The future of computing is being rewritten by biology. In this landmark session, Axios Managing Editor for Science & World, Alison Snyder, sits down with Stanford professor and synthetic biology pioneer Drew Endy and Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott to explore how programming living systems will transform the architecture of innovation. From designing cells with logic and memory to harnessing biological systems for sensing, computation, and decision-making, biology is becoming a powerful substrate for information processing. Join us for a forward-looking conversation on the convergence of synthetic biology and computing—and what it means for the future of technology, medicine, and planetary health.

Speed isn’t just an advantage in biotech, it’s a superpower. Using real-world insights, this talk reveals how shortening research cycles dramatically accelerates innovation. Traditional biotech strategies emphasize scale and planning, but rapid experimentation beats lengthy, complex trials every time. Discover why embedding quickness in your culture is essential.

Building an economy powered by biology poses challenges that are shared across the globe. The need for forward-thinking policies and regulatory frameworks is unparalleled in its urgency. We need new and better strategies for streamlining regulations to foster safe and efficient innovation and bring products to market, fast. In this keynote , the Chair of the UK's unique Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) will lay out the next phase UK's position as a global leader, unlocking synthetic biology's vast societal and economic benefits while setting new standards for regulatory excellence in Europe and beyond.

In terrestrial life, DNA is copied to messenger RNA, and the 64 triplet codons in messenger RNAs are decoded – in the process of translation – to synthesize proteins. Cellular protein translation provides the ultimate paradigm for the synthesis of long polymers of defined sequence and composition but is commonly limited to polymerizing the 20 canonical amino acids. I will describe our progress towards the encoded synthesis of non-canonical biopolymers. These advances may form a basis for new classes of genetically encoded polymeric materials and medicines. To realize our goals, we are re-imagining some of the most conserved features of the cell; we have created new ribosomes, new aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pairs, and organisms with entirely synthetic genomes in which we have re-written the genetic code.

What happens when the architect behind the Transformer turns his focus to RNA and molecular design? Jakob Uszkoreit, Co-Founder of Inceptive and co-author of Attention is All You Need, joins John Cumbers, founder and CEO of SynBioBeta, for a conversation at the intersection of AI and biology. As synthetic biology enters the age of hyperscale—powered by generative models, molecular learning, and programmable therapeutics—Jakob shares his vision for reimagining intelligence not just in machines, but in the molecules that power life. Don’t miss this rare dialogue on the future of biodesign, computation, and the growing interface between synthetic biology and deep learning.

The psychedelic renaissance is colliding with the frontiers of biotechnology, opening bold new pathways for healing, consciousness, and brain health. In this thought-provoking session, Gul Dolen, professor of behavioral and systems neuroscience at UC Berkeley, joins visionary investor Steve Jurvetson and Rick Doblin, founder of MAPS and pioneer of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Together, they’ll explore how synthetic biology, precision medicine, and neuroplasticity research are converging to unlock the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. From molecular design to regulatory breakthroughs, this conversation dives into the science, ethics, and future of reprogramming the mind.

Today’s bioeconomy requires more than incremental improvements—it demands a fundamental shift in how bioprocesses are developed and scaled. This spotlight talk presents a real-world case study in which an AI-enabled continuous fermentation platform transformed a traditional process for a high-demand product. By integrating machine learning and continuous process optimization, the team achieved a threefold increase in productivity, cut unit costs by 50%, and developed a fully optimized process in just 100 days. This rapid approach enabled the partner to move from proof-of-concept to pilot scale within 10 months, meeting ambitious commercial goals with unprecedented speed and efficiency. The session will explore how combining AI and continuous fermentation creates nimble, scalable, and data-driven workflows—offering a blueprint for the next generation of biomanufacturing.

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) transcends the limitations of living cells, unlocking unprecedented possibilities in biotechnology. This talk explores the potential of diverse applications of CFPS with constructive approach, including therapeutic protein production, screening, and manufacturing, and high-throughput platforms with AI/ML. This talk will foster an open dialogue across the CFPS space and showcase opportunities for this platform to drive synthetic biology innovation beyond the boundaries of life.

