2024 Speakers

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MSc in Chemical Engineering, PhD (1989) in Biochemical Engineering and dr.techn. (1995) from the Danish Technical University (DTU). Honorable dr.med. from University of Gothenburg. Fulbright visiting professor at MIT in 1995-1996. Professor at DTU in 1998. In 2008 he was recruited as Professor to Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. In 2015 he was founding Head of the Department of Life Sciences, which now encompass more than 250 people. Jens Nielsen was also a Co-founder of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability that now has more than 300 people affiliated, for which he served as CSO 2013-2018. From 2019 CEO of the BioInnovation Institute in Denmark, which is a new institute financed by USD500M that fosters translational research and support new spin-out companies in life sciences. He has trained more than 280 scientists in his research group and published >850 publications that have been cited more than 126,000 times (current H-factor 162). Inventor of >50 patents and founder of six biotech companies. Has received numerous awards, including the ENI Award, the Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister Prize for Transportation Fuels, the Novozymes Prize, and the Gold Medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Member of 13 academies, including NAS, NAE, NAM, Chinese Academy of Engineering, EMBO and Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

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Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro is leading a research group at the interface of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering at Imperial College London. He is interested in using microbial cells to produce sustainable foods, fuels, pharmaceuticals and materials. His research covers the generation of cutting-edge synthetic biology tools such as novel CRISPR tools, the production of compounds of interest such as foods, fuels, chemicals in engineered microorganisms and the exploration of complex microbial communities and their role in improved bioprocesses. Rodrigo is the Director of the UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hub on Microbial Food.

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Susan is Professor of Synthetic Biology and Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Edinburgh. She is Director of the UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology and Co-director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry for synthetic DNA synthesis and assembly.  She also held a prestigious Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Leadership Fellowship in Synthetic Biology. In 2022, her work was recognised by the national academies of both Scotland and Wales, being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. She served as a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, Scotland’s highest level science advisory body, providing independent advice and recommendations on science strategy, policy and priorities to the Scottish Government. Her research focuses on using synthetic biology approaches for developing and controlling genetic circuits for applications in cell and gene therapies as well as metabolic engineering. She is co-founder of two early-stage start-ups using a combination of AI and engineering biology for new gene therapies and enzyme replacement therapies for rare diseases.

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Jo has over 30-years’ experience across the biotech and life sciences sectors. Having completed her PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Strathclyde, she held several academic positions which ultimately led to the successful spin-out of XstalBio, an SME focused on providing novel solutions to enable drug and vaccine delivery.
Jo subsequently took on the position of Operations Director at the IBioIC where she led the industry-focused project programme as well as the bioprocess scale-up facilities as part of BioPilotsUK. Here she had the opportunity to indulge her passion for translation of innovation and collaborate with some of the UK’s most talented academics and entrepreneurs. She now works as Operations Director at MiAlgae, a Scottish SME built with circular economy at the core. The company aims to eliminate reliance on wild-caught fish as the primary source of omega-3 by producing a sustainable microalgal alternative from food and drink sector coproducts.

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Dr. Smolke, a pioneer in the fields of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, joined Caltech’s faculty in 2003 as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and joined Stanford’s faculty in 2009, where she was Professor of Bioengineering. Dr. Smolke’s early work pioneered the design and application of a broad class of RNA molecules, RNA switches, that detect chemical signals and regulate targeted protein activities, providing programmable platforms for building biological sensors and control systems. At Stanford, her team led the breakthrough research to engineer baker’s yeast to produce some of the most complex and valuable plant-based essential medicines known to humankind. At Antheia, her vision and leadership has enabled a synthetic biology platform that dramatically expands the diversity and complexity of molecules that can be reconstructed, enabling new possibilities for drug discovery as well as efficient, sustainable, transparent, on-demand drug manufacturing at scale.

Dr. Smolke’s impact in advancing the frontiers of biotechnology has been recognized with numerous awards, including Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, Nature’s 10, AIMBE College of Fellows, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, NSF Career Award, Novozymes Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering, WTN Award in Biotechnology, and TR35 Award.

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Hannah is the Director for Technologies and Innovative Regulation in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. She is responsible for Government’s engagement with, and investment in, core emerging technologies including Engineering Biology, Quantum Technologies, Robotics, Cyber Physical Infrastructure and Advanced Materials. Hannah also leads efforts to promote and coordinate more innovative approaches to regulation for emerging and developing technologies. Prior to joining DSIT Hannah was Director for Advanced Manufacturing in BEIS, shepherding the transformation of sectors including Automotive, Aerospace and Marine.

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Cai Linton has an MEng in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London and combines technical knowledge in tissue engineering & data science with management experience. His motivation to create a sustainable future using biotechnology led him to co-found Multus to shorten routes to market and lower entry barriers in the cultivated meat industry. Multus makes it faster and cheaper to get growth media that scales, accelerating the adoption of cellular agriculture. The company’s growth media formulations and ingredients are the building blocks of cellular agriculture and enable the affordable at-scale production of real animal products, including meat, dairy, leather, and more, using cells instead of animals.

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James is the CEO of LabGenius, a next-generation antibody discovery company.

LabGenius has pioneered the development of an ML-driven antibody engineering platform that’s capable of designing, conducting and critically learning from its own experiments. As CEO, James has raised >$70M in financing from top-tier VCs (e.g. M Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Lux Capital, Obvious Ventures, Atomico and Kindred) and struck R&D deals with top pharma companies like Sanofi.

