There’s a Revolution Going On, and It’s Happening Now: Impressions from the iGEM Meetup in Münster

iGEM, the International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition, is the world’s largest research contest for synthetic biology. From the 16th to 19th of August, an iGEM-Meetup took place in the beautiful castle of Münster, and I had the honor of being invited. I must say, as someone who is not a biologist but whose academic career has largely focused on the history of science, I am deeply impressed by what is happening right now in the field of synthetic biology. It seems to me that, while dreaming the dream of AI, we overslept an even bigger revolution, a revolution whose range and dimension can be visualized by the “book of nature” metaphor: With SynBio, as the initiates call this transformative discipline, we no longer merely read the book of nature, but start writing it anew.

So, what is SynBio? As the name suggests, this discipline involves biological synthesis, that is, microorganisms are genetically programmed – a young researcher told me that 60% of the work is done from a computer – in order to make them produce all kinds of molecules, especially those that do not occur in nature. This idea is not completely new, but in recent years, the possibilities of designing these biological micro-factories in a very precise way with regard to the desired outcome have reached a new dimension (a bit like AI actually, the concept of neural networks is even from the 1940s, but it needed certain conditions to flourish). Through its capacity for synthesizing all kinds of molecules biologically, SynBio has the potential to replace the chemical industry, a significant portion of which is based on fossil fuels and very harmful to nature, with a sustainable biological industry. This is big. And there are multiple other ways in which SynBio can be useful: Think of bacteria programmed to digest plastic, counteracting the pollution of the planet, and even turning it into a raw material we need. Within the medical realm, SynBio can make it possible to find new therapies even for so far incurable diseases. Within the agricultural sector, plants and crops can be made more resilient to withstand rough climate conditions… It’s probably easier to say which area could not potentially benefit than to say which area could. And all this is already starting to happen.

iGEM began in 2003 as an independent study course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), became a summer competition with 5 teams in 2004, and has grown to 400 research teams from more than 50 countries in 2024. And what do they do? In the words of Drew Endy , one of the leaders of the field, iGEM is all about young researchers “designing and building living organisms to solve a problem wherever they are”. That is, the principles of SynBio are applied to different fields or “villages”, as iGEM calls it, such as Climate Crisis, Conservation of Biodiversity, Agriculture, Food & Nutrition, Fashion & Cosmetics, Diagnostics and Therapeutics with a special emphasis on oncology and infectious diseases, and Space. As Louis Schanzmann , member of the team Münster that organized the iGEM-Meetup, told me, German teams get excellent results at iGEM regularly, even though SynBio is not very present yet in the political and public realm, and not even very much in the academic realm.

The iGEM main event of this year, the Grand Jamboree, will take place in Paris from October 23-26. The Meetup in Münster offered the German and European teams (Holland, Belgium, and Finland were present as well) a possibility to exchange their ideas and to discuss their projects with invited pioneers of SynBio from both Academia and Industry. Moreover, the teams got feedback from a selected number of the iGEM-judges who had also been invited. In other words, for the young researchers the Meetup was an optimal training camp for the big competition, and for me it was a great opportunity to get in touch with the German and European SynBio-Community, and to get an idea of what these young fellows are capable of.

What left a deep impression on me, and I think this is what a true revolution is essentially about, is the idealist spirit that carries the whole thing. One could also call iGEM the “young scientists from all over the planet saving our butts and helping nature to make up for the mess we’ve created” competition. All of the projects presented at the meetup are tackling concrete problems, from an early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, still a big problem for neurologists, to new approaches in oncology such as using the tumor-associated microbiome to deliver potent toxins directly to the tumor site, or reprogrammed bacteria that digest TNT in order to defuse landmines or purify our drinking water of heavy metals. The authentic will to help, to make this world a better place, was palpable in every project presentation. There is a generation of scientists here who really want to make a difference, and who actually can make a difference having such a powerful tool in their hands, a tool that literally allows them to write or program life. And they seem to be aware of this power. To intervene so deeply into life, which one holds in great respect, can sometimes also be “spooky”, a young researcher from the team Aachen told me.

