Schedule

Enabled by the genomics revolution in reading and writing DNA, scientists can now design new proteins from scratch with specific functions. Learn about how scientists are combining the latest advances in DNA synthesis with the power of proteins to create the next generation of medical breakthroughs and materials.

The European bioeconomy is accelerating. Europe has always been home to exceptional science but has been slower to commercialize innovation. Today, European synbio products are entering the market, delivering for investors, and fueling sustainable policy agendas. What opportunities are emerging for growth and investment in Europe? What policies are enabling innovation? What sectors are seeing the most synbio activity and what challenges still need to be overcome?

India’s economy is accelerating and with it, the country’s demand for energy, food production, and consumer goods. But India is also one of the most heavily polluted countries in the world. Transport and goods manufacturing (often bought by the global north) drive air and water pollution while the pressures of climate change and changing weather patterns threaten farming conditions and food supplies. All these challenges present opportunities for synbio to reshape India’s economy. What is the current state of synbio in India? What challenges does synbio face in reaching scale and what kind of support does the industry have with Indian policymakers? Join this special session for an in-depth discussion on India’s emerging synbio opportunities.

The European bioeconomy is accelerating. Europe has always been home to exceptional science but has been slower to commercialise innovation. Today, European synbio products are entering the market, delivering for investors, and fueling sustainable policy agendas. What opportunities are emerging for growth and investment in Europe? What policies are enabling innovation? What sectors are seeing the most synbio activity and what challenges still need to be overcome?

Health and technology are advancing at an exponential rate and we’ve arrived at an inflection point in the convergence of genomics and synthetic biology. In this discussion, we will explore how synthetic biology and genomics can radically change the way health care is delivered and the latest advances in xenotransplantation, and 3D-printed hearts and lungs.

After decades of innovation, clinical research and technological leaps, there are still many human diseases we are completely unable to cure. From Alzheimer's and genetic diseases to the most stubborn forms of cancer, our traditional therapeutic modalities haven't achieved the breakthroughs millions of patients critically need. Synthetic biology aims to be the game-changing industry that reshapes the future of human health. With cutting edge tools like cell reprogramming, amino acid engineering, and novel protein design, could synbio finally cure the incurable? What actions are needed to deliver on this lofty promise?

Mushroom are the great balancers of nature’s scales, returning the dead to the earth to be reborn. Humans have also used fungi to nourish and heal ourselves for millennia, confirming fungi as one of the most powerful organisms on our planet. But some of fungi’s healing properties have been prohibited in modern societies, cutting off one of nature’s best tools in human mental health. Now the landscape is changing and fungi are being welcomed back and explored for new functions. In the age of synthetic biology, we can expect this is just the beginning. As we better understand fungi’s unique properties, we can potentially develop a range of medicines beyond mental health. Coupled with the sustainable materials and foods fungi now provide, mushrooms are seeing their own rebirth as healers for our future.

Imagine if we could make every material of modern life in a bioreactor. We're already seeing the potential with sustainable chemicals and cultured meats. But what if we could grow plants in bioreactors too? Could we build a future where trees aren't cut down for lumber and paper? Could we grow cotton, flax, and hemp, while protecting our environment instead of destroying it? Join this session to learn the current state of culturing plants and what might be possible in the future.

Just like humans, our planet has a critical microbiome that maintains the health of our biosphere. Take soil microbiomes: these microbial communities can keep our soil healthy, sequester carbon, and pass nutrients up the food chain. When our soil is healthy, our food is too. How can we support and restore our planet's microbiome health and carbon sequestration capacity? How can we measure our soil's microbiome impact on our own health?

The fast-fashion industry is infamous for its unsustainable, exploitative, and environmentally damaging practices. But if bioengineered materials are to become the dominant products in the textile and fashion space, synthetic biology will need to speed up. How can we speed bio-based textile innovation and paths to market while also communicating the value of slowing down? Where are fashion supply chains ripe for disruption? What will it take for synthetic biology materials to be commonplace for consumers?

Precision medicine has the potential to target and correct the genetic illnesses or unique diseases characteristics of individual patients. Ten years after CRISPR was discovered, what level of precision are we able to achieve? How much more precise could we get? Is individualized or fully personalized medicine realistic from a cost and manufacturing perspective? If not, what size cohort is the most realistic for CRISPR medicines?

