Slide 3: Metrics and Standards Report
Engineering Biology Metrics and Technical Standards for the Global Bioeconomy
Slide 4: Global Bioeconomy
EBRC Partners in NSF-Funded Initiative to Accelerate Global Bioeconomy
Engineering Biology Metrics and Technical Standards for the Global Bioeconomy
EBRC Partners in NSF-Funded Initiative to Accelerate Global Bioeconomy
David has been a Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow in the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London since 2019. His lab uses a combination of synthetic biology, imaging and sequencing based approaches to better understand the function of the gut and its microbiota during health and disease. Using this knowledge they are developing innovative technologies, such as living engineered probiotics, to probe and control the mammalian gut environment.
Prior to starting his lab, David undertook his postdoc in Pamela Silver’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. As a Human Frontier Science Long-term Fellow and NHMRC/ RG Menzies Fellow, David’s work focussed on using synthetic biology approaches to engineer bacteria as tools to probe the mammalian gut environment.
In 2013, David completed his PhD with Jake Baum and Alan Cowman at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (University of Melbourne) in Melbourne, Australia. His PhD research investigated how the parasites responsible for human malaria disease infect red blood cells using cutting-edge imaging platforms.
David holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Melbourne.
Yue is a Ph.D. candidate at the Styczynski lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research is focused on developing computational models for metabolic pathways toward effective strain design. Yue completed her undergraduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Chemical Engineering. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies and exploring the city.
Megan is a postdoctoral scholar in the Jewett Lab at Stanford University. She earned her BS in chemical engineering from the University of Rhode Island—with minors in chemistry, mathematics, and music performance—and her PhD in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Georgia Tech. Her PhD work focused on using cell-free expression systems to engineer diagnostic platforms for point-of-care biosensing applications. As an EBRC SPA member, Megan serves as a liaison to the education working group and co-chair for EMUMS.
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.
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 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.
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.
After earning her B.S. degree in chemical engineering, Tullman-Ercek began her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin under advisor George Georgiou. Her dissertation focused on the pathway bacteria use to transport folded proteins across membranes, and how this pathway may be used in protein engineering applications. After earning her Ph.D. in 2006, Tullman-Ercek began her post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Chris Voigt. Her primary project in the Voigt lab was the study of spider silk production and secretion in Salmonella. She also immersed herself in the challenges and potential of the field of synthetic biology. She continued her postdoctoral studies at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, working to improve enzymes that break down biomass for more efficient and economic biofuel production processes. Tullman-Ercek joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley in 2009. Inspired by her previous work, her research group focuses on engineering multi-component systems in biology – such as protein and small molecule secretion machinery and bacterial microcompartments – using tools and techniques from protein engineering and synthetic biology.
Dr. Arum Han is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and also in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (courtesy joint appointment) at Texas A&M University (USA). He joined Texas A&M University in 2005 as an Assistant Professor. He is also a faculty of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience. He received his Ph.D from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2005, his M.S. from the University of Cincinnati in 2000, and his B.S. from the Seoul National University in 1997, all in electrical engineering.
His research interests are in solving grand challenge problems in the broad areas of health and energy through the use of micro/nano systems technologies. His work in these areas has focused on the development of high-throughput lab-on-a-chip systems for single-cell-resolution assays, synthetic biology and biotechnology applications, as well as development of organ-on-a-chip systems through
He has co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NIH, NSF, DARPA, DTRA, USDA, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Qatar National Research Foundation (QNRF), and several other international sponsors and private companies. He currently serves as the editorial board member of the journal PLoS ONE, Algal Research, and Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, as well as associate editor for the journal Biomedical Microdevices.
He is a Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Fellow (2012), Eugene Webb Faculty Fellow of Texas A&M University (2014), recipient of the Engineering Genesis Award for Multidisciplinary Research from Texas A&M University (2014), recipient of the E. D. Brockett Professorship Award (2015), recipient of the Dean of Engineering Excellence Award (2016), and became the Presidential Impact Fellow of the Texas A&M University in 2017.
Dr. Christopher Mason is an Associate Professor of Genomics, Physiology, and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction. He also holds affiliate appointments at the Tri-I Program on Computational Biology and Medicine (Cornell, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University), Harvard Medical School, and Yale Law School.
The Mason laboratory develops and deploys new biochemical and computational methods in functional genomics to elucidate the genetic basis of human disease and physiology. We create and deploy novel techniques in next-generation sequencing and algorithms for: tumor evolution, genome evolution, DNA and RNA modifications, and genome/epigenome engineering. We also work closely with NIST/FDA to build international standards for these methods (SEQC2, IMMSA, and Epigenomics QC groups), to ensure clinical-quality genome measurements and editing. We also work with NASA to build integrated molecular portraits of genomes, epigenomes, transcriptomes, and metagenomes for astronauts, which help establish the molecular foundations and genetic defenses for enabling long-term human spaceflight.
