Merja Penttilä

Merja Penttilä is a research professor in biotechnology at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and an adjunct professor in synthetic biology at Aalto University. Her expertise is on engineering of microbes for the production of fuels, chemicals, enzymes and materials. She has acted as the director of the Academy of Finland CoE on White biotechnology – Green chemistry, and is a PI in the current CoE on Molecular engineering of biosynthetic hybrid materials (Hyber). She has coordinated a large strategic project “Living Factories: Synthetic Biology for a sustainable Bioeconomy”, and led many EU level and industrial projects. She is acting an advisory board or committee member of a number of international organisations. She is the initiator of Synbio Powerhouse, an ecosystem to promote biotechnology and synthetic biology in Finland and beyond. She has total of 334 publications, 14 457 Web of science citations, and h-index of 70.

Leonard Brizuela

Dr. Brizuela conducted his graduate research at CSHL and postdoctoral work at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Labs. He later took a scientist position at the EMBL and subsequently moved to Mitotix Inc. to work on cancer drug discovery. There he rose through the ranks of the organization, from senior scientist to head of the kinase inhibitor program and Director of Biochemistry across all drug discovery programs. He then moved to Harvard Medical School where he was Associate Director of the Harvard Institute of Proteomics as well as Director of the Proteomics Center for the Biodefense program at Harvard (NERCE) and faculty member of BCMP.
He joint Agilent Technologies, where he acted as Director of Science and Technology for the Genomics and Life Sciences groups and currently works under the CTO office as Associate Diretor of University Relations and External Research. Dr. Brizuela has produced influential work and numerous publications in the areas of cell cycle regulation, cancer biology, drug discovery and genomics. He is experienced with technology development/innovation. He has proven ability to build and execute scientific, technology development and product development activities, as well as to build collaborations and outsourcing within and across organizations.

Jason Zwolak

My professional training started at Virginia Tech during my masters and PhD under the guidance of my co-advisors: John Tyson of the Biology Department and Layne Watson of the Computer Science department. This was a unique beginning to have co-advisors and I believe it gave me a unique understanding of interdisciplinary work.

As a professional I have since continued a unique path where I balance work, life, and continuing education. I never stop learning the latest tools, the latest paradigms, the latest techniques, and the latest patterns for designing and creating the best software we, as human beings, know how to create. This is my professional passion.

Jared DeCoste

Dr. DeCoste is a Research Chemist at CCDC Chemical and Biological Center (formerly the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC)) leading the Biological Engineering for Applied Materials Solutions (BEAMS) program. His last 9 years of experience at ECBC have been in the Chem/Bio Protection Division mainly focusing on novel materials development for the remediation of chemical threats. His work has led to more than 50 manuscripts, 50 oral presentations, and 5 patents, on his research. His work has been highlighted by periodicals/news outlets including Chemical and Engineering News, Materials Today, Fox News, Science Daily, CBRNE World, and Nature. Dr. DeCoste has been recognized by his superiors and peers through numerous awards including the ACS Maryland Chemist of the Year Award, Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, ECBC’s Rookie of the Year for Outstanding Early Career Achievement, ECBC’s Safety Award, ECBC’s STEM Volunteer Award, Leidos’s Publication Prize for Physical sciences, and the 2018 Md ACS Chemist of the Year Award. His work in the BEAMS program has been a highlight of his career thus far as it has allowed him to collaborate and innovate in ways that only working in a highly interdisciplinary field allows. His work has always revolved around finding unique ways to progress science through working together, as evidenced in the pride he takes in aiding others through mentorship, encouraging collaboration, and developing opportunities to learn and evolve in the ever changing scientific landscape.

Zachary Sun

Zachary Sun is the CEO and co-Founder of Tierra Biosciences, a startup leveraging cell-free synthetic biology, automation, computer learning, and metagenomics to identify new molecules and new chemistry from Nature’s genetic datasets.

Sam Weiss Evans

Sam’s work focuses on the governance of security concerns and other broader social aspects of emerging research and innovation, especially biology. He is currently a Senior Policy Advisor for the US National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, where he leads the Commission’s work on safety, security, and responsible innovation. Previously, Sam was at Harvard University, in a joint appointment with the School of Government and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

NSTC Interagency Synthetic Biology Workshop

This workshop is an invitation-only event.

Venue & Registration

Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center

5701 Marinelli Road, Rockville, MD 20852

Secure Online Event Registration

Meeting Overview

This workshop is the beginning of an exercise across federal agencies that fund synthetic biology to coordinate activities and look for opportunities that will catalyze the science and technology in this space. As such, the workshop is designed around a set of workshop case studies and the EBRC Roadmap.

