The sanofi-aventis International BioGENEius Challenge is a competition for high school students that recognizes original research in biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

. Held each year at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) convention and organized by the Biotechnology Institute

Biotechnology Institute

The Biotechnology Institute is an independent nonprofit organization founded to teach the public about the benefits of biotechnology. It was created in 1998 by the biotechnology industry and is located in Arlington, Virginia....

, it is considered the most prestigious high school science competition, with the winner each year receiving $7,500. Held for the first time at the BIO convention in Toronto, Ontario, in 2002, the challenge was initially only for students in Canada, though the United States joined a year later, and in 2008, students from Western Australia were invited for the first time. The competition is largely sponsored by the Sanofi-Aventis

Sanofi-Aventis

Sanofi S.A. is a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Paris, France, the world's fourth-largest by prescription sales. Sanofi engages in the research and development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products for sale principally in the prescription market, but the...

 company, which hopes to expand it to other countries outside of North America in the coming years .

Application and Preliminary Rounds

Students wishing to participate have to follow slightly different procedures based on their country. All hopefuls, however, must submit an application detailing their research project in mid-November. These applications are reviewed by a panel of judges, usually experts in the field of the project, and, if accepted, the applicants are given at most $200 to fund their project. In April or May, accepted projects are invited to compete in a preliminary round to the BioGENEius international competition. Preliminary rounds have formats similar to that of the actual BioGENEius Challenge, though are generally larger in size as participation in the BioGENEius Challenge is more limited.

Canada

In Canada, The Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Center (CBERC) holds the sanofi-aventis BioTalent Challenge. In this challenge, Canada is geographically divided into 13 regions, approximately by province, with larger cities being represented as separate regions. In each, a regional competition is held, the winner of which goes on to the national competition, held at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. Participants in the national competition are given an all-expenses-paid trip to Ottawa to compete, though some competitors participate from their hometowns by live video-conferencing. Prior to the 2007-2008 competition, the winner of this competition advanced to the sanofi-aventis BioGENEius Challenge, however, the second place finisher of this competition now advances as well. Notably, as some regions of Canada, unlike other countries that participate in the challenge, allow for teams of more than one student, Canada could end up sending teams of multiple students to the international BioGENEius Challenge, whereas all other participating countries would only send teams of one student. This was, in fact, the case in the 2008 challenge, when Canada sent a team of two. However, as of yet, no team of multiple students has won the challenge, and as such, there has been no significant controversy regarding the matter.

United States

In the United States, the proposals of up to two students from each state are selected to represent their state at one of six regional BioGENEius competitions. State finalists selected to participate in the regional competitions are given a $400 travel award as of the 2009 competition. In each of the regions, a competition takes place, with the two winners of each advancing to the international competition. The regions are as follows:

Region	States
Midwest (MW)	Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin
Northeast (NW)	Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia
Northwest (NW)	Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming
South Central (SC)	Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas
Southeast (SE)	Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee
Southwest (SW)	Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah

Western Australia

In Western Australia, there is a national competition, which has a format identical to that of a regional competition in the United States. The two winners of this competition advance to the international competition. They are accompanied to the international competition by a member of Western Australia's Department of Industry and Resources, on an all expenses paid trip.

Eligibility

Any high-school student enrolled in a high-school science course is eligible to enter the contest. In the United States and Western Australia, entries must be individual, and only one project is allowed per student. In Canada, groups of two are allowed, and some provinces allow groups of up to four. Each project in the competition must research a topic in the field of biotechnology that the students claims is important and relevant, and adhere to the following criteria, to be eligible for the competition:

• The content of the project must relate to biotechnology and its various applications.
• The project must include an experiment that produces and analyzes data, to try to defend a conclusion.
• The project cannot use any dangerous materials without supervision by someone qualified to handle said materials.
• The project must comply with the International Science and Engineering Fair
  Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
  The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair is the largest pre-college scientific research event in the world, and is owned and administered by the Society for Science & the Public a 501 non-profit organization based in Washington, DC...
  
   Guidelines.
• The project must be invented and completed by the student, though he or she may receive help from teachers or mentors.

Judging

Projects are judged based on four main criteria:

Scientific Merit and Creativity - 20%

Relevance to biotechnology - 5%

Originality and creativity - 10%

Level of Science - 5%

Project Execution - 35%

Design - 10%

Skill levels demonstrated - 5%

Results: data collection and analysis - 10%

Validity of conclusion - 10%

Project Display - 15%

Project summary - 5%

Clarity and layout - 5%

Interest levels - 5%

Oral Presentation - 30%

Demonstration of scientific knowledge - 10%

Command of techniques and skills - 10%

Ability to explain and defend conclusions - 10%

The rules for the challenge have remained essentially constant since the first challenge, with only regulations about the transportation of United States participants to the challenge experiencing any major changes. Each project at a competition is generally judged twice by groups of four or five judges. The student or students give 10 minute presentations to each panel of judges, followed by five minutes of questioning from the panel. There can be a few hours between the two presentations, however, participants must submit a final written report on their research prior to the competition, which the judges read beforehand, so presentations do not generally change significantly during this time.

Previous winners

Year	Winner	Project
2004	Shamsher Singh Samra Clovis West High School, Fresno, CA	Characterization of Mus81/Mms4’s Role in Homologous DNA Repair During S-Phase Mitotic Cellular Division
2005	Lucie Guo and Xianlin Li North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC	CpG Island Methylation of GADD45a is a Marker of Breast Carcinogenesis
2006	John Zhou Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills, MI	A Novel Pathogen Detecting Biosensor Using Synthesized Conducto-Magnetic Polymers as Nanowires
2007	Ted Paranjothy Fort Richmond Collegiate, Winnipeg, Manitoba	Novel Tumour-Specific Apoptosis-Inducing Peptide Derivatives of Apoptin
2008	Mingjuan Zhang North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC	Characterization of a Synthetic Microbial Pathway for the Production of Bioplastics

Locale

The competition is held each year at the Biotechnology Institutes's BIO convention. The BIO convention typically has many leading scientists and businessmen in the field of biotechnology, and politicians, featured to give lectures to the participants. Because of this, BioGENEius competition participants may often meet with these guests, including, for instance, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....

in 2008. Some past and future locations are:

• 2007: Boston, MA
• 2008: San Diego, CA
• 2009: Atlanta, GA
• 2010: Chicago, IL
• 2011: Washington, DC

Sources