News Digest #222 – Ginkgo Turns 10, DNA Script’s Milestone, CRISPR stocks plunge

Hi all,I’m pleased to announce that Procter & Gamble is a SynBioBeta 2018 sponsor and will be hosting an awesome after-party this year. If you are interested in sponsoring an after-party, launching a product, or engaging with the industry, then please drop me a note - I’d love to hear from you.In the news this week: Carbon recycling company LanzaTech announced a new investment from BASF and the start-up of the world’s first commercial facility converting industrial emissions to sustainable ethanol; French biotechnology company Altar will take part in eForFuel, an initiative that seeks to convert CO2 into renewable fuels by using electricity and microorganisms; and DNA Script announced their first milestone: the successful enzymatic synthesis of 50nt strand of DNA.In other news, Lumen Bioscience received a USDA grant to develop a vaccine to protect farmed fish, using a Spirulina biotech production and delivery platform. Brian Finrow, Lumen CEO, will be speaking more about it at SynBioBeta 2018, along with these other newly announced speakers.

If you haven't registered yet for our first SynBioBeta Deep Dive on Wednesday June 27, you can sign up here. Amyris and Labcyte will show us how to increase strain construction efficiency and reduce reaction volumes.Intrexon got a brand update this week, led by DA Wallach (also speaking at SynBioBeta 2018). Here I am with Intrexon Founder and CSO Tom Reed last week at BIO.

On the editorial front, we talk this week with Natsai Audrey Chieza, Ginkgo Bioworks’ first-ever creative resident, about how synthetic biology is poised to change the garment industry and almost every other industry you can imagine. But part of its power to change is coming from an unlikely place: design.Ginkgo also marks their ten-year anniversary today with an iGEM partnership that will help inspire students around the world to use biology as a technology.Finally this week, in the first of a series made possible by SynbiCITE,we cross the pond for an in-depth look at synthetic biology, sustainability, and other modern concerns of the UK bioeconomy that Jane Austen’s England could never have foreseen.Regards,John

MiAlgae set to shake up feed sector after £500,000 investment

Tropic Biosciences raises $10 million to save the banana by editing its genes

Cancer link casts pall over CRISPR

Mammoth, Arbor and Beam launch new wave of CRISPR startups

‘Sexy plants’ on track to replace harmful pesticides to protect crops

A CRISPR pioneer on gene editing: 'we shouldn't screw it up'

All the News

New DIY platform allows for precise, automated, high-throughput cell growth and evolution (Boston University)Editas commits $125M to Broad to secure source of genome editing inventions (Fierce Biotech)An unlikely biotech investor: the government - BARDA is open for business in a very big way (Forbes)DEINOVE and OLEOS expand their collaboration with the support of the Occitanie Region (Press release)White Dog Labs Israel and AdvanceBio announce collaboration on a new Clostridia-based technology (Press release)DIYbio gets a poxy rap - contrary to alarmist headlines, the DIYbio movement is an unlikely biosecurity threat (Nature Biotech)Meet the German biotech behind Adidas’ biodegradable shoes (Labiotech)LabGenius integrates gene synthesis, machine learning and robotic automation to engineer better and entirely new proteinsNew England Biolabs® scientists push the limits of Golden Gate assembly (Press release)Synlogic presents preclinical data from Synthetic Biotic Medicine, SYNB1618, for the treatment of phenylketonuria (Press release)A new report highlights the fundamental role of Industrial Biotech in delivering solutions for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Innovate UK)

Who's Hiring?

Event Producer and Marketing Manager - SynBioBetaExecutive Assistant - SynBioBetaSales Support Specialist - SynBioBetaAssociate Creative Producer: Video, Visual & Editorial Content - SynBioBetaComputational Biologist Modeler: LanzaTech Inc. – Skokie, ILFermentation Scientist: DNA Script, Paris, FranceSynthetic biologist/Protein engineer: XENO Cell Innovations, Pilsen, Czech RepublicTo feature your job here, please get in touch