Janet Matsen

Janet Matsen received her BS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering for synthetic biology with a data science specialty. She brings together knowledge of biochemistry, industrial biotechnology, and data science to accelerate the rate at which we can improve engineered microbes for renewable chemical production. Her work at Zymergen as a Senior Data Scientist involves developing software to predict which genetic edits will result in more productive microbes to help explore the DNA design space more efficiently.

Wendy Hall

20 years senior government expert advisor in science policy and national security specializing in biological threats and life science research policy, both pre- and post- anthrax attacks
14 years international experience in private sector multinational corporations and academia
Interest in ways to streamline, simplify and modernizing current “jenga tower” of USG policies/regulations/rules/polices to enable robust growth in the U.S. bioeconomy while ensuring national security risks are addressed as appropriate.

Bryn Adams

Bryn L. Adams received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Biology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2009 which focused on the development of microbial based methane-oxidizing biomaterials to mitigate early methane emissions from open landfills. After receiving her doctorate, she joined a collaborative research project, as a National Academy of Sciences postdoctoral fellow, between Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) and the Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research at the University of Maryland at College Park focused on the development of non-specific threat agent detection using simple biological sensing and signal transduction pathways. Dr. Adams first joined the US Army Research Laboratory in 2011 as an Oak Ridge Associated Universities postdoctoral fellow where she conducted research into the development of synthetic molecular recognition agents for biosensing and biomaterials and then became a federal scientist at the US Army Research Laboratory in 2014 and the team leader of the Synbio Tools and Chassis Team in 2018. Her research efforts currently focus on developing synthetic biology tools for non-model host bacteria and leveraging synthetic biology to wholly integrate microbes into biohybrid systems. She has published over 15 peer-reviewed manuscripts on a wide range of bacterial biotechnology topics across several disciplines.

Alexander Tobias

I am a Biotechnology technical professional experienced with leading teams and prosecuting academic, industrial, and government research in the lab. My proudest accomplishments have been (1) the enzyme engineering work I performed on the DuPont/BP Butamax joint venture to develop an isobutanol-producing yeast, (2) the successful push to commercialize 24 ELISA assays as part of the V-PLEX team at Meso Scale Diagnostics, and (3) earning my doctorate as part of the laboratory of Frances Arnold (2018 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry) at Caltech.

DuPont Biotechnology R&D – 2005-2016
Meso Scale Diagnostics Assay Development – 2016-2017
US Army Research Laboratory – 2017-present

Sarah Carter

Dr. Carter is the Principal at Science Policy Consulting LLC where she focuses on societal and policy implications of emerging biotechnologies, including issues of responsible innovation, biosafety, and biosecurity. She is currently focused on the advanced biotechnologies industry, synthetic biology and DNA sequence screening, and international norms for biosecurity. In recent years, she has worked with several U.S. government agencies as well as industry, academia, and non-profit institutions. Previously, she worked in the Policy Center of the J. Craig Venter Institute and at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). She is a former AAAS S&T Policy Fellow and a former Mirzayan S&T Fellow of the National Academies. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco and her bachelor’s degree from Duke University.

Rana Said

Rana Said did her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology Cairo University in 2013. Rana was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Master’s in Biotechnology from American University, Washington DC. Rana is now doing her PhD in Biotechnology Engineering, developing tools to enhance the engineering of enzymes, as well as engineering Lactic Acid Bacteria.

Malice Analysis at Northwestern University

Biology is easier than ever to engineer. This reality requires researchers to take proactive steps to consider the security implications of their work. The Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) is holding an interactive workshop to help you identify potentially malicious applications of your work, mitigation options, and what to do if you identify something and don’t know how to proceed. The workshop is targeted to graduate students and postdocs, but we welcome others in engineering biology to attend. This technically-focused workshop will include plenary presentations and discussion and small group analysis of participants’ research. Participants that complete all aspects of the workshop will receive a certificate of completion which can be noted on your CV.

Friday, December 3, 2021

11:00AM – 1:00PM Central Time

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Grant Award Numbers 2017‐ST‐108‐FRG002, 18STFRG00006-01-01, and #19STFRG00011-01-00.

Janet Matsen

Wendy Hall

Bryn Adams

Alexander Tobias

Eric Lin

Sarah Carter

Rana Said

Malice Analysis at Northwestern University

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