The "iGEM" (International Genetically Engineered Machine) is a competition organised by the MIT in Boston (USA). The students' objective is to modify a bacterium by inserting DNA to give it a new function.

In 2010, the competition attracted 128 teams (38 in Europe, 51 in America, 38 in Asia-Oceania, 1 in Africa).

After a first successful participation in 2010, when the INSA Lyon team from the Biosciences Department won a silver medal, INSA Lyon has joined forces with "Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon" with a view to winning a gold medal in 2011.

A project firmly rooted in the essential concerns facing today's world

The team has chosen to work on the treatment of nuclear waste. Since decontaminating nuclear effluents is costly and time-consuming, the team is focusing on bioremediation, i.e. the use of micro-organisms for decontaminating an environment. Their solution is to create a biological filter to capture radioactive atoms in nuclear waste.

The 2011 schedule

• Regional qualification jamboree: 1 and 2 October 2011, in Amsterdam, Holland. Meeting jointly organised by the Free University of Amsterdam, Delft University of Technology and the University of Groningen.
   
• World jamboree: 5, 6 and 7 November 2011, at the MIT in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.