Sunday
2:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Arrival and Check-in
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 7:40 pm
Introductory Comments by GRC Site Staff / Welcome from the GRC Chair
7:40 pm - 9:30 pm
Keynote Session: In Vitro and Ex Vivo Directed Evolution
Discussion Leader: Andrew Ellington (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
7:40 pm - 7:45 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:45 pm - 8:25 pm
Florian Hollfelder (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
"Rules and Tools for Finding Functional Proteins"
8:25 pm - 8:45 pm
Discussion
8:45 pm - 9:15 pm
James Lalonde (Self Employed, USA)
"Ex Vivo Enzyme Cascades for Directed Evolution and Synthesis of Pharma and Nutritional Compounds"
9:15 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Monday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Ex Vivo, In Vivo and In Silico Directed Evolution
Discussion Leader: Philippe Marliere (Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology, France)
9:00 am - 9:05 am
Introduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:25 am
Ahmed Badran (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA)
"Engineering and Directed Evolution of Cellular Translation"
9:25 am - 9:35 am
Discussion
9:35 am - 10:05 am
Arnout Voet (KU Leuven, Belgium)
"Rational Design of Symmetrical Pizza Proteins"
10:05 am - 10:20 am
Discussion
10:20 am - 10:50 am
Group Photo / Coffee Break
10:50 am - 11:20 am
Alexis Komor (University of California, San Diego, USA)
"Engineering and Evolving Base Editors for the Chemical Modification of DNA Nucleobases"
11:20 am - 11:35 am
Discussion
11:35 am - 11:55 am
Hiroki Ueda (RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) / The University of Tokyo, Japan)
"Whole-Brain Cell Profiling Towards Organism-Level Synthetic Biology"
11:55 am - 12:05 pm
Discussion
12:05 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The GRC Power Hourâ„¢
The GRC Power Hourâ„¢ is designed to address challenges women face in science and issues of diversity and inclusion. The program supports the professional growth of all members of our communities by providing an open forum for discussion and mentoring.
Organizers: Helen Hailes (University College London, United Kingdom) and Alexis Komor (University of California, San Diego, USA)
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Biomaterials for the Green Economy
Discussion Leader: Lynn Rothschild (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 7:45 pm
Urartu Seker (Bilkent University , Turkey)
"A Cellular Device for Programmable Protein Secretion"
7:45 pm - 7:50 pm
Discussion
7:50 pm - 8:20 pm
David Breslauer (Bolt Threads, USA)
"Spinning the Future of High Performance Materials"
8:20 pm - 8:35 pm
Discussion
8:35 pm - 9:10 pm
Farren Isaacs (Yale University, USA)
"Genomically Recoded Organisms: Living Foundries for Producing Novel Polymers and Materials"
9:10 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Tuesday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Industrial Applications of Synthetic Biology
Discussion Leader: Adam Meyer (Ginkgo Bioworks, USA)
9:00 am - 9:05 am
Introduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:35 am
Marjan De Mey (Ghent University, Belgium)
"Development of a Microbial Technology Platform for the Synthesis of Functional Glycans"
9:35 am - 9:50 am
Discussion
9:50 am - 10:10 am
Grant Murphy (Merck & Co., USA)
"Ex Vivo Metabolism: Novel Enzyme Cascades to Synthesize Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients"
10:10 am - 10:20 am
Discussion
10:20 am - 10:50 am
Coffee Break
10:50 am - 11:20 am
Helen Hailes (University College London, United Kingdom)
"Enzymatic Approaches to Natural and Non-Natural Alkaloids"
11:20 am - 11:35 am
Discussion
11:35 am - 11:55 am
Pablo Ivan Nikel (The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Denmark)
"Synthetic Metabolism to Expand the Chemical Landscape of Bacterial Cell Factories"
11:55 am - 12:05 pm
Discussion
12:05 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Standards and Challenges in Scaling up Synthetic Biology
Discussion Leader: Sven Panke (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:05 pm
Jose Jimenez (University of Surrey, United Kingdom)