Prior to founding LabGenius, James completed a PhD at Imperial College where he developed novel methods for re-engineering protein nanocages for targeted drug delivery.

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Dr Rosa M. Cuéllar-Franca is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester. Prior to her appointment, she held a postdoctoral research position at the same institution for 2.5 years, working on the programme grant “A coordinated comprehensive approach to carbon capture and utilisation” led by the University of Sheffield and funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science in 2013 and her MSc in Environmental Technology in 2008 from The University of Manchester, and her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technological Institute of Tijuana, Mexico in 2007.

Her research focuses on the sustainability assessment of novel technologies for climate change mitigation on a life cycle basis, providing quantitative evidence that enables targeted improvements at various system levels, such as molecular and process design, process operation, and policy making. Her work has centred around developing more environmentally sustainable ionic liquids, catalysts, bio-based chemicals and nanomaterials for cleaner technology development. She is an expert in life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon footprinting, and life cycle costing. She is author of over 30 peer-reviewed papers and her recent article on ionic liquids “A life cycle approach to solvent design: Challenges and opportunities for ionic liquids – application to CO₂ capture”has won the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering 2021 Outstanding Early Career Paper Award in recognition of her potential to influence future directions in the field.

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Ben Reeve is the Co-founder and CTO of Modern Synthesis, developing materials from microbes to replace leather and coated textiles in the fashion industry.

He has an MA from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in synthetic biology from the Ellis Lab at Imperial College London. Previously he was a founding team member and CTO of the successful materials spin-out, Puraffinity, where he helped to develop sustainable water treatment materials.

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Orr is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Colorifix. After his early education in Portugal, Orr did his undergraduate, Masters and PhD degrees at Newcastle University, where he studied nanomaterials, biochemistry and synthetic biology. Orr went on to Jim’s Ajioka’s lab at the University of Cambridge to apply these skills to the arsenic biosensor project. From there they spun out a novel and sustainable approach to dyeing textiles using modified organisms to produce, deposit and fix dyes to fabrics.

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Professor Frederic Coulon holds a Chair in Environmental Chemistry and Microbiology at Cranfield University and is internationally renowned for his contributions to pollution control and remediation processes across contaminated land, waste, and wastewater sectors. As the Director of the UKRI Engineering Biology Hub’s Environmental Biotechnology Innovation Centre (EBIC), he leads pioneering research in engineering biological applications and environmental biotechnology to develop innovative environmental solutions. His work addresses global priorities within the Water-Soil-Waste nexus across various sectors and scales. Professor Coulon has significantly influenced policy development and waste disposal strategies by providing risk-based solutions for managing contaminated environments.

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Jen graduated from The University of Sheffield, with a first-class Masters of Biological Sciences in 2004 and a PhD in Biochemistry in 2007. With a 20-plus year progressive career in biotechnology, spanning both higher education and the commercial sector, Jen has held roles in research and development, sales and marketing, business development, and business change and transformation. Jen is currently the COO of the BBIA, and runs her own successful consultancy, FREY, which provides expert advice in business development, fundraising, stakeholder engagement, strategic partnerships, policy development, marketing & communications and project management for the biotech sector.

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Mark is Director of the Biorenewables Development Centre, a process development and scale-up organisation providing expertise to accelerate commercialisation of biobased processes and products. BDC’s capabilities span feedstock identification and preprocessing through to upstream chemical and biological processing, with scale-matched product recovery and purification technologies, typically at 1-100kg scale. Mark has over twenty years’ experience in the life sciences working in, and for, both business and academia, focusing on innovation for biotechnology-enabled industries. He has extensive experience of advising on technological and industrial strategy, sitting on steering groups including the BioYorkshire Steering and Industry Advisory Groups and the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum, and was Co-author of the IBLF National Industrial Biotechnology Strategy to 2030. He is a passionate advocate for Engineering Biology as the key driver to develop novel Industrial Biotechnology processes and products at the scale required for the transition to a prosperous and sustainable, defossilised economy.

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Dr. Joe Healey is the CEO and Co-founder of NanoSyrinx Ltd, an innovative synthetic biology spin-out from the University of Warwick, engineering novel bacterial “nanosyringes” for targeted delivery of therapeutic proteins. The company is backed by top-tier investors including Octopus Ventures, MVentures, IQ Capital and Jonathan Milner.

Before founding the company Joe completed his PhD in Mathematical Biology & Biophysical Chemistry, at the University of Warwick and founded the company during his studies, submitting a thesis on the nanosyringe technology and its fundamental biology. Prior to this, he completed his Masters degree at Warwick and a Biology honours degree at Aberystwyth University.

In addition to his role as CEO, Joe was also elected to the UK Government’s Engineering Biology Steering Group in 2024.

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With over 19 years of experience, Richard is currently Chief Operating Officer of Holiferm, having grown the company over the last 5 years to drive the creation and successful running of a 1.1KTA Biosurfactant plant together with closing global commercial deals for the products, with plans to scale up capacity of both in the near future. He supports innovation within the industry and sits on several boards, including the BBIA, and attends governmental panels and meetings to ensure messaging on biosurfactants is shared widely. He has grown an impressive chemical portfolio supporting multinational yearly revenue generation of £28.5 million, with proven organic growth, and growing EBITDA from 12% to 16%, between 2018-2019. He also created the commercial business case to build a 36,000 tpa £3.5 million betaine plant and agreed supply contracts for 1000’s of tonnes.