Dr. Mason has won the NIH’s Transformative R01 Award, the NASA Group Achievement Award, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Young Investigator award, the Hirschl-Weill-Caulier Career Scientist Award, the Vallee Scholar Award, the CDC Honor Award for Standardization of Clinical Testing, and the WorldQuant Foundation Scholar Award. He was named as one of the “Brilliant Ten” Scientists by Popular Science, featured as a TEDMED speaker, and called “The Genius of Genetics” by 92Y. He has >230 peer-reviewed papers and scholarly works that have been featured on the covers of Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Microbiology, and Neuron, as well as legal briefs cited by the U.S. District Court and U.S. Supreme Court.
Cinnamon Bloss, Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Longevity Science and Director of the Center for Empathy and Technology at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Bloss is jointly appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and the Division of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine. Dr. Bloss researches social and behavioral phenomena related to emerging technologies, with a particular focus on genetic and genomic research, precision health, and big data. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and philanthropic donations. Dr. Bloss serves as a member of the Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee that provides recommendations to the NIH Director and a public forum for the discussion of the scientific, safety, and ethical issues associated with emerging biotechnologies. Dr. Bloss has given invited talks at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the National Press Club, the National Institutes of Health, and has presented invited testimony before a Food and Drug Administration Advisory Panel to inform consumer genomics policy. Dr. Bloss was recognized by the Western Societies of Medicine with the Carmel Prize for Research Excellence and has received numerous teaching awards at the University of California San Diego.
Jenny Mortimer is a Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology at the University of Adelaide, in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and the Waite Research Institute, an Affiliate Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) USA, and the Director of Plant Systems Biology at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, USA.
After completion of her PhD at Cambridge University, UK, she completed postdoctoral training in the UK (also at Cambridge University), a fellowship at RIKEN, Japan, and then a move to LBNL as a Research Scientist. She relocated to Adelaide in 2021.
Her team’s research focuses on understanding and manipulating plant cell metabolism, with a focus on complex glycosylation. The goal is to develop crops which contribute to a sustainable and renewable bioeconomy. In Adelaide, her new group is using synbio to develop new crops (such as duckweed) for food and novel materials production in controlled growth environments – including for Space settlement. Other projects include engineering glycans to deliver plants with increased (a)biotic stress tolerance. In the US, her group works to reengineer the plant cell wall for the sustainable production of fuels and biochemicals from biomass. Her lab is also developing new synbio and bioinformatics tools for bioenergy crops, and investigating the role of plant cell walls in recruiting and retaining the rhizosphere microbiome, She was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Scientist (2016/17), where she contributed to the WEF Code of Ethics for Researchers (widgets.weforum.org/coe), and she is a Handling editor for Plant Cell Physiology. Twitter @Jenny_Mortimer1, and more about her research here: mortimerlab.org .
My name is Widianti, an aspiring synthetic biologist and a chemical engineering graduate student at University of Washington. My research focuses on harnessing synthetic biology as a tool for biocatalysis and bioproduction application. Outside lab, I love spending time cooking and travelling for food.
Having earned my B.Tech in Food Technology from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, I got the opportunity to join the School of Biochemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi, as M.Tech graduate and later got Ph.D under the supervision of Prof. Mira Debnath Das. I earned Ph.D (Biochemical Engineering) on an exceptionally well researched project on “Bioprocess strategy development on production and characterization of antifungal protein from Aspergillus giganteus”.
Anna Osterlind Jones is Head of Government Affairs at Zymergen, where she leads the company’s engagement with the Administration and Congress. She rejoined the company in 2021, having previously worked at Zymergen from 2015 to 2018 as the then-startup grew from 40 to nearly 500 employees. Prior to her current position, Anna was with the United States Department of Agriculture, most recently as Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. At USDA, she also served as Chief of Staff to the Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service, where she helped launch the domestic hemp industry among other initiatives, and in USDA’s Office of Congressional Relations.
Anna started her career on Capitol Hill working for a Senator from her home state of Missouri. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Missouri.
Sharon joined Zymergen in March 2021. She currently works remotely from Virginia. Sharon has worked as a Government Engagement/Contracting senior legal advisor for over 15 years, with various large government contractors. During the last several years Sharon has maintained a legal practice servicing large and small government contractors. Sharon enjoys yoga, bike riding and spending time with her family which includes two kitties.
I have completed my PhD in Molecular Genetics from King’s College London, UK, I came back to Pakistan to join University Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan. I established my research group in 2016 and became the first person in our Institution to work on CRISPR based genome editing. Currently leading my team in establishing the National Center of Industrial Biotechnology at our Institution to further strengthen my work in Metabolic Engineering/Synthetic Biology.
Synthetic Biology Young Speaker Series (SynBYSS) nominations are open!
This virtual seminar series will feature presentations by early career professionals. If you or someone you know is interested in speaking, please submit a nomination using the information below. Nominations will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Eligibility: Must be an untenured professor working in synthetic biology OR someone planning on applying for a faculty job soon.
When: Official start date and actual days/times TBD but September 2021 or earlier
Nomination: Please submit your CV or resume to (tsmoon@wustl.edu). Self-nominations are welcome, as well as nominating others in your lab. All nominations will be subject to review by a selection committee.
We look forward to receiving your nomination for this exciting seminar series!
Please contact Tae Seok Moon (tsmoon@wustl.edu) with any questions.