Eleven University of Copenhagen (UCPH) students are to pitch their idea for a magnetized cancer drug at iGem, a global synthetic biology competition. It is all happening right now in Lyon, France<\/p>\n
The team has been responsible for all aspects of the project – from idea, to fundraising, to communication, to project coordination – which has allowed them to acquire a diverse set of entrepreneurial and technological skills.<\/p>\n
“This has been a multifaceted project that had us leaving our scientific comfort zones,” says team member and Master’s student Will Comstive Wright.<\/p>\n
The idea of introducing entrepreneurship early in the university studies is to boost growth and job creation.<\/p>\n
“This iGEM project has shown me that great innovations may lie in between disciplines. Addressing the task from several angles is an important tool for testing entrepreneurial ideas,” says Wright.<\/p>\n
He reckons that his career in bio-entrepreneurship will benefit from the set of skills that he has attained as a part of the iGEM-team.<\/p>\n
Wright emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary collaborations. It has been an impressive aspect of the iGEM competition with the UCPH team, he says. iGem consists of biologists, chemists, molecular bio-medicine students, bio-business, philosophy and IT-students.<\/p>\n
A great strength, according to Professor Birger Lindberg M\u00f8ller, Director of the Center for Synthetic Biology:<\/p>\n
“By collaborating across disciplines and prioritizing outreach and dialogue with the public, science has a higher chance of being relevant in a societal context. This increases the chances of developing long-lived technological solutions that are welcomed in society. I think that these students show that the iGEM competition is giving future researchers the right tools to meet these challenges.”<\/p>\n
universitypost@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n
Like us on Facebook <\/a> for features, guides and tips on upcoming events. Follow us on Twitter<\/a> for links to other Copenhagen academia news stories. Sign up for the University Post weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/em> Today, a group of creative biologists, chemists, and even philosophers, will be saying ‘bonjour’ at the iGEM competition in Lyon, France<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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