At iGEM TAU 2025, our mission extended beyond developing ONCOLIGO, we aimed to make lasting, practical contributions to the global iGEM and synthetic biology community.
Our work this year resulted in several concrete resources that future teams can immediately benefit from:
Each section below presents one of our contributions, with a short explanation and a link or downloadable PDF resource for teams who wish to implement or adapt our methods.
We developed TAUSO (TAU ASO Generator) - a lightweight, web-based application that enables any iGEM team to design optimized antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) for gene knockdown in human cell lines, yeast, or E. coli.
Users simply select an organism and a target gene through an intuitive interface, and the software automatically generates multiple ASO designs ranked by predicted efficacy and safety.
Once the computation is complete, users receive a structured report directly to their email, including all designed sequences, predicted off-targets, and detailed thermodynamic scores.
This contribution empowers future iGEM teams to incorporate RNA knockdown with ASO into their projects - a capability that previously required expert knowledge or paid software.
As Dr. Nofar Mor, an RNA therapeutics researcher, noted during our discussion, existing ASO design tools often lack detailed off-target visualization and modification-aware hybridization calculations. Our software addresses both, providing an accessible, open-science alternative.
All code and model components are openly available, enabling future iGEM teams to adapt, expand, or integrate them into their own software pipelines.
Visit our Software page
In August 2025, we hosted the iGEM Global Hybrid Mini-Jamboree at Tel Aviv University, gathering over ten international teams online and the Technion iGEM team in person.
To help others recreate this success, we created a detailed Hybrid Meetup Guide, covering:
Our guide transforms what could have been a one-time event into a reproducible framework for global collaboration. It makes it easy for any iGEM team to organize inclusive, hybrid-format meetups - a crucial tool for post-pandemic, international community building.
Beyond logistics, this contribution highlights the true strength of the iGEM community - the ability of teams from across continents to learn from one another, share research insights, and form scientific collaborations that continue long after the competition.
By fostering these cross-border connections, iGEM serves as a global incubator of open science, accelerating progress and uniting young scientists around a shared vision: advancing synthetic biology together.
In addition to hosting our own meetup, we actively supported other iGEM teams. Notably, we collaborated with iGEM Ioannina (Greece), the “AMADRYADS” team, providing guidance on designing toehold switches, based on computational tools and methodologies developed by previous TAU teams.
To strengthen the synthetic biology community and support future iGEM teams working with RNA therapeutics, protein regulation, and gene expression systems, we contributed a collection of new standardized BioBrick parts to the iGEM Registry. These parts span multiple biological domains, from inducible yeast promoters and auxin-responsive degrons, to optimized antibody chains and antisense oligonucleotides, creating a versatile toolbox for gene control and validation of ASO activity.
Our key contributions include:
These standardized and well-characterized parts bridge the gap between synthetic biology experimentation and advanced molecular design. They enable future iGEM teams to rapidly prototype and test ASO activity across different model systems, integrate antibody and degron elements into modular gene circuits, and quantitatively evaluate off-target effects using fluorescence-based assays. Together, these components expand the iGEM Registry with practical, versatile tools that support both fundamental research and applied innovation.
Together, our contributions bring therapeutic-grade biological tools into the iGEM ecosystem for the first time - helping future teams translate RNA and antibody concepts into functional, testable designs.
Visit our Parts page
Building on the initiative started by the 2023 iGEM TAU team, we continued and significantly expanded ISRAGEM, Israel’s first national synthetic biology competition for high-school students.
This year, we reached over 250 students from more than 10 schools, representing diverse communities across Israel - Jewish, Arab, Druze, and Orthodox. We enhanced the program by updating its educational materials, introducing new workshops, and strengthening the existing mentorship framework in which university students guided each high-school team.
By continuing and scaling ISRAGEM, we transformed what began as a pilot into a sustainable national framework for scientific education and outreach. Our goal is to ensure that ISRAGEM remains an annual event, empowering new generations to explore synthetic biology and join the global iGEM movement. Through this effort, we strengthened the bridge between academia and high-school education - and demonstrated how iGEM teams can create lasting, cumulative impact beyond a single competition cycle.
Visit our Human Practice - ISRAGEM page