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Giovanni is a Professor of Engineering Biology, an EPSRC fellow, and Co-director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry (EGF) at the University of Edinburgh.

His group is interested in unveiling the genetics and molecular mechanisms leading to diseases to design next-generation therapeutics using two of the most disruptive technologies available: engineering biology and artificial intelligence. His group is currently focused on developing next-generation enzyme replacement therapies for Lysosomal Storage Diseases (LSD), to deliver more potent and economically sustainable treatments to Fabry disease patients.

Giovanni is also the Co-founder and CEO of ZYTHERA, an early-stage start-up developing next-generation enzyme replacement therapies using AI, microbial and mammalian expression systems.

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Alex Speakman is the founder of E.V.A Biosystems, a start-up developing synthetic biological additives for integration into plastics used in mass manufacturing with a focus on sustainability, improved efficiency, and compatibility with existing manufacturing methods. A key focus of the company’s work is on producing selectively-degradable plastics, with the primary application being packaging that degrades itself in specific environments, such as seawater or landfill.

He completed his PhD in the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Bioengineering, focusing on DNA nanotechnology and synthetic biology.

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George Freeman was Minister of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology between 7 February 2023 and 13 November 2023.

George was previously Minister of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 26 October 2022 to 7 February 2023, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 17 September 2021 to 7 July 2022, a Minister of State at the Department for Transport from 26 July 2019 to 13 February 2020, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Life Sciences at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department of Health from July 2014 until July 2016. He also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Climate Change from 2010 to 2011.

He was appointed government adviser on Life Sciences in July 2011, co-ordinating the government’s Life Science and Innovation, Health and Wealth Strategies (2011), and the Agri-Tech Industrial Strategy (2013). He was appointed the Prime Minister’s UK Trade Envoy in 2013.

Before being elected to Parliament, George had a 15 year career across the life sciences sector. In particular, he worked with hospitals, clinical researchers, patient groups, biomedical research companies – to pioneer novel healthcare innovations.

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Paul has been working at the forefront of international synthetic biology developments since 2002 and has played a key role in developing from the outset the UK strategy for synthetic biology research, innovation and training.  

A leading figure in synthetic biology, he has played a key part in the development of synthetic biology in the UK and was a co-author of the British Government’s UK Synthetic Biology Roadmap. Paul has been a passionate advocate for synthetic biology research and translation both in Europe and internationally and has participated as a technical expert in the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity and Biological Weapons Convention. He is also a working group member of the US NIST synthetic biology standards consortium. 

Paul’s research interests span from understanding the molecular mechanisms of human diseases and infection to the development of synthetic biology platform technologies and biosensors and he is the author of over 170 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He gives many lectures both at international scientific meetings and also public lecture – the most recent being the Ellison-Cliffe medal lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine. 

Paul co-founded and co-directs the UK’s first academic research centre for synthetic biology at Imperial College London (CSynBI) and the first R&D centre for synthetic biology SynbiCITE. 

Paul is also very active in public engagement including numerous public debates – the most recent at the Royal Institution and public displays including at the Science Museum and the first ‘pop-up’ lab at the Victoria and Albert museum. He is also an advocate for training young people and talks regularly at schools and and has successfully co-supervised Imperial undergraduate iGEM teams since 2006. 

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Richard Kitney is Professor of Biomedical Systems Engineering; Chairman of the Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology; and Co-director of the EPSRC National Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation. He was Founding Head of the Department of Bioengineering, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.

He Chaired The Royal Academy of Engineering Inquiry into Synthetic Biology http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/synthetic-biology-report . Kitney is a member of the Ministerial Leadership Council for Synthetic Biology and was one of the main authors of the UK Roadmap for Synthetic Biology http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/RCUK-prod/assets/documents/publications/SyntheticBiologyRoadmap.pdf.

Richard is recognised as a leading research worker in the field of synthetic biology and, with Professor Paul Freemont, has been responsible for developing the Imperial College Hub for Synthetic Biology  which is now recognised as one of the leading international centres in the field.

In 2013, they were successful in winning the national competition to establish the UK national industrial translation centre for synthetic biology – SynbiCITE.

Richard has published over 300 papers in the fields of synthetic biology, mathematical modelling, biomedical information systems, and medical imaging and has worked extensively in and with industry.

Kitney was made a Fellow of the World Technology Network in 1999 for his innovative work in the fields of health and medicine. He was made an Academician of the International Academy of BioMedical Engineering in September 2003 (this is the highest honour bestowed by the International Federation of BioMedical Engineering Societies). He is also a Fellow of AIMBE, the America Academy of BioMedical Engineering.

In 2006 he was made an Honorary Fellow of both The Royal College of Physicians and The Royal College of Surgeons. In June 2001, Professor Kitney was awarded The Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Information Technology in Biomedicine.

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Martin Warren is the Interim Director and Chief Scientific Officer at the Quadram Institute Bioscience in Norwich and also holds a position at the University of Kent.

