Recipients of the genetic parts include academic labs, established scientists, and student teams participating in the iGEM Foundation's annual synthetic biology competition.
BioBrick was developed by a nonprofit composed of researchers from MIT, Harvard, and UCSF.
The registry records and indexes biological parts and offers services including the synthesis and assembly of biological parts, systems, and devices.
The registry offers many types of biological parts, including DNA, plasmids, plasmid backbones, primers, promoters, protein coding sequences, protein domains, ribosomal binding sites, terminators, translational units, riboregulators, and composite parts.
[3] The registry has previously received external funding through grants from the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Institutes of Health.