The from the iGEM DNA distribution kit and registry, to the eagerness of faculty and universities across the globe, the iGEM competition empowers students to make a brilliant idea into a tangible, presentable project. This fact is made clear depth by the number and depth of projects in past years.

However, as BioBrick circuits become more complex, their design process can be dramatically slowed by the large number of relationships and dependencies between their individual parts. Empowering iGEM-ers with an standardized, accessible database for the characterization of BioBrick parts is the clear solution to address problems in high complexity circuits.[1].

In addition to empowering iGEM-ers, a uploading data to a standardized characterization database promotes openness. In other biological applications, such as genomic sequencing and protein structuring, open data is the norm for strong reasons; open data allows communities to validate successes and understand failures, while supporting future researchers downstream. For these reasons, iGEM is founded upon an open community. Open data through the BBCDD is another way for iGEM-ers to contribute to an open community.

Past approaches to designing a BioBrick characterization database dealt with difficult questions dealing with two main topics: what are reasonable standards that a database can enforce, and what is a full characterization of a part. To answer these questions, one would have to make make decisions between the use of different characterization protocols, machines, and data format for each part type. Additionally, these decisions are posed in a global scale, where accessibility and funding are major concerns. More so, because synthetic biology is still a relatively young field, many facets of part characterizations are likely to change.

[1] M Galdzicki, D Chandran, JH Gennari, HM Sauro, "Design and Analysis of Bio-molecular Circuits", pp. 281, 2011