Dear EuSynBioS community,
 

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023! Last year was a busy and very successful one for us. We were extremely excited to be back with our first in-person events since the pandemic and continued to engage with our community via our popular virtual seminars. It also saw us at EuSynBioS achieve a huge milestone: our first scientific publication about the European synthetic biology ecosystem!

In the below newsletter, you will find details on our current campaign to recruit new members to our Steering Committee, the announcement of our next online EuSynBioSeminar and a summary of our achievements from 2022. We have lots planned for the year ahead. We look forward to having you with us along the way and continuing to serve the talented European synthetic biology community.
 

Content of the newsletter

1) Join the steering committee
2) Upcoming seminars
3) EuSynBioS 2022 annual event
4) Paper about European synthetic biology landscape
5) 2022 web seminars overview
6) Valley DAO

1 - Join the steering committee
 

Are you passionate about Synthetic Biology and want to get involved at the European community level? 

Join the Steering Committee of the European Synthetic Biology Society and help us bring together the European Synthetic Biology community!

We welcome applications from people from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, passionate about Synthetic Biology and willing to make a difference. Please, share with us your relevant background and, most importantly, your motivation to get involved in EUSynBioS’ activities, as well as your vision for the European Synthetic Biology community. Furthermore, we invite you to indicate how you would like to contribute to EUSynBioS’ activities. We will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

This year we are particularly looking for candidates motivated to contribute to blog content writing, graphic design, virtual event(s) development, seminar coordination, online community engagement, website & social media management and outreach & fundraising.  If you have any expertise/interest in these areas, we encourage you to apply to join us.

If you have any questions, please contact us!

You are welcome to apply here. The application deadline is on the 28th of February.

2 - Upcoming seminar

Our next seminar will feature Iván Domenzain who will speak about “In silico metabolic engineering for increased production of +100 chemicals in yeast cells, what have we learned?” on the 23rd of February at 16:00 CET - Register here

3 - EuSynBioS 2022 annual event

On the 4th of November, we were delighted to host our annual in-person event in Edinburgh. in collaboration with SynBioUK and SINERGY. Organized together with other synthetic biology associations, namely  SynBioUK and SINERGY, (the Singapore Consortium for Synthetic Biology), it was sponsored by the Biochemical Society (UK) and ValleyDAO. The event featured a round-table, moderated by Prof. Louise Horsfall, with top-notch keynote speakers: Victor de Lorenzo (Centro Nacional de Biotecnología), Lynn J. Rothschild (NASA Ames Research Center), Stephen Wallace (University of Edinburgh), Nicola Patron (Earlham Institute), Liz Flecher (Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre) and, Morgan Richards (ValleyDAO). The discussion unwound around what synthetic biology can do for the environment and against climate change but in the end, the panelists agreed that one of the main limitations of synbio is a lack of funds for environmental research and the synthetic biology applications. 

We heard that the current global patenting system could be stifling innovation and acting as a barrier to new technologies that could enable a drive toward our sustainability goals from reaching scientists. Alternative community owned IP systems being developed by decentralised organisations like ValleyDAO have the potential to transform how technological breakthroughs are shared and used to fuel further innovation toward a sustainable future.

4 - Paper and abstract about European synthetic biology landscape

 

Last year we were proud to share our first scientific paper contribution as EuSynbioS, titled ‘Synthetic biology in Europe: current community landscape and future perspectives’ and published in Biotechnology Notes.  In this work, we analyzed the evolution of the academic and industrial European landscape of synthetic biology and highlighted the factors that are contributing to or restraining the development of the European community. 

The paper was also submitted as an abstract and selected to be presented as a poster at Applied Synthetic Biology in Europe (ASBE), the yearly conference organized by the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) on the most recent development of synthetic biology. The conference was held in Edinburgh, between the 2nd and 4th of November 2022.

Abstract
Synthetic biology has captivated scientists' imagination. It promises answers to some of the grand challenges society is facing: worsening climate crisis, insufficient food supplies for ever growing populations, and many persisting infectious and genetic diseases. While many challenges remain unaddressed, after almost two decades since its inception a number of products created by engineered biology are starting to reach the public. European scientists and entrepreneurs have been participating in delivering on the promises of synthetic biology. Associations like the European Synthetic Biology Society (EUSynBioS) play a key role in disseminating advances in the field, connecting like-minded people and promoting scientific development. In this perspective article, we review the current landscape of the synthetic biology community in Europe, discussing the state of related academic research and industry. We also discuss how EUSynBioS has helped to build bridges between professionals across the continent.

5 - 2022 web seminars overview

Last year was a great year for the EUSynBioS seminars. We hosted 8 seminars on a wide range of fascinating topics relevant to the SynBio community. We covered research on CRISPR and quantification tools, Genome engineering, directed evolution, gene regulation, and biosafety. Overall, we received over 400 registrations from students, postdoctoral researchers, and industry members from across Europe and the rest of the world. We are looking forward to hosting more seminars and having interesting discussions with the SynBio community.

6 - Valley DAO
 

We are pleased to introduce you to ValleyDAO, a community-governed decentralized organization working towards democratizing synthetic biology technologies applied to climate change mitigation and food security. They do this by funding and incubating research projects, followed by making the resulting intellectual property licensable on fair and noncompetitive conditions by academics, startups, industry, and DIY biologists. All proceeds generated by their activities go directly back to funding more research and to the community contributors. Their welcome people that share their vision of a democratized and community-owned bioeconomy to come and build with us.

To get involved, go to www.valleydao.bio


Sincerely,
EuSynBioS steering committee