He has developed several strategies in the area of synthetic biology, including the use of “enzyme cocktails” to study complex biochemical pathways in vitro, developing the multi-gene cloning strategy “Link and Lock” for in vivo analysis, and establishing the “enzyme-trap” approach to isolate unstable pathway intermediates. He is a leading authority on the biogenesis of modified tetrapyrroles such as heme and vitamin B12. He has also contributed to the study of bacterial microcompartments (BMCs), prokaryotic organelles that create unique environments for the production of toxic intermediates.

Leveraging these fundamental discoveries, Warren has developed applied technologies in fields such as bioremediation, food, and health sectors. His basic scientific discoveries have been translated into advancements in industrial biotechnology, nutrition, and improved diagnostics.

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John Heap is Professor of Engineering Biology at the University of Nottingham, and leads the Nottingham Engineering Biology Labs research cluster. He and his team develop enabling engineering biology technologies and apply them to design, construct, optimise and exploit engineered microbial strains and biocatalysts for biomanufacturing. He transfers his work widely to academia and industry, including by licencing and commercialising IP. John is inventor of several patent families and co-founder of three startup companies. He is a member of several industrial and academic management, funding, directors and advisory boards and committees. John is the Principal Investigator of the GlycoCell UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hub, bringing advanced engineering biology technologies together with glycobiology to unlock new effective, sustainable and scalable routes to development and production of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and new drug targets.

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Dr Chiara Board is the founder of P.Happi®, a new microbiome protective solution for women’s intimate health. After completing her degree in Advanced Chemical Engineering and a PhD in Synthetic Biology, Bioengineering at Imperial College she spent years researching and developing this latest solution for women. A fellow sufferer herself, Chiara understands the need first hand for women to have access to solutions that are effective and support the long-term wellbeing of women.

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Ioannis Stasinopoulos received his PhD in bioanalytical chemistry from the University of Edinburgh and he co-founded Prozymi Biolabs, a biotech company that develops an enzyme technology for enabling gluten-free bread production from wheat flour. He is interested in biotechnology and synthetic biology approaches that can be translated into innovative industrial projects enhancing the bioeconomy sector. Currently, Ioannis is managing the finance and business development of Prozymi Biolabs, organising its investment strategy and providing a key network into experts, entrepreneurs, and investors in the biotech and food sectors. He is also affiliated with several business development/training programmes for creating partnerships, collaborations and customer traction on behalf of the Company.

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Since joining Ingenza in 2004, Reuben has spearheaded the company’s core technology development delivering numerous proprietary bioprocesses which has underpinned growth of the company to date. By utilising Ingenza’s world class biotechnology expertise, Reuben has delivered, on time and on budget, commercial projects spanning carbon capture utilisation, biobased chemical production, small molecule API production, medical diagnostics and many others. Reuben has a strong portfolio in securing investment in mixed private/public and commercial partnerships over many years which has enabled in house and customer technology development. Reuben plays an integral role in the mentorship of staff at Ingenza and his leadership is founded on a true passion for chemical, life and biomedical sciences which drives his lateral thinking and innovative approach to resolving the needs of Ingenza’s customers.

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Dr. Yuan Li earned his Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh and has been with Green Bioactives since 2019. With over a decade of experience in plant cell culture and metabolic engineering, Dr. Li serves as the Research Lead, where he is responsible for overseeing technology development, plant cell line establishment, and strain improvement efforts within the company.

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Karolina has nearly a decade of experience in investing and building life sciences and healthcare companies within the Cambridge Cluster. Currently, she is an investor at Parkwalk Advisors (“Parkwalk”), one of the UK’s leading growth EIS fund managers, backing world-changing technologies emerging from UK universities and research institutions. Parkwalk invests in businesses creating solutions to real-world challenges, with IP-protected innovations, across a range of sectors including life sciences, AI, quantum computing, advanced materials, genomics, cleantech, future of mobility, medtech and big data. Parkwalk has raised over £500m and invested in over 180 companies; Parkwalk is part of a FTSE 250 sector specialist group with £1.2bn in net assets.

Karolina sits on the boards of five life science companies in Cambridge, covering platform technologies, genomics, target discovery, and therapeutics. Prior to joining Parkwalk, she co-founded and successfully delivered the first life sciences startup accelerator in Cambridge, nurturing a portfolio of 20 early-stage ventures in biotech, techbio, tools, medtech, and digital health. She played a pivotal role in securing seed and Series A investments from a stellar syndicate of investors.

Her career began as a scientist at a leading biopharmaceutical company, where she contributed to the development of several pre-clinical and clinical phase therapeutics. Before this, she worked as an academic scientist, publishing her research findings in peer-reviewed journals. Karolina holds a PhD in protein folding from the University of Cambridge and conducted postdoctoral research in drug development at the University of Cambridge and AstraZeneca (MedImmune). The majority of her research work focused on biologics associated with metabolic diseases.

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Devanand (“Dev”) Crease is a Partner in the Life Sciences team at Keltie LLP. Since completing a PhD in developmental biology, he has worked in the life sciences and chemicals specialisms for over 25 years and has established a practice focusing on provision of strategic advice to early stage and rapid growth technology companies. Dev has advised companies and clients in diverse fields of biotherapeutics, gene editing, synthetic biology, AI/ML, and computational biology. He handles all areas of IP development including patents, designs, trade secrets and know how. The Life Sciences team at Keltie LLP have advised emerging companies raising over $1 billion in funding over the past few years and are proactive in counselling companies throughout their IP journey.