"Cell Economics: The Interplay Between Growth and Gene Expression in Bacteria"
8:05 pm - 8:20 pm
Discussion
8:20 pm - 8:40 pm
Karen Polizzi (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
"Developing Low-Cost Recombinant Protein Production Systems for the Developing World and Beyond"
8:40 pm - 8:50 pm
Discussion
8:50 pm - 9:15 pm
Frederic Paques (Global Bioenergies, France)
"Isobutene Production by Fermentation: From Research to Commercialization"
9:15 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Wednesday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Model-Driven Synthetic Biology
Discussion Leader: Vitor Martins Dos Santos (Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands)
9:00 am - 9:05 am
Introduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:25 am
Sergey Ovchinnikov (Harvard University, USA)
"Developing an Improved and Unified Statistical Model of Protein Evolution"
9:25 am - 9:35 am
Discussion
9:35 am - 10:05 am
Philip Romero (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
"Artificial Intelligence-Driven Protein Engineering"
10:05 am - 10:20 am
Discussion
10:20 am - 10:50 am
Coffee Break
10:50 am - 11:20 am
Christopher Barnes (University College London, United Kingdom)
"Model-Based Design of Synthetic Bacterial Communities"
11:20 am - 11:35 am
Discussion
11:35 am - 11:55 am
Irene Otero-Muras (Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain)
"Automated Design of Synthetic Biology Circuits"
11:55 am - 12:05 pm
Discussion
12:05 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Business Meeting
Nominations for the Next Vice Chair; Fill in Conference Evaluation Forms; Discuss Future Site and Scheduling Preferences; Election of the Next Vice Chair
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Multicellular Synthetic Biology
Discussion Leader: Qing Sun (Texas A&M University, USA)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 7:55 pm
Kelly Stevens (University of Washington, USA)
"Thermally-Inducible Gene Patterning in Artificial Tissues"
7:55 pm - 8:05 pm
Discussion
8:05 pm - 8:35 pm
Tara Deans (University of Utah, USA)
"Engineering Cells to Function as Novel Delivery Vehicles"
8:35 pm - 8:50 pm
Discussion
8:50 pm - 9:15 pm
Leonardo Morsut (University of Southern California, USA)
"Synthetic Development: Programming Multicellular Self-Organization in Mammalian Cells"
9:15 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Thursday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Biosafety and Biocontainment
Discussion Leader: Natalie Farny (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA)
9:00 am - 9:05 am
Introduction by Discussion Leader
9:05 am - 9:35 am
Saul Purton (University College London, United Kingdom)
"Designer Algae for Biomanufacturing"
9:35 am - 9:50 am
Discussion
9:50 am - 10:20 am
Anne Meyer (University of Rochester, USA)
"Creating Designer Biofilms"
10:20 am - 10:35 am
Discussion
10:35 am - 11:05 am
Coffee Break
11:05 am - 11:35 am
Steven Benner (Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME), USA)
"Building Darwinian Systems from the Bottom up"
11:35 am - 11:50 am
Discussion
11:50 am - 12:00 pm
Sebastian Arangundy Franklin (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, United Kingdom)
"Developing Novel Biopolymers"
12:00 pm - 12:05 pm
Discussion
12:05 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Poster Session
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Keynote Session: Engineering Microbial Communities
Discussion Leaders: Alexander Garruss (Harvard University, USA) and Tanya Tschirhart (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, USA)
5:30 pm - 5:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
5:35 pm - 5:45 pm
Gabant Philippe (Syngulon, Belgium)
"Microcins in Industry"
5:45 pm - 5:50 pm
Discussion
5:50 pm - 6:30 pm
Kiran Patil (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany)
"Assembly and Evolution of Synthetic Microbial Communities"
6:30 pm - 6:50 pm
Discussion
6:50 pm - 7:15 pm
Angad Mehta (The Scripps Research Institute, USA)
"Engineering Yeast-Endosymbionts as a Step Towards Synthetic Organelle Evolution"
7:15 pm - 7:30 pm
Discussion
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Dinner
Friday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am
Departure