2021 iGEM Competition: Team YONSEI_KOR

Hello! We are Yonsei_KOR, a group of multidisciplinary research student aspirants who pride themselves in the convergence of passion for scientific research and innovations towards creating sustainable solutions to local problems within our communities. Our main goal is to take a part in the iGEM Synthetic Biology competition and to conduct high-quality research that will be useful for some global problem founding ways of solution. However, we have faced some difficulties getting financial support for our research fees and an application fee for participation in the iGEM.

To share our story with you …

In the year 2017, each one of us left our home countries for Korea; particularly Yonsei UIC college. Promised with a vast liberal arts education and multidisciplinary convergence as science students we envisioned ourselves as change-makers. Fast forward, the year 2021 we find ourselves lacking in the once promised multidisciplinary convergence opportunities. With little to no access to practical applications of our foundational education from class we grapple for little options in Lab internships and settle for lab classes as the solo experience we will ever endeavor through our undergrad studies.

However, my team believes we ought to change this narrative; That we, ought to create our own opportunities than wait for the school. It is in this regard we have spent the last 4 months setting up the 1st possible Yonsei UIC Science annual IGEM competition participating team. Our dream is to challenge ourselves to apply the fundamentals of biotechnology and gain practical experience through the iGEM research, an annual worldwide synthetic biology competition hosted by MIT.

While hundreds of undergraduate student teams across the world participate in the iGEM to tackle various issues the world faces today our chances to be part of this history dwindles by the day. Our school has unfortunately unable to fund this game-changing initiative citing the unavailability of funds and the personal nature of this competition. While this may be an obstacle I believe this is an invaluable opportunity for our Yonsei students to contribute their acquired knowledge to mitigate the current challenges of the medical, environmental, food & nutrition industries. In this regard, we ask for your help to become the 1st Yonsei team and ISED students to take our school onto an international platform.

Please help by funding us any amount with any amount towards this dream

This funding goes to contribute to funding our lab space, research resources, and a $6000 registration fee. To date, we have $2000 financial support from biotech startups. $5000 (Research Activity limited) from Yonsei Technology Holding. However, we are still looking for funding support to help us raise the required registration fee. Accordingly, we are asking you to provide us with any amount of funding support to proceed to the next phase of the iGEM.

If you could support our GoGetFundMe by donating and then sharing it with your network, we would greatly appreciate it. We know that money can be tight, so please know that even 만원 ($10) helps us get closer to our goal!

Thank you for taking the time to read thus far, and we hope you will find it in your heart to help support us!

Learn more at : https://yonseikorigem.wixsite.com/yonsei