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Stacey Vincent is a molecular and microbiological scientist specializing in plant-microbe interactions and microbial solutions for agriculture. With a background in molecular biology, bioinformatics, and microbiology, she currently leads the Biological Research and Development team at Concert Bio. The company focuses on developing innovative microbial technologies aimed at enhancing plant health and productivity, particularly in soilless farming systems. Stacey completed her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she investigated the effects of phytohormones and pesticides on plant microbiomes.

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Craig Woods has a background in genetics, next-generation sequencing, and bioinformatics from Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham. Following PhD Craig worked as a post-doctoral researcher working on biofuel producing Clostridia sponsored by Lanzatech. In 2019 Craig joined a sustainable alternative protein company called Deep Branch becoming VP of R&D where he led the strain development and scale-up process development teams. In 2023 Craig left Deep Branch to become CEO at University of Nottingham spin-out Forge Genetics. Forge was created to commercialise a novel gene-editing tool called “Forge Editing”. Forge Editing is currently being used for contract research services in bacteria and is being developed for use as a safer alternative to CRISPR editing in gene therapy applications.

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Marta is working in Biome’s London Office to optimise strain engineering and microbial fermentation for production of Biome’s monomers from refined lignocellulosic feedstocks. She finished her PhD in Chalmers University (Gothenburg, Sweden) in 2023, where she specialized in synthetic biology and fermentation. During her PhD, she genetically engineered S. cerevisiae to produce flavonoids and optimised fermentation conditions in small scale bioreactors.

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Jeffrey leads on Engineering Biology Partnerships at the National Physical Laboratory NPL having joined their Life Sciences & Health Team in 2019. His current area of focus centres on building collaborations with EngBio partners from industry, academia and the public sector to identify the ways in which NPL’s metrology expertise and capability can support research and its translation to drive growth.

Jeffrey’s technical background is in microbiology, having studied Biotechnology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry in quality assurance and product development roles in Australia with CSL and was responsible for the early development of the American Type Culture Collection in Europe when working with LGC. Jeffrey has worked in reference materials development roles and he has experience with precision breeding technologies focussed on Agricultural applications having led the LGC Group’s initial launch of their genomics business in Southeast Asia. Today Jeffrey is a strong advocate for the development of industry aligned standards and metrics which can enable investment and smooth the path to growth for engineering biology companies across the UK and for the role standards can play in enabling global supply chains.

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The Rt Hon Lord Willetts FRS, HonFREng is Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology and of the UK Space Agency. Lord Willetts served as Minister for Universities and Science (2010-2014). He has held a range of Board positions across the Space and Science sector. He was a Board member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), and Chair of the British Science Association.

Lord Willetts is a visiting Professor at King’s College London and an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.

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Nadav Rosenberg is the founder of Saras Capital, a tech bio micro-fund based in London. Nadav established Saras Capital in 2020 after building a successful portfolio of angel investments in early-stage technology companies and spending almost a decade as a venture partner at Entrepreneur First (EF). His primary investment focus is providing first-check backing to ambitious scientists turned tech bio entrepreneurs.

Before becoming an investor, Nadav held key operational roles at Groupon and Taboola. He was an early operator at Groupon, which went public with a valuation of $9.5 billion, and later joined Taboola as its first European employee, successfully launching its UK, France, and Germany operations before the company’s New York listing at $2.6 billion. He began his career at McKinsey & Co. and holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MSc in Economics from Birkbeck, University of London.

Saras Capital specializes in pre-seed and seed investments in computational-first scientific ventures focused on therapeutics, synthetic biology, and related technologies. The fund was an early backer of companies such as Ochre Bio, Core Biogenesis, Coding Bio, Eleven Therapeutics, Kyron Bio, and many more.

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With extensive experience in biotechnology and bioprocess engineering, Prithvi began her career working with several start-ups in the medical biotechnology industry focused on cancer biology and immunotherapy, leading upstream and downstream teams in process development and manufacturing of clinical trial drug products for Akamis Bio, University of Oxford and Replimune Ltd.

Subsequently, Prithvi served as Head of Process Engineering at Shiok Meats, a cultivated meat & seafood company in Singapore. She led internal and external technology transfer, process development and scale-up operations by establishing a FOK manufacturing facility for novel foods. Following which, she worked as a Consultant for US & Thailand based bioeconomy consultancy firms providing technical guidance, fundraising expertise and strategy management for bio-industrial projects.

She works at Extracellular, as Chief Technology Officer and currently as Head of Partnerships, a CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organisation) dedicated to supporting sustainable biotechnology. As a bioprocessing partner for SMEs and large corporate organisations, they support development, manufacturing, and commercialisation at all stages of sustainable biotech – for animal & plant cell cultures with applications in food, cosmetics and other bioproducts.

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Dr. Chueh Loo POH is an Associate Professor with the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at National University of Singapore (NUS). He is Director of NUS Biofoundry and a Principal Investigator at NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI). He is also deputy director of SINERGY, Singapore consortium for Synthetic Biology. His research interests in Synthetic Biology focuses on microbial biosensors, computational modelling, optogenetics, and DNA data storage. His group has been reprogramming microbes for health and sustainability biotechnology applications. He also leads the award-winning NUS iGEM teams. He is currently vice-chair of the Global Biofoundry Alliance (GBA) steering committee and the Co-editor-in-chief of Wiley/IET Engineering Biology journal.

