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(Nobel Laureate Session)

Fortune 500 companies are turning to synthetic biology to drive efficiency, resilience, and sustainability across their value chains. By integrating biotech, they can reduce reliance on scarce resources, accelerate product innovation, and respond to shifting consumer and regulatory demands. This session brings together leaders from global companies to share how biology is reshaping sourcing, production, and product portfolios. Attendees will gain insights into strategic approaches, cross-industry collaboration, and the investments enabling large-scale transformation, providing a glimpse into how the world’s largest companies are leveraging biotech to stay competitive, meet sustainability goals, and shape the future of industry.

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The leap from unstable peptides to GLP-1 blockbusters proved the power of engineering biology; now sovereign AI supercomputers like Denmark’s new Gefion, powered by NVIDIA H100 GPUs, are accelerating the next frontier. High-performance AI is transforming synthetic biology by modeling billions of molecular interactions, optimizing peptide stability and signaling, and enabling novel long-acting delivery systems. Public–private partnerships and new infrastructure are making these capabilities accessible to startups and researchers, fueling innovation in metabolic disease, neurodegeneration, and beyond. This session explores how the convergence of biologics engineering and sovereign AI compute is reshaping the discovery and design of next-generation therapeutics.

For the first time, AI is enabling us to imagine medicines that “think” — turning on only inside diseased cells or under specific physiological conditions. This session explores how neural networks, trained on RNA and protein data, are unlocking programmable therapies with unprecedented precision. Imagine cancer drugs that remain inert until they meet tumor markers, or RNA vaccines that adapt to evolving viral landscapes in real time. The future of medicine isn’t static molecules — it’s intelligent, adaptive therapeutics

Biotech is no longer behind the scenes—it’s on our shelves, in our homes, and part of our daily routines. From sustainable haircare to household cleaning, and high-performance materials, bio-based innovations are redefining everyday consumer experiences. This session explores what drives adoption, how brands communicate the value of biology, and why trust, transparency, and performance are key to building loyalty. Join us to hear from the companies making biology irresistible, accessible, and seamlessly integrated into daily life—and learn what it takes to create bio-products consumers truly love.

The next frontier of biology isn’t in predicting a single static protein structure, but in capturing how proteins move, fold, and interact across time and environments. This session explores how AI can illuminate protein conformations and dynamics, and extend those insights into virtual multi-cellular or tissue models. Experts will discuss the challenge of integrating heterogeneous datasets and instruments, and how breakthroughs in dynamic modeling could reshape drug design, disease understanding, and biomanufacturing. Can we build models that reflect the living, breathing complexity of biology—not just snapshots, but motion?

Scaling bio-based products requires integrated technical collaboration across strain engineering, fermentation, downstream processing, and analytics. Full-stack approaches—where startups, CDMOs, and platform technology providers align early on—can optimize yield, reduce variability, and lower cost of goods (COGS) at commercial scale. This session explores case studies of cross-company collaboration, from co-development of microbial strains and bioreactor designs to shared process analytics and predictive modeling. Hear how teams are breaking down technical silos to accelerate scale-up, improve reproducibility, and create competitive, sustainable manufacturing solutions that bring synthetic biology products from the lab to the market efficiently.

Food is no longer just sustenance—it’s becoming a programmable interface with human biology. Advances in synthetic biology and foodtech are enabling the design of bioactive molecules that target specific health outcomes: regulating glucose and lipid metabolism, strengthening cardiovascular resilience, and even enhancing cognitive performance. From engineered microbes that secrete beneficial metabolites to programmable synbiotics tuned to the gut, this session will explore how programmable biology is transforming food into a therapeutic platform. Panelists will ask: what if the next breakthroughs in managing obesity, dementia, and heart disease don’t come from pharmaceuticals, but from intelligently designed foods and functional ingredients?

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Cells are often described as bags of chemistry—but they are better understood as finely tuned physical systems. Within each one, DNA is packed into nanoscopic volumes, enzymes race at turnover rates rivaling jet engines, and molecular collisions happen billions of times per second. This session explores the cell as a physical object—its limits of size, speed, and efficiency. How fast can information move from genome to protein? How does diffusion constrain cell size and shape? How do energy flows through metabolism define what life can and cannot do? By examining the physics that underpins biology, this session challenges us to see cells not as mysterious black boxes, but as programmable systems operating under universal rules. This perspective may hold the key to engineering biology with the same rigor as physics and computer science.

