SynBioBeta 2020: GenScript Showcased its Precision Mutant Library Platform

The SynBioBeta Summit showcases the most recent advances in synthetic biology and provides a fascinating forum for discussions on how innovation in biology is shaping our world. The 2020 summit, hosted virtually from September 29^th to October 1^st, offered short spotlight talks and lightning talks aimed at highlighting innovative approaches and technologies. Panel discussions explored a broad range of topics such as the impact of technology in our lives, the ethics of implementing innovative technologies, sustainable new foods, opportunities for women in synthetic biology, and so much more. Additionally, great interviews with biology innovators showcased technology advances making a mark in the course of the ongoing pandemic.

GenScript’s Panel Discussion: Mutant Libraries for Precision Engineering

This session showcased an introduction to GenScript’s Precision Mutant Library (PML) services, presented by Dr. Maung Win, Sr. Technical Application Scientist. GenScript’s PML service is enabled by next-generation semiconductor-based DNA synthesis technology coupled with an automated platform, which supports the engineering of high-quality libraries having only desired mutants, even amino acid distribution, user defined codons, optimized codons, and elimination of stop codons.

A panel discussion following Dr. Win’s presentation, moderated by Dr. Kimberly Arnold, allowed several experts to exchange ideas on the advantages that precision mutant library construction provides to their own research. Whether engineering metabolic pathways, designing complex multidomain proteins or developing novel therapeutic proteins, this panel of experts agreed that a powerful advantage of PMLs is the reduced screening effort, which saves both cost and time to results. Additionally, PMLs allow investigators to more easily interrogate specific hypotheses.

Spotlight and Lightning Talks

Berkeley Lights’ CEO, Dr. Eric Hobbs, highlighted the Beacon platform in a Spotlight talk titled "Finding the best cells". Dr. Hobbs illustrated how the Beacon workflow allows scientists to implement functional assays tailored to their experimental goals for antibody discovery, cell line development, and cell immunotherapy.

CRISPR related technologies were highlighted in Lightning talks. Sherlock Bioscience’s CEO Rahul Dhanda talked about how two main platforms, Sherlock-CRISPR and Inspector-Synthetic Biology, aim at solving molecular diagnostics problems worldwide. He also shared how the team at Sherlock quickly mobilized to develop a CRISPR based solution for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics with the goal of providing a simple, fast and accurate point of care diagnostic test. Dr. Kiana Aran, Cardea Bio’s Co-founder and CSO, introduced various technologies based on the use of graphene transistors coupled with specific molecules (e.g., Cas in CRISPR-Chip) which serve as QC tools for CRISPR based genome editing applications.

Interviews and Panel Discussions

John Cumbers, PhD, SynBioBeta founder and CEO opened the meeting by interviewing Tristan Harris co-founder & president of the Center for Humane Technology. Their discussion, which centered on the ethical and social challenges arising with technological advances, touched upon some key issues raised in the new documentary "The Social Dilemma". A really thought provoking conversation, which highlighted among many key topics the perils of social media as an amplifier of misinformation and the ethics of implementing innovative and powerful approaches in synthetic biology for the greater good.

John Cumbers & Tristan Harris- interview

These topics were further explored by different panelists throughout the course of the summit. For example, during a discussion session titled "Conscious Capitalism? Doing good in the world with biology?" panelists, a group of founders and partners, were challenged to discuss social responsibility issues related to promoting the implementation of synthetic biology advancements. Panelists also delved on the challenges that founders, frequently basic science academics, confront in transitioning an idea from the academic paper to a final application or "boxed product". While many of the ideas feeding innovation and with potential for good arise in the academia, panelists acknowledged that founders often lack the skill-set necessary to navigate the challenges involved in making their technology a reality.

In "How the (lab-grown) sausage is made: The media, synthetic biology, and how the story will be told", panelists provided their perspective about communicating science to the general public, especially in relation with sensitive topics such as GMOs, COVID, and synthetic biology.

"Conscious Capitalism? Doing good in the world with biology?" Megan Palmer, Kat Manalac, Arvind Gupta, Rob Carlson, Michael Lavin

Women in Synthetic Biology

The SynBioBeta summit provided great opportunities to highlight women forging a path in synthetic biology and making an impact in areas of food sustainability, clinical diagnostics, venture capital for early stage scientific research and the academia as part of the panel discussion "Equality Among our Peers: Challenges and opportunities for women in synthetic biology". Janice Chen, Mammoth’s Biosciences Co-founder and CTO, shared her experiences being mentored by women scientists throughout her career development.

The SynBioBeta 2020 Awards

On the second day of the summit, John Cumbers presented the recipients of several SynBioBeta awards.
"Best New Product of the Year" award- Dr. Oliver Yu, CEO/CSU Conagen, for the development of cost-effective and sustainable lactoferrin, which provides essential nutrition to babies that boosts their immune system.
"IPO of the Year" award- Dr. Eric Hobbs, CEO Berkley Lights, for the Beacon single cell platform, which is making possible the use of cells in innovative ways.
"Innovative Product of the Year" award- Dr. Lisa Dyson, CEO Air Protein, for making proteins in the most innovative ways to support supply chains, particularly in the development of meats. Sustainable approach to protein synthesis.

"Pioneer of the Year" award- Dr. Jennifer Doudna talked to John Cumbers about ongoing efforts aimed at providing COVID testing to sectors of the population in need through the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) at UC Berkeley. This effort is supported by the IGI team, which includes volunteer scientists and staffers as well as partners such as UCSF. Currently, testing is being expanded to include asymptomatic individuals.

"Pioneer of the Year" award- Dr. Jennifer Doudna" title=

Jennifer Doudna on CRISPR, COVID-19 and bringing discoveries to the clinic.

They also talked about the future of CRISPR in the treatment of diseases, particularly the need for developing delivery strategies to enable its therapeutic potential. In terms of human embryonic genome editing, Dr. Doudna believes that the technology is advancing and eventually it will be a reality, albeit a lot remains to be done in regard to techniques, including sound discussions about the ethics of human embryonic genome editing.

Lastly, on the third day of the SynBioBeta summit, a Leaps talk with Dr. George Church, D. A. Wallach and Kira Peikoff titled "The culture of synthetic biology and moonshots for a better world", explored scientific entrepreneurship and its benefits for society. Dr. Church shared his optimistic outlook in relation to the ongoing pandemic, which provides an opportunity for speeding up innovation.