Biotechnologies offer immense promise to address complex problems facing society. However, as biotechnologies and the associated industry grow and evolve, so does the associated threat landscape. At times, the threat landscape is so complex and nebulous that individual companies often lack the resources to understand and mitigate threats. Public-private partnerships (PPP) offer proven models to bring companies together to address common, complex challenges. Therefore, we propose establishing a PPP—the BioEconomy Safety, Security, and Technology (BESST) Partnership—to aid industry in identifying and characterizing common threats and developing evidence-based risk mitigation strategies.

The 450-million-year-old horseshoe crab stands at the center of a perfect storm in 2025. As demand for injectable drugs and vaccines skyrocket—from GLP-1 inhibitors to cancer therapies—pharmaceutical companies face a pivotal choice that will determine both the future of drug safety testing and the fate of these ancient marine creatures. This May, the U.S. Pharmacopeia officially recognizes synthetic alternatives as equal to horseshoe crab blood for endotoxin testing—marking a watershed moment for the industry and the endangered horseshoe crab. Join us to discover why industry leaders like Eli Lilly and GSK are racing to adopt recombinant alternatives that prove more reliable, safe, and cost-effective than traditional methods.

Accelerating timelines and reducing product development costs are paramount for synthetic biology to truly disrupt industries and create trillion-dollar markets. But fast, predictable, and cost-effective scale-up and bioprocess development present underlying challenges to our success. To overcome this, the industry needs better, cheaply generated, high-throughput fermentation data to feed and optimize AI algorithms. What if we could transform humble shake flasks into cutting-edge bioreactors? Could we de-risk synbio process development with the tools we already have? Join this session to find out what’s giving shake flasks their new superpowers.

What if we could design breakthrough enzymes for diagnostics, chemistry, or even therapeutics without relying on nature’s instructions? Today’s enzyme development is largely limited by a top-down approach, starting by thinking of what already exists rather than creating what’s truly needed. A bottom-up paradigm changes this. This approach allows us to engineer enzymes from first principles, starting with the reaction itself and tailoring function, manufacturability, and stability to meet real-world demands. This shift unlocks entirely new products and technologies and gets them to market faster and more reliably than ever before. Join this session to explore how rethinking enzyme design can transform the bioeconomy and accelerate innovation at an unprecedented scale.

What if we could design breakthrough enzymes for diagnostics, chemistry, or even therapeutics without relying on nature’s instructions? Today’s enzyme development is largely limited by a top-down approach, starting by thinking of what already exists rather than creating what’s truly needed. A bottom-up paradigm changes this. This approach allows us to engineer enzymes from first principles, starting with the reaction itself and tailoring function, manufacturability, and stability to meet real-world demands. This shift unlocks entirely new products and technologies and gets them to market faster and more reliably than ever before. Join this session to explore how rethinking enzyme design can transform the bioeconomy and accelerate innovation at an unprecedented scale.

Precision fermentation is one of the most significant technical breakthroughs for commercializing synthetic biology. Now experienced CDMOs are leveraging this technology along with advanced strain development and amino acid, nucleotide, and other feed and food ingredients production to scale diverse products across the biotech value chain. This talk will reveal the latest CDMO partner for the synbio industry. Leveraging over 70 years of experience and 11 production cites globally, this session will explore new scale-up capabilities, business cases, and how to bring innovative products to market.

Many bacteria remain genetically intractable due to poor DNA uptake and toxicity issues associated with genome editing systems like CRISPR-Cas. Even when DNA is delivered, these tools often yield mixed populations, requiring laborious screening to isolate true mutants. We've developed a new, programmable system that enables efficient genome editing in challenging species by avoiding these common pitfalls. Originally designed for bacteria, it is now being developed for use in yeast and mammalian cells, offering broad potential across biological systems. This approach opens new frontiers in synthetic biology by making previously inaccessible organisms editable with speed and precision.

The latest generation of biologics are becoming increasingly difficult and costly to produce using conventional mammalian systems. These rely on constitutive “always on” expression of the target gene, which can overwhelm cellular machinery, limiting protein yield and driving up production costs —especially for complex or toxic proteins. These obstacles can be overcome using molecular optogenetics, a technology that employs genetically encoded, light-sensitive proteins to precisely control gene expression. By decoupling growth from production, cells can first reach high density before switching to efficient protein expression. Coupling this with closed-loop control enables the ability to dynamically tune protein expression to maximize titer, improving manufacturability. This session will discuss how the development of optogenetically-enabled cell lines and bioprocessing can be used to accelerate the production of next-generation biologics.

