Hi ,

I’ve been passionate about biodesign since my early exposure to biology in grad school. I think that DALL·E, the AI-powered image generation engine built by Sam Altman’s OpenAI is enabling a whole new world of awesomeness. You can check out some of ‘my work’ below. Can you believe that our annual summit is just 9 months away? I’ve invited a number of Biodesigners to join us at the conference this year and I hope that you’ll join too.

If you’d like to geek out with me on Zoom some time and produce some more amazing artwork together, then please drop Claire a note.

I’ve been hosting Congressman Khanna for a bioeconomy brainstrust every 6 months for the last 2 years - so it is great to see last week that the bioeconomy bill that we’ve been talking about finally getting passed. If you were involved then thank you.

Congressman Ro Khanna.

It is a $280bn package called CHIPS and Science Act and it's a win for the semiconductor industry as well as the synthetic biology industry. Included in the bill is the Bioeconomy Research and Development Act which will establish a federal engineering biology research initiative and expand public-private partnerships, education, and training. The legislation also calls for more than doubling the budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF)—now $8.8 billion—over 5 years. It would also grow the $7.5 billion Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DOE) by 45%.

The Inflation Reduction Act set to pass later this week is another win for anyone who hates carbon emission and loves biomanufacturing.

In mycelium news, Eben Bayer took MyForest Foods to the next level with the opening of Swersey Silos in Green Island, NY. MyForest is aggressively scaling its production capabilities with the goal of serving its vegan mushroom bacon to one million customers by 2024.

Entrepreneur Eben Bayer—whose company Ecovative transformed the plastic packaging industry—is commercializing MyBacon, vegan mushroom bacon.

Replay, a genome writing company reprogramming biology by writing and delivering big DNA, has launched with $55 million in seed financing. Ron Weiss, the Director of the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT, is one of the Co-founders of Replay.

Renewal Bio, a newly formed biotechnology company co-founded by Omri Amirav Drory and Jacob Hanna, plans to develop a bio platform that combines biology, hardware, and software to drive advancements and develop therapies for infertility, genetic diseases, lab-grown organs, and blood system rejuvenation.

Want to speak at SynBioBeta?

Our global synthetic biology community is growing rapidly, and I’d love to hear from more diverse voices at our annual event next year in Oakland (May 23-24, 2023). If you’d like to be considered to speak, host a breakout session, workshop or panel discussion, then please get in touch, you can apply by August 30, nominate someone else, or suggest topic areas that we should be covering. It is going to be our biggest event yet, we’re expecting over 3000 attendees and I can’t wait to see you there.

It’s clear that building a more sustainable world requires significant capital and long-term investor support. How can high-profile investors lead the way in ethical funding and a globally united investment strategy? In case you missed the discussion at SynBioBeta 2022, you can catch up on YouTube, with Massimo Portincaso - Officinae Bio/Hello Tomorrow, Omri Amirav Drory - NFX Fund, Juergen Eckhardt - Leaps by Bayer, Anna Fokina - DCVC Bio and Negi Mokharti - Genoa Ventures.

Congratulations to Jenny Rooke (pictured below) and the Genoa Ventures team for closing $84 million for Genoa Ventures Fund II. The new fund will continue Genoa’s investing focus on startups innovating in markets as diverse as research tools, diagnostics, Agri/Food Bio, and industrial bio.

In funding news this week, Solena Materials, a spin-out from Imperial College London that develops synthetic proteins for high-performance clothing fibers, received an investment from Insempra, formerly Origin.Bio. Solena will be a major part of Insempra’s platform to deliver high-performance, sustainable ingredients for a broad array of industries.

Jens Klein, founder and CEO of Insempra and CEO of Solena Materials.

In other news, Twist Bioscience reported financial results. With revenue of $56.1M in the last quarter, up 60% over the same time last year. Twist is now predicting $203M in revenue for 2022.

John Nicols announced that he will retire this week. He’s been the President and CEO of Codexis for the last decade. The Board of Directors appointed Dr. Stephen Dilly, former CEO of Sierra Oncology and current Codexis Board member, to replace him. John took over and led Codexis through a tumultuous time, transforming the business from biofuels to what is now an array of engineered products including specialist enzymes, biotherapeutics, food and beverages. As one of the few synthetic biology companies out there with products in the marketplace, John is leaving the company with some strong Q2 results: total revenue up 51% with product revenues up 135% year-over-year with 2022 revenue predictions of $135M.

John Nicols, Codexis.

Huue, a San Francisco-based startup that is piloting a bio-based dye, raised $14.6 million in Series A funding. Their technology identifies which enzymes in a plant or animal creates color and then codes microbes to reproduce the specific enzyme.

In a new TED talk, Bolt Threads CEO Dan Widmaier explains how we could look to nature for sustainable replacements for much-used materials and introduces a leather alternative made from mushrooms that looks great and doesn't harm the environment.

I hope you have a great week.

Regards,
John

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John Cumbers
Founder, SynBioBeta

Featured News

Other News

• Is bio-designed collagen the next step in animal protein replacement? One company believes the possibilities go beyond vegan "meat," from faux leather to luxury skin-care products. But is there enough demand outside of food alternatives? (The New York Times)
• Bluestem Biosciences, a sustainable chemicals startup, closes $5 million pre-seed funding to scale discovery through industrial anaerobic fermentation (Press release)
• Innovation in synthetic biology can strengthen American supply chains. Lloyd Smucker, who represents Pennsylvania’s 11th District, believes that supporting synthetic biology as a key technology focus for research and development increases the attractiveness for other countries to do business with the U.S. (The Hill)
• Codexis and Molecular Assemblies announce commercial license and enzyme supply agreement for optimized TdT enzyme for enzymatic DNA synthesis. (Press release)
• The FDA needs to get ready to evaluate synthetic cells, the next generation of therapeutics (STAT News)
• Artisan launches STAR-CRISPR™ to provide broad gene editing access for drug discovery and development. (Press release)
• Berkeley Lights and Aanika BioSciences reach strategic partnership milestone by identifying a commercially viable antimicrobial peptide. (Press release)
• Shiru appoints Dr. Ranjani Varadan, ex of Impossible Foods, as Chief Scientific Officer: Founded in 2019, Shiru is focused on the discovery of naturally occurring proteins that can replace animal-based products. (Vegconomist)
• SNIPR Biome announces new patent granted for applications targeting E. coli infections. SNIPR Biome is the first company to orally dose humans with a CRISPR therapeutic and SNIPR001 has been granted fast-track designation by the FDA. (Labiotech)
• New CEO at Motif FoodWorks after recent round of layoffs. Boston-based food tech firm Motif FoodWorks has promoted its CTO Dr Michael Leonard to the role of CEO, effective immediately, as current CEO Jonathan McIntyre moves to an advisory role in the company. (Food Navigator)
• Novozymes launches Innova® Apex and Innova® Turbo, two advanced yeasts designed to break fermentation bottlenecks while lowering demand for expensive urea, and increasing ethanol yield without sacrificing robustness to common production stressors. (Novozymes)

Who's hiring?

• Scientist/ Senior Scientist, Inscripta, Pleasanton, CA
• Senior Scientist, Gene & Cell Therapy, Biologics Discovery & Engineering, Merck, Boston, MA
• Scientist / Sr. Scientist: Antibody Engineer, Allston, MA
• Chief Operating Officer, Sampling Human, San Francisco, CA

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