It all started during the brainstorming sessions of our team. We talked about the previous editions of the iGEM competition, and realized that, if America or Asia had regional meetups every year, Europe didn’t have one since the end of the « official » iGEM regional meetups system.
We therefore had the idea, for the first time in the history of the iGEM, to organize a big event of our own.
We also wanted to make this event a collaborative project with another iGEM team. That is why we worked with the Evry iGEM team to carry out the project.
The event, named The European Experience 2016, aimed to bring together European iGEM teams in order to:
Share our iGEM experience / adventures (successes, failures, issues, knowledge, human experiences...) Create partnerships and strengthen the bonds between the attending teams Train the pitch and presentation skills in order to prepare to the Boston Giant Jamboree To discover the projects of other teams Allow a cultural exchange and the discovery of Paris, the City of Light Increase the general knowledge about Synthetic Biology through conferences and events From fun around a student party only iGEM After 3 hours of exchanges and a good meal, everyone ends up in the auditorium for the two round tables. Throughout the whole day, the iGEM teams of the world could live The European Experience 2016 on Facebook and Twitter with hashtags #EE16 and #iGEM2016. Furthermore, we organized a retransmission of the two conferences on the iGEM IONIS Facebook page, live and free! The first thing to know about this symposium is that we wanted to organize an event as much entertaining and sharing as possible.
That’s why we planned a main scientific symposium through two roundtables to maximize the exchange between the speakers and the audience. François Képès is a cell, systems and synthetic biologist. He is currently modeling and engineering genome architecture in microorganisms. In 1986 as a postdoc he started the first cell-free assay in the group of Randy Schekman, the 2013 Nobel awardee of Medicine. François Képès is a research director at CNRS. He is the founding director of the Epigenomics Project ( Genopole, 2002), an institute of complex studies that is dedicated to the emerging disciplines of Systems an Synthetic Biology (iSSB, 2008). He is an invited Professor at the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. He is a member of the National Academy of Technologies in France. He is the author of over 110 scientific publications and the editor or writer of 20 books. He has organized or chaired each year 3-7 international scientific events. Since 2005, he has been an invited speaker or an organizer for 38 conferences dedicated to synthetic biology. DR. Képès is the editor of 4 international journals, referee for 19 others, and is an expert advisor for European and North-American funding agencies. In 2007, he was the team leader of the first French iGEM team.
Héloïse MULLER, post-doctoral student in biology, currently working in spatial regulation team of genomes in the department of genetics and genomes bioinformatique center, Integrative Biology and Biostatistics at the Institut Pasteur. In recent years Héloïse MULLER has been distinguished by participating in the project « Synthetic Yeast 2.0 » alongside Professor Jef BOEKE. Andrew TOLONEN studies the systems biology and genetic engineering of environmentally important microbes. His research focuses on Clostridium phytofermentans, an anaerobic bacterium from forest soil that ferments plant biomass to ethanol and hydrogen. He did his PhD in microbial genomics at MIT and his post-doc in the Church lab at Hardvard Medical School. Christophe GENISSET obtained his Ph.D. in molecular microbiology and biotechnology in 2006 from the University of Provence. The subject of his doctoral thesis was “Structure and function study of Helicobacter pylori VacA toxin”. Before his Ph.D. he has obtained an engineer degree in bio-engineering and applied microbiology from the Luminy engineer high school (ESIL) based in Marseille. Alexei Grinbaum is a physicist and philosopher at LARSIM, the Philosophy of Science Group at CEA-Saclay near Paris. His main interest is in the foundations of quantum theory. He also writes on the ethical and social aspects of emerging technologies, including nanotechnology, robotics, and synthetic biology. He is a member of CERNA, the French ethics committee fo research in information technology. His latest book is « Mécanique des Etreintes » (Paris : Encre Marine, 2014). Philipe JAIS, MD, Ph, President and Scientific Director of Eukarÿs has a mixed training : physician and molecular geneticist. As Molecular Geneticist, he completed his Doctorate of Science at INSERM (Paris) and Institut Gustave Roussy (Villejuif, France) with a specialization in molecular genetics of cancer, and the Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD) as post-doctoral researcher and finally as Assistant in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty Xavier Bichat (Paris). Michael joined the Life Sciences team as Senior Associate in 2013 and became CEO of Enobraq in november 2015. Michael focuses on investments in the industrial biotechnology and renewable chemistry sectors. At 26 years old, he struggles to complete her thesis while preparing a fundraiser for several million euros for the company that has just created ...
We concluded the event by having a rooftop cocktail on top of the building. The cocktail, prepared by ourselves, was a V.I.P event in order to thank the speakers for coming. Some professionals were also there, along with some school directors, and of course, the team members !
This cocktail was the perfect opportunity for us to have more in-depth discussions with the professionals, and we really enjoyed it. Shortly after that, we headed out to the place where the party would be located.
