EVENT 2025

Out of the Ordinary:
Thinking outside the SynBio toolbox

Exchange ideas, and explore opportunities to collaborate within academia, society, and industry. From insightful talks and panel discussions to engaging networking sessions and flash talks, this event offers a dynamic platform to propel your synthetic biology initiatives forward.

DATE: 2nd May 2025

TIME: 9:30 to 17:00h

LOCATION: Utrecht University

Program

10:00 – 10:30: Registration and welcome coffee

10:30 – 10:40: SynBioNL introduction

10:40 – 12:00: Plenary session 1: Out of the ordinary in Academia

  • Margarita Bernal Cabas (RuG): ‘Developing of a Modular Workflow to Engineer Xanthobacter SoF1 for Recombinant Food Protein Production from Air and Renewable Energy’

  • Sebastian Wenk (RuG): ‘Evolution-assisted engineering of formate assimilation in Escherichia coli’

  • Josiah Passmore (UU) ‘Outcome-Driven Microscopy: Closed-Loop Optogenetic Control of Cell Biology’

12:00 – 12:15: Flash talks session 1

  • Niels van de Sande (WUR iGEM team): Seeding the seeds: producing functionalized seed coats from bacterial cellulose to improve agricultural yields

  • Yanli Xu (RUG): Generation of Various Semaglutide Variants by Combining RiPPs Technology and Amber Stop Codon Incorporation

  • Thijs de Vroet (RUG): A new platform to study novel antifungals: how competitive growth screens and smart chemostats help us understand yeast killer toxins.

  • Owen Terpstra (RUG): Secretion of milk protein using hydrogen oxidizing bacterium Xantobacter SoF1

12:15 – 13:00: Lunch and networking

13:05 – 14:40: Plenary session 2: Out of the ordinary SynBio in Industry

  • LenioBio – Charles Williams: ‘A scalable, eukaryotic cell-free protein production technology accelerating vaccine and therapeutic development’

  • Cradle: TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED

  • PortalBiotech: : TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED

  • Guest speaker – GASB (German Association for Synthetic Biology)

  • Guest speaker – EuSynBioS (European Synthetic Biology Society)

14:40 – 15:00: Flash talks session 2

  • UU iGEM team: TITLE TO BE ANNOUNCED

  • Leonard Bäcker (RUG): Genetic switches behind time-resolved transcriptional programming.

  • Nynke Boiten (TU Delft): Mapping conceptualizations of life for the synthetic cell

  • Laura Catón (Max Planck Institute of Colloides and Interfaces): Bioengineering Bacterial Photonic Crystals: A novel colour generation

  • Madelief Verwiel (TU/e): Engineering of compartments in synthetic cells

  • Yiğitcan Sümbelli (TU/e): 3D organelle printing: Internal photopatterning of complex coacervate artificial cells

15:00 – 15:30: Coffee break and networking

15:30 – 16:30: Plenary session 3: The limits of synthetic biology

  • Laura Elidedt Rodríguez (Artist-in-residence): Exploring the intersection between art, science, and technology.

  • Julia Rijssenbeek (WUR): Investigating how synthetic biology might disrupt ideas and values, as well as what a bio-based future may bring.

16:30 – 17:15: Interactive session: “A futuristic SynBio challenge”

17:15 – 17:30: Closing remarks and takeaways

17:30 – 19:00: Traditional group picture and borrel

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