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Daniel is Head of R&D at Constructive Bio. After completing his BSc in Biotechnology at University College London, he obtained his PhD at Prof. Chin’s lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where he developed foundational technologies for genome synthesis and genetic code reprogramming.

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Radha, a Twist Bioscience science and technology specialist with subject matter expertise in antibody drug discovery and development, previously headed Antibody Engineering at GSK where she led therapeutic antibody discovery projects from target identification to candidate selection, and established IgG production systems. Radha, a named inventor for a therapeutic antibody that progressed to market, successfully progressed two other therapeutic antibody programs into the clinic. Being at Twist, Radha’s interests now include the design of variant libraries for antibody discovery and optimisation, automated high scale high-throughput antibody production and characterisation, as well as protein/enzyme evolution and wider synthetic biology applications.

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James is the CEO and Co-founder of Solena Materials Limited, an IP spin-out from Imperial College London where he developed the technology together with his Co-founders. Solena Materials uses cutting-edge computational protein design, deep learning, and automation to create high-performance, sustainable biomaterials. Under his leadership, Solena has pioneered new approaches in the development of protein-based fibres designed to replace natural and petrochemically derived materials. With previous experience in a multinational consultancy, James combines deep scientific expertise with commercial acumen. He also serves on the Bioindustry Association’s Engineering Biology Advisory Committee. His vision is to revolutionise the materials industry through sustainable innovation.

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An experienced MedTech entrepreneur (3X founder; 1 Exit), Rory co-founded PentaBind in November 2021 with Phil Haynes (Drug Research) and Miguel Gonzalez (AI and Data Science). Before this Rory founded a VC-backed aptamer diagnostics company which he ran for 6 years, including 3 years in Shenzhen, China and then exited. Rory also founded Valatoa.com, a software offering exit strategy advice and business valuations to private equity. 9 years in the aptamer industry, inventor of 2 patents and past advisor for a health policy think tank, Rory also holds Master’s degrees in Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Management (Imperial College) and Engineering (University of Leeds).

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James Allen is the Co-founder and CSO of twig, a bioengineering company here to change the future of consumer goods with AI defined sustainable ingredients that don’t cost the earth.

He obtained a DPhil from the University of Oxford in Biochemistry before joining the chemicals industry, finding routes to sustainable nylon by engineering the metabolism of bacteria. His experience at the coal face of chemicals manufacture led him back to research at University College London, building synthetic biology and automation processes to streamline these solutions for the bio-based chemicals industry. He went on to apply these collective learnings by cofounding twig in 2022, integrating synthetic biology into machine learning and creating a better way of bioengineering to deliver the products we need.

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Dei is the CEO and Founder of HERlab, a synbio and AI startup that uses unconventional microorganisms and LLM to find and develop specialised microbial expression systems for complex protein production.

Her passionate vision to revolutionise protein production enabled her to attract top-level scientists and close a $2M pre-seed round and win four UK Government grants. Before HERlab, Dei founded the first Vegan food stores in the Baltic states, exiting in 2019.

In 2022, The Good Food Institute, chose Dei as their inaugural Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and her start-up HERlab for its potential to develop sector-elevating technology for alternative protein production.

HERlab is currently focusing on protein production for biopharma, biocosmetics and bio-based material industries.

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Professor Rick Mumford is Deputy Chief Science Advisor (dCSA) and Deputy Director of Science & Research at the Food Standards Agency (FSA), where he co-leads a multi-disciplinary team of over 160 scientists, providing expert risk assessment and scientific evidence to support UK food safety and standards. A virologist and molecular biologist by training, he has 30 years’ experience, as both a practising, applied scientist (focusing on diagnostics, biosecurity and agrifood innovation), and as a science leader, including senior roles up to executive level, within government and the private sector. An author on over 80 scientific publications, Rick is a Visiting Professor of Practice at Newcastle University and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. He also leads on the cross-government PATH-SAFE Programme and engaging across the agri-food innovation and research community.

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Joško Bobanović [pronounced as Yoshko Bobanovich] joined Sofinnova Partners in 2010 as Partner dedicated to activities in industrial biotech. He focuses on early-stage sustainable companies in Europe and North America with applications in food, agriculture, chemicals and materials. Joško sits on the boards of Metgen, Synthace, DNA Script, Biosyntia, DMC Biotechnologies, Pyrowave, Protera, Novameat and Prometheus Materials. Joško holds a BSc. in physics from University of Zagreb, a PhD in physical oceanography from Dalhousie University and an MBA in finance and marketing from McGill University.

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Epoch combines generative AI and high-throughput synthetic biology to design plastic-eating enzymes which they use to build infinite recycling processes for difficult-to-handle plastic and textile wastes. Their first process focuses on the recycling of blended Nylon material. Jacob has raised >$31M in funding from top tier VCs (Lowercarbon Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, BoxGroup and more) and has partnered with the world’s largest apparel and automotive companies.

Jacob founded Epoch aged 18 during his final year of school after conducting an independent study to discover microbes capable of breaking down plastic waste. He decided to forgo attending the University of Chicago where he was due to study biochemistry and economics to build the company instead. In 2024, he was named as a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient and was included in the inaugural Sunday Times Young Power List.

