Team:Evry/HP/Events/EE

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Let's PLAy project - Bioproduction of PLA

The European Experience

Together with iGEM IONIS team, we co-organized The European Experience, an European iGEM Meet-Up that took place the 2nd-3rd of July. The event aimed to bring an opportunity for European teams to meet during one weekend in Paris for sharing ideas, learn more about synthetic biology from professional researchers, and exchange experiences.

It all started in December, when iGEM IONIS proposed us the idea and we joined them to make it happen. We started meeting periodically, either in Paris or by Skype, to discuss about all the administration tasks behind such a project. We decided to include science, social and tourism events, and after few months of organization, we were ready to spread the word and invite the teams!

Logo of The European Experience


Participants from above (practicing for the Giant Jamboree picture)

The event


Finally, the European Experience managed to gather more than 200 iGEMers with about 30 teams coming from 11 different countries in all Europe.

During the first morning, all the teams were able to present and defend their project in a friendship mood, using the poster presentation format. It was a great occasion to share our ideas, our different point of view and explore new possibilities about our project. Thereby, we discovered lots of interesting projects such as the use of bacteria for Mars terraforming or the bacterial decontamination of prehistorical caves. It was really an enriching meeting with innovative ideas. Moreover, we had the pleasure to welcome Randy Rettberg, the founder and president of the iGEM competition, who came specially from the U.S. to assist to the European Experience.


Saturday afternoon was dedicated to conferences with famous French researchers in Synthetic Biology. We organized two round tables:

  • The first one was entitled "Synthetic Biology: Challenges and Risks", and counted with Andrew Tolonen, Alexei Grinbaum, Christophe Genisset, Heloise Müller as speakers, and François Képès as Master of Conference.
  • The second one, called "Synthetic Biology: A New Economical World", was integrated by Philipe Marlière, Cyrille Pauthenier and Gilles Defrel.

During Saturday evening, a little party was organized for the most dynamic iGEMers to continue to forge new friendships.

Some members of our team with Randy Rettberg

Itinerary for the guided tour organized


During the second day, we proposed two options to make some tourism:

The first option was to visit the Museum of Natural History, which presents evolution through history and is located near the Jardin des Plantes, a garden of botanical interest.

The second option was a guided tour that we had prepared. To do so, we made a tour in the heart of the City starting from the Jardin du Luxembourg. During an hour and a half, we walked into parisian streets while making some comments about places and monuments that we went through. Finally, we visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame before ending in front of the City Hall.