Team:UCL/Team

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Team Profile

UCL was established in 1826 and is known as the first university to admit women on the same terms as men, and also regardless of religion, earning the moniker ‘the godless college.’ UCL currently has 25,000 students and is consistently regarded very well in university rankings, both national and international. Notable alumni of the university include: Mahatma Ghandi, Alexander Graham Bell, Francis Crick and many others, collecting 26 Nobel Prizes. A recent knighthood for the Provost Professor Sir Malcolm Grant demonstrates ‘… the excellence of UCL and our great advances over the past decade, as a global university of talented staff and students.’

The 2013 iGEM team from University College London is composed of 9 undergaduate students from various departments across the university, ranging from Biochemical Engineering to Natural Sciences. The team is overseen by Dr. Darren nesbeth of UCL.

Team picture here, click link to attributions and biography when complete

Synthetic Biology at UCL

Synthetic Biology is the engineering of biological systems to display functions which do not occur in nature. This principle is the key concept behind the iGEM competition, and is a subject that UCL takes seriously, with various researchers and collaborators in the field. There is also a society for synthetic biology at UCL: Synbiosoc.

Synbiosoc & GCC

Three members of the undergraduate iGEM team (Alex, KhaiCheng and Tom) compose the 2013/2014 committee, with this position previously held by former iGEM team members. Synbiosoc runs an annual Genetic Circuit Challenge competition, which follows the same principles of iGEM, with the three finalists of 2013 (Alex, StJohn and Tom) all part of the 2013 UCL undergraduate iGEM team.

Other iGEM teams from UCL

UCL has a strong tradition at iGEM, having competed at several competitions in the past, gathering a medal (2 bronze, 1 silver, 3 gold) at each competition entered; demonstrating the commitment and passion for iGEM by UCL undergraduates, overseen by Dr. Darren Nesbeth and Professor Eli Keshavarz-Moore each year. In 2012 the undergraduate UCL team reached the world finals at MIT with a gold award, as well as being awarded the honour of best presentation at the Jamboree. For the first time, UCL has four entries to various iGEM competitions: an undergrad and postgrad team for the collegiate iGEM, an iGEM-Entrepreneurial team and a high-school iGEM team from the UCL academy.

picture of previous iGEM team here