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In funding news, congratulations to Neogene Therapeutics for nabbing a major $110 million series A. The company is developing personalized engineered T cell therapies for cancer using synthetic biology tools.

Inceptor Bio will use proceeds from a $37 million series A round to push its lead CAR-T program into phase 1 trials and set up manufacturing capability in Florida.

Locus Biosciences—a clinical-stage biotech developing a new class of CRISPR-based antibacterial drugs—closed a $35 million financing round with backing from Johnson & Johnson.

Imagindairy, an Israeli producer of animal-free milk proteins, has raised an additional $15 million for its extended seed round, taking the round’s total to $28 million.

(From left to right) Imagindairy co-founders Tamir Tuller, Eyal Afergan, and Arie Abo. Image credit: Yaniv Koppel.

In a new blog post, Aoife Brennan, CEO of Synlogic (pictured below at SynBioBeta) discusses how the tools of extreme survival can help build a biotech company.

Benchling launched their AlphaFold beta feature, in which scientists can not only predict 3D structures of novel proteins, but also centralize experimental context, collaborate with teammates, and connect with downstream scientific workflows on a single platform.

Reed Molbak, Head of Platform & Infrastructure Product Management at Benchling, speaking at SynBioBeta.

Ellen Simmons, Senior Biomedical Engineer at Cambridge Consultants, reflects on an uplifting few days immersed in SynBioBeta's Built With Biology conference, from glowing flowers to decomposing buildings.

Two women-led startups are getting closer to treating diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and depression. Inbrain, led by Carolina Aguilar, and Neuroelectrics, led by Ana Maiques, are on a quest for more trials, more financing, and more visibility as women in deeptech/medtech.

What share of people say they are vegetarian, vegan, or flexitarian? Survey data shows that many people report adopting a diet with less animal products. Young people are more likely to be non- or only occasional meat-eaters.

Congrats to Mike Selden of Finless Foods who just announced their plant-based pokè-style tuna (pictured below). Made from nine plant-based ingredients, the Finless tuna is minimally processed, low in fat and sodium, and provides omega-3 fatty acids.

Spotlight on: LUCA

Women’s health has been long overlooked and underserved. Non-prescription supplements often claim to help women’s vaginal microbiome health, but none of them have proven therapeutic value. Meet LUCA Biologics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of microbe-based therapies to treat unmet needs in women's health. The company’s living medicines, which target the vaginal microbiome for urogenital and reproductive health, will go through a full FDA approval process and could finally offer women solutions for antibiotic-resistant UTIs, STIs, bacterial vaginosis and preterm birth. LUCA is also working to support women’s health globally, not only in affluent regions. Learn more about LUCA’s goals of supporting women and keep up with their clinical trial progress!

Featured News

Other News

• Synthetic biology: customizing nutrients for aquafeeds. In this F3 Future of Fish Feed session, synbio innovators discuss their technologies and potential for progress in fishmeal and fish oil replacement.
• Join the next WiSB Women’s Hour – a regular opportunity to learn, share and support women and underrepresented genders in synthetic biology!
• Motif FoodWorks launches plant-based meat products. Motif FoodWorks is launching plant-based meat products: Motif MoBeef, Motif MoPork and Motif MoChicken. Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition Ventures also announced an investment in Motif FoodWorks.
• Cannabinoids production via fermentation: Intelligen announces that they recently completed a thorough SuperPro Designer model that analyzes the large-scale production of a rare cannabinoid (cannabigerol) via yeast fermentation.
• PlasmidMaker is a versatile, automated, and high throughput end-to-end platform for plasmid construction. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers, led by professor Huimin Zhao, developed a versatile and automated platform for plasmid design and construction called PlasmidMaker.
• The line between biology and technology has blurred—there’s no going back. Scientists reflect on how this interface has changed the world and on the potential of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and biomedical engineering.
• SynBio Coalition announces eight new members representing leading biotechnology companies, universities. ‍Growing coalition focuses on industry targets and key legislation to bolster innovation, job creation, greater security, and the new green economy.
• Cosmetics: when biotech is better than nature. Biotech-derived beauty ingredients are increasingly reaching mass markets through big retailers driven, in part, by consumer demand.
• Climate-friendly couture. Luxury fashion designers are increasingly turning to biotech companies for sustainable fabrics that inspire fresh concepts for the runway.

Who's hiring?

• Research Associate, Inscripta, Boulder, CO
• Scientist / Senior Scientist, Stemloop, Evanston, IL
• Engineering Technician, Inscripta, Pleasanton, CA
• Field Applications Scientist, North America - East, Inscripta, East Coast
• Senior Scientist, Inscripta, Pleasanton, CA
• Account Executive - Europe with focus on UK/BNL, Inscripta, United Kingdom or Denmark

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