AI agents promise to transform scientific discovery, and much of their potential comes from the ability to use existing tools for computational modeling and lab robotics. We explore how agents can autonomously generate hypotheses, computationally validate ideas, build reproducible experimental protocols, and control robotic platforms to execute real-world experiments. This session outlines the core infrastructure required to close the loop between in-silico reasoning and physical experimentation.

P&G is a leading consumer products company led by consumer insights- they can tell you that today’s consumers want clean, healthy products in their homes to provide for their families' personal care needs. To meet these expectations, innovators are integrating new approaches to transform their supply chains, minimize waste streams, and drive environmentally sound solutions for a more sustainable planet. Join two senior leaders for a closer look at how synbio can positively impact consumer products and what specific challenges–both technical and societal–we need to solve to get there. Hear how corporate leaders evaluate new innovations and where they see unmet needs in the market. This session will highlight how corporates and startups can work together to achieve the functional and sustainable performance consumers demand.

Despite the promise of synthetic biology, defining robust and repeatable investable theses in the space, particularly industrial bio applications, has proven largely elusive for early-stage venture investors. Dr. Jenny Rooke presents original research on capital formation in synthetic biology, from company formation to exit. Through case studies, she will surface common pitfalls and key success factors, such as the outsized importance of effective leadership in synbio ventures. She will share how these insights are shaping Genoa Ventures’ evolving investment theses. The talk draws lessons from adjacent industries with more established investing playbooks to explore how synthetic biology startups and their investors can chart workable, win-win capital journeys.

The stuff of science fiction is becoming reality! These scientist and entrepreneurs are tackling the next generation of brain connectomics, advanced brain-computer interfaces, neuromodulation, and stem cell replacement. These technologies aim to treat specific disorders today, but will enable a path for us to become cyborgs and live longer.

Designer proteins aren't just molecules—they're the building blocks for a cleaner, greener future. In a world increasingly challenged by environmental concerns, engineered proteins offer revolutionary solutions, from biodegradable clothing that gracefully returns to the earth to next-generation laundry detergents designed for efficiency without ecological compromise. These protein innovations also promise to transform food production, enabling sustainable methods to feed our growing global population. By harnessing nature's blueprint, humanity has the chance not only to reimagine everyday products but to redefine our relationship with the planet. Join Alexandre Zanghellini, CEO of Arzeda, in envisioning how proteins can power sustainable living and build the foundation for tomorrow's environmentally conscious economy.

Scaling commercial biomanufacturing is a complex dance of science, strategy, and infrastructure. As demand for bioproducts surges, industry leaders are grappling with significant challenges in growing their operations and capacity without compromising quality, efficiency—and most importantly—cost. Now, key innovations are enabling large-scale enterprises to adopt biomanufacutring practices without compromise. This talk will address the unmet needs of the biomanufacturing sector through the use of drop-in replacement ingredients for everyday items and demonstrate actionable biostrategies for innovation at commercial scale.

This session explores how pharma companies approach and build effective partnerships with computational drug discovery firms. Industry experts will share insights on best practices for data sharing, strategies for navigating cultural challenges with biotech and startups, and the role of explainable AI in fostering trust. The discussion will also cover common mistakes companies make when approaching pharma and the considerations around using proprietary algorithms versus open-source models to advance drug discovery.

Inadequate DNA synthesis technologies are stalling scientific advancements and cannot meet the increasing demand for high-complexity, sequence-perfect molecules. Now, algorithm-driven technology is redefining scientific possibility by delivering pristine synthetic DNA molecules towards transformative solutions for the health of people and the planet. By combining intelligent algorithms, proprietary enzymatic assembly, adaptive automation, and end-to-end traceability from sequence to molecule, we can overcome the inefficiencies of traditional methods to produce highly accurate, long, and complex DNA ready for immediate use. These solutions are now commercially available, enabling researchers to unlock innovations in advanced therapeutics, vaccines, synthetic biology, and accelerate progress across the industry.

In biotech, we have the opportunity to leverage quality for more than just meeting regulations—we can use quality testing and controls to build trust, credibility, and a lasting competitive edge. Holding GMO products to the highest standards and communicating those standards can shift public perception, drive consumer confidence, and create new opportunities for innovation. With rigorous testing and a clear communication plan, prioritizing quality transforms not just our products, but the industry as a whole.