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Vincent Libis completed a PhD in synthetic biology at CNRS in 2016 (Paris, France) followed by postdoctoral training in natural products discovery at the Rockefeller University (New York, USA). He became a tenured researcher and group leader at INSERM in Paris developing synthetic biology approaches to speed up the discovery of bioactive natural products from microbes. Vincent is the laureate of a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Vincent cofounded two synthetic biology startups: metabolic engineering company Abolis (2014) and drug discovery platform Generare (2023) where he currently serves as CSO. Generare raised 5M€ in 2024.

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Jim Philp (PhD) is a microbiologist who worked as a policy analyst for 13.5 years at the OECD, retiring in September 2024. He was an academic for about sixteen years researching environmental and industrial biotechnology: bioremediation, biosensors, wastewater science and engineering. In all he spent 8.5 years working for Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia as an oil biotechnologist, investigating field problems related to chemistry and microbiology, and developing biotechnology solutions for improved oil recovery and exploitation. He has authored over 300 articles. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2015, and an Associate Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in 2016. 

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Dr. India Hook-Barnard is Executive Director of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC). She works with leaders from across academia, industry, and government sectors to identify and shape scientific opportunities, technical feasibility, and policy issues. Her goal is to advance and accelerate engineering biology solutions across all application areas, drive innovation, and grow the bioeconomy for all.

Prior to joining EBRC, India helped launch and was the Executive Director for the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, and was Associate Director, Precision Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. India worked at the U.S.National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) where she directed standing committees, workshops, and six consensus reports, including Toward Precision Medicine (2011) and Industrialization of Biology (2015).

India was a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institutes of Health,  and earned her PhD in Microbiology-Medicine at the University of Missouri.

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Luke is a senior R&D scientist at MiAlgae, where he is responsible for developing a scalable synthetic biology platform. MiAlgae aims to eliminate reliance on wild-caught fish as the primary source of omega-3 by producing a sustainable microalgal alternative from food and drink sector coproducts. He has been focussed on translating synthetic biology to impact for the past ten years. During his PhD at the University of Cambridge he designed artificial microRNAs to combat maize viruses, and built a multi-institute collaboration between the UK, East Africa, and Ecuador. Following this, he moved to commercial R&D at Tropic, combining precision genome-editing and RNA silencing to produce improved varieties of banana, coffee, and rice, and designing molecules for global Agtech companies (Bayer, Corteva). Passionate about getting more knowledge out of the lab and into the world!

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Fiona began her career as a science communicator covering CRISPR, climate, and biotech for space travel. She now serves as SynBioBeta’s Director of International Outreach and media covering climate, heavy industry, international investment and policy. She is also a member of the OECD’s GFTech Expert Focus Group for synthetic biology.

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Stuart is Chief Scientific Officer and IP Director for deltaDOT. He has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Essex in the UK. His first post-doctoral position was working for the United States Department of Agriculture on their Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York State. After two years working on Foot-and-Mouth disease, he returned to the UK to join the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. Stuart worked on the 3-dimensional RNA packaging signal of HIV-1 in Cambridge as well as helping develop the first label free imaging technologies in London at the same time. Stuart learned microfluidics in the Imperial College London laand has since then applied deltaDOT’s Label Free Intrinsic Imaging technology to this innovative field. As Director of Intellectual Property at deltaDOT he will also coordinate the patents, Freedom to Operate issues and possible licensing issues that may arise from the program. Stuart also works for the UK government’s UK Research and Innovation organization, judging academic grants and fellowships on various committees.

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Scott is Head of Engineering Biology for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Head of Science and Technology Assessment for the Cabinet Office.

Scott has over twelve years of experience in the Royal Air Force, having reached the position of Commissioned Officer, and has a BA in Intelligence and International Relations from the University of Staffordshire.

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Dr Adam Glen is the Founder of several scientific and engineering businesses.  Principally Unicorn Biotechnologies (“The Nvidia of cell Biology”) and its spin-out, Dragon Biotechnologies (“Cell line engineering and start-up tailored CRO service company”).  After spending >15 years in R&D and commercial roles at various large/spin-out companies and Universities, Adam grew frustrated with the lack of translation of academic research and the significant barriers facing the adoption of mammalian cell-based technology.  Principally that of reproducibility, speed and cost.  Since building and testing prototypes in his attic 3.5 years ago.  Unicorn Biotechnologies has grown to a multinational company with presence in both the UK and the US, built multiple labs, and most recently executed the world’s first conversion of a former nightclub into a 5000-square-foot facility biotech/engineering facility.  He has raised ~$4 million in venture capital investment, won several Innovate UK grant awards (>$2 million), and built a nimble and efficient team of exceptional scientists/engineers.  Who have gone on to build and patent (written ourselves) an end-to-end automated cell culture R&D and manufacturing platform, with products crossing hardware, wetware, cell lines and media and being sold internationally across 4 continents.  Adam is a no-nonsense, plain-speaking person, uninterested in prestige, who is also a passionate advocate for empowering more Scientists/Engineers turned CXOs/company builders and holds an Entrepreneur in Residence Fellowship from the Royal Society in combination with being a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Hub.

