Hi ,

We hope this finds you well.

We at Built With Biology are busily preparing for our in-person live global Conference (April 12-14, Oakland, CA), as we very much look forward to getting everyone back together to celebrate the accomplishments of the past 2.5 years and the amazing progress we in the SynBio industry are making in using biology to better feed, fuel, and heal the world.

In the lead-up to our Conference, Built With Biology is working with a variety of partners to make this three-day event truly transformative for you as attendees. One of our most generous partners is the Schmidt Futures "Task Force for Synthetic Biology and the Bioeconomy." This Task Force is part of a philanthropic initiative by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, a not-for-profit organization that bets early on exceptional people making the world better. Boldly stated, Schmidt Futures "... scours the Earth for the next visionaries, betting early on the power of their ideas to solve hard problems in science and society." For more information on this ground-breaking initiative, please see What Makes the Bioeconomy Tick and How Can We Measure It?

More near-term, we at BWB are honored to announce that we are launching our global Women in Synthetic Biology network to celebrate International Women's Day! It’s our belief that women (and other underrepresented genders) have gained respect and visibility since the early days of bioengineering; but, more support from the global community is needed to reach equity and equality for everyone in the bioeconomy. So, please plan to join us on March 8 for our (free) online digital event to hear from leading women in industry and academia, share ideas and innovations, and connect with like-minded partners and supporters from across the globe!

Thank you for reading and for your ongoing support. If you think your family, friends, or colleagues would enjoy learning more about Built With Biology, our Conference, or our industry-leading partners, please feel free to forward this newsletter.

We look forward to seeing you all in April!

Larry

Larry Upton

Editor in Chief

larry.upton@builtwithbiology.com

Women in Synthetic Biology: Welcome Party!

Women and underrepresented genders have gained respect and visibility since the early days of bioengineering. But more support and global community are needed to reach equity and equality for everyone in the bioeconomy. Join us online on International Women's Day to launch the world's first Women in Synthetic Biology global network! All genders are welcome as we celebrate the achievements of women and underrepresented genders in the bioeconomy. Hear from leading women in industry and academia, share ideas and innovations, and connect with like-minded partners and supporters from across the globe. This event is open to everyone. We welcome our allies to join us to build a stronger future together. We can't wait to meet you!

Built With Biology Insights

Law of Truly Large Numbers

It’s remarkable that regardless of the type of lens you use to gaze at the universe, you move towards infinity. Astronomers use telescopes to look at a mostly empty universe, one still so full of stars that it boggles the mind. Biologists look through microscopes, peering into a universe crammed so full of small things that they easily outnumber the stars.

Our human scale rests between two infinities. There are more microbes than stars. There are more viruses than stars. There are far more ways to combine the twenty amino acids into an average-sized protein than there are stars. Not only are there more DNA molecules than stars, if you took all the DNA in all the microbes on Earth and placed it end to end, it would take us to the edge of the universe and back, more than once, and maybe more than twenty times.

Building with biology means working with numbers at the edge of human comprehension. The DNA sequence we rationally design to construct a stable protein variant was plucked from a nearly infinite design space. When we ‘direct evolution’ we are actually encouraging a particular combination of information and function to emerge from countless possibilities. Biology is built on the Law of Truly Large Numbers.

Originally coined to caution statisticians against making spurious correlations in large datasets, the Law of Truly Large Numbers simply recognizes that with enough samples, any highly implausible event is likely to be observed. That rule makes building with biology an incredible adventure, one where every tool you need is just waiting to be discovered. It’s a treasure hunt, and if we’re honest, it’s what drew many of us to this line of work. Biology lets us build things that the world has never seen before.

Like anything else, sifting through infinity can become routine. With truly large numbers, impossible things happen on the regular, and you can have six strains ready to be tested before breakfast. In the midst of screening and selecting strains, the frustrations of optimizing a process for scale-up, and the realities of running a business, we can forget all about the thrill of discovery. It’s often missing from the way we talk about our work, obscured by investor-friendly discussions of scale and return.

If you grew up star-gazing in the quiet skies of the northern hemisphere, your first look at the night sky south of the equator leaves you speechless. Earth’s South Pole points towards the center of the Milky Way, and at night the stars riot across the southern sky, tumbling from the Via Lactea in vast numbers. The sheer, magnificent, enormity of the universe is on display.

While nearly everyone has gazed at the stars with wonder, very few people have experienced that same sense of awe by looking through a microscope. You have though, and Built with Biology is here to help share the fascination and hope of your discoveries with those who have yet to comprehend the beauty and potential of our science. Join us for our global conference (live April 12-14 in Oakland, CA) to learn more!

Built With Biology - Global Conference

Only eight weeks away… sign up now!

Spotlight on: Genemod

The pandemic sped up the transition from in-person to remote lab work. Running experiments and making discoveries have never been so easy to do from your pajamas. But how do you know what resources you have in the lab? How can you collaborate efficiently with all your colleagues from anywhere in the world? Meet Genemod, a life science software company updating last century’s lab management for the modern age. The company’s cutting-edge software allows scientists to build and manage virtual lab freezers, digitize lab protocols, and spend 60% less time on busywork. Learn more about how Genemod is helping modernize life science discovery through software, automation, and more!

Spotlight on: Biorealize

Everything around you has been designed, from your clothes, to your vacuum and the packaging protecting your food. Biodesign, a growing movement and method of design thinking, gives us the ability to design for and with biology. But how do you get started? What does it take to incorporate biology into everyday materials? Meet Biorealize, a platform company with tools and support for designers, academics, students, and even haute couture fashion houses to bring their biodesign ambitions to life! Integrating packaging made from mushrooms, plastics made from microbes, the possibilities of designing with biology are only limited by your imagination. Learn more about how Biorealize is empowering creative sustainability and finding new ways of bringing nature into our daily lives.

Spotlight on: RootPath Genomics

Synthetic biology is founded on the ability to read, write, and test DNA. Writing short DNA fragments has become relatively cheap but stringing them together in long, gene-length strands needed for applications like cell and gene therapy is still labor-intensive and error-prone. Meet RootPath Genomics, a synthetic biology company solving the DNA assembly challenge of 100% accuracy. With the help of a biophysics-based algorithm, the company synthesizes thousands of genes by assembling tens of thousands of short DNA fragments simultaneously in test tubes. By "tuning" chemical reactions, only perfectly matching sequences assemble in the right order. Learn more about how RootPath’s novel approach is helping make genetic medicines accessible and affordable for all!

What makes the bioeconomy tick and how can we measure it?

"Because the bioeconomy is economic activity, you can measure it. You can set targets, make new economic accounts, and can make new definitions of ways to measure it," says Mary Maxon, Senior Fellow at Schmidt Futures.