Hi ,

It’s a big week for synthetic biology with a ton of news to report out on. Congratulations to LanzaTech on their successful SPAC, as well as killer funding rounds for Hexagon, Checkerspot, and Prokarium. Great news for consumers, too, especially those who want to try a meatless hotdog or sustainable, clean fragrances made with synthetic biology.

I also want to share that we have expanded SynBioBeta’s expo area and can now accommodate over 80 booths! Check it out here and I hope to see you on the showroom floor May 23-25th!

• Exciting news for LanzaTech who has just announced their successful SPAC and is now being traded on the Nasdaq. The carbon capture and transformation company is revolutionizing biomanufacturing by using synthetic biology to convert CO2 emissions from power plants into new products. Congratulations to the LanzaTech team, including founder Sean Simpson and CEO Jennifer Holmgren, who will be speaking at SynBioBeta 2023 this May.

Nasdaq welcomes LanzaTech.

• Hexagon Bio raises $77.3 million Series B financing and strengthens leadership to expand its computational platform for discovery of natural products based on its microbial genomic database that is 10x larger than all public databases combined. Congratulations to CEO Maureen Hillenmeyer and the team!
• Checkerspot closes $55 million Series C to bring the bioeconomy to your doorstep. Congratulations to CEO Charlie Dimmler and the team! The latest proceeds will accelerate Checkerspot’s expansion into new markets including personal care, food and nutrition, and industrial applications.

Charles Dimmler, CEO of Checkerspot.

• This synthetic biology company is bringing royal fragrances to the masses. Conagen, a Massachusetts-based synbio ingredients maker, has partnered up with the perfumers and flavorists at Sensegen to create clean and sustainable fragrances, including cruelty-free musk and a natural jasmine scent molecule.

Sensegen and Conagen working together to develop new sustainable fragrances.

• Ben Reinhardt is on a mission to make Sci-Fi a reality. Ben Reinhardt’s vision for a private DARPA begins with the simple call to action, "How can we enable more science fiction to become reality?" The document attracted the attention of investors. Today, they announced the launch of Speculative Technologies with initial backing from Schmidt Futures, Patrick Collison, Protocol Labs, the Sloan Foundation.

Ben Reinhardt, CEO of Speculative Technologies.

• Microbial immunotherapy company Prokarium raises $30M on heels of Ginkgo Bioworks partnership: London-based biopharma company Prokarium is poised to challenge various paradigms with the recent $30 million financing round led by Flerie Invest, fresh off the announcement of a new partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks.

Prokarium CEO Kristen Albright.

• Eat a hot dog, save the world? Ten years since the world’s first lab grown burger was sampled in London, Dutch start-up Meatable has a scalable solution to sustainable meat. And next year in Singapore, you can try it.

Meatable co-founders Krijn De Nood and Daan Luining holding up pork dumplings.

SynBioBeta Students Grant

A prosperous future needs hundreds of thousands of young contributors plugging into the bioeconomy. At SynBioBeta, we believe that the youth is essential to vitalize and energize the synthetic biology ecosystem. Therefore, we are launching the SynBioBeta Students Grant to support students interested in contributing to the bioeconomy. The SynBioBeta Students Grant invites students to apply for a benefit package to attend the SynBioBeta 2023 Global Synthetic Biology Conference in Oakland, CA (May 23-25). The benefit package includes a 3-Day Student Conference Pass and a Travel Grant of up to USD $500.

If you are a student passionate about engineering biology and contributing to the next industrial (bio)revolution, wait no more and apply here!

New SynBioBeta 2023 speakers announced:

• Veronique Kiermer is the Chief Scientific Officer at PLOS, where she promotes open science.

• Ali Madani is the CEO and Founder of Profluent Bio, an AI-first protein design company that develops novel functional proteins.

• Santanu Dasgupta is Senior Vice President and Head of Synthetic Biology R&D at Reliance Industries Limited

• Elizabeth Reynolds is the Managing Director at Starburst, a company that drives global aerospace innovation.

New SynBioBeta 2023 Sponsors & Exhibitors:

• Ninthbio's Homology Path DNA synthesis tools design your DNA populations to be assembled from the least number of oligos possible.

• TeselaGen has developed an artificial intelligence-enabled operating system for biotechnology, enabling scientific organizations to commercialize high-performance bioproducts - from pharmaceuticals to food to fabrics - faster and easier than ever.

• Cowen is a financial services firm that provides investment banking, research, sales and trading, prime brokerage, outsourced trading and commission management services.

• K18 Biomimetic Hairscience is the maker of a patented molecular breakthrough technology, K18Peptide™, clinically proven to reverse hair damage.

• Yourgene Health is a leading integrated technologies and services business, enabling the delivery of genomic medicine.

Other news

• Logomix closes $3.9M in oversubscribed seed funding to accelerate its platform and pipeline development. This Tokyo-based mammalian synthetic biology company is developing artificial human cells for new therapeutics based on its pioneering Geno-Writing™ platform technology.
• Spira Inc. announces start of fundraising to expand sustainable alternative to artificial colors. With a network of 83 farms that can produce over 400 metric tons of algae each month, this startup has made half a dozen products and is now looking to create healthy and sustainable alternatives to petrochemical dyes.
• In Higher Animals: Vaccines, Synthetic Biology, and the Future of Life, New Yorker science writer Michael Specter explores how MRNA vaccines have transformed the scientific landscape and helped spark a biotechnology revolution.
• Bluestem Biosciences files to obtain patents protecting its chemical platform and establishes anaerobic launch committee to accelerate commercialization.
• Are you an entrepreneur or a potential entrepreneur thinking about starting a synbio, genomics and/or genome engineering company in India? I'm happy to announce that SynBioBeta, along with Illumina Accelerator, and C-CAMP are teaming up to host this digital meetup for entrepreneurs to celebrate the India startup ecosystem. Join us on February 21st, 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm IST, to hear firsthand from entrepreneurs about their journey in building companies. We're also going to have a session at SynBioBeta 2023 dedicated to synthetic biology in India, so don't miss out and register today.

Regards,
John

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John Cumbers
Founder, SynBioBeta

Who's hiring?

• Scientist/Senior Scientist, Microfluidics at Birch Biosciences, Portland, OR
• Scientist/Senior Scientist, Synthetic Biology at Birch Biosciences, Portland, OR
• Senior Customer Program Manager at MicroByre, Berkeley/Oakland Bay Area
• Scientist – Fermentation, Concerto Biosciences, Cambridge, MA
• Director of Content‍, SynBioBeta
• Senior Sales Manager, SynBioBeta
• Sales Associate, SynBioBeta

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