Mining has long relied on brute force and chemistry, but biology is opening a new frontier. Biomining uses engineered microbes to extract metals and minerals with precision, efficiency, and far less environmental impact than traditional methods. From rare earth elements essential to clean energy to critical metals powering electronics, synthetic biology is reshaping how we source the building blocks of modern life. This session spotlights innovators designing bio-based recovery systems, scaling sustainable solutions, and reimagining resource extraction.

Why do so many in silico models fail when moved to the lab or clinic? Too often, they’re trained on incomplete, non-human, or non-representative datasets. This session tackles the “data gap” head-on: from interoperability bottlenecks and the black box problem to the limits of current virtual cell simulations (~50 million perturbations vs. the billions biology demands). Panelists will explore how to create “human-first” datasets that reflect real biology, unlock mechanistic interoperability, and close the discovery–development divide. The goal: build AI tools that can directly identify viable drug candidates instead of stalling in silico.

Scaling bio-based products to commercial production requires balancing technical readiness with market and financial realities. This session examines the capital investments, regulatory planning, and supply chain strategies necessary to move beyond the pilot stage. Experts will share lessons on aligning production capacity with demand forecasts, managing operational risk, and structuring partnerships that unlock funding and market access. Attendees will gain practical insights into navigating investor expectations, scaling efficiently without compromising quality, and making strategic decisions that ensure products can succeed commercially while meeting evolving market needs and sustainability goals.

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Cell-free systems are redefining what’s possible in bioproduction. By bypassing the complexity of living cells, innovators can run enzyme cascades, prototype metabolic pathways, and produce high-value molecules with unmatched speed, precision, and purity. This new class of systems—from freeze-dried reactions to continuous cell-free reactors—enables rapid iteration, on-demand production, and scalable biochemistry without the need for fermentation tanks or long development cycles.

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(Note: Alina & David)

Once viewed as reckless experimentation, germline gene editing is re-emerging as a serious scientific frontier. With base and prime editing now able to correct single-letter mutations with remarkable precision, researchers are beginning to demonstrate embryo edits that could one day eliminate devastating inherited diseases. The stakes, however, are profound: these are permanent, heritable changes passed to every future generation. This session examines the cutting edge of germline engineering—how far the science has advanced since CRISPR’s clumsy early days, what challenges remain around mosaicism and long-term safety, and where the ethical boundaries must be drawn. Should we consider germline editing only for rare, fatal conditions when no other reproductive options exist? Or is there a pathway to broader medical use under strict safeguards? Join leading scientists, ethicists, and policymakers as we debate whether rewriting inheritance is an act of compassion—or a step too far.

Instrumentation remains one of the greatest bottlenecks in bioinnovation. For decades, meaningful progress required billion-dollar facilities and industrial-scale reactors. Today, that paradigm is shifting. Emerging tools — from smart shake flasks and modular bioreactors to microfluidic systems, desktop DNA printers, and next-generation sequencing devices — are flipping the economics of scale.

Climate volatility is reshaping the future of food, demanding crops that can withstand heat, drought, and disease. Synthetic biology offers powerful tools to accelerate adaptation—engineering plants with traits that once took decades to breed. This session explores how innovators are designing resilient crops, building platforms for rapid trait development, and forging collaborations across agtech, biotech, multinationals, and policy. Join us to hear how synbio is moving beyond the lab to the field, reshaping agriculture for resilience, and ensuring farmers worldwide can thrive in the face of climate uncertainty.

From tissues morphing in development to microbes competing in a bioreactor, biology is inherently emergent. Multi-agent simulations — from platforms like BioDynaMo, CompuCell3D, and BIO-LGCA — are now powerful enough to model billions of interacting agents, capturing diffusion, metabolism, migration, and signaling with physical fidelity. Synthetic biologists are using these frameworks to probe design limits before moving to the lab, asking questions like: How far can diffusion alone carry a signaling molecule? What metabolic bottlenecks emerge in crowded cells? And how do engineered traits play out at population scale? This session will spotlight how agent-based models are becoming essential design environments for synthetic biology, helping teams test hypotheses virtually, anticipate failure modes, and translate biology into an engineering discipline rooted in predictive, quantitative simulation.

