Abstract: The talent cultivation is the main core competitiveness of the “Double First-Class” construction in universities, and the construction of a high-quality curriculum system is an important support for improving the quality of talent cultivation. With the goal of cultivating top-notch innovative talents, an integrated innovative talent cultivation model of “synthetic biology course-the second classroom-competition” has been formed through more than ten years of teaching exploration and practice in our university. This curricular system consists of a high-quality teaching team from USTC and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, course content of the hot topics and lately development of synthetic biology, online and offline mixed teaching mode including virtual simulate experiment and micro lessons, practical skills training and cross-specialty cooperation in “encoding life” association, and the research training of high-level biology competitions represented by the international genetically engineered machine (iGEM) competition. All these together dramatically improved undergraduate students’ ability of self-learning, scientific research innovation, and team collaboration. Up to now, excellent results have been achieved in the international and domestic competitions such as iGEM, the International Directional Evolution Competition, and the Synthetic Biology Competition, continuously advancing towards the goal of cultivating top-notch innovative students with ideals, responsibilities, and excellence in character and learning.

Key words: synthetic biology, undergraduate education, iGEM, cultivation of innovative talents, curriculum construction