Over the summer, during the academic break of 2024, I had begun looking for biology labs available to the public. I was under the impression that there were biology themed maker labs available, but I wasn’t sure where I could find them, so I ended up prompting ChatGPT to tell me about biology labs open to the public in France. As ChatGPT sometimes does, I was given a list of information that’s only barely related to what I actually asked for. Among the other unrelated events, confidently passed off as what I asked the machine to provide, was a summary detailing the iGEM Jamboree. Learning about a biology based competition really hooked my interest and I couldn’t shake the idea of finding a way to participate.
What is iGEM?
iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) is a global synthetic biology competition that invites teams of students to design and build innovative biological systems using genetic engineering. Participants collaborate on projects that address real-world challenges while learning about research and experimentation. The competition culminates in an annual Jamboree, where teams present their work and are recognized for their achievements. Think of it like a college level science fair.
Watching videos on previous years’ competitions and seeing the team videos published on the iGEM website, I would fantasize about forming a team at my university and presenting at the jamboree.
This was all around Julyish so it seemed feasable to present this initiative to my university as a new club, and I actually plan to make a seperate blog post detailing how that all evolved. In summary the club needed to be presented even earlier because two months before university started back up was too late (French bureaucracy for you).
Plan of Action
So since a formal team was unlikely, I had resolved to at least visit the jamboree since it was coincidently in France alongside me. The lowest prices for tickets were in the hundreds of dollars, higher than the college student budget allows for, so I was very happy to discover the opportunity to volunteer. I found in the details for volunteering that a free ticket was also included. I signed up and waited to see if I was accepted as I considered other morally questionable alternatives to gaining entry into the event. Luckily, I received an email only a couple of days later saying I was accepted as a volunteer.
With entry secured I had to figure out travel and lodging. At the time of the event I resided in Vannes, France, and the iGEM grand jamboree took place in Paris during October. Trains are fast, but buses are cheaper so I decided id suck it up for 8 hours and save some money taking the bus. I found a hostel in paris 30 minutes by metro to the conference centre where the jamboree would be and that was that. Over all not a bad experience. The bus was fine, and nobody stole my stuff at the hostel (not that I left anything important alone in the room).
Volunteering
The general tasks of the volunteers is participating in training every monday for five to six weeks before the event in a virtual meeting for an hour and a half. We were assigned posts a couple weeks before and we all had around two 5 hour shifts over the five days of working for staff. My first shift was Friday, helping the tech staff with presentations, which was great because I had travelled all the way over there to watch presentations anyways. My second shift was officially as a final day show usher, but instead I ended up covering for another volunteer scanning tickets for entry.
The Event
My personal experience was very fruitful, I got the chance to meet some amazing people and learn about some amazing projects that people were very excited to share. Not to mention all the perks that volunteering brought, like free tickets to the event, free metro tickets, food vouchers, and some free memorabilia.
I definitely plan to go back to the next Jamboree in 2025 whether I’m volunteering or if Im joining an iGEM team to present our very own project. I’ll have to update on how the university club goes. Until next time, have a good one !
Eason's Experiments 
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