SynBioBeta Speaker
Joshua Geilhufe
Rhiza Bio Cons.
Principal
Josh is an independent consultant specializing in commercial strategy for platform biotechnologies in agriculture, industrials, and climate. His work focuses on the critical gaps that come after synthetic biology breakthroughs and before customer adoption.
Josh’s work in agriculture has spanned discovery of novel pesticides, biocatalysis for existing molecules, and development of biofertilizers. He has led product development partnerships with multinational partners in his time at Zymergen and Ginkgo Bioworks. In his first commercial role, he built techno-economic models for microbial carbon capture that secured funding and validation partnerships with Shell Canada and the LaFarge division of Holcim Group. As a researcher at Codexis, he engineered temperature- and solvent-stable enzymes for carbon capture and for biofuels production.
Josh holds an MS in Chemistry from Stanford and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Sessions Featuring
Joshua
This Year
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Planetary Health
Rooted in Resilience: Speeding Up SynBio Plant Adaptation in a Rapidly Changing Climate
Climate volatility is reshaping the future of food, demanding plants 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 plants, 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.
Featuring
Lyle Ralston
Bayer Crop Science
CE Platform Lead
Engineering Crops for global food security
Emily Hatas
Revive & Restore
Vice President
Bruce Schnicker
Pivot Bio
VP, Product Dev
Sowing the seeds for Biology's future
Michael Ferrari
Moby
VP, Head of Research
Data/AI “world-models” researcher bridging synbio to real markets.
Joshua Geilhufe
Rhiza Bio Cons.
Principal
First-market strategist for synbio agriculture and fermentation.
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Planetary Health
Rooted in Resilience: Speeding Up SynBio Plant Adaptation in a Rapidly Changing Climate
Climate volatility is reshaping the future of food, demanding plants 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 plants, 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.
Featuring
Lyle Ralston
Bayer Crop Science
CE Platform Lead
Engineering Crops for global food security
Emily Hatas
Revive & Restore
Vice President
Bruce Schnicker
Pivot Bio
VP, Product Dev
Sowing the seeds for Biology's future
Michael Ferrari
Moby
VP, Head of Research
Data/AI “world-models” researcher bridging synbio to real markets.
Joshua Geilhufe
Rhiza Bio Cons.
Principal
First-market strategist for synbio agriculture and fermentation.
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-
Planetary Health
From Discovery to Field: How Bayer Crop Science R&D Turns Innovation into Solutions for Farmers
Join Bayer Crop Science researchers and innovators for a hybrid presentation and panel discussion exploring how cutting-edge R&D is transforming agricultural innovation. Speakers will cover AI foundation models and multimodal approaches for trait discovery, AI-enabled protein design for herbicide tolerance and insect control, next-generation crop protection strategies for new modes of action, and leveraging open innovation to advance Bayer's biologicals portfolio. The session concludes with a moderated panel discussion on the future of agricultural science and its impact on farmers worldwide.
Featuring
Lyle Ralston
Bayer Crop Science
CE Platform Lead
Engineering Crops for global food security
Leah Briscoe
Bayer Crop Science
Data Scientist
Tommi White
Bayer Crop Science
Structure & Mech. Team Lead
Paramita Deria
Bayer Crop Science
Discovery Chem. & Chem. Biology
Alberto Iandolino
Bayer Crop Science
Ext. Innov. & Partnership - Biologics
Joshua Geilhufe
Rhiza Bio Cons.
Principal
First-market strategist for synbio agriculture and fermentation.
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Planetary Health
From Discovery to Field: How Bayer Crop Science R&D Turns Innovation into Solutions for Farmers
Join Bayer Crop Science researchers and innovators for a hybrid presentation and panel discussion exploring how cutting-edge R&D is transforming agricultural innovation. Speakers will cover AI foundation models and multimodal approaches for trait discovery, AI-enabled protein design for herbicide tolerance and insect control, next-generation crop protection strategies for new modes of action, and leveraging open innovation to advance Bayer's biologicals portfolio. The session concludes with a moderated panel discussion on the future of agricultural science and its impact on farmers worldwide.
Featuring
Lyle Ralston
Bayer Crop Science
CE Platform Lead
Engineering Crops for global food security
Leah Briscoe
Bayer Crop Science
Data Scientist
Tommi White
Bayer Crop Science
Structure & Mech. Team Lead
Paramita Deria
Bayer Crop Science
Discovery Chem. & Chem. Biology
Alberto Iandolino
Bayer Crop Science
Ext. Innov. & Partnership - Biologics
Joshua Geilhufe
Rhiza Bio Cons.
Principal
First-market strategist for synbio agriculture and fermentation.
Session lineup still growing
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?
Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