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Andy Pickford is a Professor of Molecular Biophysics, and the Director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth. The Pickford team applies their dedicated research and innovation pipeline to the discovery, engineering and deployment of enzymes for polymer recycling and upcycling. The team has a strong focus on applying biophysical and biochemical methods to further our understanding of enzyme performance under challenging conditions.

Andy leads the Preventing Plastic Pollution with Engineering Biology (P3EB) Mission Hub, a consortium of seven UK universities. The P3EB Mission is to enhance technology for recycling and upcycling plastic at end-of-life, and thus support the transition towards a circular plastic economy, reducing our reliance on fossil fuel feedstocks. Our objectives are to engineer enzymes and microbes for: the efficient deconstruction of plastics into monomeric building blocks; the upcycling of those monomers into higher-value products; and the generation of monomers from sustainable feedstocks.

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Francesca is the regulations and standards lead in the Engineering Biology Policy Team in the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT). She is responsible for ensuring regulation and standards policy for engineering biology support growth of the UK’s sector.

 Prior to joining the engineering biology team, Francesca worked on growth policy for the semiconductor sector in DSIT. Francesca holds a doctorate in genetics and behavioural ecology from the University of Sheffield.

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Adrian Charlton BSc, PhD, MRSC is a principal Scientist at Fera (York, UK) with over 25 years of post-doctoral experience in protein chemistry. Research largely focuses on the safe production of traceable food and feed from sustainable sources such as legumes and insects. He is an international expert in the safety, quality and authenticity of alternative proteins and novel foods. He represents the UK on various standardisation committees related to food and farming through BSI, CEN and ISO. Adrian also works closely with national and international regulators and policy makers such as FSA, Defra, EC, EFSA, FAO and WHO. He also has a keen interest in natural products chemistry and chairs the UK bee products committee.

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Ben Sheridan leads on emerging technologies for BSI, the UK National Standards Body. He currently works on a wide ranging portfolio that includes quantum tech, digital transformation, semiconductors and engineering biology exploring how the UK’s National Quality Infrastructure can best support innovation in these emerging technologies. He has a PhD in solid state physics, and a BSc in physics.

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Will is the CEO/CTO and Founder of Extracellular, a CDMO dedicated to supporting sustainable biotechnology.

Extracellular work with companies across the biotech sector, focusing on cultivated meat & seafood but with the capabilities to serve other organisations that utilise non-human cell culture technologies, including plant cell culture foods, nutraceuticals and cosmetic biotech companies.

Will has extensive experience in stem cell scale up and earned a PhD from Newcastle University in Biopharmaceutical Process Development. Prior to founding Extracellular, he worked in cell and gene therapy process development at eXmoor Pharma Concepts.

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Tom is the CEO and Founder of The Supplant Company, whose pioneering ingredients derived from fibre support sustainable and nutritious food production across the US, UK and Europe.

Supplant’s sugars are low calorie, low glycaemic, probiotic, low emissions, low water use and low land use, providing a platform for consumer goods companies to enable them to meet their health, climate and food security commitments.

After achieving a PhD in Molecular Plant Science from the University of Edinburgh, Tom became a Junior Research Associate at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, subsequently becoming a lecturer, mentor & agritech lead at the Cambridge Judge Business School before founding The Supplant Company in 2018.

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Matt is Head of Research and Development at Deep Blue BioTech, which leverages Synthetic Biology and AI to decarbonise the planet.

Prior to joining Deep Blue BioTech, Matt obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield and later continued his postdoctoral studies in understanding and enhancing photosynthesis towards developing new biology based carbon capture technologies.

Having trained as a Chemical Engineer, Manuel has also completed an MBA and a Master in Environmental Engineering and has led Global Business within Unilever of €1Bn+ in revenue. An expert in Sustainable & Regenerative Design and in understanding consumer needs, Manuel’s expertise is key to commercialise a new generation of sustainable products into the market.

Manuel is also Vice President of Business Development at Cambrium, a next-generation materials company utilising the molecular programmability of proteins to re-imagine everyday products.

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Jon Beaman is the Deputy Director for Innovative Medicines at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Jon was previously Executive Director of Pharmaceutical R&D at Pfizer, having over 30 years of experience in the role.

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Richard develops new strategic business areas at Capgemini Invent, bringing together its market-leading brands and innovation services to create the next frontiers. His current focus is a new synthetic biology capability within the biotechnology revolution.

His work embraces the expertise found across the company’s brands including frog, Cambridge Consultants, and the broader group. Richard joined Capgemini Invent from its subsidiary Cambridge Consultants, where he led the Wireless Division for ten years, before becoming Chief Commercial Officer leading global growth, client strategy, brand and marketing.

Before joining Cambridge Consultants, he held R&D and general management roles in both consulting and product manufacturing environments.

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Oliver is an Investment Director at UKI2S. Specialising in life science investments he has managed the enlarged £33m engineering biology sub-fund since its inception in 2014. He has invested in a broad range of companies in sectors as diverse as therapeutic, agritech and clean biotech.

He sits on multiple boards and has overseen exits including the £85m sale of Quethera to Astellas. He is also a member of the Future Planet Capital ESG steering group.

Prior to joining UKI2S, Oliver worked at the venture fund Imperial Innovations as well as other roles in the industry. He has a background in strategy analysis and consultancy including roles in New York and has a masters from the University of Bristol and commenced a PhD in bioremediation at the University of Nottingham.