SynBioBeta Speaker
John Cumbers
SynBioBeta
Founder & CEO
Dr. John Cumbers is a leader in the synthetic biology industry, known for founding SynBioBeta, a global community of innovators dedicated to advancing the field. He hosts the global synthetic biology conference and publishes the weekly industry newsletter. He wrote the book “What’s Your Biostrategy?” And was a senior contributor for Forbes.com, where he wrote about biomanufacturing and synthetic biology. Dr. Cumbers has founded multiple startups and is a former operating partner at DCVC, a deep tech investment fund.
He worked at NASA for 7 years in the areas of synthetic biology, bioengineering and planetary sustainability. His latest startup is the Biological Enlightenment Studios, which is creating an animation called Lee’s Lab to popularize molecular biology for children. He holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Brown University, a master’s degree in bioinformatics from the University of Edinburgh. Originally from the UK, he now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
SynBioBeta 2026 Tickets are Live
Confirmed Speakers
Sessions Featuring
John
This Year
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Tools & Tech
A 10-Year Overnight Success: Building Twist Bioscience One Base at a Time
While Twist Bioscience may look like an overnight success, its rise reflects a decade of persistence, innovation, and platform building. In this main stage keynote, CEO and co-founder Emily Leproust shares the journey from startup vision to global leader in DNA synthesis and programmable biology, highlighting lessons learned scaling deep technology, navigating industry cycles, and building trusted infrastructure for biotech and pharma. Looking ahead, Twist is positioning itself at the forefront of the convergence between AI and biology, using DNA as an information layer to accelerate drug discovery and advance human health. This keynote explores how long-term thinking and bold ambition are shaping the next era of AI-driven therapeutics.
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Tools & Tech
A 10-Year Overnight Success: Building Twist Bioscience One Base at a Time
While Twist Bioscience may look like an overnight success, its rise reflects a decade of persistence, innovation, and platform building. In this main stage keynote, CEO and co-founder Emily Leproust shares the journey from startup vision to global leader in DNA synthesis and programmable biology, highlighting lessons learned scaling deep technology, navigating industry cycles, and building trusted infrastructure for biotech and pharma. Looking ahead, Twist is positioning itself at the forefront of the convergence between AI and biology, using DNA as an information layer to accelerate drug discovery and advance human health. This keynote explores how long-term thinking and bold ambition are shaping the next era of AI-driven therapeutics.
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Planetary Health
Got to Have It: Bio-Derived Ingredients that Drive Meaningful Performance, Delight, and Craveability in Consumer Products
Biotechnology is enabling a new generation of ingredients that elevate both product performance and sustainability. In this fireside chat, leaders from Procter & Gamble will discuss how biotech is being applied across key material classes to enhance consumer products, highlighting innovations behind their latest Native launch and emerging bio-derived ingredients for hair and beauty. The conversation will also explore how biotech platforms are helping shape the future of high-performing, sustainable consumer goods.
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Planetary Health
Got to Have It: Bio-Derived Ingredients that Drive Meaningful Performance, Delight, and Craveability in Consumer Products
Biotechnology is enabling a new generation of ingredients that elevate both product performance and sustainability. In this fireside chat, leaders from Procter & Gamble will discuss how biotech is being applied across key material classes to enhance consumer products, highlighting innovations behind their latest Native launch and emerging bio-derived ingredients for hair and beauty. The conversation will also explore how biotech platforms are helping shape the future of high-performing, sustainable consumer goods.
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Welcome
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Welcome
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Welcome Back
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Welcome Back
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Welcome Back
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Welcome Back
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Wrap Up
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Wrap Up
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Welcome
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Welcome
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Welcome Back
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Welcome Back
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Wrap Up
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Wrap Up
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Welcome Back
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Welcome Back
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Wrap Up
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Wrap Up
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Welcome
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Welcome
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Welcome Back
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Welcome Back
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Fireside Chat
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Fireside Chat
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Wrap Up
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Wrap Up
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Closing Ceremony
Join us on the concourse as we wrap up SynBioBeta 2026 with a celebratory Closing Ceremony and champagne toast. Gather with fellow attendees, speakers, sponsors, and friends from across the community to reflect on the conversations, connections, and breakthroughs that shaped this year’s event. Raise a glass as we send off an incredible week and look ahead to the innovations and collaborations that will define the road to SynBioBeta 2027.
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Closing Ceremony
Join us on the concourse as we wrap up SynBioBeta 2026 with a celebratory Closing Ceremony and champagne toast. Gather with fellow attendees, speakers, sponsors, and friends from across the community to reflect on the conversations, connections, and breakthroughs that shaped this year’s event. Raise a glass as we send off an incredible week and look ahead to the innovations and collaborations that will define the road to SynBioBeta 2027.
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Session lineup still growing
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Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
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Human Health
From Cells to Patients: Solving the Scale Mismatch in Virtual Biology
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?
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Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
