Hi ,

This week’s SynBioBeta newsletter features stories about how synthetic biology can disrupt the skincare industry, reduce the environmental impact of rubber production, and give you shoes made out of mushrooms. Let’s dive in:

• The skincare industry is turning to gene editing in a race against time: Skincare is a $100B market. But it's not always pretty: many cosmetic ingredients come from rare plants or unsuspecting animals, and sourcing them can cause disruption of vulnerable ecosystems. Can synthetic biology give the beauty industry a much-needed facelift?

• Strand Therapeutics announces Series A1 bringing total round to US$97 million: Strand Therapeutics, a programmable mRNA company developing therapies for cancer and other diseases, will use the funding to advance Strand’s first drug candidate, a programmable mRNA therapy for solid tumor immuno-oncology into Phase 1 clinical trials next year.

Strand Therapeutics co-founders Jake Becraft, Ph.D., CEO and Tasuku Kitada, Ph.D., President, Head of R&D. (Photo credit: Doug Levy)

• Leather tannery Ecco partners with mycelium material brand Ecovative: The partnership aims to create new sustainable materials for footwear, fashion, and apparel that could replace animal hide. Ecovative’s mycellium features properties similar to foam and leather, without the detrimental environmental impact.

• Allonnia now capable of providing bench scale treatability studies for PFAS contaminated sites: Allonnia today announces new capabilities for bench scale treatability studies for PFAS contaminated sites within their Boston laboratory.

Nicole Richards, CEO of Allonnia.

• LanzaTech and Sumitomo Riko partner to create substitute for natural rubber production. The companies will work together to reuse rubber, resin and urethane waste for the production of a key chemical intermediate, isoprene, to make natural rubber in a way that minimizes the negative impact on land and biodiversity.
• Conagen develops high-purity non-GMO sulforaphane by bioconversion. Expanding on its portfolio of innovative nutritional products through biotechnology, Conagen, announced the development of its 99% high-purity sulforaphane.
• Renaissance BioScience Corp adds AgriBusiness Industry senior executive expertise to accelerate the commercialization of its RNA production and oral delivery platform technology.

SynBioBeta 2023 speakers:

Hear what our speakers have to say at SynBioBeta 2023. Get the inside scoop on where the biggest opportunities are – get your ticket TODAY!

• Tara Karimi is the Co-Founder & CTO of Cemvita Factory, a company that uses synthetic biology to create nature-inspired economical solutions to empower the energy transition.

• Scott Fitsimones is the Founder of CityDAO, which is exploring decentralized blockchain-based asset ownership, starting with 40 acres of land in Wyoming.

• Albert Anis is the founder of ValleyDAO, a web3 community collectively financing and enabling democratic access to synthetic biology technologies.

• Ganesh Kishore is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Spruce Capital Partners focusing on biotechnology R&D and business.

SynBioBeta 2023 sponsors:

Thank you to our new and returning event sponsors: 

• Twist Bioscience is a synthetic biology company based in South San Francisco, California. The company has developed a proprietary silicon-based manufacturing process for the production of synthetic DNA.

• Ganymede is the first PaaS for biotech software engineering. Quickly integrate apps, import data, or design pipelines using a powerful bio-aware low-code platform.

• AMSilk develops smart performing biotech materials for everyday use in a future zero-waste society.

• Parse Biosciences is a Seattle-based startup providing researchers access to a scalable single cell sequencing platform.

• Aanika Biosciences provides food security services for large food and agricultural companies. They use synthetic biology to ensure the integrity of supply chains and reduce potential losses.

Funding news

• Sherlock Biosciences receives a grant to advance development of power-free diagnostics: Sherlock's novel CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection method enables highly accurate and low-cost detection of DNA and RNA without an instrument that could be deployed in low-resource environments.
• Touchlight receives grant to advance rapid, scalable and thermostable doggybone DNA vaccine platform. Funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will build on preclinical data showing the potential of nanoparticle-formulated rapid enzymatic doggybone DNA vaccines to elicit strong immune responses.
• Biomemory raises €5M to advance DNA digital data storage solution. Biomemory is developing a petrol-free DNA synthesis and copy process based on synthetic biology to reduce the cost of DNA storage.

Health news

• Will pigs solve the organ crisis? The future of animal-to-human transplants.   This year, surgeons transplanted the first pig organs into human recipients. Researchers are keen to launch more human trials.
• CRISPR tools found in thousands of viruses could boost gene editing. Phages probably picked up DNA-cutting systems from microbial hosts, and might use them to fight other viruses.
• BigHat Biosciences announces research collaboration with Merck: BigHat’s design platform could help reduce the difficulty of optimizing antibodies and other therapeutic proteins.
• Indee Labs partners with Monomer Bio to automate engineered immune cell culture. Indee Labs partners with Monomer Bio to automate Hydropore workflows for engineered T cells and similar immune cell types.

What a week of news!

Regards,
John

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John Cumbers
Founder, SynBioBeta

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