Jackie Tam

Notetaker
Synthetic biology is a field that I can make an impact as evidenced by our iGEM project, and it has encouraged me to take a more open view of my choice to major in chemical biology instead of biochemistry (“What’s the difference?” everyone asks). It doesn’t matter. It’s what you make of either. I can do synthetic biology, or more importantly: anything else, regardless of what I choose as a major.

I’ve learned a lot, to say the least. From learning about cell motility in our two-week bootcamp to cloning to microscopy to working with mammalian cell culture and doing image analysis on videos, I feel like I have gone full-circle in terms of a research project- like I did it all. Half of research is communicating what you know effectively, and iGEM has thought me that they key to presenting is confidence and broad but deep knowledge of my research. Working on iGEM has also taught me that it is easy to lose sight of the bigger goals when one is focused on the actual lab work at the bench if you do not spend some time each day or week reviewing and reminding yourself of the overall goals. The experience has also taught me to question what I don’t understand for myself, which is important to me and for iGEM because in the end, that’s what iGEM is all about – gaining [new] knowledge about using synthetic biology to something useful.