Hi ,

I’m doing a synthetic biology Asia tour this summer!  If you’re going to be in Tokyo, Singapore, Vietnam, or Malaysia, please hit me up!

What a show we threw last week, I want to thank the SynBioBeta team for putting together an amazing event. Thanks to all the sponsors, speakers, and attendees too!

The SynBioBeta team. (Credit: Patrick T. Powers)

• Last week at SynBioBeta, several exciting announcements were made. One of the most exciting is a new offering from bit.bio—custom disease model cells that researchers can use to advance their drug development efforts.
  
  “Now our customers can study their disease mutation of interest in a robust, highly reproducible context. Providing everyone access to their own mutation allows us to help more people in terms of drug discovery,” says bit.bio CEO and co-founder Mark Kotter.
  
  Read my latest Forbes article for more on this announcement and what it means for the future of drug discovery and development.

bit.bio co-founder and CEO Mark Kotter at SynBioBeta 2023. (Credit: Patrick T. Powers)

• You've probably heard that plants can purify indoor air. But now they do it 30X better, thanks to Neoplants, who have engineered a common houseplant to clean up harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Learn how they are doing it.

Patrick Torbey, Neoplants co-founder & CTO, speaking at SynBioBeta 2023 (Right, Credit: Patrick T. Powers)

• Excitement in Oakland: A Report from SynBioBeta. The SynBioBeta conference was held last week in Oakland, CA. Deputy Editor-in-Chief of GEN, Julianna LeMieux, PhD, expounded on the latest news from the meeting and noted that "the bottom line is, SynBioBeta is bigger than ever and shows no signs of slowing down.”

• Engineered yeast could reduce drug shortages: Brewer’s yeast engineered with synthetic biology to produce drugs or raw materials could transform pharmaceutical supply chains. That’s according to Christina Smolke, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Antheia.

Christina Smolke, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Antheia (Credit: Patrick T. Powers)

• Oobli may have a hit on its hands with sweet teas that get sweetness from protein. Last week, Oobli launched its lineup of sweet teas sweetened with sweet protein at the SynBioBeta conference.

• Synbio startups tap evolution, prep biomanufacturing flows. Newly launched companies are developing technologies to automate adaptive laboratory evolution and eliminate bioindustrial bottlenecks.

Other news:

• Schmidt Futures and its BioFutures Program have launched the solicitation for the Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF). EOIs are due by 11:59 pm EDT on June 26, 2023.

• In this interview, Tom Kalil discusses the opportunities for science agencies and the research community to use AI/ML to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and technological advancement. What datasets would impact the Protein Databank's impact on AI for biology—not only for prediction (e.g., AlphaFold2) but for design (RF Diffusion)? Please let me know: john.cumbers@synbiobeta.com

Regards,
John

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John Cumbers, 

Founder and CEO, SynBioBeta

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