As Jochen Schmid , professor for microbiology and supporter of the Team Münster, explained to me, these young researchers oftentimes reveal a very unusual out-of-the-box thinking, giving growth to really new approaches with a huge potential to drive the progress of this already fast-growing field. This momentum can also be explained by the fact that the teams are not exclusively made up of SynBio experts, but rather of different disciplines guided by the principles of SynBio. Especially informatics plays an important role – every team has its own AI-nerd whose main task is to adjust AI systems (there are quite a few of them specialized in predicting molecular structures and interactions) according to the desired biological programming. They work quickly, they are creative, and they have an innovative and rapidly evolving tool in their hands – my impression, which I wrote down on paper seeing and hearing these young researchers: The science mission is now running at the speed of light.

Also present at the Meetup were representatives of both the startup scene and already established SynBio companies. Amongst others, I talked to Shan Jiang , co-founder of Ailurus Bio, whose aim it is to turn SynBio into a general purpose technology “as easy to use as computers”. He explained to me how, after a profound analysis of the startup conditions in different EU countries, he decided to set up his company in England where the whole procedure took half an hour, whereas in Germany it would have been several months – no comment needed here (yes, I’m talking to you, German bureaucracy!). Even so, a successful example of a German SynBio Company, Insempra, represented by its Senior Scientist Philip Weyrauch , was also present. Insempra is able to apply biological synthesis on an industrial scale, providing all kinds of sustainable materials free of petrochemicals for their clients and thus driving the green industrial revolution.

As you might already guess, the SynBio-community is special. This was also evident in the leading experts of the field who were present at the Münster castle: René Inckemann (Max Planck Institute of Marburg), Henrike Niederholtmeyer (Technical University of Munich), Jochen Schmid (University of Münster), Christian Schnepel (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), and David Baker (Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, he was connected online). I was fascinated by the evident joy and curiosity these experts felt when talking to the young teams, and by the openness when sharing their knowledge. It seemed to me they somehow knew that they are on a mission together, for a better future. Never have I seen such a mood of departure and such an air of new possibilities in a scientific community before, and several participants assured me that this spirit is what really defines SynBio. A young computer scientist was so moved by it that he decided to study biology now (it turns out you still cannot study SynBio directly), he told me.

My takeaway: We in Germany, and Europe, should start right now to be very aware of this discipline and not miss the boat on a fundamental development once again. Sadly, though, this is exactly what seems to happen right now, as Nemanja Stijepovic , Director General of iGEM, told me during a panel discussion on “Financing SynBio”, which I had the opportunity to moderate. In his view, which reflected the consensus of the panel, politics, industry, and academia are still failing to adequately support this discipline, if they support it at all. So let us open our eyes. We should not approach this discipline with blinders on, but instead recognize its huge potential, and acknowledge the creativity and positive vision for the future that these young researchers bring, and support them. Of course, we must not forget the risks of such a powerful technology, and its ethical implications, but we should discuss these with an open mind.

Germany, Europe, please do not overlook this, for something is happening here, something big. We are beginning to rewrite the book of nature, and to use another metaphor, we no longer do so looking at nature as someone who sits before us on a “torture rack”. Francis Bacon, the founder of the empirical method, used this image to clarify that humanity is allowed to squeeze nature through experimentation to unlock its secrets. These young researchers, however, show that we are starting to look in the same direction as nature, working together with her on solutions to at least partially amend what we have done to the planet (and thereby to ourselves). Paradoxically, this is happening through a technology that allows us to intervene in nature in ways we have never been able to before. A history of science perspective tells me: This new relationship between science and nature is an opportunity we have long waited for. We should not squander it.

#SynBio #iGEM #ScientificRevolution