Please see the workshop goals to learn more about the workshop objectives.

Workshop the attendees include approximately 30 experts from academia and industry and 30-50 policy makers and subject matter experts from inside the US government.

Please send any questions to helix@ebrc.org.

Agenda & Other Materials

Agenda

Workshop Goals

Workshop Case Studies

Case Studies: Biomanufacturing

Case Studies: Bioenergy Agriculture

Case Studies: Medicine

Case Studies: Cellular Factories

Check out our new “Synthetic Biology Media Resources” page

… and subscribe to EBRC’s YouTube channel to watch more than 170 videos about synthetic biology!

Synthetic Biology In Space

This video describes how synthetic biology might enable humans to live on another planet for generations, and highlights some of the capabilities we already have and how they could be used to engineer plants – and perhaps even people – to survive and thrive in a new environment. The presenter, Lisa Nip, also touches on the ethical and moral decisions that accompany the required biological engineering feats. While the aerospace engineers are working on getting us to Mars, everyone should take part in the conversation about what we can do when we get there, and this is a great video to start that conversation.

Video from TEDx Talks.

What is a Gene Drive?

“Gene drives” are a hot topic in biotechnology, with many potential applications and ramifications. Gene drives could be used to control disease transmission, perhaps even eradicating certain diseases. There are a host of ethical issues to consider regarding gene drives too, from ecological impacts to nefarious uses by parties with bad intentions. But in order to understand all of this, it is important to have at least an initial, basic understanding of what a “gene drive” is. This video provides a quick, visually-illustrated, easy-to-understand explanation of a gene drive that will let you understand the ongoing conversations about gene drives and also think critically about their future impacts.

Curriculum Modules

With many of our EBRC members directly involved in University and Graduate-level education, we recognize the need for additional, up-to-date teaching resources and materials for engineering/synthetic biology.

K-12 Standards and Curriculum

The Education Working Group aims to develop and update Kindergarten through High School education standards and curricula for the teaching of concepts of engineering/synthetic biology. The Working Group is currently investigating existing standards and building relationships with educators to advance this initiative.

In development – more coming soon.

If you would like to engage with EBRC on this initiative, please contact education@ebrc.org

EauD’coli

The 2006 MIT iGEM team makes normally stinky smelling bacteria smell like bananas and mint, and openly discuss their design process in a charming presentation of really special work. The control of scent by growth phase increased the tools and the imagination for cellular inputs and outputs.

Programming Living Bacteria

A 30 minute overview of synbio, its applications and a brief description of the techniques used in biotechnology. A very accessible video designed for the general public, it has engaging and clear animations.

Produced by iBiology.org, this video features EBRC member Dr. Christopher Voight.

iGEM Style

Arguably the video that popularized the tradition of iGEM song parodies, and still a great way to get a feel for what it’s like to work in a lab as part of a team. A group that is not engaged and passionate about what they’re doing could not have produced something like this.

Video by iGEM Calgary (featuring “Gangnam Style” by PSY)

Biodesign in the Era of Automation

Zach Serber, CSO and one of the founders of Zymergen, gives an hour-long webinar with the hundreds of students and mentors for 2019’s Biodesign Challenge. He spoke on the need for bio-based materials in the face of dwindling petroleum supplies and climate change; the potential of bio-processes for creating new and superior products with increased molecular diversity; and the new methods being used to design microbes to make these products at useful scales.

Rebecca Nugent

Rebecca is an experienced R&D executive focused on commercializing research in the biotech industry enabling applications such as cell & gene therapies, synthetic biology and genomics. Dr. Nugent is currently the VP of HTP Operations at Tessera Therapeutics. Prior to Tessera, she led the research department at Synthego, developing novel technologies for genome engineering with a focus on human cell and gene therapies. Prior to Synthego, Rebecca spent six years at Twist Bioscience where she focused on the development of Synthetic Biology and Next-Generation Sequencing Target Enrichment (NGS TE) products. She did her Post-Doc at New England Biolabs and received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California, where she studied yeast genetics with an emphasis on genomic stability.

Blake Simmons

Dr. Simmons is the Director of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (biosciences.lbl.gov). He also serves as the Chief Science and Technology Officer and Vice-President of the Deconstruction Division at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (www.jbei.org), a DOE Office of Science funded project tasked with the development and realization of next-generation “drop-in” biofuels and bioproducts produced from sustainable, non-food lignocellulosic biomass. He is also the Project Management Lead for the DOE Agile BioFoundry (https://agilebiofoundry.org/).

