With 2023 done and dusted, we proudly look back on this wonderful year full of exciting events, achievements, projects and experiences. Although we can’t wait to get started in 2024, the last few days of December were the perfect opportunity to take a step back and reflect on our work this year!
SynBio World Cafe
We were very excited to host the 4th iteration of the SynBio World Café at the Centre for Synthetic Biology in Darmstadt this year! This event is all about bridging the gap between academic research, industrial infrastructure and venture capital (and coffee of course). We were able to create an environment where academic and industrial leaders could not only network, but also participate in fruitful discussions about crucial topics like Sustainability, AI & ML, Legislation and Science communication! It was incredibly exciting to hear the positions of our 69 participants from 52 different companies and institutes! As a cherry on top, SPRIND (the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation) publicly announced their ”Circular Biomanufacturing” Challenge during the event. We hold this event very dear to our heart, so naturally we strive to improve the concept and we can’t wait for number five next year! So stay tuned and find out what kind of aces we have up our sleeves!
GASB7 Conference
The second big fish in our pond is the GASB7 conference that was held in collaboration with Designer Biology in Freiburg this year! During the course of three days, we had a wonderful conference packed with networking, poster presentations and great talks! The fascinating work of our keynote speakers Ron Milo, Birthe Höcker, Roman Jerala, Shrikrishnan Sankaran, Wilfried Weber, Alison Smith and Patrick Cai, lead us through the multifaceted and inspiring world of synthetic biology, ranging from synthetic genomes, over therapeutics, to living materials! We had an absolute blast spending these days together with our 120 participants from all career stages, be it student, PhD, industry employee or professor!
SynBio trifft Nachhaltigkeit
Finding ways to live sustainably on our planet is one of the biggest challenges of our age. Especially the supply of food, that can both meet the needs of our population while still allowing for ecologically friendly agriculture, is an issue of pressing importance. But what role does synthetic biology play in all of this? This is what the ”SynBio meets sustainability” online webinar in collaboration with our friends from Progressive Agrarwende was all about! Here, we had the great opportunity to discuss benefits, ideas, risks and goals of synthetic biology in agriculture together with you, as everyone was welcome to join this exciting webinar for free!
Education
When is the best time to become a synthetic biologist? In school of course! As a relatively new, yet so powerful field in biology, it is absolutely crucial to give students a grasp of what synthetic biology actually is as soon as possible. The next years will likely be filled with headlines regarding SynBio and its application in medicine, agriculture, manufacturing and more. Therefore, we think it is very important to teach growing adults how to understand and put such technologies into context. The best way to do this is by letting students be scientists themselves for a day! This year we have distributed BioBits kits together with all the necessary equipment to teach the central dogma of biology in schools. Students could experience the information flow, starting from DNA that is transcribed into RNA, which is then in turn translated into a protein. The final protein can then be assessed by the class either via green fluorescence or a banana-like smell! These experiments can be performed entirely by the students themselves as the kit features a cell-free system that does not require any safety precautions, allowing for a hands-on excursion into the world of synthetic biology!Convention on Biological Diversity
Not only was this year very exciting in terms of events and science communication, but also on a political scale! The Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has published a list of trends in technological developments in synthetic biology and called for information on these topics. In collaboration with the GFGSB (Joint Working Group Synthetic Biology), we created an extensive statement, providing crucial information on different aspects. Our submission is also publicly available by clicking here! Additionally, we had the honour of providing the Secretariat with three representatives from GASB for an open-ended online forum, where experts help to discuss specific questions regarding synthetic biology, by providing information, estimations, and other insights.
See you in 2024!
What a year it has been, but this is only the tip of the iceberg! There is so much more going on in GASB that could never fit into a short recap like this. And don’t get us started on our plans for the upcoming year! The pipeline is already full of exciting events, ideas and goals! We can’t wait to get started with yet another year dedicated to our love for #SynBio <3!
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