Desci

News Digest #224 – Join us live at Amyris today, Early bird ends Friday + 5 companies raise $278M

Jun 28, 2018

Hi all,Join me live this morning for a SynBioBeta Deep Dive at 8:00 am Pacific with Labcyte and Amyris. Learn how acoustic dispensing will become an instrumental technology in the synthetic biology industry by increasing strain construction efficiency and reducing reaction volumes.

What would you create with 100,000 free base pairs of DNA? That’s the question that IDT is asking synthetic biologists who are seeking to change the world for the better. Learn more about the contest and apply here.I’m pleased to announce a special SynbiCITE webinar on global trends and business opportunities in synthetic biology that will take place next Thursday, July 5. Synthetic Biology Week will take place Sept 30 - Oct 6 during SynBioBeta, with activities ranging from lab tours to hikes to workshops and talks, hands-on activities and events for everyone to enjoy. Watch for the full announcement next week.It’s time for pharma to take another look at synthetic biology, says Codexis CEO John Nicols in conversation with Kevin Costa of SynBioBeta. "The world’s pharmaceutical industry needs to take a lesson from Merck and GSK and get more proactive in exploiting the growing power of synthetic biology to improve its business going forward.” You can meet John Nicols at SynBioBeta 2018.

This week we explore how, from cell culture to table culture, the social and industrial landscape is shifting where food and biotechnology meet. Food tech need not replace beloved, traditional foods like brie and burgers overnight, but rather it can simply offer new alternatives to reflect consumers’ evolving tastes for natural and sustainable eats.Who raised funding this week? London-based Autolus raised an impressive $150 million on NASDAQ IPO to boost the development of T cell therapies for cancer; Precision BioSciences closed a $110M Series B to advance their genome editing platform, Catalog raised $9 million to make DNA-based data storage commercially viable, Finless Foods closed a $3.5 million seed round to develop environmentally-friendly seafood products, and Checkerspot closed $5 million in a seed financing to design new biomaterials at a molecular level. Charles Dimmler, CEO of the company, will be speaking at SynBioBeta, along with these new speakers:

Register for SynBioBeta by Friday and receive your early bird discount.

Finally, what can synthetic biologists learn from astronaut Scott Kelly? Our writer Natalie Slivinski had the pleasure of seeing him speak in Seattle. His underlying message: the importance of reaching, sometimes literally, for the stars.

Regards,John

Helping plants remove natural toxins could boost crop yields by 47 percent

Green Biologics announces launch of first bio-based acetone nail polish remover

Pheronym wins grant for eco-friendly pest control for interstellar agriculture

Gevo and Avfuel enter into renewable jet fuel supply agreement

Department of Energy announces $40 Million for bio-based research

Genetically modified bacteria enlisted in fight against disease