This party was the pinnacle of our event. We organized it in a dedicated hall, and invited everyone to come ! Some suprises were also planned, such as the retransmission of the Quarterfinals Euro Cup match (Germany vs. Italy), a beautiful balloon ark and even some fire-breathing fun ! This party was the pinnacle of our event. We organized it in a dedicated hall, and invited everyone to come ! Some suprises were also planned, such as the retransmission of the Quarterfinals Euro Cup match (Germany vs. Italy), a beautiful balloon ark and even some fire-breathing fun !
The European Experience
The concept of the European Experience 2016 was both simple and bold: two teams would work together in order to organize in Paris the gathering of most of the iGEM 2016 European teams.
Conferences
The opening ceremony was led by Paul Indelicato, deputy director of Thierry MANDON’s cabinet, Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research.
Then, we decided to focus our both roundtables about synthetic biology of course.
However, we didn’t want to only deal with sciences in a global way.
That’s why we planned to divide our scientific symposium into two related but different roundtables.
Round table #1
Synthetic biology : challenges & risks
Round table #2
Synthetic biology : a new economic world
François KEPES (Research director at CNRS, founding director of the Epigenomics Project and iSSB)
Héloïse MULLER (pHD at Institut Pasteur and collaborator at Synthetic Yeast 2.0 project.)
She has published « Design and synthesis of neochromosomes » on therapeutic/reproductive medecine, gynecology and enocrinology on October 1st, 2015.
In the Johns Hopkins University, Héloïse MULLER and the Sc2.0 team replaced the entire chromosome 3 of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by a synthetic genome and completely redesigned in silico.Andrew TOLONEN (Leader of Tolonen group at the Genoscope-CEA and university professor)
Andrew TOLONEN also teaches microbiology and molecular biology undergraduate and graduate classes et the University of Evry and microbial biotechnology in the Evry-Genopole MSSB program. Andrew TOLENEN has been a superadvisor of the Evry iGEM since ti was founded in 2012.Christophe GENISSET (Security Officer at SGDSN (General Secretary of the Defense and the National Security)
Christophe GENISSET has worked in the field of molecular biology and vaccinology in several research departments, in Siena (Chiron Spa), Padova (Università degli studi di Padova) and at the Institut Pasteur of Lille. He has worked on vaccine development against Helicobacter pylori and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Between 2007 and 2013, he was a biosafety and a biosecurity inspector working for the ANSM, the French drug agency. He is now working as a biology officer at the SGDSN, the secretariat for defense and national security, a department from the French Prime minister. He is notably in charge of synthetic biology issues.Alexei GRINBAUM (Researcher at LARSIM, the Philosophy of Science Group at CEA-Saclay)
Philippe JAIS (Chief Executive & Scientific Officer at Eukarÿs SAS)
After leaving academia, Philippe Jaïs held various management positions in the Biotechnology Industry (Genset, LFP Biotech, ProteaBio, AzurRx) and pharmaceuticals (Solvay, Abbott, Roche) in research, translational medicine, and genomic biomarkers.
In this capacity, he designed and usually managed the early clinical development of five small chemical molecules and three therapeutic proteins. He also invented a large-scale identification of approach to human monogenic diseases treatable by synthetic ligands for nuclear receptors.
In 2009, he invented the technology C3P3 and then co-founded Eukarÿs. Having assured the Scientific Director responsabilities until early 2014, it combines this function with the Presidence of the company. Philipe JAIS has published over fifty articles, book chapters and abstracts, and is the inventor of nearly a ozen patents.Michael KREL(CEO EnobraQ)
Prior to Sofinnova, Michael spent two years as VP Business Development at Deinove, a biotech company developing second generation biofuels and biochemicals. Before that Michael was a Business Development Manager at Metabolic Explorer, a biotech company focused on the development of processes and products in the green chemistry area, where he contributed to the development of projects, particulary in Asia.
Michael grduated from Ecole Polytechnique and holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the ICSN (Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles) in France.
Between 2007 and 2013, he was a biosafety and a biosecurity inspector working for the ANSM, the French drug agency. He is now working as a biology officer at the SGDSN, the secretariat for defense and national security, a department from the French Prime minister. He is notably in charge of synthetic biology issues.Cyrille PAUTHENIER (CEO of Abolis biotechnologies and golden medal at iGEM 2012
This dramatic acceleration of its destiny, Cyrille Pauthenier the assigns a go-getter spirit, supported by a healthy dose of self-confidence.
The first decisive turn, he takes it in 2011: "I loved chemistry, but not its consequences on the environment. I realized we could do it cheaper and less polluting with synthetic biology by modifying living organisms to produce compounds that we need. "He drops the ENS between synthetic biology master at Evry University, enrolled in the student competition iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine), and then began a PhD at the Institute of Systems Biology synthetic and Jean-Loup Faulon. The economic potential of his subject - a new method of exploitation of yeast in industrial environments - gives him ideas ...
Why not offer to the pharmaceutical companies, energy or agricultural, to tailor synthetic bacteria strains that would manufacture the compounds they need from renewable resources? This will be Abolish Biotechnologies, which he founded in 2014 with an applied mathematics specialist, Anthony Tschirhard. The company has been honored in the global innovation competition, launched in 2013 by the gouvenement.
The cocktail
Partying with the IGEMers