About Us Microbe Hackers end of semester potluck and trivia. Fall 2024. The Microbe Hackers laboratory is one of 32 streams in UT Austin’s Freshman Research Initiative program. Students join our lab in the second semester of their freshman year to gain early research experience and can remain with us throughout their time at UT, with an opportunity to become a peer mentor after two semesters of research. Our lab also houses the the iGEM team, a team of undergraduate researchers that forms each year to develop a project and compete in the anual International Genetically Engineered Machine competition. Microbe Hackers is a synthetic biology lab, although our research is often included under the molecular biology, microbiology, and genetic engineering umbrellas. Synthetic biology is a branch of science that engineers biological systems to perform novel functions. We most commonly work with E. coli, but some of our project areas, such as Cyanobacteria, work with different bacteria. More information about our active projects can be found here.
