SynBioBeta Speaker
Alicia Jackson
ARPA-H
Director
Dr. Alicia Jackson was appointed by President Trump as Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and sworn in on October 20, 2025. Dr. Jackson reports directly to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. Dr. Jackson joins ARPA-H from Evernow, a company she founded and led as CEO, focused on transforming women’s health and longevity during menopause. Previously, she served as a Program Manager and, subsequently, Deputy Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Biological Technologies Office, guiding an investment portfolio across biodefense, novel medicine development, and biomanufacturing to protect the nation while advancing groundbreaking scientific capabilities. She has served as a Senate policy advisor, as well as co-founder, Board Member, and advisor of several biotech and health startups, including OOVA, ImmuneBridge, and Drawbridge Health. Dr. Jackson holds a Ph.D. in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
SynBioBeta 2026 Tickets are Live
Confirmed Speakers
Sessions Featuring
Alicia
This Year
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Human Health
Reprogramming the Future of Health: A Conversation with ARPA-H Director Alicia Jackson
The future of medicine will be defined by bold bets: ambitious, high-risk ideas that traditional funding rarely supports but that could fundamentally transform human health. In this conversation, Alicia Jackson, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), will share how the agency is tackling some of healthcare’s biggest challenges, drawing on a model inspired by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to accelerate breakthroughs in areas like universal immunity, AI-driven medicine, aging, and women’s health. With experience spanning government, startups, and frontier biotech (including leadership at DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office and founding Evernow) Dr. Jackson now leads a national effort to push the boundaries of what’s possible in medicine and unlock opportunities to radically improve human health.
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Human Health
Reprogramming the Future of Health: A Conversation with ARPA-H Director Alicia Jackson
The future of medicine will be defined by bold bets: ambitious, high-risk ideas that traditional funding rarely supports but that could fundamentally transform human health. In this conversation, Alicia Jackson, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), will share how the agency is tackling some of healthcare’s biggest challenges, drawing on a model inspired by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to accelerate breakthroughs in areas like universal immunity, AI-driven medicine, aging, and women’s health. With experience spanning government, startups, and frontier biotech (including leadership at DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office and founding Evernow) Dr. Jackson now leads a national effort to push the boundaries of what’s possible in medicine and unlock opportunities to radically improve human health.
Get a Ticket
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Business of Biology
Fueling the Bioeconomy: How Founders Can Unlock Government Capital to Build the Next Generation of Biotech
Venture capital alone is no longer enough to power the next wave of biotechnology innovation. Across health, biosecurity, climate, and advanced biomanufacturing, government agencies are emerging as catalytic partners, deploying billions in non-dilutive funding to accelerate high-risk, high-impact breakthroughs. But accessing this capital requires more than strong science. Founders must understand how agencies like ARPA-H, DARPA, BARDA, and others evaluate risk, define mission impact, and structure partnerships that bridge research and real-world deployment. This session brings together agency leaders, founders, and experienced operators to demystify how government funding actually works in today’s market. The panelists will explore how startups can position themselves for success, avoid common pitfalls in proposal development and contracting, and strategically leverage non-dilutive funding to extend runway, de-risk technology, and unlock new commercial pathways.
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Business of Biology
Fueling the Bioeconomy: How Founders Can Unlock Government Capital to Build the Next Generation of Biotech
Venture capital alone is no longer enough to power the next wave of biotechnology innovation. Across health, biosecurity, climate, and advanced biomanufacturing, government agencies are emerging as catalytic partners, deploying billions in non-dilutive funding to accelerate high-risk, high-impact breakthroughs. But accessing this capital requires more than strong science. Founders must understand how agencies like ARPA-H, DARPA, BARDA, and others evaluate risk, define mission impact, and structure partnerships that bridge research and real-world deployment. This session brings together agency leaders, founders, and experienced operators to demystify how government funding actually works in today’s market. The panelists will explore how startups can position themselves for success, avoid common pitfalls in proposal development and contracting, and strategically leverage non-dilutive funding to extend runway, de-risk technology, and unlock new commercial pathways.
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Session lineup still growing
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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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Speaker Coming Soon
