Inez Slamet-Loedin is the head of Genetic Design and Validation Unit at The International Rice Research Institute-OneCGIAR. She is an elected fellow of The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS-UNESCO), and adjunct professor at the University of Philippines Los Banos. She obtained her PhD from Nottingham University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute Molecular Plant Science-Leiden University. Formerly she was awarded as the best young scientist by Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), and later received the minister agriculture and president Megawati award for her contribution to food security through biotechnology. In 2017 her team received IRRI Best Scientific achievement and Philippines DOST-PCAARRD science community award in 2018. She has published articles as co-author or lead author in Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Plant, PNAS, JEB, Plant Biotechnology, Scientific report, Plant Biotechnology, Frontiers and others.

Genome-editing technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for crop improvement with superior precision and speed. This talk will present an update of the current state of genome editing in the major cereal crops focusing on rice and maize and its current innovation. Genome editing has been used to achieve important agronomic and quality traits in cereals. These include adaptive traits to mitigate the effects of climate change, tolerance to biotic stresses, higher yields, more optimal plant architecture, improved grain quality and nutritional content, and safer products. Not all traits can be achieved through genome editing, and several technical and regulatory challenges need to be overcome for the technology to realize its full potential. Genome editing, however, has already widely used in cereal crop improvement and is poised to shape future agricultural practices in conjunction with other breeding innovations.

Professor Vickers is Director of the Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform at CSIRO (Australia’s national research agency). Her early research interests spanned crop plant engineering, abiotic stress and volatile isoprenoids. Over the last 15 years, she has focussed on metabolic regulation of isoprenoids in plants and microbes, and on developing synthetic biology tools for rational re-engineering of metabolism. She was founding President of Synthetic Biology Australia and is on the Executive of the International Society for Terpenoids (TERPNET). She is a Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Fellow and she co-chairs the World Economic Forum Synthetic Biology Future Council. She serves on editorial boards for eight international journals and has Adjunct Professor roles at Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University.

We use synthetic biology to (a) understand metabolic regulation of the isoprenoid group of natural products, and (b) engineer production of industrially-useful biochemicals. The overall aim of the program is to develop a sufficiently complete understanding of biology such that predictable, reproducible engineering can be achieved. Isoprenoids (terpenes/terpenoids) represent an ideal model system to investigate this challenge. Isoprenoids are an extremely large and diverse group of natural compounds with myriad biological functions, including roles in photosynthesis, respiration, signalling, membrane biosynthesis, and as pigments, hormones, virulence factors, vitamins, etc. They also have many industrial uses, ranging from specialized applications (e.g. anti-cancer and anti-malarial pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals) through to bulk chemicals (e.g., food colours, fragrances, rubbers, agricultural chemicals, and fuel replacements). However, extracting these compounds from natural sources or chemically synthesizing them is often unfeasible, making them ideal targets for metabolic engineering. We have developed new tools and techniques that help us understand metabolic regulation of pathway flux and achieve controlled cellular behaviour. These include tools for inserting large amounts of DNA onto chromosomes, multi-gene yeast expression vectors, modules to control cell density-dependent gene expression, plant transformation vectors and reporter systems, novel approaches to engineer pathway flux, and subcellular compartments for biocatalysis. This presentation will detail the available synthetic biology tools with examples of their application in isoprenoid production.

Ena Chan Cratsenburg is the Chief Business Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks since 2016 where she is responsible for building a scalable business that advances Ginkgo’s mission to make biology easier to engineer. Prior to joining Ginkgo, Ms. Cratsenburg held various executive and senior management positions at other synthetic biology companies, including Intrexon, Evolva, and Amyris. Throughout her career in the field of synthetic biology, Ms. Cratsenburg led commercialization strategies for these emerging technology companies and established key partnerships with market leaders across various sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, cosmetics, flavors & fragrances, food & beverage, nutritional health markets, and biofuels. Prior to synthetic biology, Ms. Cratsenburg held various business development and management roles at Pixar Animation Studios and BP p.l.c. Ms. Cratsenburg has an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ena Chan Cratsenburg is the Chief Business Officer at Ginkgo Bioworks since 2016 where she is responsible for building a scalable business that advances Ginkgo’s mission to make biology easier to engineer. Prior to joining Ginkgo, Ms. Cratsenburg held various executive and senior management positions at other synthetic biology companies, including Intrexon, Evolva, and Amyris. Throughout her career in the field of synthetic biology, Ms. Cratsenburg led commercialization strategies for these emerging technology companies and established key partnerships with market leaders across various sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, cosmetics, flavors & fragrances, food & beverage, nutritional health markets, and biofuels. Prior to synthetic biology, Ms. Cratsenburg held various business development and management roles at Pixar Animation Studios and BP p.l.c. Ms. Cratsenburg has an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

David is a researcher at Spiber, a biomaterials company in Japan that is developing the next generation of protein materials for industry and consumer products. Currently, Spiber is developing apparel and automotive applications based on its engineered spider silk. With a wide background in synthetic biology and bioinformatics and research experience at the University of Amsterdam and Pam Silver’s lab at the Harvard Medical School, David is involved in gene & protein design, business development, and the coordination of R&D partnerships for Spiber’s new materials.

David moved from the Netherlands to Japan in 2017 to join Spiber - a japanese biomaterials company that is developing new materials for mainstay industrial and consumer use based on recombinant protein biomaterials. Spiber launched the Moon Parka with the North Face Japan, and is now scaling up to mass production of its Brewed Protein materials. Its first commercial-scale fermentation facility in Thailand is scheduled to begin commercial operation in 2021, with an annual capacity of several hundred tonnes. Other preparations are underway for additional scale-up initiatives aimed at further reducing environmental burden and production costs. In his talk, David will provide an overview of Brewed Protein materials and their potential, as well as Spiber's wide-ranging approach to industrial biomanufacturing.

Biosketch
Originally hailing from the Netherlands, David started his journey in engineering biology through the iGEM competition in 2015. Inspired by the promise of synthetic biology to contribute to some of humanity’s most daunting challenges, David joined Pamela Silver’s lab at the Harvard Medical School. Here, he worked on synthetic microbial consortia and engineered probiotics for diagnostic applications in the human gut. After finishing his master’s degree, David moved to Japan and joined Spiber in 2017, where he has worked on projects ranging from the molecular design of new protein materials to the optimization of protein expression yields through metabolic engineering and gene design. Currently in Spiber’s Frontier Development team, David is responsible for exploring and prototyping novel applications of Spiber’s technology.