This is so exciting! The field of synthetic biology is advancing rapidly, and apart from the social stigma at times: it's a really promising technology. When I was still an undergrad I was lucky enough to participate in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. But that was back in 2010, a lot has changed since then!
Check out the winners of my year: http://2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge vs this year http://2016.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College
And these are just undergrads over the course of a summer!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Genetically_Engi...