Step Aside Science Fiction: We Attend SynBioBeta
Astronauts take synthetic biology to space. Parties glow with plankton. And mushrooms fight global pandemics.
This isn’t science fiction - it’s the reality showcased at SynBioBeta 2024.
For three-days, we were catapulted into the future of synthetic biology and its applications.
Returning from the future to our day reality is a jolt, but we’re still buzzing with the excitement to share these mind-bending highlights….
Day -1: Biomanufacturing Booms Down Under
Main Sequence Ventures, Australia’s largest venture capital fund, is building and supporting companies to transform Australia’s economy and industry by solving global challenges that require scientific backing, long-term vision, and patient capital.
Investor, Messaginglab-friend and long-time SynBioBeta attendee Phil Morle invited me/Karl to a dinner highlighting Australia’s deeptech and biotech investments. The dinner showcased precision fermentation startup, Cauldron, who have developed a continuous fermentation process to drive down the costs of high-value ingredients.
Fun fact: Cauldron was created by Main Sequence after multiple companies expressed their biggest challenges were scale-up, and reaching costs competitive with existing, chemical processes. Looking forward to seeing Cauldron’s success.
Day 0: Gearing Up for the Biorevolution
One SynBioBeta tradition is to hold an event the night before the conference started. After eating tacos with our client Biomatter, we attended the new attendee reception.
The first person I/Karl ran into was astronaut Kate Rubins PhD, who we’d previously met at Ginkgo Ferment. We had a conversation with Dr. Chris Mason of Cornell Weil, took selfies with SynBioBeta founder John Cumbers, PhD, then made the rounds catching up with old friends and making new ones.
SynBioBeta is a busy event, so the Messaginglab team divided and conquered: Jordan attended the IndieBio networking event, Erum and Karl attended events hosted by Aclid and Boston Consulting Group.
At the BCG event, Synonym highlighted the biomanufacturing report they had previewed earlier in the year at Biofabricate. The report has been published and makes a very strong case for increasing biomanfuacturing infrastructure to drive down costs. It’s worth a read.
Day 1: Astronauts and Agarikon: Biology’s Giant Leaps
The conference blasted off with astronaut Kate Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space, and Chris “The Next 500 Years” Mason, envisioning a near future where cosmic radiation and resource limitations are combated with biology and astronauts sip Moon Wine (!) fermented with space-traveling yeast. You read that right - we could be sipping wine from space in the near-future.
The next panel focused on DNA Synthesis, one of the technologies underpinning the bioeconomy. While DNA synthesis might sound complex, cheaper DNA means faster experimentation, more affordable medicines, beauty products, and even crops in space. Emily Leproust of Twist Biosciences pointed out, “We need more people, more brainpower to accelerate the bio-revolution.”
One exciting prediction from the panel, we’ll see living medicines on the market in the next 3 to 5 years.
Later, renowned mycologist Paul Stamets explored the antiviral properties of Agarikon mushrooms, a potential weapon against the emerging H5N1 bird flu threat. This was a rallying cry for the entire bio community to unite and prepare for the next pandemic.
The day ended with a Erasmus Darwin-inspired Poetry Slam, where I/Karl read a preview from Even Tiny Dragons Burn.
Day 2: Bioluminescent Bashes and DNA Dance Machines: When Art Meets Biotech
The collaborations that drive the bioeconomy were the theme of the second day.
Founders and VCs mingled as they looked at possibly striking deals. While funding has grown tight for industrial biotech (Sean O’Sullivan of SOSV/IndieBio pointed out the last time funding drop similar to the past two years, happened post-Dot Com bubble.) the energy in the conference was palpable.
L'Oréal, Debut, and Abolis discussed how startups and corporations can join forces to co-develop products, and how startups and corporates can align and work together to make bio-better products. The ability for startups to engage with big companies can be a challenge.
Animator Drew Barry stole the show with his bio-simulations on the main stage. Barry has created animations of biological processes that are at the speed of life. Here’s a link to one, it will blow your mind.
The day ended with Dan Grushkin’s Parables from the Biotech Age at Tech Interactive, a few blocks from the San Jose Convention Center. We splashed around with bioluminescent dinoflagellates supplied by Andy Bass, then experienced a series of videos and performances. It’s one thing to hear about biotech developments - it’s another to see it lighting up your hands.
Drew Barry told us about his collaboration with Bjork on a DNA drum machine app, a captivating Japanese video, and an opera about organs grown in pigs left us re-evaluating the power and possibilities of biology.
Day 3: Protein Predictions, Acquisition Hacks, and Consumer Acceptance
More groundbreaking research, game-changing scalability, and industry-shifting deals.
Alex Rives from Evolutionary Scale shared his protein structure prediction advancements comparing ESM’s 600 million protein structures beating AlphaFold's 200 million in 2022. (But big announcement: AlphaFold 3.0 dropped, not only predicting protein structure but also protein interactions. This is a game-changer for healthcare and beyond.)
UC Berkeley professor Patrick Hsu of the Ark Institute elegantly presented advances in computational genome design.
K18Hair’s Suveen Sahib and Estee Lauder’s Rocky Graziose discussed the do’s and don’t’s of acquisitions. The key takeaway? Don't build a company to be acquired. Focus on building a strong business. The panel emphasized due diligence and finding areas of alignment with potential partners. Later, Suveen was awarded the SynBioBeta Pioneer Award, a well-deserved honor.
Breakout sessions delved deep into space agriculture and medicine, emerging neurostimulation technologies, and the regulation, safety, and pharmacology of psychedelics.
Karl moderated a panel on consumer acceptance that included Biomason’s Ginger Dosier, Checkerspot’s Charles Dimmler, and Ginkgo Bioworks, Christina Agapakis. (What is the number one lesson of marketing? Know your audience.)
The conference ended with Juan Benet of Protocol Labs discussing the need for new funding mechanisms for science and the rise of decentralized science (or DeSci) as a mechanism to push science forward faster.
It is clear: Biotech is revolutionizing everything from medicine to materials to beauty, everywhere from Earth to space! The conversations we had were inspiring, and we're overflowing with ideas about the future.
We recapped the entire experience on Grow Everything, click here to listen.
