type":"news","title":"6 Questions with iGEM Competitor Casey Haynes","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECasey Haynes, a biomedical engineering major, is only in her second year at Georgia Tech, but she is already representing the Institute on a worldwide scale. She\u2019s part of a seven-person undergraduate team that participated in the iGEM World Championship Jamboree, an annual competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on synthetic biology. Their project is up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter, a new peer-reviewed crowd-funding website.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is iGEM?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EiGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machine. It\u2019s an international competition that began at MIT in 2003 and convenes research universities from around the world to compete with projects related to synthetic biology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is Georgia Tech\u2019s iGEM team working on?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWe are trying to create what we like to call a \u0022BioBot,\u0022 which is essentially a biological robot that has the ability to sense and interact with its environment. In order to create our BioBot, we are trying to express a human cell sensor called an integrin on the surface of a bacterial cell for the first time. This would allow the bacteria cell to interact with its environment in a way it hasn\u0027t before, and interact with proteins around it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe specific integrin we are working with can bind to fibrinogen and coagulate blood, but expressing integrins on bacterial cells can have other applications such as localized drug delivery and the detection of cancer cells.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWho is part of Tech\u2019s iGEM team?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research team is all undergraduates \u2014 six biomedical engineering majors and one chemical engineer. We have three facilitators \u2014\u0026nbsp;two graduate students and one postdoc \u2014\u0026nbsp;who work with us.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat will be funded through Starter?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe funding will most likely cover next year\u2019s competition registration fee. There are two levels of competition: regional jamborees and the World Championship Jamboree. This year, Georgia Tech won gold at its regional championship and competed at the worldwide competition Nov. 1-4. The biggest funding need is travel expenses to the competitions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhy is participating in this competition important for Georgia Tech? Why should people donate to the Tech iGEM team?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech has had iGEM teams in the past but they haven\u2019t done this well before. iGEM is going to be something big. We want this to carve a path for Georgia Tech as a powerhouse in this competition \u2014 we want to be known for being really good in this competition every year. Having Tech as a powerhouse in this competition will make the Institute name more respected internationally and continue its growth in this arena.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3 class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWhy is it important to grow in this arena?\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EiGEM was named by the United Nations, as well as the president of the United States, as the premier research competition and frontier for synthetic biology. We are currently in the Electronic and Information era, but by 2030 we are expected to move into the next era of development, which is expected to be the Biological era. Georgia Tech can get a headstart in becoming an internationally recognized university for biology and biological processes, which would be incredibly helpful for its prestige and growth as we enter this new era.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EiGEM is one of the first projects up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"iGEM is one of the first projects up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2013-11-05 10:10:58","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:18","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-11-06T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2013-11-06T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"251211":{"id":"251211","type":"image","title":"Casey Haynes works on Georgia Tech iGem Team","body":null,"created":"1449243813","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:43:33","changed":"1475894931","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:51","alt":"Casey Haynes works on Georgia Tech iGem Team","file":{"fid":"198112","name":"121_img_0421.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/121_img_0421_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/121_img_0421_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":216857,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/121_img_0421_0.jpg?itok=BOagWXec"}},"250891":{"id":"250891","type":"image","title":"iGEM","body":null,"created":"1449243813","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:43:33","changed":"1475894931","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:51","alt":"iGEM","file":{"fid":"198103","name":"imgres.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/imgres_3.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/imgres_3.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":7652,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/imgres_3.jpg?itok=6fuQfawZ"}}},"media_ids":["251211","250891"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/starter.gatech.edu\/#121","title":"iGem on Georgia Tech Starter"},{"url":"https:\/\/starter.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech Starter"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"249","name":"Biomedical Engineering"},{"id":"66201","name":"Georgia Tech Starter"},{"id":"11152","name":"iGEM"},{"id":"453","name":"undergraduate research"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:caseyhaynes@gatech.edu\u0022\u003ECasey Haynes\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EiGem\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.bailey@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Bailey\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}