SynBioBeta Speaker
Tanja Kortemme
UCSF
Vice Dean of Research
Tanja Kortemme is Vice Dean of Research and Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Her research focuses on inventing and applying new approaches to engineer biological functions across multiple scales — from atomic-level interactions to macromolecular assemblies and cellular processes. By integrating computational protein design with experimental engineering, her group aims to build new biological functions and uncover the molecular design principles that govern systems-level properties in living systems.
As Vice Dean of Research, Dr. Kortemme advises the Dean and School leadership on strategic research initiatives and opportunities, representing the School in campus-wide decision-making and research-related committees.
SynBioBeta 2026 Tickets are Live
Confirmed Speakers
Sessions Featuring
Tanja
This Year
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AIxBIO
Beyond Static Predictions — AI for Protein Dynamics and Multi-Cell Models
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?
Purchase Pass
Featuring
Elliot Hershberg
Amplify Partners
Partner, Author
Driving the Century of Biology
Gabriele Corso
Boltz
CEO
Built DiffDock and the Boltz open-source models reshaping drug discovery.
Peter Clark
Novo Nordisk
VP, CDD
Computational drug-design leader, shipped candidates from CAR-T to peptides.
John Chodera
Achira Labs
Co-founder & CEO
Open-science simulation pioneer behind Folding@home’s COVID Moonshot.
Tanja Kortemme
UCSF
Vice Dean of Research
De novo protein-design pioneer; NIH Pioneer Award winner.
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AIxBIO
Beyond Static Predictions — AI for Protein Dynamics and Multi-Cell Models
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?
Purchase Pass
Featuring
Elliot Hershberg
Amplify Partners
Partner, Author
Driving the Century of Biology
Gabriele Corso
Boltz
CEO
Built DiffDock and the Boltz open-source models reshaping drug discovery.
Peter Clark
Novo Nordisk
VP, CDD
Computational drug-design leader, shipped candidates from CAR-T to peptides.
John Chodera
Achira Labs
Co-founder & CEO
Open-science simulation pioneer behind Folding@home’s COVID Moonshot.
Tanja Kortemme
UCSF
Vice Dean of Research
De novo protein-design pioneer; NIH Pioneer Award winner.
Session lineup still growing
Purchase Pass
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?
Purchase Pass
Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
