SynBioBeta Speaker
Gregory Hocking
Mars Snacking
VP Global R&D New Innov. Territories
Greg Hocking leads external innovation and strategic partnerships at Mars Snacking. He has extensive experience in growing revenue and profitability by launching consumer-centric, technology-based global innovation in CPG and biopharma industries. Greg holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Columbia University, and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Bowdoin College.
SynBioBeta 2026 Tickets are Live
Confirmed Speakers
Sessions Featuring
Gregory
This Year
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Planetary Health
Artificial Colours are Out, Bio is In: SynBio’s Opportunity–and Risk–in a Changing Food Landscape
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.
Get a Ticket
Featuring
Erum Azeez Khan
Messaginglab
Partner
Birgit Cameron
Prism Bio, Inc.
CEO, Co-founder
Patagonia Provisions cofounder now fermenting sustainable, vivid natural colors.
Ricky Cassini
Michroma
CEO
Gregory Hocking
Mars Snacking
VP Global R&D New Innov. Territories
Reinventing snacking through sustainability and startup bets.
•
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Planetary Health
Artificial Colours are Out, Bio is In: SynBio’s Opportunity–and Risk–in a Changing Food Landscape
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.
Get a Ticket
Featuring
Erum Azeez Khan
Messaginglab
Partner
Birgit Cameron
Prism Bio, Inc.
CEO, Co-founder
Patagonia Provisions cofounder now fermenting sustainable, vivid natural colors.
Ricky Cassini
Michroma
CEO
Gregory Hocking
Mars Snacking
VP Global R&D New Innov. Territories
Reinventing snacking through sustainability and startup bets.
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Human Health
Programmable Nutrition: Engineering the Next Wave of Bioactive Food Molecules
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?
Get a Ticket
Featuring
Ivan Jaubert
SynBioBeta
Director of Entrepreneurship
Startup-ecosystem builder connecting founders, investors, and corporates.
Alexandra Boelrijk
Kerry Group
Sr. R&D Dir. ProActive
25-year R&D veteran translating clinical evidence into nutrition breakthroughs.
Gregory Hocking
Mars Snacking
VP Global R&D New Innov. Territories
Reinventing snacking through sustainability and startup bets.
Riccardo LoCascio
Novonesis
Partnering - Precision Proteins
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Human Health
Programmable Nutrition: Engineering the Next Wave of Bioactive Food Molecules
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?
Get a Ticket
Featuring
Ivan Jaubert
SynBioBeta
Director of Entrepreneurship
Startup-ecosystem builder connecting founders, investors, and corporates.
Alexandra Boelrijk
Kerry Group
Sr. R&D Dir. ProActive
25-year R&D veteran translating clinical evidence into nutrition breakthroughs.
Gregory Hocking
Mars Snacking
VP Global R&D New Innov. Territories
Reinventing snacking through sustainability and startup bets.
Riccardo LoCascio
Novonesis
Partnering - Precision Proteins
Session lineup still growing
Get a Ticket
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