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for more efficient and versatile vaccine development. Synthetic biology offers a unique solution to this challenge by leveraging mRNA-based vaccines. The vision of the Digital to Biological Converter (DBC) is to enable the printing of vaccines from digital information across the globe, and this technology is now more relevant than ever. Today, mRNA has the spotlight and we have only scratched the surface of its potential as a platform for sophisticated therapeutics and targeting. Telesis Bio addresses the bottlenecks in mRNA-based discovery by offering one step and two-step mRNA solutions for vaccine discovery. We will showcase our collaboration with RNAimmune, demonstrating the adoption of the BioXp platform, enabling broader and faster vaccine screening. Additionally, we will provide an update on SOLA and its utility for vaccine technology. Finally, we will discuss the future of mRNA-based vaccines and the potential of RNA encapsulation on the BioXp platform.

There are about 305 million startups created every year. 1.35 million businesses out of those startups are tech related. Only a small fraction are synthetic biology companies. A flourishing bioeconomy needs thousands of founders, to say the least. As the bioengineering design-build-test cycle keeps getting cheaper and quicker, conditions for new founders start to take shape. However, what are some of the key traits that founding teams in bio need to be successful? In this session, you will hear experienced investors defining biofounder archetypes, from their psychology to skills and abilities to take innovation from bench to market.

Sequencing a human genome went from billions of dollars to $100 in the last 20 years. Biology is creating 10x more data every two years. That is 10 billion times more data over those 20 years. If we are to make sense of that huge amount of data we will have to build software and data tooling that helps us store, process, and analyze it. What are the techniques generating so much data and how are they being used? What tools are being used most? What is the state of the art? If you are interested in these questions then this might be a good session for you.

Molecular biology techniques are crucial in biologics discovery, and at Telesis Bio, we are committed to streamlining molecular biology workflows throughout the discovery process. The BioXp® platform is designed to enable flexibility in adopting automation for molecular biology workflows beyond synthetic biology and into multi-omic applications. Our BioXp Select kits provide scientists with the flexibility to begin with their own linear DNA, or plasmid DNA, further expanding the utility, speed, and impact of the platform in discovery. We also discuss consolidated workflow solutions from sequence to NGS sample preparation for various workflows to optimize discovery. Beyond the BioXp platform, SOLA EDS (enzymatic DNA synthesis) technology is driving Digital to Biological Converter (DBC) applications such as CRISPR Cas9 guide RNA synthesis, as well as automating the gene synthesis pipelines on the BioXp system. In our presentation, we will give an overview of these technologies and how they can help streamline molecular biology workflows throughout biologics discovery.

Novel technological capabilities enabled by the convergence of biology and nano- and digital technology promise to significantly advance synthetic biology. It’s therefore no surprise that imec, a world-leading deep-tech R&D hub, is eager to add value to this rapidly evolving field. Its ambition is to leverage its 15+ years of health-tech expertise, with technologies such as on-chip microfluidic cell sorters, very-high-throughput computational imaging, single-cell and -molecule sensors, high-density micro-electrode arrays for nucleic acid synthesis and precision transfection, and AI. The remarkable, decade-long success of the semiconductor industry is in large part due to its ecosystem-wide collaboration – especially during the research phase. It’s this experience that inspires imec to reach out to the syn-bio industry for input to guide its efforts and set its tech priorities. With this roundtable at SynBioBeta, imec brings together leading innovators from the synthetic biology ecosystem to discuss what is needed to accelerate the field. What are the missing pieces in the hardware and software stacks? When do they need to be filled in? What are the manufacturing challenges in view of increasing precision, accelerating upscaling, and reducing costs? What sort of collaborations do we need to accomplish all of this? We hope you can join us to help answer these questions and pick up insights from fellow experts.

As we enter the century of biotechnology, our ability to read, write, and edit DNA is disrupting everything from human health to manufacturing. The next disruption to take place could be in the world of data storage. While challenges remain for automating the DNA reading/writing process, experts are increasingly leaning towards DNA as a long-term information storage solution, particularly for archiving culturally significant data.