Enzymes are becoming the precision tools behind cleaner, more efficient, and more sustainable production across both home-care and food manufacturing. In cleaning products, next-generation enzymes replace harsh chemicals with biodegradable, high-performance biocatalysts that work at lower temperatures and deliver superior stain, odor, and grease removal. In food processing, engineered proteases, lipases, amylases, and fiber-modifying enzymes are unlocking new textures, cleaner labels, better stability, and reduced energy use—reshaping how everything from dairy and bakery to beverages and plant proteins are made.

AI x Bio isn’t just about technology — it’s about culture. Biologists must embrace engineering mindsets; AI engineers must respect biology’s messiness. Companies like Inceptive are pioneering apprenticeship models where talent learns both dialects — lab bench and codebase. This session explores how hybrid training is creating a workforce fluent in RNA structure, GPU clusters, and cellular pathways alike. The future of therapeutics depends on this new class of bilingual builders

Plant-based food sales may be slowing, but that doesn’t mean innovation on the plate is stalling. Instead, momentum is shifting toward breakthrough technologies and smarter ingredient combinations. Cultured meat and precision fermentation are driving the next wave of sustainable ingredients, from proteins to cultured fats that bring authentic flavor and texture. This session highlights advances in cell culture, fermentation platforms, and scale-up strategies, along with the partnerships moving products from R&D to dining tables. Hear how food innovators are combining biology and culinary creativity to build a resilient, delicious, and sustainable future for global diets.

What if brain damage—from strokes, neurodegeneration, or even aging itself—could be reversed? ARPA-H is launching an ambitious effort to make this vision real, catalyzing technologies that repair neural circuits, restore lost tissue, and recover cognition. In this interactive workshop, we’ll ask: What could be the role of programmable biology in healing the brain? Could engineered cells rebuild damaged regions? Could synthetic gene circuits guide regeneration? Could AI-designed therapies restore function after injury or decline? Participants will join ARPA-H leaders to explore these questions, identify high-risk, high-reward opportunities, and help shape the future of neurorepair powered by programmable biology.

Biology is entering an era where AI agents don’t just analyze data — they co-design, plan, and execute experiments. Multi-agent systems like CRISPR-GPT demonstrate how AI can act as a true lab co-pilot: decomposing complex genome editing projects into stepwise workflows, selecting tools, troubleshooting, and even drafting protocols that allow junior researchers to perform sophisticated edits on their first attempt . Beyond CRISPR, new systems like BioMARS integrate reasoning agents with robotics, while biotech companies are testing “AI lab assistants” that monitor and adjust experiments in real time. This session explores how multi-agent copilots are making biology more reproducible, democratizing complex workflows, and pushing the boundaries of lab autonomy. The central question: when AI can plan, troubleshoot, and validate experiments end-to-end, how should scientists and institutions govern this new power?

Synthetic biology has long offererd vibrant pigments and functional ingredients with consistency, scalability, and improved sustainability. While many US policy shifts are creating headwinds for biotech innovation, the regulatory momentum around food colors and ingredients could open a significant opportunity for synbio adoption. This session examines the opportunities and risks ahead, highlighting how innovators can align with shifting rules, build trust, and bring bio-based ingredients from lab to label in a rapidly evolving food landscape.

Drug discovery often measures biology at the cell level while interventions work at the tissue, organ, or whole-patient scale. This mismatch can make accurate cell-level predictions irrelevant in the clinic. This session dives into strategies to bridge that gap: multiscale modeling that nests single-cell dynamics within organ-level simulations, spatial transcriptomics that preserve context, and surrogate models that translate cell-level outputs into clinical biomarkers. Speakers will ask: how do we ensure virtual biology reflects not just what cells do in isolation, but how biology behaves in the real complexity of patients?

Continuous fermentation promises higher yields, lower costs, and more sustainable biomanufacturing—but realizing its potential requires overcoming technical and operational hurdles. From controlling contamination to optimizing productivity and scaling systems, innovators are tackling the bottlenecks that have slowed adoption. This session dives into cutting-edge strategies, platform designs, and case studies showing how continuous fermentation is moving from concept to commercial reality. Learn from leaders who are driving efficiency, reliability, and scalability in fermentation processes, and explore how overcoming these challenges can unlock faster, more sustainable production of bio-based ingredients, chemicals, and therapeutics across industries.