Hi ,

Want to meet new companies in the synthetic biology ecosystem? Here are just a few of the companies that recently registered for SynBioBeta, May 6-9 in San Jose: OpenProtein.AI, Sterling Bio Machines, Barnstorm, Nitro Biosciences, Pando Bioscience, BioDrive, Opera Bioscience, The Cell Co, HERlab, Wild Microbes Company, Opera Bioscience, X Capital, BKR Collection, NFX Capital, GenApex Bio. Register here and meet an array of companies in person!

Meet the newest SynBioBeta Speakers!

This week’s digest is brought to you by Evonetix. They are on a groundbreaking mission to tackle a key challenge in engineering biology—achieving rapid and reliable gene synthesis, no matter the complexity of the DNA sequence. Imagine a world where we can swiftly address some of our most pressing issues and seize thrilling opportunities, whether that's in revolutionary healthcare, biofuels, agriculture, or manufacturing. Evonetix is leading the charge with a transformative approach. They're developing a technology that synthesizes and assembles DNA on a silicon chip. This isn't just a small step; it's a giant leap that promises gene-length DNA synthesis right on your benchtop. Their novel chip technology allows for the parallel synthesis of thousands of distinct DNA sequences, controlled thermally, and then cleverly uses charged fields to maneuver and assemble these sequences into gene-length strands. This method ensures remarkable accuracy by melting away any errors in the sequences.

Photo Credit: Evonetix (Clean Room)

SynBioBeta 2024 Grant Programs

Y Combinator and Ginkgo Bioworks are sponsoring two Conference Grant opportunities for SynBioBeta 2024. These grants provide a unique opportunity for students and startups to apply for financial assistance to attend the conference and witness first-hand the cutting-edge innovations in the synthetic biology industry. These grants are designed to help provide funds, ensuring that financial barriers don't hinder the exploration of groundbreaking advancements in the field. Click here to learn more. 

Volunteer Opportunities: The Global Synthetic Biology Conference

Calling all undergraduate and graduate students: We’re seeking volunteers for the annual conference. In exchange for your help with on-site operations during conference events, you will receive amazing benefits, networking opportunities, and more. If you are interested, please apply here.

New Sponsors & Exhibitors:

• Imperial College London is a world-class university with a mission to benefit society through excellence in science, engineering, medicine, and business.

• Matterworks offers an AI-powered software platform and tools for analyzing and revealing hidden biological insights from unstructured, complex, or noisy data, such as mass spectra.

• Molecular Devices is one of the world’s leading providers of high-performance bioanalytical measurement solutions for life science research, pharmaceutical, and biotherapeutic development.

• Wilson Sonsini has represented technology pioneers associated with virtually every milestone innovation, as well as life sciences trailblazers shaping the future of healthcare.

• Anthropocene Institute (F3) is a forum for governments, universities, non-profits, foundations, and advocacy groups to cross-pollinate and synergize their efforts with the private sector.

• INTEGRA Biosciences has been dedicated to developing liquid handling solutions, fulfilling the needs of our customers in research, diagnostics and quality control.

• TD Cowen is a leading full-service investment bank with global and M&A advisory, capital markets, equity execution and industry-leading research capabilities and broad expertise in key growth sectors.

• Nuclera is the pioneer in bringing rapid protein prototyping to the benchtop. They make proteins accessible through eProtein DiscoveryTM.
  

If you want a space on the exhibit hall floor, please contact Anissa Cooke.

As the excitement builds for SynBioBeta 2024, we would like to invite our community to an engaging pre-show call. This exclusive event is a fantastic opportunity for you to gather crucial information and have a dedicated platform to address any questions you may have, setting the stage for a successful conference just two months away. Register here.

Insights (Exclusive Content):

• Synthetic Biology + Artificial Intelligence = Next Generation Therapeutics. Artificial intelligence is bridging the gap between synthetic biology and medicine. Meet the innovative companies leading the way.

Industry News:

• Genetic Surf and Turf: Marine Algae and the Future of Food Security: Scientists have uncovered the genetic underpinnings of chlorophyll c, a marine algal pigment that may be just the key to boosted crop yields.

• The Uniqueness of Our Microbial Identity. Stanford Medicine researchers and their colleagues tracked the gut, mouth, nose, and skin bacteria of 86 people for as long as six years to try to gauge what constitutes a healthy microbiome. 

