We are excited to announce that the team registration for this year’s BIOMOD starts on April 29, 2023.

Update 2023/04/29: Team Registration Page (Peatix) is now online!

It has been more than three years since the last international BIOMOD. As a refresher, we plan to do an Online briefing session on April 29 (12:00-13:00 (JST), Zoom). Rules, schedule, jamboree venue, awards, etc., will be covered. The recording will also be available online.

We look forward to seeing you all this fall in Tokyo. Let’s work together to make this exciting event possible!

Online Briefing

• 12:00 (noon) - 13:00 (JST, Japan Standard Time)
  • Zoom Link
  • The session will be in English (auto-generated subtitles are available).

Schedule

• April 29: Online briefing (Zoom)
• April 29 - May 31: Team registration (may close early / extend due to the number cap)
• Aug. 15 - Sep. 15 (may change): Jamboree registration
• Oct. 28: Website/Youtube freeze
• Nov. 4-5: Jamboree (on-site (Tokyo, Japan) and online (Zoom))

Registration and Fees

• Team: 30,000 JPY (approx. 225 USD)
• Jamboree: TBD (see below)

A fee of 30,000 JPY is due at the time of team registration, payable by credit card via Peatix.

This year’s individual Jamboree registration fee will be decided based on the number of teams that are willing to attend on-site. At least we plan to set the registration fee more affordable than the previous jamboree ($220/person in 2019). Online participation also requires an online registration fee to cover streaming etc. We strongly recommend joining on-site to experience the BIOMOD jamboree fully. Jamboree registration starts in August and is due in September, along with your project title and abstract.

Registrations are only considered complete when payment is received, and a confirmation email is sent.

Jamboree

• Date: November 4-5, 2023
• Place:
  • West Bldg. 9 Hall, Ookayama Campus,
    Tokyo Institute of Technology
    Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo Tech (Ookayama Campus) is located in downtown Tokyo. There are a plethora of affordable lodging options in Tokyo (from Airbnb to Japanese-style business hotels), so this year, we are not planning to make a contract with specific hotels to secure rooms. Of course, we are more than happy to help you find lodging that suits your needs, so feel free to contact us.

For the teams that require visas to travel to Japan, please check MOFA’s webpage and start the application process early. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for the documents.

Our Team

• Co-organized by BIOMOD Foundation (USA) and Molecular Robotics Research Group (Japan)
• Sponsored by Molecular Cybernetics, MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A)

BIOMOD Foundation

• Shawn Douglas (Chair)

BIOMOD 2023 Steering Committee

• Shogo Hamada (Committee Chair)
• Yusuke Sato (Vice Chair & Intl. Team Assistance)
• Akinori Kuzuya (Intl. Team Assistance)
• Ibuki Kawamata (Accounting)
• Kan Shoji (Accounting)
• Junichi Taira (Jamboree)
• Kazuhiro Maeda (Jamboree)
• Akifumi Nishida (Jamboree)
• Keita Abe（Japan Meeting, Social Event）

Inquiry

Please feel free to contact info@biomod.jp (Steering Committee) for any questions.

Dear BIOMOD Community,

We are pleased to announce that BIOMOD will officially resume this year as a “hybrid” event, with options for in-person and online participation.

This year’s competition is being organized by the Molecular Robotics Research Group of Japan (MOLBOT), with support from the BIOMOD Foundation. MOLBOT has organized many successful regional BIOMOD.jp events, including online-only events during the past few years.

The jamboree will take place November 4th and 5th at Tokyo Tech in Tokyo, Japan.

We will share more details soon. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Shawn Douglas Ph.D.
Chairman, BIOMOD Foundation

Congratulations to UBC BIOMOD for taking home the Grand Prize in this year’s BIOMOD Japan Open!

See this page for all winners.

Our friends in the Molecular Robotics Group in Japan have been organizing a regional, online-only BIOMOD competition in recent years, the BIOMOD Japan Open. The competition takes place in English.

In past years, BIOMOD Japan participants worked remotely and designed purely computational experiments. This year, BIOMOD Japan Open will resume performing in-person wet-lab experiments.

Note that BIOMOD Japan Open teams are recommended to build their project around a shared theme. This year, the project theme is: molecular robots that can contribute to the low-carbon economy.

Free registration is now open, and the planned Jamboree date is Saturday, September 17th, 2022.

Please visit the website and contact the organizers if you have any questions.

Dear BIOMOD Community,

We have been closely monitoring international, national, and local policies that are relevant to hosting in-person events like BIOMOD. Unfortunately, we have determined that it is not yet possible for our small team to organize a large in-person event at UCSF. In particular, the potential emergence of new Sars-CoV-2 variants remains a signficant risk for canceling our event.

For those of you who are eager to participate in a student design competition, you may consider iGEM, which is planning to host in-person Jamboree October 20–23 in Paris, France.

In the meantime, we are evaluating possible alternative structures and activities for BIOMOD that will enable us to resume our mission of promoting science and science education around the world.

Sincerely,
Shawn Douglas Ph.D.
Chairman, BIOMOD Foundation