Ian Wheeldon

Dr. Wheeldon is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). He is also the director of UCR’s Center for Industrial Biotechnology. Dr. Wheeldon received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in 2009 and completed two years of postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. He received a Master’s of Applied Science from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a Bachelor’s of Applied Science from Queen’s University, Canada. Dr. Wheeldon’s laboratory focuses on synthetic biology for chemical synthesis.

Tara Deans

Dr. Tara Deans received her PhD from Boston University in Biomedical Engineering. Following her postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University, she became an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Utah. Currently, Dr. Deans runs an applied mammalian synthetic biology laboratory where her lab focuses on building novel genetic tools to study the mechanisms of stem cell differentiation for the purpose of directing their cell fate decisions. Recently, Dr. Deans received three prestigious awards to support this area of research: the NSF CAREER Award, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, and the NIH Trailblazer Award. In addition to her research, Dr. Deans was recently named a STEM Ambassador in the STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP) at the University of Utah to engage underrepresented groups in STEM fields.

Merja Penttilä

Leonard Brizuela

Jason Zwolak

Jared DeCoste

Zachary Sun

Zachary Sun is the CEO and co-Founder of Tierra Biosciences, a startup leveraging cell-free synthetic biology, automation, computer learning, and metagenomics to identify new molecules and new chemistry from Nature’s genetic datasets.

Sam Weiss Evans

NSTC Interagency Synthetic Biology Workshop

This workshop is an invitation-only event.

Venue & Registration

Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center

Meeting Overview

Agenda & Other Materials

Check out our new “Synthetic Biology Media Resources” page

… and subscribe to EBRC’s YouTube channel to watch more than 170 videos about synthetic biology!

Synthetic Biology In Space

What is a Gene Drive?

Curriculum Modules

With many of our EBRC members directly involved in University and Graduate-level education, we recognize the need for additional, up-to-date teaching resources and materials for engineering/synthetic biology.

K-12 Standards and Curriculum

EauD’coli

The 2006 MIT iGEM team makes normally stinky smelling bacteria smell like bananas and mint, and openly discuss their design process in a charming presentation of really special work. The control of scent by growth phase increased the tools and the imagination for cellular inputs and outputs.

Programming Living Bacteria

A 30 minute overview of synbio, its applications and a brief description of the techniques used in biotechnology. A very accessible video designed for the general public, it has engaging and clear animations.

Produced by iBiology.org, this video features EBRC member Dr. Christopher Voight.

iGEM Style

Biodesign in the Era of Automation

Rebecca Nugent

Blake Simmons

Ian Wheeldon

Tara Deans

Pages

Archives

Categories

Merja Penttilä

Leonard Brizuela

Jason Zwolak

Jared DeCoste

Zachary Sun

Zachary Sun is the CEO and co-Founder of Tierra Biosciences, a startup leveraging cell-free synthetic biology, automation, computer learning, and metagenomics to identify new molecules and new chemistry from Nature’s genetic datasets.

Sam Weiss Evans

NSTC Interagency Synthetic Biology Workshop

This workshop is an invitation-only event.

Venue & Registration

Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center

Meeting Overview

Agenda & Other Materials

Check out our new “Synthetic Biology Media Resources” page

… and subscribe to EBRC’s YouTube channel to watch more than 170 videos about synthetic biology!

Synthetic Biology In Space

What is a Gene Drive?

Curriculum Modules

With many of our EBRC members directly involved in University and Graduate-level education, we recognize the need for additional, up-to-date teaching resources and materials for engineering/synthetic biology.

K-12 Standards and Curriculum

EauD’coli

The 2006 MIT iGEM team makes normally stinky smelling bacteria smell like bananas and mint, and openly discuss their design process in a charming presentation of really special work. The control of scent by growth phase increased the tools and the imagination for cellular inputs and outputs.

Programming Living Bacteria

A 30 minute overview of synbio, its applications and a brief description of the techniques used in biotechnology. A very accessible video designed for the general public, it has engaging and clear animations. Produced by iBiology.org, this video features EBRC member Dr. Christopher Voight.

iGEM Style

Biodesign in the Era of Automation

Rebecca Nugent

Blake Simmons

Ian Wheeldon

Tara Deans

A 30 minute overview of synbio, its applications and a brief description of the techniques used in biotechnology. A very accessible video designed for the general public, it has engaging and clear animations.

Produced by iBiology.org, this video features EBRC member Dr. Christopher Voight.