About UCL iGEM

iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) is a global synthetic biology competition where students and early-career researchers create bold solutions to real-world problems. Teams spend months designing, building, and testing a synthetic biology system before heading to Paris to showcase their work at iGEM's Grand Jamboree. This year, the UCL iGEM team has been hard at work on ‘SHELLter’, a bioremediation project that turns shellfish waste into a clever filter for removing metal-based drug residues from hospital wastewater, helping to keep our water bodies safer and cleaner.

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What we’ll be doing at Festival of the Girl

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At this year's Festival of the Girl, you can get hands-on with our project through a fun, interactive activity that shows how our science works in action, followed by a quick craft you can make and take home. Along the way, you'll find out how something as ordinary as shellfish waste can be turned into a tool that helps protect our water, and just how much of synthetic biology starts with curiosity and a willingness to try things out. Our team will be on hand throughout the festival to answer questions, chat about what studying and working in science is really like, and shell-ebrate the future of STEM!