• Pearl Bio Inks Lucrative Deal with Merck to Pioneer Innovative Biologic Therapies: Pearl Bio (a synthetic biology company backed by Khosla Ventures) secures a groundbreaking partnership with Merck to pioneer innovative biologic therapies, leveraging cutting-edge Genomically Recoded Organisms (GROs) technology and backed by a potential $1 billion agreement.

Vinod Khosla speaking at SynBioBeta.

• Expanding Biosecurity Frontiers: Ginkgo Bioworks, CDC, and XpresCheck Amplify Genomic Surveillance at US Airports. Ginkgo Bioworks, alongside the CDC and XpresCheck, is scaling up the Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program across new US airport locations, bolstering biosecurity efforts against emerging pathogens and reinforcing readiness in public health response.

• Basecamp Research Unveils BaseFold: Revolutionary Deep Learning Model for Protein Structure Prediction. Basecamp Research introduces BaseFold, a groundbreaking deep learning model designed to accurately predict 3D structures of large, complex proteins, surpassing industry benchmarks like AlphaFold2.

Additional Industry News:

• Could AI-designed proteins be weaponized? Scientists lay out safety guidelines AI tools that can come up with protein structures at the push of a button should be used safely and ethically, say researchers in the field. (Nature)

• LanzaJet Announces $30 Million Investment from Southwest Airlines to Accelerate Company’s Growth and Advance U.S. Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production. (Press release)

• Tierra Biosciences nabs $11M to create new AI-guided proteins: The San Leandro-based company has developed a platform for AI-guided, custom protein synthesis to help pharmaceutical, industrial and agricultural organizations develop new proteins in weeks rather than months. (Press release)

• Antheia and Olon Continue Partnership for Biomanufacturing Antheia’s Pipeline of KSMs and APIs for Essential Medicines (Press release)

• Ricoh and ERS Genomics enter into CRISPR/Cas9 license agreement: CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology contributes to the expansion of the creation of novel disease model (Press release)

• BiomX Announces Entry into Merger Agreement with Adaptive Phage Therapeutics and Concurrent $50 Million Financing. (Press release)

• Opentrons Announces New Robotics Education Initiative Demonstrating Commitment to Laboratory Automation for Students (Press release)

• AbCellera to Collaborate with Biogen to Discover Therapeutic Antibodies for Neurological Conditions. (Press release)

• Cultivated meat consolidation begins as UMAMI Bioworks to merge with Shiok Meats. The deal is likely the first of many in the nascent cultivated meat and seafood space given the challenging funding environment (AgFunder News)

• Siolta Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company, has announced the completion of a $12 million Series C financing round. (Press release)

• Request for Information (RFI) on Biomimetic and Bioenabled Supercapacitors: The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) seeks information regarding innovations in Biomimetic and Bioinspired Supercapacitors (BBS) that could achieve a substantial leap in power storage. 

• Announcing COHORT 4 of the Longevity Biotech Fellowship! “Aging can be defeated. We're building a plan. We need humanity's top talent to join the revolution against aging!”

• Cellares hits manufacturing milestone for its cell therapy factory-in-a-box: Automated cell therapy manufacturing pioneer Cellares has hit a key milestone, gaining a current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) stamp of approval for its Cell Shuttle factory-in-a-box (FiercePharma)

Regards,
John

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John Cumbers

CEO, SynBioBeta

Who's hiring?

• Senior Commercial Applications Specialist at Elegen (San Carlos, CA)

• Senior Bioinformatics Developer at Elegen (San Carlos, CA)

• Senior Automation Engineer, R&D at Elegen (San Carlos, CA)

• Engineer II - Process Development at Ayana Bio (Boston, MA)

• Financial Analyst at Antheia (Menlo Park, CA)

• Staff Process Engineer at Twist Bioscience (San Francisco, CA)

• Research Associate II, Process Development at Twist Bioscience (South San Francisco, CA)

• Program Director, RNA Therapeutics at Ginkgo Bioworks (Boston, MA)

• Associate Director, Government Relations at Ginkgo Bioworks (Washington, DC)

• Executive Assistant to Founder & CEO at SynBioBeta (Remote)